Ecosystem services play a crucial role in sustaining human well-being and economic viability. People benefit substantially from the delivery of ecosystem services, for which substitutes usually are costly or unavailable. Climate change will substantially alter or eliminate certain ecosystem services in the future. To better understand the consequences of climate...
Ethanol production from lignocellulosic feedstock has been under intense scrutiny as a transportation fuel due to its potential to address concerns of increasing energy consumption, limited fossil energy resources, climate changes due to greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels, and especially use of non-food biomaterials, which address the biggest limitation...
Background, aim and scope: The aim of this study was to perform a well-to-pump life cycle assessment (LCA) to investigate the overall net energy balance and environmental impact of bioethanol production using Tall Fescue grass straw as feedstock. The energy requirements and green house gas (GHG) emissions were compared to...
Rapid hydropower development is occurring in China's Yunnan province in response to increasing clean energy demands, exposing potential vulnerabilities of the area's ecosystems, communities, and geopolitical systems. Here, we present original data on the cultures, economics, hydro-politics, and environments of the Nu River basin, based on household surveys, analysis of...
Most current models analyzing technology adoption are based on a function that assumes farmers make decisions upon utility maximization but ignores cultural or social factors. The traditional production systems of the Mekong Delta were based on floating rice varieties and fish harvested both from rivers and rice fields. Since 1980...
The role of evapotranspiration (ET) in the global, continental, regional, and local water cycles is reviewed. Elevated atmospheric CO₂, air temperature, vapor pressure deficit (D), turbulent transport, radiative transfer, and reduced soil moisture all impact biotic and abiotic processes controlling ET that must be extrapolated to large scales. Suggesting a...
Support for low-carbon energy and opposition to new large dams encourages global development of small hydropower facilities. This support is manifested in national and international energy and development policies designed to incentivize growth in the small hydropower sector while curtailing large dam construction. However, the preference of small to large...
Although science is widely accepted as a fundamental source of information underlying decisions about forest management and conservation, considerably less attention has been paid to the inevitable role that normative values and beliefs play in such decisions. This thesis highlights the normative dimensions of "ecological forestry," a strategy of forest...