Politically Feasible Reforms of Non-Linear Tax Systems

We study reforms of nonlinear income tax systems from a political economy perspective. We present a median voter theorem for monotonic tax reforms, reforms so that the change in the tax burden is a monotonic function of income. We also provide an empirical analysis of tax reforms, with a focus on the United States. We show that past reforms have, by and large, been monotonic. We also show that support by the median voter was aligned with majority support in the population. Finally, we develop sufficient statistics that enable to test whether a given tax system admits a politically feasible reform

Evolution of the eyes of vipers with and without infrared-sensing pit organs

We examined lens and brille transmittance, photoreceptors, visual pigments, and visual opsin gene sequences of viperid snakes with and without infrared-sensing pit organs. Ocular media transmittance is high in both groups. Contrary to previous reports, small as well as large single cones occur in pit vipers. Non-pit vipers differ from pit vipers in having a twotiered retina, but few taxa have been examined for this poorly understood feature. All vipers sampled express rh1, sws1 and lws visual opsin genes. Opsin spectral tuning varies but not in accordance with the presence/absence of pit organs, and not always as predicted from gene sequences. The visual opsin genes were generally under purifying selection, with positive selection at spectral tuning amino acids in RH1 and SWS1 opsins, and at retinal pocket stabilization sites in RH1 or LWS (and without substantial differences between pit and nonpit vipers). Lack of evidence for sensory trade-off between viperid eyes (in the aspects examined) and pit organs might be explained by the high degree of neural integration of vision and infrared detection; the latter representing an elaboration of an existing sense with addition of a novel sense organ, rather than involving the evolution of a wholly novel sensory system

Effect of the 2018 European drought on methane and carbon dioxide exchange of northern mire ecosystems

We analysed the effect of the 2018 European drought on greenhouse gas (GHG) exchange of five North European mire ecosystems. The low precipitation and high summer temperatures in Fennoscandia led to a lowered water table in the majority of these mires. This lowered both carbon dioxide (CO2) uptake and methane (CH4) emission during 2018, turning three out of the five mires from CO(2)sinks to sources. The calculated radiative forcing showed that the drought-induced changes in GHG fluxes first resulted in a cooling effect lasting 15-50 years, due to the lowered CH(4)emission, which was followed by warming due to the lower CO(2)uptake. This article is part of the theme issue 'Impacts of the 2018 severe drought and heatwave in Europe: from site to continental scale'.Peer reviewe

Carbon and greenhouse gas balances in an age sequence of temperate pine plantations

© Author(s) 2014. This study investigated differences in the magnitude and partitioning of the carbon (C) and greenhouse gas (GHG) balances in an age sequence of four white pine (Pinus strobus L.) afforestation stands (7, 20, 35 and 70 years old as of 2009) in southern Ontario, Canada. The 4-year (2004-2008) mean annual carbon dioxide (CO2) exchanges, based on biometric and eddy covariance data, were combined with the 2-year means of static chamber measurements of methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) fluxes (2006-2007) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) export below 1 m soil depth (2004-2005). The total ecosystem C pool increased with age from 46 to 197 t C ha-1 across the four stands. Rates of organic matter cycling (i.e. litterfall and decomposition) were similar among the three older stands. In contrast, considerable differences related to stand age and site quality were observed in the magnitude and partitioning of individual CO2 fluxes, showing a peak in production and respiration rates in the middle-age (20-year-old) stand growing on fertile post-agricultural soil. The DOC export accounted for 10% of net ecosystem production (NEP) at the 7-year-old stand but <2% at the three older stands. The GHG balance from the combined exchanges of CO2, CH4 and N2O was 2.6, 21.6, 13.5 and 4.8 t CO2 equivalent ha-1 yearg-1 for the 7-, 20-, 35- and 70-year-old stands, respectively. The maximum annual contribution from the combined exchanges of CH4 and N2O to the GHG balance was 13 and 8% in the 7- and 70-year-old stands, respectively, but <1% in the two highly productive middle-age (20- and 35-year-old) stands. Averaged over the entire age sequence, the CO2 exchange was the main driver of the GHG balance in these forests. The cumulative CO2 sequestration over the 70 years was estimated at 129 t C and 297 t C ha-1 yearg-1 for stands growing on low- and high-productivity sites, respectively. This study highlights the importance of accounting for age and site quality effects on forest C and GHG balances. It further demonstrates a large potential for net C sequestration and climate benefits gained through afforestation of marginal agricultural and fallow lands in temperate regions

