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From: Angelo Zago (ernad)
Date: 04/11/06


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEP: New Economics Papers
Agricultural Economics
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Edited by: Angelo Zago
           http://ideas.repec.org/e/pza49.html
           Universita degli Studi di Verona
Date:      2006-04-08
Papers:	   18

This document is in the public domain, feel free to circulate it.

   +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
   + Note: Access to full contents may be restricted +
   +         NEP is sponsored by SUNY Oswego         +
   +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 
In this issue we have:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. The Relative Importance of Global Agricultural Subsidies and 
   Market Access
     Anderson, Kym; Martin, Will; Valenzuela, Ernesto
 
2. WTO's Doha Cotton Initiative: A Tale of Two Issues
     Anderson, Kym; Valenzuela, Ernesto
 
3. The poverty impact of rural roads : evidence from Bangladesh
     Koolwal, Gayatri B.; Bakht, Zaid; Khandker, Shahidur R.
 
4. Estimating Heterogeneous Production in Fisheries
     Kurt E. Schnier; Christopher M. Anderson; William C. Horrace
 
5. Estimating Trade Restrictiveness Indices
     Kee, Hiau Looi; Nicita, Alessandro; Olarreaga, Marcelo
 
6. Endogenous Trade Policies in a Developing Economy
     N.M. Hung; N.V. Quyen
 
7. Options and Tradeoffs in Krabi's Coastal Land Use
     Tipparat Pongthanapanich
 
8. The Role of R&D in Productivity Growth: The Case of 
   Agriculture in New Zealand: 1927 to 2001
     Julia Hall; Grant M Scobie
 
9. Tariff Equivalent of Technical Barriers to Trade with 
   Imperfect Substitution and Trade Costs
     Chengyan Yue; John C. Beghin; Helen H. Jensen
 
10. GM Cotton Adoption, Recent and Prospective: A Global CGE 
    Analysis of Economic Impacts
     Anderson, Kym; Jackson, Lee Ann; Valenzuela, Ernesto
 
11. Sugar prices, labor income, and poverty in Brazil
     Olarreaga, Marcelo; Krivonos, Ekaterina
 
12. Quality and Competition: An Empirical Analysis across 
    Industries
     Crespi, John M.; Marette, St?phan
 
13. Getting Rich and Eating Out: Consumption of Food Away from 
    Home in Urban China
     Ma, Hengyun; Huang, Jikun; Fuller, Frank H.; Rozelle, Scott
 
14. Allocating Nutrient Load Reduction across a Watershed: 
    Implications of Different Principles
     Feng, Hongli; Jha, Manoj; Gassman, Philip W.
 
15. Investigating nonlinear speculation in cattle, corn, and hog 
    futures markets using logistic smooth transition regression 
    models
     Andreas R?thig; Carl Chiarella
 
16. Identifying Technically Efficient Fishing Vessels: A Non-
    Empty, Minimal Subset Approach
     Alfonso Flores-Lagunes; William C. Horrace; Kurt E. Schnier
 
17. Combine Harvester Econometric Model with Forward Speed 
    Optimization
     Isaac, N.E.; Quick, G.R.; Birrell, S.J.; Edwards, William M.
      Coers, B.A.
 
18. Amplifying effects of land-use change on future atmospheric 
    CO2 levels
     Vincent Gitz; Philippe Ciais
 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. The Relative Importance of Global Agricultural Subsidies and 
   Market Access
  
    Anderson, Kym
    Martin, Will
    Valenzuela, Ernesto

The claim by global trade modelers that the potential 
contribution to global economic welfare of removing agricultural 
subsidies is less than one-tenth of that from removing 
agricultural tariffs puzzles many observers. To help explain that 
result, this paper first compares the OECD and model-based 
estimates of the extent of the producer distortions (leaving 
aside consumer distortions), and shows that 75 percent of total 
support is provided by market access barriers when account is 
taken of all forms of support to farmers and to agricultural 
processors globally, and only 19 percent to domestic farm 
subsidies. We then provide a back-of-the-envelope (BOTE) 
calculation of the welfare cost of those distortions. Assuming 
unitary supply and demand elasticities, that BOTE analysis 
suggests 86 percent of the welfare cost is due to tariffs and 
only 6 percent to domestic farm subsidies. When the higher costs 
associated with the greater variability of trade measures 
relative to domestic support are accounted for, the BOTE estimate 
of the latter?s share falls to 4 percent. This is close to the 
5 percent generated by the most commonly used global model (GTAP) 
and reported in the paper?s final section.
 
