搜索结果：Journal of industrial ecology

Industry accounts for ~ 34% of global CO₂ emissions, positioning it as the largest single contributor to anthropogenic climate change. Understanding the historical trajectory is essential for effective mitigation, yet most analyses are short-term and long-term studies rarely examine industry. This article reconstructs consistent long-run series of industrial CO₂ emissions in Spain from 1890 to 2021, disaggregated by source (direct, indirect, and process-related) and by sector. Combining newly harmonized historical energy accounts with decomposition techniques (IPAT and additive LMDI), we quantify the relative contribution of value added, energy intensity of production, carbon intensity of energy use, and structural change to industrial CO2 emissions trajectories. Emissions increased twenty-sevenfold between 1890 and 2007, with the sharpest rise occurring during 1950-1973. Spain's path reflects a double delay: late industrialization produced a compressed, fossil-fuel-intensive take-off, while delayed adoption of efficient and low-carbon technologies after the 1970s reinforced carbon lock-in. Improvements in energy and carbon intensity have been consistently outpaced by output growth, revealing rebound effects and the limits of relative decoupling. As a late joiner, Spain shows how delayed industrial development shaped CO₂ emissions trajectories, as the dominance of non-metallic and building-materials industries produced a volatile, non-linear decline in carbon intensity, keeping it above early-industrializer levels into the twenty-first century. Deep decarbonization therefore requires targeted interventions in a small set of structural "hotspots," alongside technological upgrading and material circularity to overcome the historical legacy of late development. The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s44498-026-00077-1.

European landscapes have developed into biocultural heritage over millennia of extensive livestock production. Much of this biodiversity and cultural richness has been preserved by small-scale farms; however, these farms are disappearing across Europe due to intense competition with industrial agriculture. Recognizing the interconnectedness of social and natural systems, this study examined the socio-cultural background of livestock keepers in Estonia. The main research question focused on understanding the context in which livestock keepers decide to begin or continue free-range livestock farming, viewed through the lens of culture and tradition. An anonymous, voluntary online survey was conducted among beef cattle and sheep keepers in Estonia, who are the primary users of semi-natural grasslands. In total, 88 completed questionnaires were received and analyzed using descriptive statistical methods. Nearly one-third of respondents reported continuing a family tradition of livestock keeping. However, 62% of respondents had no prior experience in agriculture before starting their activities, and 58% managed only a single type of agricultural animal. The most frequently reported emotional motive was the desire to maintain aesthetically pleasing landscapes around their homes through grazing (74% of respondents). In addition, 56% of respondents indicated that grazing is the most effective management practice for their farmland. The most commonly cited constraints preventing herd expansion were the lack of additional pastures and the inability to manage larger herds. A slight majority of livestock keepers valued the preservation of national culture, and nearly 40% considered local knowledge, such as unwritten rules, important in their farming practices. Furthermore, more than half of respondents reported the presence of a natural area near their farm that they regard as sensitive or sacred. Livestock keepers generally do not celebrate any specific holidays associated with the traditional folk calendar; the only customary practise reported was giving bread to animals during the Christmas season. Moreover, 76% of respondents declared that they do not engage in any historically significant magical protection rituals aimed at safeguarding their livestock. Grazing in heritage grasslands supported by nature conservation subsidies is increasingly carried out by a new generation of livestock keepers who are establishing their own traditions. To effectively understand and communicate with livestock keepers, it is essential to consider their socio-cultural background and the motives underlying their decisions. We conclude that, when transitioning to an agroecological system, livestock keepers are strongly motivated by the pursuit of personal well-being, which in turn contributes to the overall health of the environment and society. Supporting the social well-being of farmers therefore requires expanding the concept of livestock keepers as custodians of biodiversity beyond protected areas and recognizing the value of their everyday practices, which play a crucial role in slowing the decline of small farms and traditional livestock farming practices.

