Most economic valuation studies of species derive from stated preferences methods. These methods fail to take into account biodiversity values that the general public is not (made) informed about or ...has no experience with. Hence, production function (PF) and replacement cost (RC) approaches to valuation may be preferable in situations where species perform key life support functions in ecosystems, such as seed dispersal, pollination, or pest regulation. We conduct an RC analysis of the seed dispersal service performed by the Eurasian jay (
Garrulus glandarius) in the Stockholm National Urban Park, Sweden. The park holds one of the largest populations of giant oaks in Europe, and the oak (
Quercus robur and
Quercus petrea) represents a keystone species in the hemiboreal forests. The primary objective was to estimate the number of seed-dispersed oak trees that resulted from jays and to determine the costs of replacing this service though human means. Results show that depending upon seeding or planting technique chosen, the RC per pair of jays in the park is SEK 35,000 (USD 4900) and SEK 160,000 (USD 22,500), respectively. Based on the park's aggregated oak forest-area, average RC for natural oak forest regeneration by jays is SEK 15,000 (USD 2100) to SEK 67,000 (USD 9400) per hectare, respectively. These estimates help motivating investments in management strategies that secure critical breeding and foraging habitats of jays, including coniferous forests and jay movement corridors. The analysis also illustrates the need for detailed ecological–economic knowledge in a PF or RC analysis. The continuous temporal and spatial oak dispersal service provided by jays holds several benefits compared to a man-made replacement of this service. PF and RC approaches are particularly motivated in cases of known functional ecological relationships, and critically important in estimating management measures where mobile link organisms and keystone species form key mutual relationships that generate high biodiversity benefits. In relation to obtained results, we discuss insights for conducting valuation studies on particular species.
It was assessed how the size of perch (Perca fluviatilis) is related to levels of four per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS) in its muscle tissue. These were PFOS, PFNA, PFOA, and PFHxS, for ...which the sum, denoted as ΣPFAS4, has a tolerable intake derived by the European Food Safety Authority. The results indicate that, in contrast to, e.g., mercury levels, ΣPFAS4 levels in perch muscle do not increase with increasing weight of the fish, which implies that consuming larger perch does not increase the risk of exceeding the TWI of ΣPFAS4, in relation to consuming smaller perch. Therefore, for risk assessment, analyzing samples of smaller perch is sufficient, demanding less effort to catch. The credibility of the results was strengthened by applying the same statistical model to mercury levels in the same samples. As expected, larger fish had generally higher levels than small fish for mercury.
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•No association between PFAS4 and perch size was found•Mercury concentration increased with perch size•Results suggest that consuming larger perch do not increase exposure to PFAS4
This study addresses and conceptualizes the possible dependence of ecosystem services on prevailing air and/or water flow processes and conditions, and particularly on the trajectories and associated ...spatial reach of these flows in carrying services from supply to demand areas in the landscape. The present conceptualization considers and accounts for such flow-dependence in terms of potential and actually realized service supply and demand, which may generally differ and must therefore be distinguished due to and accounting for the prevailing conditions of service carrier flows. We here concretize and quantify such flow-dependence for a specific landscape case (the Stockholm region, Sweden) and for two examples of regulating ecosystem services: local climate regulation and storm water regulation. For these service and landscape examples, we identify, quantify and map key areas of potential and realized service supply and demand, based for the former (potential) on prevailing relatively static types of landscape conditions (such as land-cover/use, soil type and demographics), and for the latter (realized) on relevant carrier air and water flows. These first-order quantification examples constitute first steps towards further development of generally needed such flow-dependence assessments for various types of ecosystem services in different landscapes over the world.
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•Quantitative distinction of potential and realized ecosystem service supply-demand•Quantification and mapping of flows of ecosystem services through the landscape•Simple and scalable quantification and mapping methodology•Local climate regulation and storm water regulation in urban and peri-urban areas
The involvement of stakeholders in large scale urban sustainable development projects (LSUSDP.s) has proven difficult. The stakeholders are distributed across the geographical area, and they have ...stakes not only in the LSUSDP, but in the geographical location where the project takes place. To understand stakeholder management in "distributed projects", we propose abandoning the "inside-out" perspective where the project is the point of departure, and focus on the emergence of stakeholders across time. Adopting such a performative, "outside-in," perspective on the longitudinal and digital study of a LSUSDP, we are able to map how actors became stakeholders in the project through their actions. The paper makes four contributions. First, we reconceptualize stakeholder involvement by adopting a performative perspective, whereby "stakeholders" are envisaged as emergent and non-fixed. Second, we demonstrate how such a reconceptualization may be applied to the analysis of an empirical case. Third, we show that stakeholder involvement is not merely the result of stakeholder management but something that happens over time, through the material and discursive actions of those that become stakeholders. Finally, the paper contributes with an illustration of how the online, digital footprint, of a project may be useful to understand the emergence of a project.