Keywords: agricultural protection; computable general 
          equilibrium modeling; economic welfare; trade policy 
          reform
JEL:      C68 D58 Q17 Q18
Date:     2006-03
URL:      http://d.repec.org
/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:5569&r=agr



2. WTO's Doha Cotton Initiative: A Tale of Two Issues
  
    Anderson, Kym
    Valenzuela, Ernesto

Four West African nations have demanded the WTO?s Doha 
Development Agenda include a Cotton Initiative that involves two 
issues: cutting cotton subsidies and tariffs, and assisting farm 
productivity growth in Africa. This paper provides estimates of 
the potential economic impacts of (a) complete or partial cotton 
subsidies and import tariffs globally and (b) cotton productivity 
growth through the adoption of genetically modified (GM) cotton 
varieties. Use is made of the latest version of the GTAP database 
and model. Our results confirm that ? unlike for other 
agricultural subsidies and tariffs ? for cotton it is subsidy 
reductions rather than tariff cuts that would make by far the 
largest impact. For Sub-Saharan Africa the potential gains are 
huge relative to the effects on them of reforming other 
merchandise trade policies. And they could be more than doubled 
if that reform provided the cash for farmers to take advantage of 
the biotechnology revolution and adopt GM cotton varieties. But 
those potential gains, and the affordability of switching to 
costly GM seed, depend crucially on the extent to which high-
income countries are willing to lower domestic support to their 
cotton farmers.
 
Keywords: computable general equilibrium modeling; cotton 
          biotechnology; economic welfare; GMOs; subsidy and 
          tariff reform
JEL:      D58 F17 Q16 Q17
Date:     2006-03
URL:      http://d.repec.org
/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:5567&r=agr



3. The poverty impact of rural roads : evidence from Bangladesh
  
    Koolwal, Gayatri B.
    Bakht, Zaid
    Khandker, Shahidur R.

The rationale for public investment in rural roads is that 
households can better exploit agricultural and nonagricultural 
opportunities to use labor and capital more efficiently. But 
significant knowledge gaps remain as to how opportunities 
provided by roads actually filter back into household outcomes 
and their distributional consequences. This paper examines the 
impacts of rural road projects using household-level panel data 
from Bangladesh. Rural road investments are found to reduce 
poverty significantly through higher agricultural production, 
higher wages, lower input and transportation costs, and higher 
output prices. Rural roads also lead to higher girls ' and boys ' 
schooling. Road investments are pro-poor, meaning the gains are 
proportionately higher for the poor than for the non-poor.
 
Keywords: Transport Economics Policy & Planning,Rural Roads & 
          Transport,Economic Theory & Research,Rural Transport,
          Rural Poverty Reduction
Date:     2006-04-01
URL:      http://d.repec.org
/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3875&r=agr



4. Estimating Heterogeneous Production in Fisheries
  
    Kurt E. Schnier (University of Rhode Island, Department of 
      Environmental and Natural Resource Economics, Coastal 
      Institute, 1 Greenhouse Road, Suite 212, Kingston, Rhode 
      Island 02881)
    Christopher M. Anderson (Department of Environmental and 
      Natural Resource Economics, University of Rhode Island)
    William C. Horrace (Center for Policy Research, Maxwell 
      School, Syracuse University, Syracuse NY 13244-1020)

Stochastic production frontier models are used extensively in 
the agricultural and resource economics literature to estimate 
production functions and technical efficiency, as well as to 
guide policy. Traditionally these models assume that each agent's 
production can be specified as a representative, homogeneous 
function. This paper proposes the synthesis of a latent class 
regression and an aagricultural production frontier model to 
estimate technical efficiency while allowing for the possibility 
of production heterogeneity. We use this model to estimate a 
latent class production function and efficiency measures for 
vessels in the Northeast Atlantic herring fishery. Our results 
suggest that traditional measures of technical efficiency may be 
incorrect, if heterogeneity of agricultural production exists.
 