Exploring solutions to expanding industrial activities and climate change requires assessments of the combined effects of multiple stressors on wildlife populations. We present a spatially explicit state-space model for the health, survival, reproduction, and somatic growth of individuals in a long-lived, wide-ranging species. The model is applied to critically endangered North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) to investigate the combined effects of three primary stressors affecting the species' viability: entanglements in fishing gear, vessel strikes, and prey availability. We estimate exposure to these stressors in space and time and assess how their effects may combine in the pathway from exposure to vital rates. Results suggest that changes in whale distribution after 2010 led to increased entanglement risk. Poorer prey conditions were associated with an increased effect of carrying fishing gear, but, overall, results on combined effects were not conclusive and depended on model formulation. We also incorporated the estimated effects of stressors into a population viability analysis to explore alternative scenarios of stressor reduction. This integrated analysis highlighted the importance of the declining trend in maximum body length and its effect on reproduction, in addition to the documented impact of entanglements on survival. Model development and application elucidated critical data needs and the influence of underlying mechanistic assumptions. Specifically, models for the combined effects of stressors hinge on the availability of extended longitudinal measurements of individual health and life history outcomes, extensive datasets on the spatiotemporal distribution of stressors, and information on individual space use affecting rates of exposure to stressors. Lessons from this data-rich case study will support the generalization of the modeling approach to other long-lived species where measuring the population-level consequences of multiple stressors directly is unfeasible.

The realization of the value of ecological products offers a novel pathway for achieving high-quality economic development and facilitating green industrial transformation. Building upon the connotations of ecological products and their value, we constructed a three-dimensional indicator system covering supply-based, regulatory, and cultural categories to measure the value realization level of ecological products in 30 provinces of China except Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Macao Special Administrative Region, Taiwan Province and Tibet Autonomous Region from 2013 to 2022. By comprehensively applying kernel density estimation, the Gini coefficient, and σ and β convergence models, we analyzed the spatiotemporal evolution, regional differentiation, and convergence characteristics of ecological product value. The results showed that from 2013 to 2022, the overall realization rate of ecological product value exhibited a continuous upward trend, with the mean value increasing from 0.25 to 0.68. However, there were significant gradient disparities among regions, manifesting as a spatially decreasing gradient pattern of "higher in the east and lower in the west." The kernel density estimation results showed that the ecological product value index demonstrated an upward trend for the national level and for the three major regions (eastern, central and western regions). Notably, there was little inter-provincial difference in the development level of ecological products within the eastern and central regions, with pronounced inter-provincial development imba-lances within the western region. The Gini coefficient and its decomposition results showed that inter-regional differences constituted the primary source of variation in the realization rate of ecological product value in China. Meanwhile, intra-regional differences within the eastern, central, and western regions showed a slight upward trend. σ convergence was observed in the realization rate of ecological product value across regions from 2017 to 2021. Moreover, β convergence was identified at the national level and within the eastern and central regions from 2013 to 2022, albeit at a relatively slow pace. The results would be helpful for accurately identifying the spatial imbalance of ecological product value realization, and provide scientific basis for the formulation of differentiated ecological policies and the promotion of regional coordinated development in China and its three major regions. 生态产品价值实现是经济高质量发展和产业绿色转型的新路径。本研究基于生态产品及其价值内涵,构建涵盖供给类、调节类、文化类的三维指标体系,测度2013—2022年中国除香港特别行政区、澳门特别行政区、台湾省、西藏自治区之外的其余30个省区生态产品价值实现水平,综合运用核密度估计法、基尼系数及σ、β收敛模型,解析中国生态产品价值的时空演进、地区分异和动态收敛特征。结果表明: 2013—2022年,中国30个省区生态产品价值实现率总体持续增强,均值由0.25升至0.68,区域间具有显著的梯级差异;在空间上呈现东高西低的分布格局。核密度估计结果表明,全国层面和三大地区(东部、中部和西部)生态产品价值指数均呈上升趋势,东部和中部地区内省际间生态产品发展水平差异较小,西部地区内省际发展不平衡。基尼系数及其分解结果表明,区域间差异是中国生态产品价值实现率差异的主要来源,东、中、西三大地区的地区内差异均呈小幅上升趋势。各地区生态产品价值实现率仅在2017—2021年具有σ收敛,2013—2022年全国及东部、中部地区存在β收敛,但收敛速度较缓慢。研究结果有助于精准识别生态产品价值实现的空间非均衡性,可为全国及三大地区制定差异化生态政策、促进区域协同发展提供科学依据。.

