Fungal conservation in Scotland: Recent progress and future priorities

Summary

In recent years, fungal conservation in Scotland has made substantial progress, particularly as a result of field surveys undertaken in support of the Biodiversity Action Plans developed for selected species. Results are presented from four recent surveys: (i) fungal diversity in conifer plantations, (ii) hydnoid (‘tooth’) fungi in coniferous forests, (iii) grassland fungi, (iv) fungal survey of the Mar Lodge Estate. These surveys have substantially improved knowledge of the conservation status of a number of threatened taxa, and have also provided insights into patterns of fungal diversity at a range of scales. The results indicate that some of the fungal communities of Scotland, such as those associated with unimproved grasslands, are of international conservation importance. The implications of the survey results for conservation management are discussed, and suggestions are made regarding priorities for future work. In particular, there is a need to provide conservation managers with guidance on how fungal conservation can be achieved in practice.     

Linking Industrial Ecology and Ecological Economics: A Theoretical and Empirical Foundation for the Circular Economy

The circular economy (CE) is a new model for the production and consumption of goods, which has attracted wide political attention as a strategy toward sustainability. However, the theoretical foundation of CE remains poorly structured and insufficiently explored. Recent studies have shown that the CE model draws on different schools of thought and that its origins are mainly rooted in fields such as industrial ecology (IE) and ecological economics (EE). In this article, we investigate the links between CE, IE, and EE and provide an overview of the similarities and differences between these fields. At the same time, we analyze to what extent the linkages between IE and EE can create a coherent body of knowledge for CE, and be used to identify further research opportunities. This paper shows that, until now, research on CE seems to be mainly rooted in the field of IE and based on concepts and tools that already exist in other fields, rather than inventing new ones. The reconciliation of IE and EE could provide a mechanism to extend beyond such a narrow focus, and increase knowledge of the theoretical and practical framework of CE to benefit sustainability.     

The social context for harvestingIriartea deltoidea (Arecaceae)

Iriartea deltoidea grows abundantly from Nicaragua to Bolivia. The stem is harvested for construction, furniture making, and handicrafts. The objective of my study was to understand the potential for sustainable harvesting of this palm. Ethnographic fieldwork about market patterns and decision-making among harvesters revealed the nature of harvesting pressures near settled areas. The study also demonstrates methods for assessing social and economic influences on harvesting.     

The multidimensional nature of biodiversity and social dynamics and implications for contemporary rural livelihoods in remote Kalahari settlements, Botswana

Despite rapid socio-economic development in Kalahari drylands, contemporary research suggests that biodiversity remains important as a component of the complex portfolio of livelihood strategies, as a real and perceived safety net in times of stress, and a key factor of cultural identity. The degree to which the spatially and temporally dynamic nature of biodiversity in drylands influences livelihoods is, however, little studied, particularly in socially complex contemporary rural settlements. Greater understanding in this area is required to allow better-informed design and implementation of rural development, poverty alleviation and conservation initiatives. This is particularly true in the light of predicted increases in environmental dynamism with climate change. An interdisciplinary approach was used in two environmentally and socially distinct dryland settlements in Botswana, to investigate the extent to which the dynamic biodiverse setting influences contemporary rural livelihoods. Results illustrate that biodiversity, particularly its dynamics, is of critical contemporary importance to rural settlement livelihoods, particularly in times of inner settlement scarcity. Entitlements to biodiversity dynamics were, however, bound up by complex settlement-specific social, economic and political factors. Unless such contextual within-settlement dynamics are understood, the relative importance of biodiversity in rural development and poverty alleviation strategies in contemporary Kalahari drylands may be undermined.     

Assessing the social dimension in strategic network optimization for a sustainable development: The case of bioethanol production in the EU

The complexity of social indicators and their subjective and often qualitative nature render their inclusion into quantitative optimization models for network design and strategic decision-making challenging. The social dimension is thus often implemented only rudimentarily, thwarting a holistic sustainability assessment and neglecting many of the social issues addressed in the sustainable development goals (SDGs). This work presents a structured process for including a comprehensive set of social aspects by selecting applicable quantitative and regionalized social indicators. This approach is applied to the case of second-generation bioethanol production in the EU. Based on inter alia the Guidelines for Social Life Cycle Assessment of Products and Organizations, the Social Hotspots Database, state-of-the-art literature, as well as previous work, we compile 9 social objective functions and 25 functions for social hotspot identification. They are evaluated alongside 1 economic and 21 environmental LCA-based objective functions in a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model. Key results show that social optimization either leads to large, labor-intensive or regionally focused, indicator-driven networks. Injuries and fatalities in the feedstock sectors of Central and Eastern European countries is the primary social hotspot. On the level of the overarching SDGs, SDG13 is most congruent with other goals, while SDG7 is hindered by pursuing other goals. This study's approach is novel in strategic network design and the European bioeconomy, and, by operationalizing the social dimension, enables a more holistic life cycle sustainability assessment and the consideration of the SDGs. This article met the requirements for a gold-gold JIE data openness badge described at http://jie.click/badges .      

