Investigating the Sustainability of Southeastern United States\u27 Wood Pellet Production for Use in European Biopower Facilities

Although transition to renewable energy resources like bioenergy is being promoted as a way to mitigate global climate change, it is not always clear what potential tradeoffs stakeholders might encounter as these new energy resources reach commercial scale. Holistic consideration of a variety of potential effects on environmental and socioeconomic factors valued by human societies will be an essential component of meeting the world’s energy needs without compromising the quality of life available to future generations. This dissertation is therefore intended to advance understanding of the potential benefits and tradeoffs associated with the production of industrial wood pellets from Southeastern United States’ (SE US) forests for use in European biopower facilities.Although SE US global industrial wood pellet exports have developed in response to European Union goals to mitigate climate change, groups on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean have expressed concerns that the trade arrangement will lead to negative impacts on SE US forests. Concerns include potential loss of old growth and bottomland forests and associated ecosystem services and species, as well as heavily debated potential effects on global greenhouse gas emissions. These claims of adverse impacts need to be tested with empirical data associated with key environmental and socioeconomic indicators of sustainability.Four collaborative research manuscripts developed for this dissertation are presented as four chapters following an Introduction. In Chapter 1, a telecoupling framework is used to qualitatively analyze the sustainability of the transatlantic wood pellet trade system. Chapter 2 proposes a set of definitions and reference scenarios to improve cross-cultural understanding of the new pellet industry within the context of the pre-existing SE US timber industry, as well as guidelines for future quantitative modeling efforts. Chapters 3 and 4 describe a quantitative analysis of timberland changes in two case study SE US fuelsheds that have been supplying industrial wood pellets to Europe since 2009. The Conclusion synthesizes the main findings from the four chapters and discusses opportunities to use the research to improve future policy decisions related to this renewable bioenergy system

Linking channel instability to urbanization in the upper Beaver Creek Watershed, Knox County, Tennessee

Within the past 15 years, the 223 km2 Beaver Creek watershed of Knox County, Tennessee has begun to undergo rapid development. Past studies of urbanizing watersheds have indicated that even small degrees of development can impact channel stability through increased runoff from impervious areas. Already, bank erosion seems to be prevalent throughout the upper reaches, and it is likely that this channel instability is contributing to the watershed\u27s severe flooding and water quality problems. To determine whether urban development is a cause of the channel instability observed in upper Beaver Creek, I took qualitative and quantitative field measurements of channel stability at 10 sites within eight adjacent sub-basins and tested for bivariate correlation between the channel stability indicators and 10 urbanization metrics generated using a geographic information system (GIS). The selected sub-basins ranged from 3.1 km2 to 10.1 km2 in area, varied from predominately rural to urban in land use, and encompassed many of the different types of topography and underlying geology found throughout the upper Beaver Creek watershed. I found that the prevalence of bank erosion does increase as urbanization increases within the upper Beaver Creek watershed. My data suggest that a total impervious area greater than 13-20% and a wooded area of less than 38-51% may lead to channel instability within the upper Beaver Creek sub-basins. The observed channel erosion is also correlated with the proportion of human to natural uses within the catchment and the 30-meter riparian buffer zone, as well as the proportion of wooded riparian buffer upstream of the site

Determinants of Cervical Cancer Screening among Women with Intellectual Disabilities: Evidence from Medical Records

We examined receipt of cervical cancer screening and determinants of screening for women with intellectual disabilities in one Southeastern state

Status and prospects for renewable energy using wood pellets from the southeastern United States

The ongoing debate about costs and benefits of wood-pellet based bioenergy production in the southeastern United States (SE USA) requires an understanding of the science and context influencing market decisions associated with its sustainability. Production of pellets has garnered much attention as US exports have grown from negligible amounts in the early 2000s to 4.6 million metric tonnes in 2015. Currently, 98% of these pellet exports are shipped to Europe to displace coal in power plants. We ask, ‘How is the production of wood pellets in the SE USA affecting forest systems and the ecosystem services they provide?’ To address this question, we review current forest conditions and the status of the wood products industry, how pellet production affects ecosystem services and biodiversity, and what methods are in place to monitor changes and protect vulnerable systems. Scientific studies provide evidence that wood pellets in the SE USA are a fraction of total forestry operations and can be produced while maintaining or improving forest ecosystem services. Ecosystem services are protected by the requirement to utilize loggers trained to apply scientifically based best management practices in planning and implementing harvest for the export market. Bioenergy markets supplement incomes to private rural landholders and provide an incentive for forest management practices that simultaneously benefit water quality and wildlife and reduce risk of fire and insect outbreaks. Bioenergy also increases the value of forest land to landowners, thereby decreasing likelihood of conversion to nonforest uses. Monitoring and evaluation are essential to verify that regulations and good practices are achieving goals and to enable timely responses if problems arise. Conducting rigorous research to understand how conditions change in response to management choices requires baseline data, monitoring, and appropriate reference scenarios. Long-term monitoring data on forest conditions should be publicly accessible and utilized to inform adaptive management

The wrong side of the tracks: Starting school in a socially disadvantaged London borough