This paper examines meso-level determinants and actors' strategies in the implementation of industrial ecology (IE) in a mature port ecosystem. Using a sustainability transitions framework, we analyze 30 semi-structured interviews with 28 stakeholders (firms, port governance, public agencies, intermediaries). Our findings underscore six interdependent factors that influence the adoption of IE: pressures and alignment from multiple policy levels, institutional legitimacy and convening power, market dynamics, existing technical infrastructures, organizational capabilities, and societal legitimacy. Additionally, data reveals six actors' strategies: policy leverage, organizational learning and knowledge transfer, collaboration platforms, collective resource mobilization and external support, a portfolio of quick wins and deep plays, and capacity substitution via a neutral intermediary. The study emphasizes the important role of intermediaries, infrastructures and policy alignment in the IE implementation. From a managerial perspective, it outlines a practical sequence of quick wins and more substantial initiatives. From a policy standpoint, it emphasizes the sustainable funding of intermediaries and adaptable multi-level programs.

Climate change is one of the major reasons for biodiversity decline. Due to a changing climate, trees experience shrinking and shifting of ecologically suited areas, which ultimately leads to population loss and even extinction. A recent global assessment of trees indicates that nearly 40% are at extinction risk. Diospyros crumenata Thwaites (Ebenaceae) is a critically endangered tree species, endemic to the evergreen and semi-evergreen forests of the Western Ghats-Sri Lanka biodiversity hotspot. This tree species, which is economically and ecologically important, is facing serious threats to its natural habitat and needs immediate conservation measures. The current work sought to comprehend the D. crumenata distribution pattern and habitat appropriateness under present and future climate change scenarios (2050 and 2070) using MaxEnt. The research also aimed to determine the main environmental factors influencing the distribution of D. crumenata. We used 19 bioclimatic variables and other topographical variables, including elevation, slope, aspect, and soil data, for predicting the current and future potential distribution of the species. Along with the data, we used three different global climate models, HadGEM3-GC31-LL, MICROC6, and BCC-CSM2-MR, for 2050 and 2070, using four SSP scenarios for predicting the future distribution of species. An area under the curve value of 0.926 indicated that the MaxEnt modeling performed exceptionally well in forecasting the distribution of D. crumenata. We found that precipitation of the wettest month, followed by elevation, precipitation of the driest quarter, precipitation of the driest month, and precipitation of the wettest quarter are the most significant variables.

Rapid industrial expansion in emerging urban districts is increasingly transforming land systems and modifying local thermal regimes, yet long-term assessments from secondary industrial hubs remain limited. This study evaluates three decades (1993-2023) of land use/land cover (LULC) change and associated land surface temperature (LST) dynamics in Jharsuguda district, eastern India, using multi-temporal Landsat imagery integrated with GIS-based analysis. Six LULC classes were delineated using maximum likelihood supervised classification and validated with ground control points and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), yielding overall classification accuracies exceeding 91% (kappa > 0.90). Substantial forest decline was observed, with very dense forest decreasing by 65.47%, moderately dense forest by 26.37%, and open forest by 64.54%. In contrast, built-up area expanded by 317.87%, while non-forest land increased by 21.01%, reflecting accelerated industrialization and urban growth. Concurrently, the pre-monsoon LST range widened from 7-37 °C in 1993 to 16-52 °C in 2023. The proportion of land exceeding 40°C in April increased dramatically from 0 to 59%, indicating intensification of the urban heat island effect. Correlation and random forest analyses demonstrate that forested landscapes exert a significant cooling influence, whereas built-up and non-forest surfaces consistently elevate LST, with seasonal variability in their relative importance. The findings highlight a strong spatial-temporal linkage between industrial expansion, forest degradation, and surface warming. This study provides critical evidence to inform climate-responsive land-use planning, emphasizing urban greening, forest conservation, and nature-based solutions to mitigate heat stress and strengthen regional climate adaptation strategies.