Heat and drought impact on carbon exchange in an age-sequence of temperate pine forests

Background Most North American temperate forests are plantation or regrowth forests, which are actively managed. These forests are in different stages of their growth cycles and their ability to sequester atmospheric carbon is affected by extreme weather events. In this study, the impact of heat and drought events on carbon sequestration in an age-sequence (80, 45, and 17 years as of 2019) of eastern white pine (Pinus strobus L.) forests in southern Ontario, Canada was examined using eddy covariance flux measurements from 2003 to 2019. Results Over the 17-year study period, the mean annual values of net ecosystem productivity (NEP) were 180 +/- 96, 538 +/- 177 and 64 +/- 165 g C m(-2) yr(-1) in the 80-, 45- and 17-year-old stands, respectively, with the highest annual carbon sequestration rate observed in the 45-year-old stand. We found that air temperature (Ta) was the dominant control on NEP in all three different-aged stands and drought, which was a limiting factor for both gross ecosystem productivity (GEP) and ecosystems respiration (RE), had a smaller impact on NEP. However, the simultaneous occurrence of heat and drought events during the early growing seasons or over the consecutive years had a significant negative impact on annual NEP in all three forests. We observed a similar trend of NEP decline in all three stands over three consecutive years that experienced extreme weather events, with 2016 being a hot and dry, 2017 being a dry, and 2018 being a hot year. The youngest stand became a net source of carbon for all three of these years and the oldest stand became a small source of carbon for the first time in 2018 since observations started in 2003. However, in 2019, all three stands reverted to annual net carbon sinks. Conclusions Our study results indicate that the timing, frequency and concurrent or consecutive occurrence of extreme weather events may have significant implications for carbon sequestration in temperate conifer forests in Eastern North America. This study is one of few globally available to provide long-term observational data on carbon exchanges in different-aged temperate plantation forests. It highlights interannual variability in carbon fluxes and enhances our understanding of the responses of these forest ecosystems to extreme weather events. Study results will help in developing climate resilient and sustainable forestry practices to offset atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions and improving simulation of carbon exchange processes in terrestrial ecosystem models

Global maps of soil temperature

Research in global change ecology relies heavily on global climatic grids derived from estimates of air temperature in open areas at around 2 m above the ground. These climatic grids do not reflect conditions below vegetation canopies and near the ground surface, where critical ecosystem functions occur and most terrestrial species reside. Here, we provide global maps of soil temperature and bioclimatic variables at a 1-km2 resolution for 0–5 and 5–15 cm soil depth. These maps were created by calculating the difference (i.e. offset) between in situ soil temperature measurements, based on time series from over 1200 1-km2 pixels (summarized from 8519 unique temperature sensors) across all the world's major terrestrial biomes, and coarse-grained air temperature estimates from ERA5-Land (an atmospheric reanalysis by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts). We show that mean annual soil temperature differs markedly from the corresponding gridded air temperature, by up to 10°C (mean = 3.0 ± 2.1°C), with substantial variation across biomes and seasons. Over the year, soils in cold and/or dry biomes are substantially warmer (+3.6 ± 2.3°C) than gridded air temperature, whereas soils in warm and humid environments are on average slightly cooler (−0.7 ± 2.3°C). The observed substantial and biome-specific offsets emphasize that the projected impacts of climate and climate change on near-surface biodiversity and ecosystem functioning are inaccurately assessed when air rather than soil temperature is used, especially in cold environments. The global soil-related bioclimatic variables provided here are an important step forward for any application in ecology and related disciplines. Nevertheless, we highlight the need to fill remaining geographic gaps by collecting more in situ measurements of microclimate conditions to further enhance the spatiotemporal resolution of global soil temperature products for ecological applications

Embracing trustworthiness and authenticity in the validation of learning analytics systems

