Search

There remains considerable doubt, debate, and confusion regarding how biodiversity responds to gradients of important environmental drivers, such as habitat size, resource productivity, and disturbance. Here we develop a simple but comprehensive theoretical framework based on competition–colonization multispecies communities to examine the separate and interactive effects of these drivers. Using both numerical simulations and analytical arguments, we demonstrate that the critical trade‐off between competitive and colonization ability can lead to complex nonlinear, zig‐zag responses in both species richness and the inverse Simpson index along gradients of these drivers. Furthermore, we find strong interactions between these drivers that can dramatically shift the response of biodiversity to these gradients. The zig‐zag patterns in biodiversity along ecological gradients, together with the strong interactions between the drivers, can explain the mixed findings of empirical studies and syntheses, thereby providing a new paradigm that can reconcile debates on the relationships between biodiversity and multiple drivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate assessments of global primary material extraction, trade of primary materials and products, material use, waste, and emissions support the development of policies that facilitate the decoupling of economic activity, natural resource use, and related environmental impacts. Here, we quantify all crucial aspects of global and country‐by‐country material requirements needed to fuel economic activities, covering both territorial‐ and demand‐based indicators. These data have been assembled by a consortium of research partners that compile the global material flow and resource productivity online database for the International Resource Panel, which contributes to the global dataset for the System of Environmental–Economic Accounting (SEEA) framework and is employed to monitor progress for the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicators 8.4 and 12.2. We present the main findings of the 2024 update, including methodological improvements and result differences, and discuss the main findings and limitations. Since the last update, we have identified a slowing of global materials extraction since about 2014, a continuation of solid growth in direct trade of materials and products, persistent inequality in resource use between high‐ and low‐income countries, and a prolonged improvement in global material productivity. The full dataset used herein can be downloaded from the Global Material Flow Database hosted by the United Nations Environment Program International Resource Panel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the dynamic effect of resource productivity and green technologies on renewable energy (RE) use in 28 middle‐income countries from 2006 to 2022 using MMQR, QR and causality techniques. Results suggested that green technology innovation substantially influences RE use. Second, the significant positive coefficients show that resource productivity leads to higher RE consumption at the upper quantile due to decoupling Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth from extracting natural resources, indicating a transition towards more sustainable and efficient practices. Based on the empirical findings, several policy implications are suggested for middle‐income economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecologists have long sought to understand variation in food chain length (FCL) among natural ecosystems. Various drivers of FCL, including ecosystem size, resource productivity and disturbance, have been hypothesised. However, when results are aggregated across existing empirical studies from aquatic ecosystems, we observe mixed FCL responses to these drivers. To understand this variability, we develop a unified competition‐colonisation framework for complex food webs incorporating all of these drivers. With competition‐colonisation tradeoffs among basal species, our model predicts that increasing ecosystem size generally results in a monotonic increase in FCL, while FCL displays non‐linear, oscillatory responses to resource productivity or disturbance in large ecosystems featuring little disturbance or high productivity. Interestingly, such complex responses mirror patterns in empirical data. Therefore, this study offers a novel mechanistic explanation for observed variations in aquatic FCL driven by multiple environmental factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines whether the raw material productivity, export intensification, and environmental‐related technologies in the Nordic region (i.e., Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden) drives the region's carbon neutrality target. By adopting both symmetric and asymmetric empirical approaches over the period 1990–2019, the study found that positive and negative shifts in environmental‐related technologies mitigates greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the region with the former causing a larger impact. Furthermore, the findings reveal that a positive shift in raw material productivity mitigates GHG emissions while a negative shift in raw material productivity causes a surge in GHG emissions especially in the long‐run. Moreover, a positive (negative) shift in export intensity yields a decline (upsurge) in GHG emissions in the long‐run. In the symmetric framework, in both long‐ and short‐run, the result reveals that economic growth upsurges GHG emissions while raw material productivity for green growth and environmental‐related technologies mitigates GHG emissions. This demonstrates the efficient raw material productivity profile of the Nordic countries. Alongside the Granger causality inference, the result further informs that energy intensity is crucial to curbing GHG emissions in the region. Thus, the result from the study offers relevant policy instructions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, one of the world's concerns, including Brazil, is to obtain answers to reduce energy dependence on fossil fuels. Environmental damage and possible scarcity of fossil fuels highlight the generation of clean energy to reduce environmental degradation. In the present article, it is proposed a model to analyze the economic and environmental feasibility of implementing solar photovoltaic systems in an industry. A case study in Brazil