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These data show the protected hardwood forested uplands indicator conservation assets that are part in the Landscape Conservation Project for Florida. Protected hardwood forested uplands are an ecological indicator of the Florida Landscape Conservation Project (LCP). The LCP entails a large-scale assessment of and planning for the health of important natural resources, known as Conservation Assets (CAs), in Florida. Conservation planning at the landscape scale provides a framework for safeguarding functional ecosystems, and their interconnected processes required for maintaining healthy resources. Spatially explicit data from the project informs coordination and prioritization for making conservation decisions....
By replacing fossil fuels bioenergy has the potential to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, but indirect effects might partly or even completely eliminate this benefit. Production of bio-energy products, such as biofuels for transport, causes several indirect effects through their interactions with the global economic and physical systems. Indirect land-use change leads to GHG emissions – in some cases in the same order of magnitude as the fossil emissions – and loss of nature, but there are other relevant indirect effects as well. Intensification of agricultural production is another indirect effect and could be stimulated more to minimise the undesirable land conversion. However, intensification through increased...
This paper develops a method for identifying and assessing long-term supply risks for mineral raw materials. The method is based on a combined evaluation of past and future supply and demand trends. By analysing raw material boom and bust cycles over the past 50 years, we have quantified indicators and defined benchmarks for identifying critical market situations. By applying the method, risks for supply shortage may be identified at an early stage. In addition, a numerical evaluation model has been developed for better comparison between various mineral raw materials. Compared to other assessment methods this method uses specific benchmarks for each raw material to better assess supply risks. The method is embedded...
Biofuels world production has increased sharply in recent years. Oil reserves depletion, the oil high price and the confidence in biofuels “carbon neutrality” are the main causes of this phenomenon. However, claims related to the negative consequences of biofuel programs are frequent; mainly those related to the biofuels/food competition and sustainability. This paper aims to contribute for the development of a framework for sustainability indicators as a tool for performance assessment. The most used indicators to measure the biofuels sustainability are: Life Cycle Energy Balance (LCEB), quantity of fossil energy substituted per hectare, co-product energy allocation, life cycle carbon balance and changes in soil...
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Prioritization for maintenance of intact habitat (i.e., habitat quality rating of Good or Very Good), based on local scale ecological integrity, degree of threats faced, potential conservation opportunities, and conservation value of surrounding landscape. In contrast to ecological integrity ratings; threat, opportunity and landscape rankings are largely based on the range of values of any given indicator across the geography, sorted by quantile. There are some exceptions, particularly for indicators used to develop threat rankings (e.g., urban development risk).Prioritization for restoration of degraded habitat (i.e., habitat quality rating of Fair or Poor), based on local scale ecological integrity, potential...
Restoration of ecological processes is key to restoring the capacity of ecosystems to support social, economic, cultural and aesthetic values. The sustainability of the restored system also depends on processes associated with carbon, nutrient and hydrologic cycles, yet most restoration monitoring is limited to plant community composition. Our research has shown that short-term plant composition monitoring is a necessary but insufficient predictor of long-term restoration success. Long-term (up to 75 years) studies in the western United States show that short-term monitoring of plant community composition alone incorrectly predicted the failure of treatments that were ultimately successful, and the success of treatments...
The intent of long-term ecological monitoring is to document changes in important properties of biological communities. At the least, a long-term monitoring system should be designed to detect long-term trends in three key attributes: soil and site stability, hydrologic function, and the biotic integrity of the system. There are four basic guidelines for developing integrated soil-vegetation monitoring systems for rangelands. These are: (1) identifying a suite of indicators which are consistently correlated with the functional status of one or more critical ecosystem processes and=or properties; (2) selecting base indicators on site specific objectives and resource concerns, and inherent soil and site characteristics;...
Inferences drawn from regional bioassessments could be strengthened by integrating data from different monitoring programs. We combined data from the US Geological Survey National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) program and the US Environmental Protection Agency Wadeable Streams Assessment (WSA) to expand the scope of an existing River InVertebrate Prediction and Classification System (RIVPACS)?type predictive model and to assess the biological condition of streams across the western US in a variety of landuse classes. We used model-derived estimates of taxon-specific probabilities of capture and observed taxon occurrences to identify taxa that were absent from sites where they were predicted to occur (decreasers)...
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This dataset is intended to assess trends and percent change per year (PCPY) in yearly averages of dissolved oxygen within 300 meters of seagrass. Assessments (condition) was classified depending on the following follow thresholds for PCPY: <= -1.0% - “Decreasing” > -1.0 & < 0.0% - “Stable (-)” = 0.0% - “Stable (No Change)” > 0.0 & < 1.0% - “Stable (+)” >= 1.0% - “Increasing”
This paper investigates the relationships between settlement size, functionality, geographic location and sustainable development. Analysis was carried out on a sample of 79 Irish settlements, located in three regional clusters. Two methods were selected to model the level of sustainability achieved in settlements, namely, Metabolism Accounting and Modelling of Material and Energy Flows (MA) and Sustainable Development Index Modelling. MA is a systematic assessment of the flows and stocks of material within a system defined in space and time. The metabolism of most settlements is essentially linear, with resources flowing through the urban system. The objective of this research on material and energy flows was to...
