Carbon Sequestration, Co-Benefits, and Conservation Programs

Land use changes to sequester carbon also provide ﾓco-benefits,ﾔ some of which (for example, water quality) have attracted at least as much attention as carbon storage. The non-separability of these co-benefits presents a challenge for policy design. If carbon markets are employed, then social efficiency will depend on how we take into account co-benefits, that is, externalities, in such markets. If carbon sequestration is incorporated into conservation programs, then the weight given to carbon sequestration relative to its co-benefits will partly shape these programs. Using the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) as an example, we show that CRP has been sequestering carbon, which was not an intended objective of the program. We also demonstrate that more carbon would have been sequestered had CRP targeted this objective, although the ﾓco-benefitsﾔ would have increased or decreased.

Allocating Nutrient Load Reduction across a Watershed: Implications of Different Principles

A watershed based model, the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), along with transfer coefficients is used to assess alternative principles of allocating nutrient load reduction in the Raccoon River watershed in central Iowa. Four principles are examined for their cost-effectiveness and impacts on water quality: absolute equity, equity based on ability, critical area targeting, and geographic proximity. Based on SWAT simulation results, transfer coefficients are calculated for the effects of nitrogen application reduction. We find both critical area targeting and downstream focus (an example of geographic proximity) can be more expensive than equal allocation, a manifestation of absolute equity. Unless abatement costs are quite heterogeneous across the subwatersheds, the least-cost allocation (an application of the principle of equity based on ability) have a potential of cost savings of about 10% compared to equal allocation. We also find that the gap between nitrogen loading estimated from transfer coefficients and nitrogen loading predicted by SWAT simulation is small (in general less than 5%). This suggests that transfer coefficients can be a useful tool for watershed nutrient planning. Sensitivity analyses suggest that these results are robust with respect to different degrees of nitrogen reduction and how much other conservation practices are used.Environmental Economics and Policy,

Predicting pharmacy naloxone stocking and dispensing following a statewide standing order, Indiana 2016

BACKGROUND: While naloxone, the overdose reversal medication, has been available for decades, factors associated with its availability through pharmacies remain unclear. Studies suggest that policy and pharmacist beliefs may impact availability. Indiana passed a standing order law for naloxone in 2015 to increase access to naloxone. OBJECTIVE: To identify factors associated with community pharmacy naloxone stocking and dispensing following the enactment of a statewide naloxone standing order. METHODS: A 2016 cross-sectional census of Indiana community pharmacists was conducted following a naloxone standing order. Community, pharmacy, and pharmacist characteristics, and pharmacist attitudes about naloxone dispensing, access, and perceptions of the standing order were measured. Modified Poisson and binary logistic regression models attempted to predict naloxone stocking and dispensing, respectively. RESULTS: Over half (58.1%) of pharmacies stocked naloxone, yet 23.6% of pharmacists dispensed it. Most (72.5%) pharmacists believed the standing order would increase naloxone stocking, and 66.5% believed it would increase dispensing. Chain pharmacies were 3.2 times as likely to stock naloxone. Naloxone stocking was 1.6 times as likely in pharmacies with more than one full-time pharmacist. Pharmacies where pharmacists received naloxone continuing education in the past two years were 1.3 times as likely to stock naloxone. The attempted dispensing model yielded no improvement over the constant-only model. CONCLUSIONS: Pharmacies with larger capacity took advantage of the naloxone standing order. Predictors of pharmacist naloxone dispensing should continue to be explored to maximize naloxone access

Environmental Conservation in Agriculture: Land Retirement Versus Changing Practices on Working Land

The study develops a conceptual framework for analyzing the allocation of conservation funds via selectively offering incentive payments to farmers for enrolling in one of two mutually exclusive agricultural conservation programs: retiring land from production or changing farming practices on land that remains in production. We investigate how the existence of a pre-fixed budget allocation between the programs affects the amounts of environmental benefits obtainable under alternative policy implementation schemes. The framework is applied to a major agricultural production region using field-scale data in conjunction with empirical models of land retirement and conservation tillage adoption, and a biophysical process simulation model for the environmental benefits of carbon sequestration and reduction in soil erosion.

Privatizing Ecosystem Services: Water Quality Effects from a Carbon Market

Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q25,

Economists must work together with scientists to address the problem of ‘dead zones’ such as the one in the Gulf of Mexico

The United States is home to the second largest hypoxic (or dead zone) in the world, in the Gulf of Mexico. Such zones have oxygen levels that are too low to support aquatic life, which can threaten local industry. Sergey Rabotyagov, Catherine Kling, Philip Gassman, Nancy Rabalais and R.Eugene Turner have made an in-depth study of the Gulf of Mexico’s dead zone, finding that a 30 percent reduction in the upstream nitrogen and phosphorus being introduced into the environment from agriculture and other industries would be enough to achieve the reductions desired by a federal and state action plan. They argue that these reductions will only be possible in concert with carefully designed economic and agricultural policies, and that economists must work closely with terrestrial and marine ecologists and other natural scientists to ensure these policies are cost effective

Climate Change Sensitivity Assessment on Upper Mississippi River Basin Streamflows using SWAT

The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model was used to assess the effects of potential future climate change on the hydrology of the Upper Mississippi River Basin (UMRB). Calibration and validation of SWAT were performed using monthly stream flows for 1968–1987 and 1988–1997, respectively. The R2 and Nash-Sutcliffe simulation efficiency values computed for the monthly comparisons were 0.74 and 0.69 for the calibration period and 0.82 and 0.81 for the validation period. The effects of nine 30-year (1968 to 1997) sensitivity runs and six climate change scenarios were then analyzed, relative to a scenario baseline. A doubling of atmospheric CO2 to 660 ppmv (while holding other climate variables constant) resulted in a 36 percent increase in average annual streamflow while average annual flow changes of −49, −26, 28, and 58 percent were predicted for precipitation change scenarios of −20, −10, 10, and 20 percent, respectively. Mean annual streamflow changes of 51,10, 2, −6, 38, and 27 percent were predicted by SWAT in response to climate change projections generated from the CISRO-RegCM2, CCC, CCSR, CISRO-Mk2, GFDL, and HadCMS general circulation model scenarios. High seasonal variability was also predicted within individual climate change scenarios and large variability was indicated between scenarios within specific months. Overall, the climate change scenarios reveal a large degree of uncertainty in current climate change forecasts for the region. The results also indicate that the simulated UMRB hydrology is very sensitive to current forecasted future climate changes

Thiophosphoramide‐Based Cooperative Catalysts for Brønsted Acid Promoted Ionic Diels–Alder Reactions

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/102243/1/anie_201307133_sm_miscellaneous_information.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/102243/2/13424_ftp.pd