202 research outputs found
The ecological and evolutionary significance of browsing and grazing in savanna ungulates
No full textIncludes bibliographical references (leaves 175-208)
Policy and governance of payments for ecosystem services in agri-food value chains
No full textThe paper examines the role of markets for ecosystem services deriving from agri-environmental and rural landscape conservation in the agri-food chain. In spite of their importance, sustainable management of agricultural biodiversity and ecosystem services conservation are only partially financed by public institutions. This paper illustrates an innovative economic tool, Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES), used as a financing mechanism to achieve positive environmental outcomes by supporting environmental friendly behavior in agri-food value chains. Our framework suggests that PES can act as a tool able to support sustainable management of agri-food value chains. In spite of financial crises, demand for ecosystem services is growing, nevertheless their supply need to be supported by innovative incentive schemes. PES could play a fundamental role in increasing ecosystem services provision. The areas for future research that seem to be the most promising include following aspects. First, we look forward to understanding the role of public intervention. Second, several insights can be gained from investigating PES implementation in agri-food value chains. The study suggests that PES schemes have a potential role to play with regards to ecosystem services conservation in agri-food value chains. The paper provides an original contribution by highlighting the role of an innovative economic instrument for financing agricultural biodiversity conservation and supporting land users for the positive externalities in agri-food value-chains
Winter 2010 in Europe: A cold extreme in a warming climate
No full textInternational audienceThe winter of 2009/2010 was characterized by record persistence of the negative phase of the North-Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) which caused several severe cold spells over Northern and Western Europe. This somehow unusual winter with respect to the most recent ones arose concurrently with public debate on climate change, during and after the Copenhagen climate negotiations. We show however that the cold European temperature anomaly of winter 2010 was (i) not extreme relative to winters of the past six decades, and (ii) warmer than expected from its record-breaking seasonal circulation indices such as NAO or blocking frequency. Daily flow-analogues of winter 2010, taken in past winters, were associated with much colder temperatures. The winter 2010 thus provides a consistent picture of a regional cold event mitigated by long-term climate warming. Citation: Cattiaux, J., R. Vautard, C. Cassou, P. Yiou, V. Masson-Delmotte, and F. Codron (2010), Winter 2010 in Europe: A cold extreme in a warming climate, Geophys. Res. Lett., 37, L20704, doi:10.1029/2010GL044613
Social and Environmental Attributes of Food Products in an Emerging Mass Market : Challenges of Signaling and Consumer Perception, With European Illustrations
Get PDFThis paper focuses on the environmental and ethical attributes of food products and their production processes. These two aspects have been recently recognized and are becoming increasingly important, in terms of signaling and of consumer perception. There are two thematic domains: environmental and social. Within each domain there are two movements. Hence the paper first presents the four movements that have brought to the fore new aspects of food product quality, to wit: (1) aspects of environmental ethics (organic agriculture and integrated agriculture) and (2)social ethics (fair trade and ethical trade). Then it describes how the actors in the movements producers, retailers, NGOs, and governments) are organized and how consumers perceive each of the movements. From the perspective of the actors in the movements themselves, the movements are grouped into two 'actors' philosophies' : a “radical” philosophy (the organic production and fair trade movements that arose in radical opposition to conventional agriculture or unfair trade relations) and a “reformist” philosophy (the integrated agriculture and ethical trade movements that arose as efforts to modify but not radically change conventional agriculture). From the point of view of consumers, the classification of the movements is based on perceptions of the 'domain' of the movements. That is, consumers tend to perceive as a grouping the organic production movement and the integrated agricultural movement, as they both deal with the environment. By contrast, consumers tend to group the fair trade movement and the ethical trade movement, as they both deal essentially with social ethics. Recently, key players such as large retailers and agribusinesses have adopted as part of their overall quality assurance programs both the environmental and the ethical attributes. Their involvement in and adoption of the goals of the movements have, however, generated tensions and conflicts, in particular within the radical movements, because of concerns of cooptation. The paper identifies challenges for those promoting food products with environmental and social/ethical attributes to communicate coherent signals to consumers at this crucial moment of an emerging mass market for these products.Consumer perception, Ethical trade, Fair trade, Integrated agriculture, Organic agriculture, Organization, Quality signals
Relation between Large-Scale Circulation and European Winter Temperature: Does It Hold under Warmer Climate?