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These data show the protected high pine and scrub indicator of the conservation assets that are part in the Landscape Conservation Project for Florida. Protected high pine and scrub is an ecological indicator of the Florida Landscape Conservation Project (LCP). The LCP entails a large-scale assessment of and planning for the health of important natural resources, known as Conservation Assets (CAs), in Florida. Conservation planning at the landscape scale provides a framework for safeguarding functional ecosystems, and their interconnected processes required for maintaining healthy resources. Spatially explicit data from the project informs coordination and prioritization for making conservation decisions. Additionally,...
By replacing fossil fuels bioenergy has the potential to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, but indirect effects might partly or even completely eliminate this benefit. Production of bio-energy products, such as biofuels for transport, causes several indirect effects through their interactions with the global economic and physical systems. Indirect land-use change leads to GHG emissions – in some cases in the same order of magnitude as the fossil emissions – and loss of nature, but there are other relevant indirect effects as well. Intensification of agricultural production is another indirect effect and could be stimulated more to minimise the undesirable land conversion. However, intensification through increased...
Biofuels world production has increased sharply in recent years. Oil reserves depletion, the oil high price and the confidence in biofuels “carbon neutrality” are the main causes of this phenomenon. However, claims related to the negative consequences of biofuel programs are frequent; mainly those related to the biofuels/food competition and sustainability. This paper aims to contribute for the development of a framework for sustainability indicators as a tool for performance assessment. The most used indicators to measure the biofuels sustainability are: Life Cycle Energy Balance (LCEB), quantity of fossil energy substituted per hectare, co-product energy allocation, life cycle carbon balance and changes in soil...
We develop three quantitative indicators of the physical/biological aspect of sustainability. They are based on depletion of resources, dependence on outside subsidies, and disruption of natural cycles. We apply the indicators to an agricultural county in Kansas, using energy, water, soil, and nitrogen as numeraires. 9/10 of Chase County is dedicated to range beef cattle grazing and 1/10 to row-cropping and confinement animal feeding. Range production is relatively non-depleting, independent, and non-disrupting. Cropping is more depleting, dependent, and disrupting, but comparable with that in other agricultural areas. We discuss how this pattern, mediated by absentee land-holding and low human population density,...
By replacing fossil fuels bioenergy has the potential to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, but indirect effects might partly or even completely eliminate this benefit. Production of bio-energy products, such as biofuels for transport, causes several indirect effects through their interactions with the global economic and physical systems. Indirect land-use change leads to GHG emissions – in some cases in the same order of magnitude as the fossil emissions – and loss of nature, but there are other relevant indirect effects as well. Intensification of agricultural production is another indirect effect and could be stimulated more to minimise the undesirable land conversion. However, intensification through increased...
Biofuels world production has increased sharply in recent years. Oil reserves depletion, the oil high price and the confidence in biofuels “carbon neutrality” are the main causes of this phenomenon. However, claims related to the negative consequences of biofuel programs are frequent; mainly those related to the biofuels/food competition and sustainability. This paper aims to contribute for the development of a framework for sustainability indicators as a tool for performance assessment. The most used indicators to measure the biofuels sustainability are: Life Cycle Energy Balance (LCEB), quantity of fossil energy substituted per hectare, co-product energy allocation, life cycle carbon balance and changes in soil...
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These data show the freshwater non-forested wetlandsindicator freshwater forested wetlands conservation assets that are part in the Landscape Conservation Project for Florida. Protected conservation assets are an ecological indicator of the Florida Landscape Conservation Project (LCP). The LCP entails a large-scale assessment of and planning for the health of important natural resources, known as Conservation Assets (CAs), in Florida. Conservation planning at the landscape scale provides a framework for safeguarding functional ecosystems, and their interconnected processes required for maintaining healthy resources. Spatially explicit data from the project informs coordination and prioritization for making conservation...
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Ecological integrity of priority habitats was based on degree of local human development, amount and local connectivity of habitat, and quality of habit. Indicators were selected to reflect the needs of focal species, as well as other key ecological attributes of these habitats. Ecological integrity was estimated for floodplain forests, freshwater wetlands, human development, major rivers, rice agriculture, tallgrass prairie, and tidal wetlands.Ratings of each indicator are based on a viability assessment conducted following the Open Standards framework. Indicators with ratings of Good or Very Good are within the acceptable range of natural variation (with Good suggesting some management may be needed to get the...
map background search result map search result map Draft Indicator: Beaches and Dunes - Index of Beach Birds - Change Draft Indicator: Beaches and Dunes - Index of Beach Birds The Edwards to Gulf Conservation Blueprint - Habitat Ecological Integrity The Edwards to Gulf Conservation Blueprint - Habitat Management Prioritization High Pine and Scrub - Protection Freshwater Non-Forested Wetlands - Protection Hardwood Forested Upland in Protection Seagrass – Dissolved Oxygen Trends (FLCP Indicator) The Edwards to Gulf Conservation Blueprint - Habitat Ecological Integrity The Edwards to Gulf Conservation Blueprint - Habitat Management Prioritization High Pine and Scrub - Protection Freshwater Non-Forested Wetlands - Protection Hardwood Forested Upland in Protection Seagrass – Dissolved Oxygen Trends (FLCP Indicator) Draft Indicator: Beaches and Dunes - Index of Beach Birds - Change Draft Indicator: Beaches and Dunes - Index of Beach Birds