This paper presents an approach for using rich datasets to develop different building archetypes depending on the urban energy challenges addressed. Two cases (building retrofitting and electric ...heating) were analysed using the same city, Stockholm (Sweden), and the same input data, energy performance certificates and heat energy use metering data. The distinctive character of these problems resulted in different modelling workflows and archetypes being developed. The building retrofitting case followed a hybrid approach, integrating statistical and physical perspectives, estimating energy savings for 5532 buildings from seven retrofitting packages. The electric heating case provided an explicitly statistical data-driven view of the problem, estimating potential for improvement of power capacity of the local electric grid at peak electric power of 147 MW. The conclusion was that the growing availability of linked building energy data requires a shift in the urban building energy modelling (UBEM) paradigm from single-logic models to on-request multiple-purpose data intelligence services.
Persistent plastics, with an estimated lifetime for degradation of hundreds of years in marine conditions, can break up into micro- and nanoplastics over shorter timescales, thus facilitating their ...uptake by marine biota throughout the food chain. These polymers may contain chemical additives and contaminants, including some known endocrine disruptors that may be harmful at extremely low concentrations for marine biota, thus posing potential risks to marine ecosystems, biodiversity and food availability. Although there is still need to carry out focused scientific research to fill the knowledge gaps about the impacts of plastic litter in the marine environment (Wagner et al. in Environ Sci Eur 26:9,
2014
), the food chain and human health, existing scientific evidence and concerns are already sufficient to support actions by the scientific, industry, policy and civil society communities to curb the ongoing flow of plastics and the toxic chemicals they contain into the marine environment. Without immediate strong preventive measures, the environmental impacts and the economic costs are set only to become worse, even in the short term. Continued increases in plastic production and consumption, combined with wasteful uses, inefficient waste collection infrastructures and insufficient waste management facilities, especially in developing countries, mean that even achieving already established objectives for reductions in marine litter remains a huge challenge, and one unlikely to be met without a fundamental rethink of the ways in which we consume plastics. This document was prepared by a working group of Regional Centres of the Stockholm and Basel Conventions and related colleagues intended to be a background document for discussion in the 2017 Conference of the Parties (COP) of the Basel Convention on hazardous wastes and the Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants (POPs). The COP finally approved that the issue of plastic waste could be dealt by its Regional Centres and consistently report their activities on the matter to next COP’s meetings.
Fluorinated chrome mist suppressants (CMSs) have been widely used in the electroplating industry globally, including China. In compliance with the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic ...Pollutants, China has phased out perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) as CMS, except for closed-loop systems, before March 2019. Since then, several alternatives have been introduced to replace PFOS, but many of them still belong to the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) family. In this study, for the first time, we collected and analyzed CMS samples from the Chinese market in 2013, 2015, and 2021 to determine their PFAS composition. For products with relatively few PFAS targets, we performed a total fluorine (TF) screening test and suspect and non-target analysis. Our findings suggest that 6:2 fluorotelomer sulfonate (6:2 FTS) has become the primary alternative on the Chinese market. Surprisingly, we identified 8:2 chlorinated polyfluorinated ether sulfonate (8:2 Cl-PFAES) as the primary ingredient in a CMS product (F–115B), which is the longer chain modification of the classical CMS product (F–53B). Furthermore, we identified three novel PFASs as PFOS alternatives, including hydrogen-substituted perfluoroalkyl sulfonates (H–PFSAs) and perfluorinated ether sulfonates (O–PFSAs). We also screened and identified six hydrocarbon surfactants in PFAS-free products as the primary ingredients. Despite this, some PFOS-based CMSs remain on the Chinese market. To prevent the opportunistic use of PFOS for illegal purposes, it is essential to enforce regulations strictly and ensure that such CMSs are used only in closed-loop chrome plating systems.