The Energetic Metabolism of Societies: Part II: Empirical Examples

Part I of this set of articles proposed methods to account for the energetic metabolism of societies. In this second part, the methods explicated in Part I are used to analyze the energy flows of societies with different "modes of subsistence": hunter-gatherers, a contemporary agricultural society in southeastern Asia, and a contemporary industrial society (Austria). The empirical examples are used to demonstrate differences in the "characteristic metabolism" of different modes of sub-sistence. The energy system of hunter-gatherers can be described as an "uncontrolled solar energy system," based mainly upon harvesting biomass without attending to its reproduction. Hunter-gatherers use only about 0.001% to 0.01% of the net primary production (NPP) of the territory they inhabit. Agricultural societies harness NPP to a much higher extent: Although agriculture often reduces NPP, the amount of biomass that agricultural societies use is much higher (about 20% of potential NPP). Because ecological energy flows are the main source of energy for agricultural societies, NPP strictly limits the energetic metabolism of agricultural societies. Industrial society uses area-independent energy sources (fossil and nuclear energy), which, however, result in new sustainability problems, such as greenhouse gas emissions. By providing methods to account for changes in energy flows, the metabolism approach proves itself to be a useful concept for analyzing society-environment interactions. The article demonstrates the difference between the metabolism approach and conventional energy statistics and discusses the significance of the proposed approach for sustainable development.     

Retrospective monitoring of rangeland vegetation change: ecohistory from deposits of sheep dung associated with shearing sheds

This paper explores the potential of a new method of reconstructing historical vegetation change in the Australian rangelands. Historical monitoring of rangeland vegetation has been so deficient that it is not possible to determine whether a long‐term trend toward degradation has occurred (as is often assumed) or, indeed, if it is continuing to occur. Because long‐term records are unavailable any attempt to monitor vegetation retrospectively must be based on proxy measures rather than direct observation. Where historical data are lacking an integration of palaeoecological, archaeological and ecological methods is required to reconstruct the past. Our research is based on a detailed analysis of sheep faeces deposited near a shearing shed in the semiarid rangelands of south‐west Queensland between the late 1930s and the mid‐1990s. The faeces in these deposits represent the diet of sheep in the days leading up to the property’s annual shearing and as such are a potentially useful index to changes in vegetation. Results indicate significant changes in the diet of sheep since the late 1940s. The potential of this method, and its limitations, are discussed. Long‐term records are critical in understanding issues of sustainability in land management and it is intended that this paper will stimulate further research into historical vegetation change in rangelands.     

Functions of Soil for Society and the Environment

Six key environmental, social and economic functions of soil are described, as well as the reversible and irreversible threats, caused by their uses. Sustainable use of soil is defined by the temporal and/or spatial (local or regional) harmonisation in the uses of the 6 functions, excluding or minimising irreversible ones, which is not a scientific but a political task.     

Climate-based identification of suitable cropping areas for giant reed and reed canary grass on marginal land in Central and Southern Europe under climate change

Giant reed (GR) and reed canary grass (RCG) have emerged as promising perennial industrial crops for providing sustainable bioenergy from marginal land. However, there is great uncertainty among farmers and researchers about where these crops can be grown in the future due to climate change, which complicates a timely transition to a bioeconomy. Therefore, this study quantifies marginal land and suitable cropping areas for GR and RCG in Europe, as well as their overlap. To derive these areas, the present (1991–2020) and future (2071–2100, RCP8.5) growing degree days, growing season length, annual precipitation, and aridity index were analyzed using the E-OBS observational dataset and EURO-CORDEX regional climate simulations. The study concludes that while marginal land will decrease by ~18%, GR and RCG will profit from the changing European climate, increasing by ~24% and ~13%, respectively. Looking at regions of overlap between marginal land and the selected crops, a decrease of ~87% and an increase of ~462% is projected for RCG and GR, respectively. This is due to marginal land shifting southward, benefitting the warm-season grass GR, while RCG prefers cooler climates.