Understanding the long-term relationship between economic and ecological activities is crucial for sustainability research, yet quantitative evidence of its evolution remains limited. This study applies high-throughput culturomics analysis to newspaper corpora, analysing ecological and economic words from newspapers spanning more than two centuries in the United Kingdom (an early industrializer) and over a century in China (a latecomer). We quantify the occurrence, diversity, and relative dynamics of ecological and economic words since industrialization, revealing shifts in subcategory composition and relative dominance. We have four major findings (1) Nonecofriendly economic activities (e.g., mining) dominated early on, but ecological activities overtook them in the 1970s in the UK and the 1980s in China, as economic structures shifted to greener activities (e.g., finance). (2) Both countries showed similar relative ecological‒economic trajectories when per capita GDP was less than $9,000. However, China's ecological growth lagged approximately 70 years behind its economic growth-shorter than the UK's 160-year lag, indicating a catch-up effect. (3) Fluctuation cycles shortened to approximately 28 years (economic) and 23 years (ecological), with variation converging to ∼20 %, suggesting increasing systemic stability. (4) The UK experienced three phases of ecological recovery (an M-shaped environmental Kuznets curve [EKC]), whereas China has just entered a second decline (an N-shaped EKC). These results indicate that industrial societies with different starting points follow similar trajectories towards sustainability but face repeated ecological setbacks. Understanding these dynamics can inform green policy design, support ecological risk prediction, and help late-industrializing and developing countries effectively navigate unsustainable phases.

Maintaining biodiversity is central to the sustainable development agenda1. However, a lack of context-specific biodiversity information at policy-relevant scales has posed major limitations to decision-makers2,3. To address this challenge, we undertook a comprehensive assessment of the biodiversity intactness of sub-Saharan Africa4 using place-based knowledge of 200 African biodiversity experts5. We estimate that the region has on average lost 24% of its pre-colonial and pre-industrial faunal and floral population abundances, ranging from losses of <20% for disturbance-adapted herbaceous plants to 80% for some large mammals. Rwanda and Nigeria are the least intact (<55%), whereas Namibia and Botswana are the most intact (>85%). Notably, most remaining organisms occur in unprotected, relatively untransformed rangelands and natural forests. Losses in biodiversity intactness in the worst-affected biomes are driven by land transformation into cropland in grasslands and fynbos (Mediterranean-type ecosystems), by non-agricultural degradation in forests and by a combination of the two drivers in savannas. This assessment provides decision-makers with multifaceted, contextually appropriate and policy-relevant information on the state of biodiversity in an understudied region of the world. Our approach could be used in other regions, including better-studied localities, to integrate contextual, place-based knowledge into multiscale assessments of biodiversity status and impacts.

Climate change threatens biodiversity, water, food and human health and well-being. Rapid, sustained mitigation and adaptation actions can benefit all these elements of the nexus. Key transitions in energy, land and marine ecosystems, urban areas, industry and society are essential for climate change mitigation, adaptation and sustainable development. These transitions require interdisciplinary research, policy support and societal engagement. Here we present an assessment of 69 response options, a subset of which (15) was used in the climate change chapter of the IPBES Nexus Assessment. We show that the majority of climate change response options for land, oceans and ecosystems, settlement and infrastructure, industrial and societal system transitions have broadly positive impacts across the nexus. However, energy system transitions show more apparent trade-offs. Most of these impacts result from energy infrastructure that would also be required for fossil fuel-based systems and should be compared to the far more damaging consequences of continued fossil fuel use. Transitioning to cleaner, renewable energy sources reduces these risks and offers significant improvements across the nexus by reducing climate change impacts. Of the 69 response options assessed, 59% have entirely positive effects, or at least no negative effects, across all nexus elements and can be considered as low-risk, immediately actionable options. The remaining 41% show either negative or variable impacts on at least one nexus element. However, this does not render them unviable; rather, their implementation must be carefully managed. Where impacts are variable, strategies should be tailored to ensure positive outcomes; where trade-offs are unavoidable, efforts should focus on minimising negative effects and maximising synergies. Our findings suggest that prioritising policies that address the interconnected challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, land degradation, pollution, food insecurity, access to clean water, energy for all and sustainable development will deliver more effective and equitable climate action.