was used to test the model. The selected industrial sector chosen for the installation of the photovoltaic system was the parking lot with an estimated area of 187,653 m2. Regarding economic viability, the calculated net present value was $44,730,630.26, the internal rate of return was 14.52% per year, and the payback time was 132 months. The environmental impacts avoided in the use of the photovoltaic solar energy system were analyzed and the amount of carbon dioxide avoided in the atmosphere per kWh generated with the use of this clean energy showed that 25,381 trees would be needed to fix the CO2 that would be emitted into the atmosphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving the energy efficiency of fish culture has always been a concern for warm‐water fish farming units. In this respect, the present study explored energy consumption flow and energy indices of warm‐water fish production in Guilan province, northern Iran. The impact of the energy equivalent of the system inputs on the energy equivalent of fish yield was modeled by the Cobb–Douglas function. The results revealed that total energy input, energy ratio, energy productivity, and energy intensity were 3710.4 MJ per 100 m2, 0.042, 0.009 kg MJ−1, and 109.77 MJ kg−1, respectively. Feed, electricity, and fossil fuel were the most energy‐intensive inputs accounting for 70.09%, 11.95%, and 11.70% of total energy use, respectively; representing the dominant role of feed in the energy input of warm‐water fish farming. Renewable and nonrenewable energy resources accounted for 6.97% and 93.03% of the total energy input of warm‐water fish culture system, respectively; requiring more care to cut the share of nonrenewable energy inputs. The Pareto chart determined that fingerling, labor, and electricity had the highest effects on the warm‐water fish yield. Therefore, more attention should be paid to the appropriate use of these inputs in warm‐water fish culture in the study region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study investigates a central premise of the resource-based view of the firm—that managers are a potential source of value creation for the firm. Using data from professional sports teams, we test theory regarding the effects of managerial ability, human resource stocks, and managers' actions on resource value creation. While results indicate managerial ability affects resource productivity, this effect is less pronounced with increases in the quality of firm resources. Further, we investigate the extent to which managerial actions that synchronize resource bundles account for the influence of managerial ability and resource context on a firm's performance advantage. These results contribute to our understanding of resource management and provide empirical evidence for the importance of managerial ability in the resource-based view. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: The resource productivity (RP) of crude oil is an important indicator to measure the utilization efficiency of a petroleum resource. In this article, we proposed a methodology to calculate the RP of crude oil from a complex network perspective. We constructed a chemical network comprising 578 chemicals and divided all chemicals into six hierarchical levels according to their processing steps. We put forward two indicators to represent two calculation methods: resource productivity based on material flow analysis and resource productivity based on carbon flow analysis (RPCF). To clarify the differences in the meanings of these two indicators, we extracted the para‐xylene (PX) production chain, which is composed of crude oil, PX, pure terephthalic acid, and polyethylene terephthalate, from the network as an example. Finally, we adopted the RPCF indicator. We calculated that the average RPCFs of the six hierarchical levels of crude oil in China from 1992 to 1999 are 145, 219, 601, 929, 1,474, and 4,076 US$/(tonnes carbon). The results show that there is a value‐added effect in the extension of petrochemical industrial chains. Among the derivatives of crude oil, the RPCFs of chemicals are obviously higher than those of oils. Countries, regions, industrial parks, and chemical companies can improve RP by extending and choosing chemical production chains and combinations thereof. We can also use the calculation methodology to compare RP of other sources of carbon like carbon dioxide and biomass with that of crude oil, and promote the development of circular economy in energy and chemical production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: China has become the country with the largest resource use and has high levels of waste emissions that pose a great management challenge. To provide more details about environmental problems and to find effective solutions, this article analyzed the scale, structure, and trend of the socioeconomic metabolism in China during the period 1992–2014 based on economy‐wide material flow accounts (EW‐MFA), and predicted resource use during the period of the 13th Five‐Year Plan. The results of this study show that the scale of China's socioeconomic metabolism in China increased more than twofold, during 1992–2014. However, after 2011, with the economic slowdown, the growth rates of total material requirement (TMR), direct material input (DMI), and domestic processed output (DPO) began to decrease. China may reach an inflection point, but this point will probably not be approached before the year 2020. Material recycling (MR) has played an important role in improving resource productivity, improving it by 92.52 renminbi per tonne in 2014. Metallic minerals and fossil fuels are the main sources of hidden flow. Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, construction waste, and agricultural emissions have become the major sources of DPO. Because of the 13th Five‐Year Plan, China may slow the growth rate of DMI and may save 10.26 gigatonnes of resources during 2015–2020. Resource productivity is predicted to increase by 15.91%. Imports and MR may play more important roles. These suggestions are made: (1) strengthening the recycling system; (2) stronger policies, especially in metallic mineral and fossil fuels; (3) developing management systems for CO2 emissions, construction waste, and agricultural emissions; and (4) adjusting China's economic structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: The international industrial ecology (IE) research community and United Nations (UN) Environment have, for the first time, agreed on an authoritative and comprehensive data set for global material extraction and trade covering 40 years of global economic activity and natural resource use. This new data set is becoming the standard information source for decision making at the UN in the context of the post‐2015 development agenda, which acknowledges the strong links between sustainable natural resource management, economic prosperity, and human well‐being. Only if economic growth and human development can become substantially decoupled from accelerating material use, waste, and emissions can the tensions inherent in the Sustainable Development Goals be resolved and inclusive human development be achieved. In this paper, we summarize the key findings of the assessment study to make the IE research community aware of this new global research resource. The global results show a massive increase in materials extraction from 22 billion tonnes (Bt) in 1970 to 70 Bt in 2010, and an acceleration in material extraction since 2000. This acceleration has occurred at a time when global population growth has slowed and global economic growth has stalled. The global surge in material extraction has been driven by growing wealth and consumption and accelerating trade. A material footprint perspective shows that demand for materials has grown even in the wealthiest parts of the world. Low‐income countries have benefited least from growing global resource availability and have continued to deliver primary materials to high‐income countries while experiencing few improvements in their domestic material living standards. Material efficiency, the amount of primary materials required per unit of economic activity, has declined since around 2000 because of a shift of global production from very material‐efficient economies to less‐efficient ones. This global trend of recoupling economic activity with material use, driven by industrialization and urbanization in the global South, most notably Asia, has negative impacts on a suite of environmental and social issues, including natural resource depletion, climate change, loss of biodiversity, and uneven economic development. This research is a good example of the IE research community providing information for evidence‐based policy making on the global stage and testament to the growing importance of IE research in achieving global sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global agricultural system is an energy transfer system converting solar radiation to stored chemical energy in the biosphere through photosynthesis and animal metabolism. Stored energy in the agricultural system is principally in the form of carbohydrates, proteins, fats, and oils that humanity appropriates for food, fiber, and fuel. The total annual production of global agriculture was tabulated using data from the Food and Agriculture Organization from 1961 to 2013. Annual agricultural production for each agricultural item (T y−1) was converted to energy yield (kJ y−1) utilizing published proximate analyses (% moisture, % protein, % carbohydrate, % fat/lipid, and % ash). Global agricultural energy yield grew linearly over the 1961–2002 interval. From 2002 onward, global agricultural energy yield also grew linearly, but at a rate 2 times the 1961–2002 rate. Overall, agricultural energy yield more than tripled from 1961 to 2013. Unsurprisingly, energy output of global crops dominated, averaging 85.5 ± 0.4% of total energy output. Livestock and poultry production averaged 13.6 ± 0.4% of annual agricultural energy output, while world fisheries and aquaculture averaged 0.8 ± 0.1% of global energy output. From 1961 to 2013, the feeding potential of global agricultural energy yield exceeded the human metabolic energy requirement by an average multiple of 2.1 ± 0.18. Thus, agricultural production is more than sufficient to feed “The Global Mouth” into the future, and feeding world population is not a production problem per se. Instead, the inability of global agriculture to meet worldwide food requirements results from systemic energy losses associated with significant global food waste, diversion of food energy as feed to livestock and poultry, and appropriation of primary agricultural output for biofuels synthesis. © 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 37: 108–121, 2018 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past few years, resource use and resource efficiency have been implemented in the European Union (EU) environmental policy programs as well as international sustainable development programs. In their programs, the EU focuses on four resource types that should be addressed: materials, energy (or carbon dioxide [CO2] emissions), water, and land. In this article, we first discuss different perspectives on energy use and present the results of a long-term exergy and useful work analysis of the Austrian economy for the period 1900-2012, using the methodology developed by Ayres and Warr. Second, we discuss Austrian resource efficiency by comparing the presented exergy and useful work data with material use, CO2 emissions, and land-use data taken from statistical sources. This comparison provides, for the first time, a long-term analysis of Austrian resource efficiency based on a broad understanding thereof and evaluates Austrian development in relation to EU and Austrian policy targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global consumption of natural resources is soaring, especially in rapidly industrializing economies. This increasing demand is depleting resource stocks and is a major driver of other environmental problems, including climate change and waste. With rising prices and growing concerns about resource access, these trends are increasingly attracting policy makers' attention. Some developed countries have devised indicator systems, based on economy-wide material flow analysis/accounting (EW-MFA), to monitor resource consumption. This article consists of two separate but related parts: (1) a study of how EW-MFA indicators are used in a number of developed countries, including analysis of the commonalities between countries that are actively using these indicators in policy, and (2) a survey of the current capacity for EW-MFA in developing countries, including data availability and policy uptake. This study found that countries in which policy makers