The impact of nature conservation on agricultural greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions – an economic assessment of selected German study regions

Using a significant amount of public funding, large-scale nature-conservation projects in Germany aim to secure and develop ecologically valuable areas and endangered habitats and species. Due to the substantial land-use changes accompanying these projects, their implementation can also have relevant climate effects – one result which has not been explicitly focused upon previously. Our study analyses major cost positions in implementing such projects, particularly the expense of changing or abandoning agricultural land-use for conservation purposes. We link public funding to relevant climate effects and derive CO2 abatement costs. Therefore we conduct plot-specific ex-post analyses of agricultural land-use and greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions. Our study takes place in regions where changes in agricultural land-use for conservation purposes have been fully implemented in the past and where climate effects are expected to be high. Our analysis is based on data provided by regional stakeholders and our project partners. First results show that land-use changes for conservation purposes can lead to positive climate effects. The efficiency as regards “abatement costs” we derive on basis of the data set available lies within the range of costs for alternative measures of climate change mitigation. However it becomes clear that CO2 abatement cannot be seen as the only benefit of such measures; the high cost of agricultural compensation has to be contrasted with further effects such as biodiversity and water conservationEnvironmental Economics and Policy,

Agricultural Costs of Carbon Dioxide Abatement via Land-use Adaptation on organic soils

Increasing carbon dioxide emissions and related climate effects require mitigation strategies, thereby also emissions caused by agriculture are brought into the focus of political debate. In particular organic soil cultivation, inducing significant CO2 emissions is being discussed more and more. This study aims to answer the question of whether changes of organic soil management can serve as cost-efficient mitigation strategies for climate change. To this end we have built an economic model in which farm-individual and plot-specific CO2-abatement costs of selected landuse strategies are calculated by contrasting effects on the agricultural income with the related reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions. With respect to microeconomic data we use a dataset collected in six German regions while data on emission-factors originates from co-operations with natural-scientific research groups. Results show that CO2-abatement costs vary due to different levels of land-use reorganisation. Reasonable emission reductions are mainly achieved when agricultural intensity is clearly decreased. Agricultural income forgone varies significantly due to production conditions and mitigation strategies. However, even when economic costs are high they may be balanced by high emission reductions and may not result in high abatement costs. Nevertheless, CO2-reductions benefits appear to be social and costs private. Agro-environmental programmes must be implemented to compensate resulting income losses.CO2 abatement cost, climate change mitigation strategies, microeconomic consequences, organic soil management, Land Economics/Use, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Effects of land use and climate on carbon and nitrogen pool partitioning in European mountain grasslands

European mountain grasslands are increasingly affected by land-use changes and climate, which have been suggested to exert important controls on grassland carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) pools. However, so far there has been no synthetic study on whether and how land-use changes and climate interactively affect the partitioning of these pools amongst the different grassland compartments. We analyzed the partitioning of C and N pools of 36 European mountain grasslands differing in land-use and climate with respect to above- and belowground phytomass, litter and topsoil (top 23 cm). We found that a reduction of management intensity and the abandonment of hay meadows and pastures increased above-ground phytomass, root mass and litter as well as their respective C and N pools, concurrently decreasing the fractional contribution of the topsoil to the total organic carbon pool. These changes were strongly driven by the cessation of cutting and grazing, a shift in plant functional groups and a related reduction in litter quality. Across all grasslands studied, variation in the impact of land management on the topsoil N pool and C/N-ratio were mainly explained by soil clay content combined with pH. Across the grasslands, below-ground phytomass as well as phytomass- and litter C concentrations were inversely related to the mean annual temperature; furthermore, C/N- ratios of phytomass and litter increased with decreasing mean annual precipitation. Within the topsoil compartment, C concentrations decreased from colder to warmer sites, and increased with increasing precipitation. Climate generally influenced effects of land use on C and N pools mainly through mean annual temperature and less through mean an- nual precipitation. We conclude that site-specific conditions need to be considered for understanding the effects of land use and of current and future climate changes on grassland C and N pools.Peer reviewe

The impact of nature conservation on agricultural greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions – an economic assessment of selected German study regions

Using a significant amount of public funding, large-scale nature-conservation projects in Germany aim to secure and develop ecologically valuable areas and endangered habitats and species. Due to the substantial land-use changes accompanying these projects, their implementation can also have relevant climate effects – one result which has not been explicitly focused upon previously. Our study analyses major cost positions in implementing such projects, particularly the expense of changing or abandoning agricultural land-use for conservation purposes. We link public funding to relevant climate effects and derive CO2 abatement costs. Therefore we conduct plot-specific ex-post analyses of agricultural land-use and greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions. Our study takes place in regions where changes in agricultural land-use for conservation purposes have been fully implemented in the past and where climate effects are expected to be high. Our analysis is based on data provided by regional stakeholders and our project partners. First results show that land-use changes for conservation purposes can lead to positive climate effects. The efficiency as regards “abatement costs” we derive on basis of the data set available lies within the range of costs for alternative measures of climate change mitigation. However it becomes clear that CO2 abatement cannot be seen as the only benefit of such measures; the high cost of agricultural compensation has to be contrasted with further effects such as biodiversity and water conservatio

