Socioecology Research Today

We present results of a life cycle assessment (LCA) of Marcellus shale gas used for power generation. The analysis employs the most extensive data set of any LCA of shale gas to date, encompassing data from actual gas production and power generation operations. Results indicate that a typical Marcellus gas life cycle yields 466 kg [...]

Information and communications technology (ICT) contributes substantially to global greenhouse gas (GHG) pollutant emissions, but it is time-consuming to estimate the environmental impacts caused by the production of ICT devices, and the literature lacks coverage for newer products. Using a process-sum life cycle assessment (LCA) approach, we estimate and compare the embodied GHG emissions of [...]

A literature survey of studies reporting nitrous oxide uptake in the soils of natural ecosystems is used to suggest that the median uptake potential is 4 μg m−2 hr−1. The highest values are nearly all associated with soils of wetland and peatland ecosystems. Globally, the consumption of nitrous oxide in soils is not likely to [...]

Soils of grasslands represent a large potential reservoir for storing CO2, but this potential likely depends on how grasslands are managed for large mammal grazing. Previous studies found both strong positive and negative grazing effects on soil organic carbon (SOC) but explanations for this variation are poorly developed. Expanding on previous reviews, we performed a [...]

Agriculture is responsible for 17–35% of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions with livestock production contributing by approximately 18–22% of global emissions. Due to high monitoring costs and low technical potential for emission reductions, a tax on consumption may be a more efficient policy instrument to decrease emissions from agriculture than a tax based directly on [...]

The major obstacles to promoting biodiesel blends in marine transportation are examined in this study. The strategies proposed to overcome these obstacles include the comprehensive field testing of the biodiesel blends in marine vessels of various representative types, establishing a marine-grade biodiesel specification, increasing the price competitiveness of marine-grade biodiesel by reducing its manufacturing costs, [...]

Human activities have doubled the pre-industrial supply of reactive nitrogen on Earth, and future rates of increase are expected to accelerate1. Yet little is known about the capacity of the biosphere to buffer increased nitrogen influx. Past changes in global ecosystems following deglaciation at the end of the Pleistocene epoch provide an opportunity to understand [...]

More than 50% of the world’s population feeds on rice. Soils used for rice production are mostly managed under submerged conditions (paddy soils). This management, which favors carbon sequestration, potentially decouples surface from subsurface carbon cycling. The objective of this study was to elucidate the long-term rates of carbon accrual in surface and subsurface soil [...]

We present results that improve the estimates of the global net sea-to-air flux, global oceanic emission, global oceanic uptake, and partial atmospheric lifetime of methyl chloride (CH3Cl) with respect to oceanic loss. This study includes improved parameterizations for solubility and saturation anomaly-sea surface temperature relationships for CH3Cl, along with the use of an updated gas [...]

Land-use change between forestry and agriculture can cause large net emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), and the respective land uses associated with forest and pasture lead to different on-going emission rates of methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) and different surface albedo. Here, we quantify the overall net radiative forcing and consequent temperature change from [...]