Cities are temporally dynamic ecosystems that experience continuous redevelopment over time. Urban parks, which provide critical benefits to resident wellbeing, are developed on different land-use types and contain natural elements that are susceptible to the effects of historical decision-making. Thus, understanding the current day functioning of our city's ecosystems and planning for the equitable distribution of park benefits in the future requires incorporation and understanding of the impacts of historical decision-making. We measured neighborhood sociodemographic composition, forest structure, and the cooling effect of 33 sites in parks across Montreal, each with a past land-use in one of three classes: agricultural, forested, or industrial. We asked the following questions: (1) what are the effects of historical land-use on current park forest structure, diversity, and consequently the capacity to provide cooling? (2) how do surrounding communities differ around parks of each historical land-use type, and what are the implications for equitable access to cooling? We found that forest structure and cooling capacity differed across past land-use type, and forest structure has complex relationships with park cooling capacity. Our results provide evidence of historical environmental injustice impacting current day cooling capacity for marginalized groups. Previously industrial parks had less cooling capacity at night, while simultaneously being surrounded by communities with higher proportions of immigrants and lower median incomes than Montreal's average. However, daytime cooling capacity was similar across past land-use type, highlighting the importance of current management decisions to provide a critical ecosystem service, temperature mitigation, regardless of a site's history. Planting areas of small, dense forest stands with trees &#x2265;5&#x2009;cm dbh within urban parks can help augment daytime cooling benefits in the city but may hinder nighttime cooling. To provide both nighttime and daytime cooling, a mixed management strategy of park trees is required, where small and large trees are incorporated at different densities. Finally, we find evidence of gentrification surrounding all park sites, emphasizing the complex socioecological dynamics of green infrastructure and the need for community-led greening projects paired with social housing policies.

Modeling the fate of chemicals across their life cycle when considering all potential uses can be challenging because of the data gaps arising from issues like confidential business information (data accessibility) and complex processing schemes (involvement in formulations, reactions, and separations) across multiple industries, products, and applications. Thus, assessing chemicals for safety and/or sustainability requires developing an extensive knowledge of chemical releases along the various conditions of use (CoU) to identify potential impacts on human health and the environment. The first step in this process is mapping the flow of a chemical throughout its various downstream uses, which can be time-intensive. Here, a chemical mapping methodology is developed to qualitatively assess the allocation of a chemical of interest from its manufacture through its CoU in consumer, commercial, and industrial products. The chemical flow mapping combines knowledge from searches of publicly available data sources based on the chemical's Chemical Abstracts Service number to determine viable chemical flow paths. Examples of data sources when applying this approach to chemicals in the United States include the Chemical Data Reporting database, the Toxics Release Inventory, the North American Industry Classification System, and the Chemical and Products Database. The methodology is demonstrated using case studies of methylene chloride and triphenyl phosphate. The value of this approach is its ability to be automated and enable rapid determination of the life cycle chemical flow for expedited chemical assessment.

Facilitating the coordinated and effective progress of green finance (GF) and ecological efficiency (EE) stands as a potent approach to support our nation in attaining sustainable development goals. This paper Utilized panel data encompassing 84 cities in Western China spanning from 2007 to 2021, this paper empirically analyzes the spatio-temporal characteristics and driving factors of the coupling coordination degree between green finance and ecological efficiency (CCD-GFEE) in western cities. The findings indicate that: (1) The level of GF demonstrates a rising trajectory, with significant regional disparities. Besides, the high level area progressively moves from the northwest to the southwest. (2) On the whole, urban EE demonstrates a relatively elevated level, but it still fails to reach DEA effectiveness. Compared to the northwest region, the southwest region has poorer efficiency. (3) The CCD-GFEE in western China showing a slight growth trend. The coupling coordination degree (CCD) in Northwest China is higher than that in Southwest China, and cities with higher CCD are primarily found in Inner Mongolia, Sichuan Province and Shaanxi Province. Within them, the CCD of Chengdu is the highest, Chongqing has achieved the largest stage leap. (4) The global Moran's I consistently remained positive and exhibited a tendency of initially rising and subsequently falling, indicating that the spatial aggregation effect of CCD-GFEE first increased and then decreased. (5) The CCD-GFEE driving factors are examined using the spatial econometric model, and it has been observed that the impact of population size and government intervention on CCD-GFEE is negative, while the impact of industrial structure, technological progress and economic level on the coupling and coordination of CCD-GFEE is positive. Finally, the paper presents certain policy enlightenments to guide the coordinated development of GF and EE from the aspects of GF system formulation, economic construction and technological progress.