Agricultural Costs of Carbon Dioxide Abatement via Land-use Adaptation on organic soils

Increasing carbon dioxide emissions and related climate effects require mitigation strategies, thereby also emissions caused by agriculture are brought into the focus of political debate. In particular organic soil cultivation, inducing significant CO2 emissions is being discussed more and more. This study aims to answer the question of whether changes of organic soil management can serve as cost-efficient mitigation strategies for climate change. To this end we have built an economic model in which farm-individual and plot-specific CO2-abatement costs of selected landuse strategies are calculated by contrasting effects on the agricultural income with the related reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions. With respect to microeconomic data we use a dataset collected in six German regions while data on emission-factors originates from co-operations with natural-scientific research groups. Results show that CO2-abatement costs vary due to different levels of land-use reorganisation. Reasonable emission reductions are mainly achieved when agricultural intensity is clearly decreased. Agricultural income forgone varies significantly due to production conditions and mitigation strategies. However, even when economic costs are high they may be balanced by high emission reductions and may not result in high abatement costs. Nevertheless, CO2-reductions benefits appear to be social and costs private. Agro-environmental programmes must be implemented to compensate resulting income losses

Reshaping agricultural peatland use climate friendly in selected German regions

About 30 percent of the world’s soil carbon is stored in peat soils. Peatland’s functional principle of carbon storage greatly depends on management strategies. Therefore agricultural peatland use becomes a focal point of interest in the current debate on climate protection. Agricultural management demands a drawdown of the water-level that causes aerobe degradation of the soils, as well as trace-gas emissions which have a negative impact on greenhouse-gas balance. Climate-friendly peatland management strategies, however, demand enhanced groundwater tables and decreased land-use intensity. Against this background we analyse ways of re-organising agricultural peatland use within a case study located in Germany, where intensive peatland use accounts for 2.3 – 4.5% of the country’s overall greenhouse-gas emission. In order to cover all possible socio-economic and natural conditions, the study takes place in six representative regions. To analyse the micro-economic effects of re-organising peatland use, network analysis, stakeholder workshops and extensive farm surveys were carried out. First results indicate that a re-organisation of peatland use causes severe loss of agricultural income and necessitates financial compensation for farmers. However the results also show that the potential of rearrangement varies significantly according to regional conditions

Estimation of total, direct and diffuse PAR under clear skies in complex alpine terrain of the Frontiers

In complex mountainous terrain, few published studies have examined even global radiation distribution as influenced by topography. We have developed a model to estimate the total, direct and diffuse photosynthetically active radiation in complex terrain. The model includes: (1) a parametric atmospheric model to extrapolate atmospheric conditions to any given location in complex terrain (which directly determines the potential PAR radiation that can be received on a horizontal surface) and (2) a topographic model, which accounts for the alteration of PAR radiation caused by terrain. Validation of the model was undertaken first for a baseline valley site at Schönau, an essentially flat surface with simple surrounding terrain. The hourly step atmospheric conditions were fit using direct PAR measurements at Schönau, and then applied in the parametric model to simulate the total and diffuse PAR. The results demonstrate that the parametric model provides good and fairly good simulations for total and diffuse PAR, respectively. In a second step, the model was tested for total PAR at five sites with distinctive topographic characteristics in the National Park Berchtesgaden, Germany, and for direct and diffuse radiation at two of the five sites with direct and diffuse PAR measurements. The model simulated total PAR well with high R 2 (all >0.90). The NRMSE varies from 8% to 26% depending on sites. Although high R 2 were found for direct PAR at the two sites Kederbichl and Bartholomä (both 0.92), lower R 2 of 0.64 and 0.65 were obtained for the diffuse PAR simulation. While the NRMSE for diffuse PAR was also lower (0.23 for Kederbichl site and 0.26 for Bartholomä site), this difference was not as pronounced (0.31 for Kederbichl site and 0.28 for Bartholomä site for direct PAR). The R 2 decreases to 0.14 and 0.33 for the two sites in the diffuse PAR simulation, if the diffuse PAR is treated isotropically. Thus, the results suggest that consideration of anisotropic distribution of diffuse radiation is required in PAR extrapolation models within complex alpine terrain

Memorandum III, Part 3: Quality of Care and Patient Safety Research Methods

The German Network for Health Services Research [Deutsches Netzwerk Versorgungsforschung e.V. (DNVF)] fosters the methodological quality of health services research studies by memoranda and other initiatives. Quality of care and patient safety research (QCPSR) form core areas of health services research. The present memorandum explicates principal QCPSR questions and methods. Based on the issues' particular relevance for health policy, the memorandum exemplifies methods for developing and testing indicators, risk adjustment techniques, methods for collecting patient safety data, tools to analyse patient safety incidents and methods for evaluating often complex and multicomponent QCPS interventions. Furthermore, we point out urgent research topics