School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences - Research Publications
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ItemThe role of topography and the north Indian monsoon on mean monthly climate interpolation within the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan(WILEY, 2017-08)ABSTRACT Spatial climate datasets currently available for Bhutan are limited by weather station data availability, spatial resolution or interpolation methodology. This article presents new datasets for monthly maximum temperature, minimum temperature, precipitation and vapour pressure climate normals interpolated for the 1986–2015 reference period using trivariate smoothing splines. The inclusion of standardized day time Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) land surface temperature (LST) values as partial spline dependencies reduced cross validated root mean square error (RMSE) for maximum temperature by up to 16.0% and was most effective between March and September. Using both a topographic index of relative elevation and standardized night time MODIS LST values as partial spline dependencies reduced monthly mean minimum temperature RMSE by up to 23.4%. Neither variable was effective for minimum temperature interpolation between June and September. High humidity, extensive cloud cover and heavy precipitation occur during these months, which are likely to suppress the formation of temperature inversions that typically form under clear, calm conditions. These new temperature and precipitation surfaces show distinct differences from the WorldClim and CRU CL 2.0 datasets, which do not use weather stations within Bhutan for calibration. New precipitation surfaces better describe the heavy rainfall experienced in the southern foothills while retaining the effect of orography throughout the central valleys and ranges. The development of vapour pressure surfaces also allow for the calculation of ecologically important variables such as vapour pressure deficit, and may also be useful for solar radiation modelling in the region. The different datasets presented in this article will facilitate ecological and agricultural research in Bhutan and provide high quality surfaces needed for future climate change scenarios.
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ItemSpatial Assessment of Ecosystem Services from Planted Forests in Central Vietnam(MDPI AG, 2020-08-01)Globally, planted forests are increasing, providing increased resources to forest industries and ecosystem services (ES) to local and wider communities. However, assessment of the impacts of plantations on ES has been limited. Planted forests have expanded rapidly in Vietnam over the last 20 years, with much of the planting undertaken by smallholder growers using exotic Acacia and Eucalyptus species. This study aimed to test a framework to assess changes in four ES due to an increase in Acacia plantations from 2005–2015 in central Vietnam: carbon sequestration, sediment retention, water yield and habitat. Quantitative and qualitative indicators for each service were derived from the literature. Results showed that the area of planted forests in Quảng Trị and Thừa Thiên-Huế Provinces increased from 130,930 hectares (ha) to 182,508 ha, mostly replacing non-forest areas (degraded lands, grasslands and agricultural lands) and poor forests. The framework demonstrated capacity to assess the effect of planted forests on wood flow, carbon stocks, sediment retention, streamflow and the extent of wildlife habitat. Apart from the wood supply and carbon sequestration, more research is required to translate biophysical indicators to benefit relevant indicators related to human welfare. The study also revealed that the area of rich forests decreased by 20% over the ten years, mostly through degradation to poorer quality natural forests. Therefore, at the landscape scale, improvement in ES due to conversion of non-forests to planted forests was offset by a reduction in some services as a result of degradation of native forest from rich to poorer condition. Assessment of changes in ES due to planted forests also needs to consider other landscape changes. These analyses can inform policymakers, forest owners and managers, environmental organizations and local communities of the benefits and impacts of planted forests and provide an improved basis for payments for ES and potential additional income for smallholder tree growers.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableImpact of Pulp Mill Project in Laos: Regional and National Level Economic Modelling Analysis(FORMATH RESEARCH GROUP, 2020)
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ItemNo Preview AvailableImpact of Forest Plantation Development in Laos: A Dynamic General Equilibrium Analysis(FORMATH RESEARCH GROUP, 2020)
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ItemThe impact of swidden decline on livelihoods and ecosystem services in Southeast Asia: A review of the evidence from 1990 to 2015(SPRINGER, 2017-04)Global economic change and policy interventions are driving transitions from long-fallow swidden (LFS) systems to alternative land uses in Southeast Asia's uplands. This study presents a systematic review of how these transitions impact upon livelihoods and ecosystem services in the region. Over 17 000 studies published between 1950 and 2015 were narrowed, based on relevance and quality, to 93 studies for further analysis. Our analysis of land-use transitions from swidden to intensified cropping systems showed several outcomes: more households had increased overall income, but these benefits came at significant cost such as reductions of customary practice, socio-economic wellbeing, livelihood options, and staple yields. Examining the effects of transitions on soil properties revealed negative impacts on soil organic carbon, cation-exchange capacity, and aboveground carbon. Taken together, the proximate and underlying drivers of the transitions from LFS to alternative land uses, especially intensified perennial and annual cash cropping, led to significant declines in pre-existing livelihood security and the ecosystem services supporting this security. Our results suggest that policies imposing land-use transitions on upland farmers so as to improve livelihoods and environments have been misguided; in the context of varied land uses, swidden agriculture can support livelihoods and ecosystem services that will help buffer the impacts of climate change in Southeast Asia.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableDelocalizing Communities: Changing Forms of Community Engagement in Natural Resources Governance(PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD, 2016-11)Across both the developing and developed worlds, community engagement has become a key strategy for natural resource management. However, a growing number of studies, report that community-based approaches are experiencing formidable challenges, with limited outcomes in terms of livelihoods, decentralization and sustainability. Yet, policies continue to focus attention unduly on "community participation", ignoring the ways in which the "community" is itself embedded in a wider social system. Recent studies have shown that local communities are more complex than previously assumed, with local community actions being heavily shaped by wider social and environmental contexts. Yet, scholarly research tends to focus on reporting such cross-scalar dynamics, with little explanation of how and why they occur. This paper advances a framework to understand how local communities interact with the wider world, through what we term "delocalization of communities" in natural resource management. Using Bourdieu's theory of social field, we present an approach to analyze various trajectories of delocalization involving the exchange of, and struggle for, a variety of resources valued in specific fields of natural resource governance.We extend the work of several researchers who have been critical of the conventional view of the community, and argue that a new model of delocalized "community" needs to be envisaged, one that emphasizes the interactions among actors within and between spatial scales and levels of political organization. While such a cross-scalar view is not novel, we deepen social field approach to assess how cross-scalar processes unfold in the course of "delocalization" of communities in the context of rapid social and environmental change. We draw on evidence from five different case studies from three continents that demonstrate specific aspects of the delocalization phenomenon.The cases selected are from Australia, Indonesia, Mexico, Nepal, and Papua New Guinea. We demonstrate through these cases that increasingly diverse interests in natural resources such as forests have served to delocalize communities beyond "local" domains. We conclude that local community is not a localized entity, and there are multiple cross-scale networks which need to be recognized, as these have profound implications in community-based natural resource management. In such situations, open and exploratory approaches - moving away from blueprint interventions - are required to facilitate context-specific fields and spheres of local democracy, nurturing diverse, flexible, and networked models of community participation, along with the recognition of political and economic influence coming from the wider domain.
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ItemForest management options for adaptation to climate change: a case study of tall, wet eucalypt forests in Victoria's Central Highlands region(TAYLOR & FRANCIS AUSTRALASIA, 2016-06)
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