This study explores the intersection of sustainable coastal tourism and the Blue Economy by examining the impacts of fishing-tourism, pleasure-fishing, and Pescatourism in Algeria's coastal regions, with a focus on the province of Jijel. We look at how these activities help protect the environment, grow the economy, and improve the health of the community using a mix of research methods, such as surveys, interviews, and data from the "Taza" Marine Protected Area (MPA) Project. Our research shows that Pescatourism, unlike fishing-tourism and pleasure-fishing, strikes a unique balance between protecting the environment and making money for local communities. It provides a long-term solution for coastal development. By integrating biological, ecological, and community interests, Pescatourism emerges as a key driver for achieving the goals of the Blue Economy. This research underscores the need for policymakers to incorporate Pescatourism into blue economy strategies, ensuring that coastal tourism activities in the fishing sector align with principles of sustainability and long-term ecological resilience. The study provides actionable insights for fostering sustainable development in coastal regions, particularly in the Mediterranean Basin.

Agricultural modernization (AM) is a core element of green development and a key pillar for modern industrial upgrading. It plays an essential role in boosting productivity, sustaining ecology, and enhancing system resilience. With the rapid growth of the digital economy (DE), digital technologies have increasingly penetrated agriculture, making digital transformation a vital means to advance AM. This process optimizes production and resource use, improves rural conditions, and drives agriculture toward modernization and high-quality green growth. Against this backdrop, this paper investigates how the DE drives AM. Based on panel data from 30 Chinese provinces and municipalities for 2012-2022, fixed-effects, mediation, and threshold models are applied to test the DE's direct, indirect, and nonlinear impacts on AM. The findings indicate that the DE significantly improves AM at the 1&#xa0;% level, primarily by upgrading the agricultural industrial structure and enhancing rural entrepreneurial capacity. Further threshold effect analysis demonstrates that the positive influence of the DE on AM exhibits clear stage-dependent characteristics, intensifying as the level of AM and the degree of integration between agriculture and the service sector increase. This effect becomes especially significant when AM attains a medium-to-high level and when the agricultural and service sector integration index exceeds 0.426. However, when the proportion of labor return exceeds 0.072, excessive return migration may distort factor allocation and weaken the positive impact of the DE on AM. Accordingly, it is recommended that regions tailor their strategies to local development stages and resource endowments, improve rural digital infrastructure, deepen the integration of modern services with agriculture, foster diversified smart agriculture and entrepreneurship support systems, and effectively mitigate resource misallocation risks caused by irrational labor return, thereby enhancing the synergistic effect of the DE and AM.

During aging, physical functioning declines, and disability and frailty increase; phenotypes which are bidirectionally linked. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are epigenetic regulators of various physiological processes and suggested aging biomarkers. Here we investigate the association between circulating plasma miRNAs and hand grip strength, chair stand, (Rockwood) frailty, and activity of daily living (ADL) in 86 monozygotic twins (73-88 years). In cross-sectional analysis, both individual and twin-pair level analyses were performed, the latter controlling genetic confounding. The majority (74-100&#x202f;%) of miRNAs identified in the individual-level analysis were validated by twin-pair-level analysis, with 14 miRNAs showing significance (p&#x202f;<&#x202f;0.05) in both. Longitudinal analysis (up to eight years of follow-up) yielded more significant results (75-93 miRNAs), indicating that miRNAs might be more accurate in predicting functional decline over time. Of these miRNAs, seven showed consistent directions of effects across phenotypes. For all analyses, most (65-79&#x202f;%) of the observed effect sizes were negative, reflecting reduced functionality with increased miRNA levels. Enrichment analyses revealed pathways of gene expression (incl. p53- and FOXO-mediated transcription), signal transduction, the immune system, metabolism of RNA, among others. Of specific miRNAs, miR-1274a demonstrated negative association in both cross-sectional and longitudinal investigations of ADL. These findings support miRNAs as biomarkers of age-related functional decline.

