3 research outputs found
Valuation of ecosystem services of a nascent urban park in east Los Angeles, California
No full textPeople protect what they value, yet different people assign value to nature in different ways. The monetary valuation of ecosystem services (ES) is a strategy to estimate the worth of benefits provided by nature to humans and is increasingly common in cities where human populations are densest. Most ES valuation of urban areas are at the city scale with few studies at the parcel level, yet urban land decisions are typically made at the parcel level. Here we approximated the monetary value of ecosystem services for a single nascent urban park in the United States’ second most populous city, Los Angeles. Acknowledging no single method can capture the entire ES value of a location, we use four approaches to approximate a value range for this site. Using a combination of unoccupied aerial vehicle imagery and ground-truthing surveys, the park was partitioned by dominant land cover types to assess values derived from literature estimates, tree canopy features, and collected field-based metrics of all individual trees over 1.5 m height using the ecosystem service valuation functions of the i-Tree software suite. We also applied a more novel market-based approach to approximate the park’s overall value. We found calculated dollar values across and within the land cover types varied by orders of magnitude between assessment approaches yet were generally low due to limited mature vegetation cover. The present study is unique in providing a baseline assessment for a recently opened, highly urban park in a low-income, park-poor neighborhood of Los Angeles. More broadly, it provides ES valuation at the data-lacking parcel scale which is needed to better understand the ecological role and function of green spaces in cities
Outreach & DNA-based monitoring facilitate 3-fold reduction in seafood mislabeling in Los Angeles over 10 years
No full textAwareness and intervention can reduce fraudulent labeling in seafood. Using a 10-year longitudinal study approach, DNA-based monitoring data reveals a lower sushi mislabeling in Los Angeles restaurants over time. This is in part attributed to implemented recommendations by restaurants of a local academia-industry-government outreach initiative launched in 2018, The Los Angeles Seafood Monitoring Project. We found mislabeling was 3-fold lower among project-partnering restaurants than other restaurants. This difference was statistically significant, illustrating the combination of project partnering and implementation of recommendations was most impactful on reducing mislabeling rates. Lastly, the study period includes the COVID19 global pandemic, which additional monitoring effort between 2019 and 2021 did not reveal any significant change in mislabeling rates
The last mile challenge: Certified seafood and federal labeling laws out of sync at the end of the supply chain in Los Angeles, California
No full textSeafood certification programs aim to aid consumers in identifying products with reduced environmental impacts and assure accuracy in labeling and traceability, complementary to or in the absence of governmental regulatory action. The most widely recognized seafood certification program is led by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), whose Chain of Custody Standard emphasizes accuracy in fish sourcing from harvest to retail using tracebacks and audits. Here explicit testing was conducted on the labeling accuracy of MSC-certified seafood sold in the world’s second largest seafood importing market, the United States, per stringent application of federal labeling laws. Samples of commonly sold MSC-certified fresh fish were collected from processors (123) and grocers (149) in Los Angeles, California from 2017 to 2019 and identified to species using DNA barcoding. Grocers’ mislabeling rates were statistically higher than those of processors. Most mislabeling was attributed to substitution among congeners or labeling with invalid FDA names. Data-driven recommendations include regular DNA-based testing and greater harmonization between certification programs and federal guidelines, particularly in coordination with supply chain end vendors
