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A winch and a sulky can transform a farm tractor into an effective small-scale logging machine, closely resembling a wheeled cable skidder. The additional cost of these implements is very small, but they offer significant benefits when extracting timber under the conditions of small-scale forestry. The authors developed a productivity model for skidding timber with wheeled farm tractors, equipped with winch and sulky. The origin data pool contained over 300 individual skidding cycles, extracted from 8 separate tests. Statistical analysis of the data allowed calculating a simple mathematical relationship for estimating skidding productivity as a function of significant work conditions, such as: piece size, winching distance, tractor power, skidding distance and crew size. This model can provide useful directions to prospective users, contributing to operation planning, costing and optimization. It can predict a large proportion of the variability in the data and was successfully validated using reserved cycle records, extracted from the same data pool and not used for model development. Depending on tractor power and piece size, the average turn volume and productivity can exceed respectively 2 m 3 per cycle and 4 m 3 per Scheduled Machine Hour (SMH). Top performance can reach 8 m 3 SMH -1, with heavy tractors and large logs

Climate change significantly modifies terrestrial ecosystems and vegetation activity, yet little is known about how climate change and ozone pollution interact to affect forest health. Here we compared the trends of two metrics widely used to protect forests against negative impacts of ozone pollution, the AOT40 (Accumulated Ozone over Threshold of 40 ppb) which only depends on surface air ozone concentrations, and the POD (Phytotoxic Ozone Dose) which relies on the amount of ozone uptaken by plants through stomata. Using a chemistry transport model, driven by anthropogenic emission inventories, we found that European-averaged ground-level ozone concentrations significantly declined (-1.6%) over the time period 2000-2014, following successful control strategies to reduce the ozone precursors emission; as a consequence, the AOT40 metric declined (-22%). In contrast, climate change increased both growing season length (~7 days/decade) and stomatal conductance and thus enhanced the stomatal ozone uptake by forests (5.9%), leading to an overall increase of potential ozone damage on plants, despite the reduction in ozone concentrations. Our results suggest that stomatal-flux based strategies of forest protection against ozone in a changing climate require a proper consideration of the duration of the growing season with a better estimation of start and end of the growing season.

International conservation organisations have identified priority areas for biodiversity conservation. These global-scale prioritisations affect the distribution of funds for conservation interventions. As each organisation has a different focus, each prioritisation scheme is determined by different decision criteria and the resultant priority areas vary considerably. However, little is known about how the priority areas will respond to the impacts of climate change. In this paper, we examined the robustness of eight global-scale prioritisations to climate change under various climate predictions from seven global circulation models. We developed a novel metric of the climate stability for 803 ecoregions based on a recently introduced method to estimate the overlap of climate envelopes. The relationships between the decision criteria and the robustness of the global prioritisation schemes were statistically examined. We found that decision criteria related to level of endemism and landscape fragmentation were strongly correlated with areas predicted to be robust to a changing climate. Hence, policies that prioritise intact areas due to the likely cost efficiency, and assumptions related to the potential to mitigate the impacts of climate change, require further examination. Our findings will help determine where additional management is required to enable biodiversity to adapt to the impacts of climate change.

AbstractWhile the world is facing unprecedented transitions and threats we need to deeply rethink the relationships between water and energy use, food production, and ecosystem protection. This includes the development and deployment of ambitious, out‐of‐the‐box solutions towards sustainable development. This paper is based upon recent discussions before and during the 2nd World Irrigation Forum in Chiang Mai, Thailand.This paper takes stock of current knowledge and analyses the most recent trends in water, irrigation and the environment. It discusses the requirements for strategic approaches and the contributions of irrigation and drainage to Sustainable Development Goals. Firstly, we concentrated on renewed and more balanced relationships between water, energy, food and ecosystems in the context of irrigation and drainage management. Secondly, we assessed the positive and negative impact of agricultural water use in order to demonstrate and improve its performance. Given exacerbated competition and water resource scarcity, a better understanding of the positive effects and valuable ecosystem services provided by irrigation and drainage systems could pave the way to maximizing benefits and safeguarding the environment. Lastly, we tried to address the role of stakeholders in irrigation governance. This includes active contribution to policy‐making and planning, incentives, and most importantly, capacity development. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Aquaculture production has grown considerably in the southern countries of Europe during the last two decades. This increase in supply has not been matched by an equivalent rise in consumer demand, resulting in price decay. For farmed seabream (Sparus aurata) this article examines which attributes and claims are able to successfully influence Spanish consumers' perceived value of seafood and to which degree consumers and retailers in a traditional fish market differ in their choice reaction to these attributes. A heteroscedastic logit model was used to assess the impact of seafood claims on consumer choice and to test for differences in attribute preferences between retailers and consumers. Results indicate that both consumers and retailers agree in their marginal willingness to pay for wild, over farmed, seabream. However, they differ in the extent to which the disutility from farmed production can be offset by the declaration of domestic origin, sustainability certifications, and presence of health bene...