An integrated assessment of the human-ocean coupled system is urgently needed for sustainable coastal management. This study introduces the Human-Ocean Health Index (HOHI) framework, which is a novel composite index that extends the Ocean Health Index (OHI) framework by integrating three interactive dimensions (sea use coordination, water cumulative effects, and ecosystem services) to evaluate the system health, using the bibliometric analysis method to determine the weights of each dimension, and applying it to Xiamen Bay, China, under four climate and management scenarios. Results indicate that (1) the baseline HOHI (0.751) classifies Xiamen Bay as healthy, with 44% of subzones in a sub-healthy state, particularly in industrial areas, (2) spatially, HOHI was most strongly associated with ecosystem services, though this correlation does not imply causation, (3) climate change alone reduced HOHI (-2.40%), whereas restoration management increased it (+1.5%), confirming the potential of interventions to mitigate impacts. Crucially, further expanded restoration led to a net decline in HOHI (-0.81%) due to exacerbated sea-use conflicts, revealing a critical spatial trade-off. (4) The HOHI demonstrated high analytical robustness: bootstrapping revealed minimal inherent uncertainty (coefficient of variation <0.11%, 95%CI width&#xa0;<&#xa0;0.03), and a sensitivity analysis confirmed that core findings on scenarios ranking were independent of the weighting method. These findings offer an evidence-based diagnostic tool for evaluating the potential implications of marine spatial planning and ecosystem health assessment.

