Signed Peer Reviews as a Means to Improve Scholarly Publishing

Peer review is a necessary process with a long history of complaints, including over-solicitation of a small number of reviewers, delays, inadequate numbers of reviewers, and a lack of incentives to provide strong reviews or avoid reviews with little helpful information for the author. In the era of Web-based distribution of research, through working paper or project reports, anonymous peer reviews are much less likely. The Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics will use signed peer reviews and an open communication process among authors, reviewers, and editors. This approach, to be developed over time, should lead to stronger communication of research results for the Journal\u27s readers. Lea el abstracto en españo

Debating the effectiveness of marine protected areas

Increasing the size and number of marine protected areas (MPAs) is widely seen as a way to meet ambitious biodiversity and sustainable development goals. Yet, debate still exists on the effectiveness of MPAs in achieving ecological and societal objectives. Although the literature provides significant evidence of the ecological effects of MPAs within their boundaries, much remains to be learned about the ecological and social effects of MPAs on regional and seascape scales. Key to improving the effectiveness of MPAs, and ensuring that they achieve desired outcomes, will be better monitoring that includes ecological and social data collected inside and outside of MPAs. This can lead to more conclusive evidence about what is working, what is not, and why. Eight authors were asked to write about their experiences with MPA effectiveness. The authors were instructed to clearly define “effectiveness” and discuss the degree to which they felt MPAs had achieved or failed to be effective. Essays were exchanged among authors and each was invited to write a shorter “counterpoint.” The exercise shows that, while experiences are diverse, many authors found common ground regarding the role of MPAs in achieving conservation targets. This exchange of perspectives is intended to promote reflection, analysis, and dialogue as a means for improving MPA design, assessment, and integration with other conservation tools

Vulnerability and adaptation of US shellfisheries to ocean acidification

Ocean acidification is a global, long-term problem whose ultimate solution requires carbon dioxide reduction at a scope and scale that will take decades to accomplish successfully. Until that is achieved, feasible and locally relevant adaptation and mitigation measures are needed. To help to prioritize societal responses to ocean acidification, we present a spatially explicit, multidisciplinary vulnerability analysis of coastal human communities in the United States. We focus our analysis on shelled mollusc harvests, which are likely to be harmed by ocean acidification. Our results highlight US regions most vulnerable to ocean acidification (and why), important knowledge and information gaps, and opportunities to adapt through local actions. The research illustrates the benefits of integrating natural and social sciences to identify actions and other opportunities while policy, stakeholders and scientists are still in relatively early stages of developing research plans and responses to ocean acidification.This is the publisher’s final pdf. The published article is copyrighted by the Nature Publishing Group and can be found at: http://www.nature.com/nclimate/index.html

Homo digitus oceanus : the human side of big ocean data

International audienc

Signed Peer Reviews as a Means to Improve Scholarly Publishing

Peer review is a necessary process with a long history of complaints, including over-solicitation of a small number of reviewers, delays, inadequate numbers of reviewers, and a lack of incentives to provide strong reviews or avoid reviews with little helpful information for the author. In the era of Web-based distribution of research, through working paper or project reports, anonymous peer reviews are much less likely. The Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics will use signed peer reviews and an open communication process among authors, reviewers, and editors. This approach, to be developed over time, should lead to stronger communication of research results for the Journal\u27s readers. Lea el abstracto en españo

Estimating the Economic Impact of Climate Change on the Freshwater Sportsfisheries of the Northeastern U.S.

This study links models of global climate circulation, ecology, and economic valuation (hedonic travel cost and random utility models) to value the impact of global warming on freshwater sportfishing in the northeastern United States. An origin-specific linear random utility model (RUM) is introduced. The results of the RUM are shown to be comparable to those of a hedonic travel cost model. A doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide is predicted to generate between a $4.6 million loss and a$20.5 million net benefit for the Northeast, depending on the climate scenario.

Adding up the Benefits - A Bundle of Values

International audienceMuch of our early work into modeling ecosystem services has focused on improving our understanding of the value of single services coming out of individual ecosystems. The real world is more complex, with many ecosystems in close proximity, each generating multiple benefits, but also interacting with each other, both ecologically and in terms of the social and economic benefit

Market Integration, Development, and Smallholder Forest Clearance

A significant proportion of deforestation in Latin America is caused by smallholders living at the frontier of modern rural markets. This paper develops a household model that examines the roles of market integration, subsistence, time preference, and non-timber forest uses in the household’s decision to clear forest for future agriculture. The model explores the possible impacts of development programs that encourage market integration. The model shows that rates of forest clearance should be exacerbated in areas in which market integration is most rapid. An empirical estimation, using household data from the Tsimane people of Bolivia, tests hypotheses from the model.

Income, Environmental Disamenity, and Toxic Releases

The literature argues that income growth leads to increased demand for environmental quality and thus reduction in pollution. Using a utility theoretic model, we hypothesize that the income--pollution relationship should depend on the level of disamenity of the pollutant. We proxy for disamenity using the toxicity of releases. For counties in the United States, the functional relationship between income and releases depends on the level of disamenity: the form is more concave for more toxic releases. We find that environmental improvements occur at lower levels of per capita income for more toxic pollutants. (JEL Q25, Q28, O13) Copyright 2004, Oxford University Press.