Remote sensing of ecosystem light use efficiency with MODIS-based PRI

Several studies sustained the possibility that a photochemical reflectance index (PRI) directly obtained from satellite data can be used as a proxy for ecosystem light use efficiency (LUE) in diagnostic models of gross primary productivity. This modelling approach would avoid the complications that are involved in using meteorological data as constraints for a fixed maximum LUE. However, no unifying model predicting LUE across climate zones and time based on MODIS PRI has been published to date. In this study, we evaluate the effectiveness with which MODIS-based PRI can be used to estimate ecosystem light use efficiency at study sites of different plant functional types and vegetation densities. Our objective is to examine if known limitations such as dependence on viewing and illumination geometry can be overcome and a single PRI-based model of LUE (i.e. based on the same reference band) can be applied under a wide range of conditions. Furthermore, we were interested in the effect of using different faPAR (fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation) products on the in-situ LUE used as ground truth and thus on the whole evaluation exercise. We found that estimating LUE at site-level based on PRI reduces uncertainty compared to the approaches relying on a maximum LUE reduced by minimum temperature and vapour pressure deficit. Despite the advantages of using PRI to estimate LUE at site-level, we could not establish an universally applicable light use efficiency model based on MODIS PRI. Models that were optimised for a pool of data from several sites did not perform well

Using energy network science (ENS) to connect resilience with the larger story of systemic health and development

An electricity generation planning framework incorporating adaptation to hydroclimatic change is presented. The planning framework internalizes risks and opportunities associated with alternative hydro-climate scenarios to identify a long-term systems configuration robust to uncertainty. The implications of a robust response to hydro-climatic change are demonstrated for the electricity system in British Columbia (BC), Canada. Adaptation strategy is crucial in this region, mainly due to the large contribution of hydropower resources to regional electricity supply. Analysis of results from basin-scale hydrologic models driven with downscaled global climate data suggest that shifts in regional streamflow characteristics by the year 2050 are likely to increase BC's annual hydropower potential by more than 10 %. These effects combined with an estimated decrease in electricity demand by 2 % due to warmer temperatures, could provide an additional 11 TWh of annual energy. Uncertainties in these projected climate impacts indicate technology configurations offering significant long-term operational flexibility will be needed to ensure system reliability. Results from the regional long-term electricity generation model incorporating adaptive capacity show the significant shifts required in the non-hydro capacity mix to ensure system robustness cause an increase in cumulative operating costs of between 1 and 7 %. Analysis of technology configurations involving high-penetrations of wind generation highlights interactions between flexibility requirements occurring over multiple temporal scales

Measuring Regenerative Economics: 10 principles and measures undergirding systemic economic health

Applying network science concepts and methods to economic systems is not a new idea. In the last few decades, however, advances in non-equilibrium thermodynamics (i.e., self-organizing, open, dissipative, far-from-equilibrium systems), and nonlinear dynamics, network science, information theory, and other mathematical approaches to complex systems have produced a new set of concepts and methods, which are powerful for understanding and predicting behavior in socio-economic systems. In several previous papers, for example, we used research from the new Energy Network Science (ENS) to show how and why systemic ecological and economic health requires a balance of efficiency and resilience be maintained within a particular a “window of vitality”. The current paper outlines the logic behind 10 principles of systemic, socio-economic health and the quantitative measures that go with them. Our particular focus is on “regenerative aspects”, i.e., the self-feeding, self-renewal, and adaptive learning processes that natural systems use to nourish their capacity to thrive for long periods of time. In socio-economic systems, we demonstrate how regenerative economics requires regular investment in human, social, natural, and physical capital. Taken as a whole, we propose these 10 metrics represent a new capacity to understand, and set better policy for solving, the entangled systemic suite of social, environmental, and economic problems now faced in industrial cultures

Open Access Publishing - Models and Attributes

The SOAP (Study of Open Access Publishing) project has compiled data on the present offer for open access publishing in online peer-reviewed journals. Starting from the Directory of Open Access Journals, several sources of data are considered, including inspection of journal web site and direct inquiries within the publishing industry. Several results are derived and discussed, together with their correlations: the number of open access journals and articles; their subject area; the starting date of open access journals; the size and business models of open access publishers; the licensing models; the presence of an impact factor; the uptake of hybrid open access. In addition, a number of qualitative features of open access publishing, relevant to understand the present landscape, are described

First results of the FP7 SOAP Project

* About the project * Highlights: Gold OA journals today * Results from the large-scale survey of researcher