No full textISI Document Delivery No.: 628GA Times Cited: 3 Cited Reference Count: 32 Cited References: Berner J, 2007, J ATMOS SCI, V64, P117, DOI 10.1175/JAS3822.1 Boe J, 2006, J GEOPHYS RES-ATMOS, V111, DOI [10.1029/2005JD006889, 10.1029/JD006889] Cassou C, 2005, J CLIMATE, V18, P2805, DOI 10.1175/JCLI3506.1 Christiansen B, 2005, J ATMOS SCI, V62, P2528, DOI 10.1175/JAS3490.1 Corti S, 1999, NATURE, V398, P799 D'Andrea F, 1998, CLIM DYNAM, V14, P385, DOI 10.1007/s003820050230 Dufresne JL, 2002, GEOPHYS RES LETT, V29, DOI 10.1029/2001GL013777 EFRON B, 1993, STAT APPL PROBABILIT, V57 Goubanova K, 2007, GLOBAL PLANET CHANGE, V57, P27, DOI 10.1016/j.gloplacha.2006.11.012 Houghton J. T., 2001, CLIMATE CHANGE 2001 Hourdin F, 2006, CLIM DYNAM, V27, P787, DOI 10.1007/s00382-006-0158-0 Hurrell J. W., 2003, GEOPHYS MONOGR SER, V134, DOI [10.1029/GM134., DOI 10.1029/GM134] Huth R, 1999, CLIMATE RES, V13, P91, DOI 10.3354/cr013091 KIMOTO M, 1993, J ATMOS SCI, V50, P2645, DOI 10.1175/1520-0469(1993)0502.0.CO;2 LEGRAS B, 1985, J ATMOS SCI, V42, P433, DOI 10.1175/1520-0469(1985)0422.0.CO;2 Majda AJ, 2006, P NATL ACAD SCI USA, V103, P8309, DOI 10.1073/pnas.0602641103 MICHELANGELI PA, 1995, J ATMOS SCI, V52, P1237, DOI 10.1175/1520-0469(1995)0522.0.CO;2 Najac J, 2009, CLIM DYNAM, V32, P615, DOI 10.1007/s00382-008-0440-4 Palmer TN, 1999, J CLIMATE, V12, P575, DOI 10.1175/1520-0442(1999)0122.0.CO;2 Plaut G, 2001, CLIMATE RES, V17, P285, DOI 10.3354/cr017285 SanchezGomez E, 2005, GEOPHYS RES LETT, V32, DOI 10.1029/2005GL023990 Schubert S, 1998, INT J CLIMATOL, V18, P1419, DOI 10.1002/(SICI)1097-0088(19981115)18:133.3.CO;2-Q Solomon S, 2007, CLIMATE CHANGE 2007: THE PHYSICAL SCIENCE BASIS, P19 Stephenson DB, 2004, Q J ROY METEOR SOC, V130, P583, DOI 10.1256/qj.02.146 Tank AMGK, 2002, INT J CLIMATOL, V22, P1441, DOI 10.1002/joc.773 Tibaldi S., 1990, Tellus, Series A (Dynamic Meteorology and Oceanography), V42A, DOI 10.1034/j.1600-0870.1990.t01-2-00003.x Uppala SM, 2005, Q J ROY METEOR SOC, V131, P2961, DOI 10.1256/qj.04.176 VAUTARD R, 1990, MON WEATHER REV, V118, P2056, DOI 10.1175/1520-0493(1990)1182.0.CO;2 von Storch H., 2001, STAT ANAL CLIMATE RE Wilby R.L., 2004, GUIDELINES USE CLIMA Yiou P, 2008, NONLINEAR PROC GEOPH, V15, P365 Yiou P, 2004, GEOPHYS RES LETT, V31, DOI 10.1029/2003GL019119 Goubanova, K. Li, L. Yiou, P. Codron, F. 3 AMER METEOROLOGICAL SOC BOSTON J CLIMATEThe idea of using large-scale information to predict local climate variability is widely exploited in climate change impact studies as an alternative to computationally expensive high-resolution models. This approach implies the hypothesis that the statistical relationship between large-scale climate states and local variables defined for the present-day climate remains valid in the altered climate. In this paper, the concept of weather regimes is used to deduce a relationship between large-scale circulation and European winter temperature. The change in temperature with increased greenhouse gases is, however, not homogeneous among the individual regimes. As a result, the impact of the weather regimes on local temperature changes varies in the future, limiting its usefulness for refining temperature changes to the small scale
)
No full textExternal quartz abrasives are one of the driving forces of macrowear in herbivorous animals. We tested to what extent different sizes and concentrations influence their effect on tooth wear. We fed seven pelleted diets varying only in quartz concentration (0%, 4%, and 8%) and size (fine silt: ∼4 μm, coarse silt: ∼50 μm, fine sand: ∼130 μm) to rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus, n = 16) for 2 weeks each in a randomized serial experiment. Measurements to quantify wear and growth of incisors and the mandibular first cheek tooth, as well as heights of all other cheek teeth, were performed using calipers, endoscopic examination, and computed tomography scans before and after each feeding period. Tooth growth showed a compensatory correlation with wear. Absolute tooth height (ATH) and relative tooth height (RTH); relative to the 0% quartz “control” diet) was generally lower on the higher concentration and the larger size of abrasives. The effect was more pronounced on the maxillary teeth, on specific tooth positions and the right jaw side. When offered the choice between different sizes of abrasives, the rabbits favored the silt diets over the control and the fine sand diet; in a second choice experiment with different diets, they selected a pelleted diet with coarse‐grained sand, however. This study confirms the dose‐ and size‐dependent wear effects of external abrasives, and that hypselodont teeth show compensatory growth. The avoidance of wear did not seem a priority for animals with hypselodont teeth, since the rabbits did not avoid diets inducing a certain degree of wear
Application de la franchise de 500 à la réparation des dommages aux biens
No full textInternational audience(Civ. 1re, 3 mai 2006, Société Automobiles Peugeot c/ Codron et autre, n° 04-10.994, F-P+B, Bull. civ. I, n° 208 ; RCA 2006. comm. 303 ; RDC 2006. 1239, note J.-S. Borghetti
STRATEGIC CHOICES IN PRODUCE MARKETING: ISSUES OF COMPATIBLE USE AND EXCLUSION COSTS