Substantial evidence exists that social circumstances can affect children’s language development. As a result many children in socially deprived areas start school with delayed language, which may persist and adversely affect their attainment. We assessed the language of children in seven reception classes in a London (UK) borough and followed the progress of children with English as their first language (E1L) and with English as an additional language (EAL) during their first 2 years at school. Significant differences were found between schools. The effect of social factors on performance was reflected in a high correlation between the mean language score for each school and the percentage of children in the school receiving the pupil premium. Many of the children with EAL had very low scores reflecting their limited exposure to English prior to starting school. Most of these children attended schools where children with E1L also had low scores increasing the demands on the schools and their teachers. Children who had low initial scores made modest but significant progress during their reception year but failed to improve further during year 1 despite having non-verbal ability appropriate for their age. These results support previous findings that social deprivation can seriously delay language development, and that many children start school with weak communication skills. They add to previous findings by showing that the level of delay may differ substantially across schools in the same borough, by reporting data on children with EAL and by showing that children struggle to improve their abilities in the first 2 years of school

Discovery of Novel Oral Protein Synthesis Inhibitors of Mycobacterium tuberculosis That Target Leucyl-tRNA Synthetase

The recent development and spread of extensively drug-resistant and totally drug-resistant resistant (TDR) strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis highlight the need for new antitubercular drugs. Protein synthesis inhibitors have played an important role in the treatment of tuberculosis (TB) starting with the inclusion of streptomycin in the first combination therapies. Although parenteral aminoglycosides are a key component of therapy for multidrug-resistant TB, the oxazolidinone linezolid is the only orally available protein synthesis inhibitor that is effective against TB. Here, we show that small-molecule inhibitors of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (AARSs), which are known to be excellent antibacterial protein synthesis targets, are orally bioavailable and effective against M. tuberculosis in TB mouse infection models. We applied the oxaborole tRNA-trapping (OBORT) mechanism, which was first developed to target fungal cytoplasmic leucyl-tRNA synthetase (LeuRS), to M. tuberculosis LeuRS. X-ray crystallography was used to guide the design of LeuRS inhibitors that have good biochemical potency and excellent whole-cell activity against M. tuberculosis. Importantly, their good oral bioavailability translates into in vivo efficacy in both the acute and chronic mouse models of TB with potency comparable to that of the frontline drug isoniazid

Understanding the Environmental Study Life Cycle in the United States Hydropower Licensing and Federal Authorization Process

We analyzed United States Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) documents prepared for 29 recently licensed hydropower projects and created two novel datasets to improve understanding of the environmental study life cycle, defined here as the process that begins with an environmental study being requested by a hydropower stakeholder or regulator, and ends with the study either being rejected or approved/conducted. Our two datasets consisted of summaries of information taken from (1), study determination letters prepared by FERC for 23 projects that were using the integrated licensing process, and (2), environmental study submittals and issuances tracked and attributed to seven projects using the FERC record. Our objective was to use the two resulting environmental life cycle datasets to understand which types of environmental studies are approved, rejected, and implemented during FERC licensing, and how consistently those types of studies are required across multiple hydropower projects. We matched the requested studies to a set of 61 river function indicators in eight categories and found that studies related to the category of biota and biodiversity were requested most often across all 29 projects. Within that category, studies related to river function indicators of presence, absence, detection of species and habitat/critical habitat were the most important to stakeholders, based on the relative number of studies requested. The study approval, rejection, and request rates were similar within each dataset, although the 23 projects with study determination letters had many rejected studies, whereas the dataset created from the seven projects had very few rejected studies

Dataset of timberland variables used to assess forest conditions in two Southeastern United States׳ fuelsheds

The data presented in this article are related to the research article entitled “How is wood-based pellet production affecting forest conditions in the southeastern United States?” (Dale et al., 2017) [1]. This article describes how United States Forest Service (USFS) Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data from multiple state inventories were aggregated and used to extract ten annual timberland variables for trend analysis in two case study bioenergy fuelshed areas. This dataset is made publically available to enable critical or extended analyses of changes in forest conditions, either for the fuelshed areas supplying the ports of Savannah, Georgia and Chesapeake, Virginia, or for other southeastern US forested areas contributing biomass to the export wood pellet industry. Keywords: Bioenergy, Renewable energy, Forest management, Wood pellets, Sustainabilit

Transatlantic wood pellet trade demonstrates telecoupled benefits

European demand for renewable energy resources has led to rapidly increasing transatlantic exports of wood pellets from the southeastern United States (SE US) since 2009. Disagreements have arisen over the global greenhouse gas reductions associated with replacing coal with wood, and groups on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean have raised concerns that increasing biomass exports might negatively affect SE US forests and the ecosystem services they provide. We use the telecoupling framework to test assertions that the intended benefits of the wood pellet trade for Europe might be offset by negative consequences in the SE US. Through a review of current literature and available data sets, we characterize the observed and potential changes in the environmental, social, and economic components of the sending and receiving regions to assess the overall sustainability of this renewable energy system. We conclude that the observed transatlantic wood pellet trade is an example of a mutually beneficial telecoupled system with the potential to provide environmental and socioeconomic benefits in both the SE US and Europe despite some negative effects on the coal industry. We recommend continued monitoring of this telecoupled system to quantify the environmental, social, and economic interactions and effects in the sending, receiving, and spillover systems over time so that evidence-based policy decisions can be made with regard to the sustainability of this renewable energy pathway