Direct, manipulative experiments can yield important insights into the role of biodiversity in ecosystem function, but they are intrinsically limited when it comes to aspects of this relationship that emerge over long temporal and large spatial scales. Natural experiments with model systems can be a powerful complement to direct, manipulative experiments, especially where the processes that regulate biodiversity have no more than modest direct impacts on ecosystem function. Mangrove ecosystems on continental land masses and isolated islands offer unusual potential as natural experiments for biodiversity and ecosystem function studies, largely because sites with similar physical environments can have clear contrasts in the diversity of the dominant autotrophs. These contrasts provide a starting point for exploring the role of species diversity of higher plants in modulating biogeochemical functions (e.g. production, nutrient cycling), ecological functions (e.g. habitat for organisms in different tropic levels), and anthropogenic functions (e.g. maintenance of fisheries, management of sediments), on a range of time scales.
A challenge in addressing climate risk in developing countries is that many regions have extremely limited formal data sets, so for these regions, people must rely on technologies like remote sensing for solutions. However, this means the necessary formal weather data to design and validate remote sensing solutions do not exist. Therefore, many projects use farmers’ reported perceptions and recollections of climate risk events, such as drought. However, if these are used to design risk management interventions such as insurance, there may be biases and limitations which could potentially lead to a problematic product. To better understand the value and validity of farmer perceptions, this paper explores two related questions: (1) Is there evidence that farmers reporting data have any information about actual drought events, and (2) is there evidence that it is valuable to address recollection and perception issues when using farmer-reported data? We investigated these questions by analyzing index insurance, in which remote sensing products trigger payments to farmers during loss years. Our case study is perhaps the largest participatory farmer remote sensing insurance project in Ethiopia. We tested the cross-consistency of farmer-reported seasonal vulnerabilities against the years reported as droughts by independent satellite data sources. We found evidence that farmer-reported events are independently reflected in multiple remote sensing datasets, suggesting that there is legitimate information in farmer reporting. Repeated community-based meetings over time and aggregating independent village reports over space lead to improved predictions, suggesting that it may be important to utilize methods to address potential biases.
Pest control efforts for tree fruits, as well as other agricultural crops, have intensified in the U.S. during the past few decades. This increase is the result of the increase in pest population, the Food and Drug Administration's reduction in tolerance levels of insect parts permitted in foods, and the raising of cosmetic standards by food wholesalers and retailers (Hough and Gallahan).
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