Get PDFFresh produce suppliers in Europe and the United States use a mix of price and non-price marketing strategies. This paper shows that these strategies create, using Mancur Olson's terms, two collective goods: overall consumer confidence in the market's ability to deliver credence attributes, and overall consumer satisfaction with the experience attributes of fresh produce. The characteristics of these two collective goods, i.e., their compatible use and high costs of exclusion, influence the costs, effectiveness, and nature of the marketing strategies of firms. This paper presents examples from the fresh produce industries of Europe and the U.S. to show how compatible-use and high-exclusion costs influence firm strategies. It concludes that there are unavoidable interdependencies that create a need for collective action -- a need that will increase as consumer and retailer demand for quality attributes in fresh produce increases.Demand and Price Analysis, Marketing,
Rumination of different-sized particles in muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus) and moose (Alces alces) on grass and browse diets, and implications for rumination in different ruminant feeding types
Get PDFThe obligatory, periodic regurgitation of forestomach material and its subsequent re-mastication is the hallmark of the most diverse extant large herbivore group, the ruminants. Although the process of rumination is well understood in domestic species, differences between free-ranging wild ruminant species, for example of different body size or different feeding type, remain speculative to date. Here we investigate the proportion of plastic particles of varying size (1, 10 and 20mm) and density (1.03, 1.20 and 1.44 mg/ml) that are recovered intact or ruminated-upon after insertion into the reticulorumen (RR) of domestic cattle (Bos primigenius f. taurus) on grass silage, and of muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus; n = 4) and moose (Alces alces; n = 2) both fed browse and grass diets. In the three species, the proportion of particles leaving the RR intact depended on particle size, with density showing no effect in this study. The major proportion of 1mmparticles was excreted intact, whereas intact 10–20mmparticles were only excreted sporadically, and not in all animals. Intact particles were mostly found in the initial samples after marker application, and mean retention times of intact particles were always shorter than those of ruminated particles. There were no differences between moose and muskoxen, but diet had a significant effect, with a higher proportion of 1mm particles ruminated upon on the grass diet in both species, indicating a higher ‘filter-bed effect’ with entrapment of small particles in a fibre mat in the RR on a grass diet. Given that less particles were ruminated on the grass diet, one could either assume that free-ranging browsers ruminate less than grazers on similar food intakes (or that they have higher food intakes at similar levels of rumination). The existing data on time-budgets of free-ranging ruminants, however, does not suffice to test these hypotheses. The fact that indication of a ‘filter-bed effect’ was also detectable in moose raises the question whether adaptations described in ‘cattle-type’ ruminants really serve to re-inforce the processes of RR contents stratification and the ‘filter-bed’, or whether they are not rather directed at other aims, such as maximizing microbial yield from the RR
Intra and Inter organisational determinants of electronic-based traceability adoption: evidences from the French agri-food industry
Get PDFTraceability, the ability to trace the origin of products throughout the supply chain, has become an instrument to assure food quality and safety in agri-food chains. This process is organized within both institutional and market constraints, yet it integrates also a technological sphere marked by the unprecedented development of information and communication technologies. This paper analyses the factors influencing firms’ behaviour, with regards to adopting electronic-based traceability, in the French agri-food industry. These factors (microeconomic determinants) related to firms’ internal characteristics and the factors related to their environment. We use data from the ICT and Electronic Commerce survey from 2002, carried out by the French National Institute of Statistics (INSEE). A Probit type model is used, which allow us to take into account the firm’s determinants for its organisational choice, differentiating from those adopting (or not) an electronic-based traceability tool. Our main results show that the choices of electronic-based traceability depend on and interact with their own organizational characteristics and those of their competitive, industrial and local environment. Traceability technologies evidence the complementarities between organisational and technological practices. Large industrial firms known for their established identity and a brand image seem distant from standard traceability practices, contrarily to agribusinesses, which are subjected to regulations and look forward to use traceability for both complying with their downstream contracts and add value to their regional specificities.Traceability, Technology adoption, Agri-food industry, Agribusiness, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,
- …