Learning analytics sits in the middle space between learning theory and data analytics. The inherent diversity of learning analytics manifests itself in an epistemology that strikes a balance between positivism and interpretivism, and knowledge that is sourced from theory and practice. In this paper, we argue that validation approaches for learning analytics systems should be cognisant of these diverse foundations. Through a systematic review of learning analytics validation research, we find that there is currently an over-reliance on positivistic validity criteria. Researchers tend to ignore interpretivistic criteria such as trustworthiness and authenticity. In the 38 papers we analysed, researchers covered positivistic validity criteria 221 times, whereas interpretivistic criteria were mentioned 37 times. We motivate that learning analytics can only move forward with holistic validation strategies that incorporate “thick descriptions” of educational experiences. We conclude by outlining a planned validation study using argument-based validation, which we believe will yield meaningful insights by considering a diverse spectrum of validity criteria.Horizon 2020(H2020)883588Algorithms and the Foundations of Software technolog

Drivers of Health Care Expenditure: Does Baumol's Cost Disease Loom Large?

According to Baumol (1993) health care epitomises Baumol's cost disease. Sectors that suffer from Baumol's cost disease are characterised by slow productivity growth due to a high labour coefficient. As a result, unit costs of these sectors rise inexorably if the respective wages increase with productivity growth of the progressive industries such as manufacturing. Thus, according to Baumol (1993) the secular rise in health-care expenditure has been unavoidable. This present paper demonstrates that health care is contracted by Baumol's cost disease, but only to a minor extent. Consequently, policy-makers have more leeway to curbever-increasing health-care expenditure than is suggested by Baumol (1993) and other authors. In addition, we test the implications of Baumol's cost disease for health care by avoiding the well-known flaws in constructing medical price indices. Therefore, the adjusted Baumol variable derived in this paper is also extremely appropriate to test the validity of Baumol's cost diseases of other service industries such as education or the live performing arts. Additionally, our analysis suggests that health care is rather a necessity than a luxury at the national level, which conflicts with macroeconomic evidence provided in the relevant literature

CO2 fertilization of Sphagnum peat mosses is modulated by water table level and other environmental factors

Sphagnum mosses account for most accumulated dead organic matter in peatlands. Therefore, understanding their responses to increasing atmospheric CO2 is needed for estimating peatland C balances under climate change. A key process is photorespiration: a major determinant of net photosynthetic C assimilation that depends on the CO2 to O-2 ratio. We used climate chambers to investigate photorespiratory responses of Sphagnum fuscum hummocks to recent increases in atmospheric CO2 (from 280 to 400 ppm) under different water table, temperature, and light intensity levels. We tested the photorespiratory variability using a novel method based on deuterium isotopomers (D6(S)/D6(R) ratio) of photosynthetic glucose. The effect of elevated CO2 on photorespiration was highly dependent on water table. At low water table (-20 cm), elevated CO2 suppressed photorespiration relative to C assimilation, thus substantially increasing the net primary production potential. In contrast, a high water table (similar to 0 cm) favored photorespiration and abolished this CO2 effect. The response was further tested for Sphagnum majus lawns at typical water table levels (similar to 0 and -7 cm), revealing no effect of CO2 under those conditions. Our results indicate that hummocks, which typically experience low water table levels, benefit from the 20th century's increase in atmospheric CO2

Surface energy exchange in pristine and managed boreal peatlands

Surface-atmosphere energy exchange is strongly ecosystem-specific. At the same time, as the energy balance constitutes responses of an ecosystem to environmental stressors including precipitation, humidity and solar radiation, it results in feedbacks of potential importance for the regional climate. Northern peatlands represent a diverse class of ecosystems that cover nearly 6 x 10(6) km(2) in the Boreal region, which makes the inter-comparison of their energy balances an important objective. With this in mind we studied energy exchange across a broad spectrum of peatlands from pristine fens and bogs to forested and agriculturally managed peatlands, which represent a large fraction of the landscape in Finland and Sweden. The effects of management activities on the energy balance were extensively examined from the micrometeorological point of view, using eddy covariance data from eight sites in these two countries (56 degrees 12'-62 degrees 11' N, 13 degrees 03'-30 degrees 05' E). It appears that the surface energy balance varies widely amongst the different peatland types. Generally, energy exchange features including the Bowen ratio, surface conductance, coupling to the atmosphere, responses to water table fluctuations and vapour pressure deficit could be associated directly with the peatland type. The relative constancy of the Bowen ratio in natural open mires contrasted with its variation in tree-covered and agricultural peatlands. We conclude that the impacts of management and the consequences of land-use change in peatlands for the local and regional climate might be substantial.Peer reviewe