Agroforestry practises can accrue significant benefits to farm owners and have a good potential for expansion worldwide. Among the many possible options, Black walnut plantations are especially popular in the Temperate zone, and are often based on the association with nurse trees, to be removed within the first two decades after establishment. The authors designed and tested two low-investment fully mechanized operations for producing chips or traditional firewood from the thinning of walnut plantations. The mechanized small-scale chipping operation incurred the lowest cost and offered a dramatic improvement over manual harvesting. On the other hand, mechanized firewood harvesting was financially less effective than traditional motor-manual operations. For the price levels assumed in this study, small-scale mechanized chipping offered higher profits than motor-manual firewood production all along the tree size range. Furthermore, chipping achieved a break even with smaller trees than firewood production, allowing for financially viable early thinning, timely performed before the nurse trees overtop the crop trees. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Fires are an important aspect of environmental ecology; however, they are also one of the most widespread destructive forces impacting natural ecosystems as well as property, human health, water and other resources. Urban sprawl is driving the construction of new homes and facilities into fire-vulnerable areas. This growth, combined with a warmer climate, is likely to make the consequences of wildfires more severe. To reduce wildfires and associated risks, a variety of hazard reduction practices are implemented, such as prescribed burning (PB) and mechanical fuel load reduction (MFLR). PB can reduce forest fuel load; however, it has adverse effects on air quality and human health, and should not be applied close to residential areas due to risks of fire escape. On the other hand, MFLR releases less greenhouse gasses and does not impose risks to residential areas. However, it is more expensive to implement. We suggest that environmental, economic and social costs of various mitigation tools should be taken into account when choosing the most appropriate fire mitigation approach and propose a conceptual framework, which can do it. We show that applying GIS methods and life cycle assessment we can produce a more reasonable comparison that can, for example, include the benefits that can be generated by using collected biomass for bioenergy or in timber industries. This framework can assist decision makers to find the optimal combinations of hazard reduction practices for various specific conditions and locations.

Physical inactivity and obesity are major public health problems. Our objective was to investigate the effectiveness of an individual counseling intervention at the workplace on physical activity fitness and health. Counseling content derived from the Patient-centered Assessment and Counseling for Exercise and Nutrition (PACE) program.A total of 299 employees of three municipal services in the Dutch town of Enschede were randomly allocated into intervention (n =131) and control group (n =168). Over a 9-month period, intervention group subjects were offered seven counseling sessions. Counseling was based on the individual's stage of behavioral change using PACE physical activity and nutrition protocols. Subjects in both the intervention and control group received written information about several lifestyle factors. Primary outcome measures were physical activity (total energy expenditure, during sports activities, during physical activity leisure time other than sports, and meeting the moderate-intensity public health recommendations); cardiorespiratory fitness; and prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms. Secondary outcome measures were body composition (body mass index [BMI], and percentage of body fat measured via skinfold thicknesses); blood pressure; and blood cholesterol.There were significant positive effects on total energy expenditure, physical activity during sports, cardiorespiratory fitness, percentage of body fat, and blood cholesterol. No effects were found for the proportion of subjects meeting the public health recommendation of moderate-intensity physical activity, physical activity during leisure time other than sports, prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms, body mass index, and blood pressure.Individual face-to-face counseling at the workplace based on PACE protocols positively influenced physical activity levels and some components of physical fitness. The implementation of workplace counseling programs for individuals should therefore be promoted.