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•PFAS profiles in chrome mist suppressants (CMSs) on Chinese market were reported.•8:2 Cl-PFAES as PFOS alternative was found in a CMS sample for the first time.•Three novel PFASs were identified in CMSs samples by non-target analysis (NTA).
La conmemoración del 50º aniversario de la Conferencia de las Naciones Unidas sobre el Medio humano celebrada en Estocolmo en 1972 coincide con el 30º aniversario de la Convención Marco sobre la ...Diversidad Biológica (CBD) y con la celebración de las Conferencias de las Partes (COP) de las principales convenciones relacionadas con la biodiversidad. Esta coincidencia nos ha brindado la oportunidad de valorar la influencia de esta primera gran conferencia en la adopción de los instrumentos normativos posteriores para la protección de la biodiversidad, llevándonos a constatar que, aunque se hallen fragmentados, giran como en una constelación en torno a la CBD, de acuerdo a unos principios comunes. La celebración de Estocolmo+50 nos ha llevado a examinar los grandes retos para la protección de la biodiversidad, y cómo se abordarán en la COP15 de la CDB que tiene que adoptar el Plan Mundial para la Biodiversidad y sus Metas estratégicas para el período posterior a 2020. Entre estos grandes retos destacan no sólo la creciente pérdida de biodiversidad sino también los problemas de cumplimiento de las normas internacionales y de los planes nacionales que deberían frenarla. A pesar de las carencias de la gobernanza de la biodiversidad, aún existe la posibilidad de introducir mejoras creando sinergias entre las convenciones relativas a la biodiversidad y sus instrumentos de soft law. Por último, examinaremos la gran propuesta china de alcanzar una civilización ecológica, que haga posible hacer las paces con la naturaleza como ha propuesto el Secretario General de las Naciones Unidas, Antonio Guterres.
Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are toxic chemicals that stay in the environment for a long time. To address the toxicity issues, global nations, including 53 African countries, ratified the ...Stockholm Convention to minimize or eliminate the production of 12 POPs known as the “Dirty Dozen”. However, these Dirty Dozen Chemicals (DDCs) still exist in significant concentration in the African environment, prompting numerous research to investigate the level of their occurrences. Here, we conducted a bibliometric analysis to examine the publication trends in DDCs-related research in Africa using articles published between 1949 and 2021 from the Web of Science and Scopus databases. A total of 884 articles were published within the survey period, with a publication/author and author/publication ratio of 0.36 and 2.76, respectively. South Africa ranked first in terms of number of publications (n = 133, 15.05%), and total citations (n = 3115), followed by Egypt (n = 117), Nigeria (n = 77), USA (n = 40), and Ghana (n = 38). Research collaboration was relatively high (collaboration index = 2.88). The insignificant difference between the theoretical and observed Lotka's distribution indicates Lotka's law does not fit the DDC literature. An annual growth rate of 0.57% implies that a substantial increase of articles in years to come is not expected. More research programs should be established in other African countries to measure up to South Africa's supremacy. This is critical in order to provide a basis for effective compliance to the Stockholm Convention on POPs in Africa.
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•884 articles were retrieved from the WoS and Scopus from 1949 to 2021.•South Africa ranked first in the majority of the bibliometric indices.•Documents indexed in WoS and Scopus were grouped into four topical domains.•Substantial research output on DDC in Africa is not likely in future.
A field experiment was conducted in Stockholm where a congestion charge trial was introduced in 2006. Respondents completed a questionnaire before and after the trial. Acceptance of the congestion ...charge was higher after the trial as opposed to its acceptability judgments before the trial. Respondents believed the charge had more positive consequences (viz., decreasing parking problems, congestion, and pollution) and less negative consequences (viz., financial cost increases) after the trial than they had expected beforehand. Furthermore, we examined the relative importance of various beliefs for the acceptability of the congestion charge before and after it was implemented. Results are that before the implementation of the charge acceptability was significantly related to beliefs about the expected consequences for one’s own car use and financial costs, whereas acceptance after the trial was related to beliefs about the perceived consequences for one’s own car use and parking problems. These results indicate that acceptance of the congestion charge had increased because people experienced positive consequences of the charge. This conclusion is discussed in the broader context in which the Stockholm trial took place.
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