Marine megafauna species are affected by a wide range of anthropogenic threats. To evaluate the risk of such threats, species' vulnerability to each threat must first be determined. We build on the existing threats classification scheme and ranking system of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species by assessing the vulnerability of 256 marine megafauna species to 23 at-sea threats. The threats we considered included individual fishing gear types, climate-change-related subthreats not previously assessed, and threats associated with coastal impacts and maritime disturbances. Our ratings resulted in 70 species having high vulnerability (v&#xa0;>&#xa0;0.778 out of 1) to at least 1 threat, primarily drifting longlines, temperature extremes, or fixed gear. These 3 threats were also considered to have the most severe effects (i.e., steepest population declines). Overall, temperature extremes and plastics and other solid waste were rated as affecting the largest proportion of populations. Penguins, pinnipeds, and polar bears had the highest vulnerability to temperature extremes. Bony fishes had the highest vulnerability to drifting longlines and plastics and other solid waste; pelagic cetaceans to 4 maritime disturbance threats; elasmobranchs to 5 fishing threats; and flying birds to drifting longlines and 2 maritime disturbance threats. Sirenians and turtles had the highest vulnerability to at least one threat from all 4 categories. Despite not necessarily having severe effects for most taxonomic groups, temperature extremes were rated among the top threats for all taxa except bony fishes. The vulnerability scores we provide are an important first step in estimating the risk of threats to marine megafauna. Importantly, they help differentiate scope from severity, which is key to identifying threats that should be prioritized for mitigation. Vulnerabilidad de la megafauna marina ante las amenazas antropog&#xe9;nicas globales en el mar VanCompernolle et&#xa0;al. Resumen Las especies de megafauna marina se ven afectadas por una amplia gama de amenazas antropog&#xe9;nicas. Para evaluar el riesgo de dichas amenazas, primero se debe determinar la vulnerabilidad de las especies a cada una de ellas. Nos basamos en el esquema de clasificaci&#xf3;n de amenazas y el sistema de clasificaci&#xf3;n existentes de la Lista Roja de Especies Amenazadas de la Uni&#xf3;n Internacional para la Conservaci&#xf3;n de la Naturaleza (UICN) para evaluar la vulnerabilidad de 256 especies de megafauna marina ante 23 amenazas mar&#xed;timas. Las amenazas que consideramos incluyeron tipos de pesquer&#xed;as individuales, subamenazas relacionadas con el cambio clim&#xe1;tico sin evaluaci&#xf3;n previa y amenazas asociadas con impactos costeros y perturbaciones mar&#xed;timas. Nuestras calificaciones dieron como resultado que 70 especies ten&#xed;an una alta vulnerabilidad (v > 0.778 de 1) a al menos una amenaza, principalmente los palangres de deriva, las temperaturas extremas o las artes de pesca fijas. Tambi&#xe9;n se consider&#xf3; que estas tres amenazas ten&#xed;an los efectos m&#xe1;s graves (i. e., las disminuciones m&#xe1;s pronunciadas de la poblaci&#xf3;n). En general, se consider&#xf3; que las temperaturas extremas y los pl&#xe1;sticos y otros residuos s&#xf3;lidos afectaban a la mayor proporci&#xf3;n de poblaciones. Los ping&#xfc;inos, los pinn&#xed;pedos y los osos polares fueron los m&#xe1;s vulnerables a las temperaturas extremas; los peces &#xf3;seos, los m&#xe1;s vulnerables a los palangres a la deriva y a los pl&#xe1;sticos y otros residuos s&#xf3;lidos; los cet&#xe1;ceos pel&#xe1;gicos, a cuatro amenazas de perturbaci&#xf3;n mar&#xed;tima; los elasmobranquios, a cinco amenazas relacionadas con la pesca; y las aves voladoras, a los palangres a la deriva y a dos amenazas de perturbaci&#xf3;n mar&#xed;tima. Los sir&#xe9;nidos y las tortugas fueron los m&#xe1;s vulnerables a al menos una amenaza de las cuatro categor&#xed;as. A pesar de no tener necesariamente efectos graves para la mayor&#xed;a de los grupos taxon&#xf3;micos, las temperaturas extremas se clasificaron entre las principales amenazas para todos los taxones, excepto los peces &#xf3;seos. Las puntuaciones de vulnerabilidad que proporcionamos son un primer paso importante para estimar el riesgo de las amenazas para la megafauna marina. Es importante destacar que ayudan a diferenciar el alcance de la gravedad, lo cual es clave para identificar las amenazas que deben priorizarse para su mitigaci&#xf3;n.

Wildfire has become an increasing threat to natural ecosystems and human livelihood alike in many parts of the world. Vegetation fuel treatments are considered a viable option for mitigating wildfire risk and damage; yet existing studies have yielded mixed or inconclusive results on fuel treatment effectiveness especially at the landscape level. Using fire behavior simulations and statistical analysis of simulation outputs, we assessed landscape-level effectiveness of prescribed burning (PB) and thinning from below (TFB) relative to their site-level effectiveness in terms of area burned (AB) and total cost of treatment and timber loss (TC) in a forest-dominated ecosystem in the southern United States. We found that effectiveness of a treatment varied with measurement metrics and extent, vegetation characteristics and dynamics, and their interactions with the treatment. PB and TFB were less effective at the landscape level than at the site level where fires burned only inside the treatment area. At both site and landscape levels, the effectiveness of PB and TFB in reducing AB and TC largely depended on the quantity of biomass and fire ignition location. TFB outperformed PB in mitigating both AB and TC with a larger timber volume, a longer delay in fire occurrence after treatment, or a higher uncertainty of fire ignition location. TFB was also more effective than PB in reducing TC at the landscape level. By clarifying the conditions under which a fuel treatment can mitigate the area burned and the total cost, this study advanced knowledge of fuel treatment effectiveness especially at the landscape level. Such knowledge can aid in developing and deploying treatment strategies to minimize fire extent and adverse economic consequences in the study region and beyond.