show a great interest in EW-MFA indicators are characterized by large resource imports and large net export of manufactured goods. Many rapidly industrializing countries demonstrate similar characteristics. The study of developing countries found that many of the data for EW-MFA exist, but collection is fragmented and access is limited. This article recommends that capacity development of EW-MFA in rapidly industrializing economies should first coordinate a national focal point and then raise awareness among government officials, strengthen institutions collecting EW-MFA data, and train researchers and experts in EW-MFA techniques and effective policy interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United States is not only the world's largest economy, but it is also one of the world's largest consumers of natural resources. The country, which is inhabited by some 5% of the world's population, uses roughly one-fifth of the global primary energy supply and 15% of all extracted materials. This article explores long-term trends and patterns of material use in the United States. Based on a material flow account (MFA) that is fully consistent with current standards of economy-wide MFAs and covers domestic extraction, imports, and exports of materials for a 135-year period, we investigated the evolution of the U.S. industrial metabolism. This process was characterized by an 18-fold increase in material consumption, a multiplication of material use per capita, and a shift from renewable biomass toward mineral and fossil resources. In spite of considerable improvements in material intensity, no dematerialization has happened so far; in contrast to other high-income countries, material use has not stabilized since the 1970s, but has continued to grow. This article compares patterns and trends of material use in the United States with those in Japan and the United Kingdom and discusses the factors underlying the disproportionately high level of U.S. per capita resource consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1. Random dispersal leads to spatial coexistence via two mechanisms (emigration-mediated and source–sink), both of which involve the movement of organisms from areas of higher to lower fitness. What is not known is whether such coexistence would occur if organisms dispersed non-randomly, using cues such as density and habitat quality to gauge fitness differences between habitats. Here, I conduct a comparative analysis of random and non-random dispersal strategies in a foodweb with a basal resource, top predator, and two intermediate consumers that exhibit a trade-off between competitive ability and predator susceptibility. 2. I find a striking contrast between density- and habitat-dependent dispersal in their effects on spatial coexistence. Dispersal in response to competitor and predator density facilitates coexistence while dispersal in response to habitat quality (resource productivity and predator pressure) inhibits it. Moreover, density-dependent dispersal changes species’ distribution patterns from interspecific segregation to interspecific aggregation, while habitat-dependent dispersal preserves the interspecific segregation observed in the absence of dispersal. Under density-dependent dispersal, widespread spatial coexistence results in an overall decline in the abundance of the inferior competitor that is less susceptible to predation and an overall increase in the abundance of the superior competitor that is more susceptible to predation. Under habitat-dependent dispersal, restricted spatial coexistence results in species’ abundances being essentially unchanged from those observed in the absence of dispersal. 3. A key outcome is that when the superior competitor moves in the direction of increasing fitness but the inferior competitor does not, spatial coexistence is possible in both resource-poor and resource-rich habitats. However, when the inferior competitor moves in the direction of increasing fitness but the superior competitor does not, spatial coexistence is precluded in resource-poor habitats and greatly reduced in resource-rich habitats. This suggests that species-specific differences may play an important role in driving spatial coexistence patterns. 4. The comparative framework yields predictions that can be tested with experiments that manipulate the relative mobilities of interacting species, or observational data on relative abundances and distribution patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we test the long-term dematerialization potential for Australia in terms of materials, energy, and water use as well as CO2 emissions by introducing concrete targets for major sectors. Major improvements in the construction and housing, transport and mobility, and food and nutrition sectors in the Australian economy, if coupled with significant reductions in the resource export sectors, would substantially improve the current material, energy, and emission intensive pattern of Australia's production and consumption system. Using the Australian Stocks and Flows Framework we model all system interactions to understand the contributions of large-scale changes in technology, infrastructure, and lifestyle to decoupling the economy from the environment. The modeling shows a considerable reduction in natural resource use, while energy and water use decrease to a much lesser extent because a reduction in natural resource consumption creates a trade-off in energy use. It also shows that trade and economic growth may continue, but at a reduced rate compared with a business-as-usual scenario. The findings of our modeling are discussed in light of the large body of literature on dematerialization, eco-efficiency, and rebound effects that may occur when efficiency is increased. We argue that Australia cannot rely on incremental efficiency gains but has to undergo a sustainability transition to achieve a low carbon future to keep in line with the international effort to avoid climate change and resource use conflicts. We touch upon the institutional changes that would be required to guide a sustainability transition in the Australian economy, such as an emission trading scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents abstracts on topics related to industrial ecology, which include the material history of Australia from 1975-2005, dematerialization potential for Australia, and the Raw Material Equivalents (RME).

