The Ecological Economics of Harvesting Sharp-Pointed Rush (Juncus acutus) in the Kizilirmak Delta, Turkey

The sustainable harvest of aquatic vegetation is not accounted for in the national economy, in decision-making, and environmental policy in the Kizilirmak Delta, a Ramsar wetland of international importance and a major agricultural area on the Black Sea coast of Turkey. This paper describes the harvesting and marketing of sharp-pointed rush (Juncus acutus) using information obtained from interviews with villagers who were harvesting rush, wholesalers and retailers, government officials, and NGOs. The gross market value of the harvested rush amounts up to U.S. $494,000 annually in 1998 prices, of which U.S. $217,000 is retained by villagers. The economic contribution of the harvest and especially its livelihood for the villagers must be accounted for in projects and policy-making. Encouragement and continuity of the conditions of economic, social, and ecological sustainability of the harvest is essential for the conservation of the delta and its biodiversity.     

Local adaptation of switchgrass drives trait relations to yield and differential responses to climate and soil environments

Switchgrass, a potential biofuel crop, is a genetically diverse species with phenotypic plasticity enabling it to grow in a range of environments. Two primary divergent ecotypes, uplands and lowlands, exhibit trait combinations representative of acquisitive and conservative growth allocation strategies, respectively. Whether these ecotypes respond differently to various types of environmental drivers remains unclear but is crucial to understanding how switchgrass varieties will respond to climate change. We grew two upland, two lowland, and two intermediate/hybrid cultivars of switchgrass at three sites along a latitudinal gradient in the central United States. Over a 4-year period, we measured plant functional traits and biomass yields and evaluated genotype-by-environment (G × E) interaction effects by analyzing switchgrass responses to soil and climate variables. We found substantial evidence of G × E interactions on biomass yield, primarily due to deviations in the response of the southern lowland cultivar Alamo, which produced more biomass in hotter and drier environments relative to other cultivars. While lowland cultivars had the highest potential for yield, their yields were more variable year-to-year compared to other cultivars, suggesting greater sensitivity to environmental perturbations. Models comparing soil and climate principal components as explanatory variables revealed soil properties, especially nutrients, to be most effective at predicting switchgrass biomass yield. Also, positive correlations between biomass yield and conservative plant traits, such as high stem mass and tiller height,  became stronger at lower latitudes where the climate is hotter and drier, regardless of ecotype. Lowland cultivars, however, showed a greater predisposition to exhibit these conservative traits. These results suggest switchgrass trait allocation trade-offs that prioritize aboveground biomass production are more tightly associated in hot, dry environments and that lowland cultivars may exhibit a more specialized strategy relative to other cultivars. Altogether, this research provides essential knowledge for improving the viability of switchgrass as a biofuel crop.     

Ecological and economic analysis of lake eutrophication by nonpoint pollution

Abstract The hypothesis that economic damage due to nonpoint pollution exceeds costs of mitigation can be tested by ecologists, economists, and resource managers working at the spatial scale of watersheds for periods of years to decades. We present a framework for combining ecological and economic information to compare management scenarios for nonpoint pollution. Eutrophication of lakes caused by nonpoint phosphorus pollution, a common environmental problem, is the focus of our approach. Economic advantages of mitigating nonpoint pollution increase as the uncertainty of ecological predictions decreases. Uncertainty is measured by the prediction variance of nonpoint pollution models. A major source of variance in nonpoint pollution predictions is the effect of land use change on phosphorus transport. This variance is often large because calibration data sets do not have sufficiently wide ranges of land use variables. Ecological predictions and the resulting economic assessments could be improved by comparative studies of watersheds with contrasting land uses, and by viewing nonpoint pollution management as a large-scale experiment.     

The economic approach to ‘theory of mind’

Theory of mind (ToM) is a great evolutionary achievement. It is a special intelligence that can assess not only one''s own desires and beliefs, but also those of others. Whether it is uniquely human or not is controversial, but it is clear that humans are, at least, significantly better at ToM than any other animal. Economists and game theorists have developed sophisticated and powerful models of ToM and we provide a detailed summary of this here. This economic ToM entails a hierarchy of beliefs. I know my preferences, and I have beliefs (a probabilistic distribution) about your preferences, beliefs about your beliefs about my preferences, and so on. We then contrast this economic ToM with the theoretical approaches of neuroscience and with empirical data in general. Although this economic view provides a benchmark and makes useful suggestions about empirical tendencies, it does not always generate a close fit with the data. This provides an opportunity for a synergistic interdisciplinary production of a falsifiable theory of bounded rationality. In particular, a ToM that is founded on evolutionary biology might well be sufficiently structured to have predictive power, while remaining quite general. We sketch two papers that represent preliminary steps in this direction.     

Appropriate discounting leads to forward-looking ecosystem management

Ecology and economics share many intellectual challenges, such as uncertainty about future system dynamics. An appropriate consideration of our uncertainty about our economic future leads to discounting of benefits of ecosystem services at the lowest possible rate over long time horizons. This more realistic discounting supports much more conservative and sustainable decisions than conventional discounting.     

Incorporating Socio‐economic Factors into Restoration: Implications from Industrially Harvested Peatlands

In establishing effective restoration goals, one of the four key issues of increased attention that Hobbs calls for is in the area of incorporating socio‐economic investigations and theories into restoration practice in a synergistic manner. Although often commented upon by restoration practitioners, this is an area of research that is poorly developed, and because it relies on an uneasy combination of empirical and interpretative research methodologies a multidisciplinary alignment may be problematic in practice. This opinion piece is drawn from experiences in examining the after‐use of industrially mined peatland landscapes, and synthesizes ideas that have emerged from socio‐economic research over several years in order to offer an opinion on how Hobbs' call may be addressed. Because socio‐economic concerns are at the root of all restoration projects, sociological methods may be useful as tools in stakeholder engagement in research and planning for landscape rehabilitation as a mechanism for reducing the potential for conflict and for facilitating participative or collaborative restoration.