The article discusses natural resource depletion and pollution increases that have resulted from the rapid economic growth experienced by China. As pollution and environmental degradation begin to present themselves as obstacles to continued growth and development within the country, the concept of circular economy (CE) has been promoted. The belief behind this methodology is that it will alleviate the shortage of natural resources by improving the ecological efficiency and resource productivity of production and consumption.

1. I investigated the effects of dispersal on communities of keystone predators and prey. I obtained two key results. 2. First, a strong trade-off between competitive ability and predator susceptibility allows consumer coexistence over a large resource productivity range, but it also lowers the predator-susceptible superior competitor's abundance and increases its risk of extinction. Thus, unexpectedly, dispersal plays a more important role in coexistence when predator-mediated coexistence is strong rather than weak. The interplay between the trade-off, small population sizes resulting from transient oscillations, and dispersal leads to qualitatively different species distributions depending on the relative mobilities of the consumers and predator. These differences yield comparative predictions that can be tested with data on trade-off strength, dispersal rates, and species distributions across productivity gradients. 3. Second, there is an asymmetry between species in their dispersal effects: the predator-resistant inferior competitor's dispersal has a large effect, but the predator-susceptible superior competitor's dispersal has no effect, on coexistence and species’ distributions. The inferior competitor's dispersal also mediates the predator's dispersal effects: the predator's dispersal has no effect when the inferior competitor is immobile, and a large effect when it is mobile. The net outcome of the direct and indirect effects of the inferior competitor's dispersal is a qualitative change in the species’ distributions from interspecific segregation to interspecific aggregation. 4. The important point is that differences between species in how they balance resource acquisition and predator avoidance can lead to unexpected differences in their dispersal effects. While consumer coexistence in the absence of dispersal is driven largely by the top predator, consumer coexistence in the presence of dispersal is driven largely by the predator-resistant inferior competitor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia's export-oriented large natural resources sectors of agriculture and mining, the ways large-scale services, such as nutrition, water, housing, transport and mobility, and energy are organized, and the consumption patterns of Australia's wealthy urban households, create a unique pattern of overall resource use in Australia. In an attempt to contribute to a new environmental information system compatible with economic accounts, we represent Australia's resource use by employing standard biophysical indicators for resource use developed within the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) context. We look at the last 3 decades of resource use and the economic, social, and environmental implications. We also discuss scenarios of future resource use patterns based on a stocks and flows model of the Australian economy. We argue that current extractive economic patterns have contributed to the recent economic boom in Australia but will eventually lead to negative social and environmental outcomes. Although there is currently little evidence of political support for changing the economic focus on export-oriented agriculture and mining industries, there is significant potential for improvements in socio-technological systems and room for more sustainable household consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes Japan's adoption of the sound material-cycle society (SMC Society) as a key goal in its pursuit of sustainable development. An SMC Society is defined in Japanese law as a society wherein the consumption of natural resources is restrained and the environmental load is reduced as far as possible, through promotion of the 3Rs—reduction, reuse, and recycling—as well as the environmentally sound disposal of solid waste. The Fundamental Law for Establishing an SMC Society, enacted in 2000, requires the government to formulate a plan, two of which have been developed to date. The Fundamental Plans set quantitative targets for three indicators: resource productivity, cyclical use rate, and final disposal amount. Initial results indicate that resource productivity has increased because the increase in real gross domestic product (GDP) has been accompanied by a decrease in direct material input (DMI), the cycle use rate has increased–mainly because of the growth in the recycling rate of industrial waste–and the final disposal amount has been decreasing. These goals have also been pursued on a global scale through the Group of Eight (G8) process known as the 3R Initiative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents abstracts of papers on industrial ecology which include past and present metabolic profiles and their future trajectories, Australia's resource use trajectories, and industrialization and transformation of land use.