Keywords: latent class regression, EC algorithm, stochastic 
          production frontier, technical efficiency
JEL:      D24 N52
Date:     2006-03
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n
?u=RePEc:max:cprwps:80&r=agr



5. Estimating Trade Restrictiveness Indices
  
    Kee, Hiau Looi
    Nicita, Alessandro
    Olarreaga, Marcelo

The objective of this paper is to provide indicators of trade 
restrictiveness that include both measures of tariff and non-
tariff barriers for 91 developing and developed countries. For 
each country, we estimate three trade restrictiveness indices. 
The first one captures the extent to which trade policies at home 
affect domestic welfare. This follows the work of Anderson and 
Neary (1992, 1994 and 1996). The second index captures the impact 
of trade distortions on each country?s import bundle. This 
follows the work of Anderson and Neary (2003). The last index 
focuses on market access and summarizes the trade distortions 
imposed by the rest of the world on each country?s export 
bundle. All indices are estimated for the broad aggregates of 
manufacturing and agriculture products. Results suggest that poor 
countries (and those with the highest poverty headcount) tend to 
be more restrictive, but they also face the highest trade 
barriers on their export bundle. This is partly explained by the 
fact that agriculture protection is generally larger than 
manufacturing protection. NTBs contribute more than 70 percent on 
average to world protection, underlying their importance for any 
study on trade protection.
 
Keywords: trade restrictiveness indices
JEL:      F10 F11 F13
Date:     2006-03
URL:      http://d.repec.org
/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:5576&r=agr



6. Endogenous Trade Policies in a Developing Economy
  
    N.M. Hung
    N.V. Quyen

Consider a small developing economy with a manufacturing sector 
opened to international trade, and an agricultural sector having 
limited, not to say any, access to world markets. We modify the 
Grossman and Helpman's influence-driven model of trade policy 
formation to allow for an endogenously determined wage rate in a 
three-sector economy where the manufacturing sector can lobby 
policy makers for favorable policies. Beside protectionist 
policies, namely an import tariff or an export subsidy, we show 
that the owners of the specific factor in agriculture - a non-
lobby group - have to bear a consumption tax imposed on their 
products. This would further strengthen the trade protectionist 
measure, and imply possibly undesirable general equilibrium 
repercussions: there will be a reallocation of labor to the 
manufacturing sector which enjoys an output expansion, an output 
contraction in the agricultural sector, and a lower workers' 
"real" income.
 
JEL:      F13
Date:     2006
URL:      http://d.repec.org
/n?u=RePEc:lvl:laeccr:0602&r=agr



7. Options and Tradeoffs in Krabi's Coastal Land Use
  
    Tipparat Pongthanapanich (Department of Environmental and 
      Business Economics, University of Southern Denmark)

This paper explores the tradeoff options for optimal coastal 
land use in Krabi?s coastal land development zone (CLDZ). 
Maximizing the net private benefit and maximizing the net 
environmental benefits, subject to the constraints set by land 
availability, effluent discharge from shrimp farms, and rice 
consumption are optimized via multiobjective programming. It is 
found that although the benefit from present land use pattern is 
close to the efficient level (Pareto frontier), reallocation of 
land use and revision of CLDZ are required in order to achieve an 
efficient outcome of planning. Designating aquaculture zones on 
the basis of carrying capacity is found to be an important scheme 
to control the impacts of shrimp farm discharges. The combined 
measures of carrying capacity and green taxation would lead to 
economically and environmentally responsible aquaculture. 
Compliance with aquaculture effluent standard alone could 
potentially lead to the detrimental optimum, and would be 
superfluous if aquaculture zones based on carrying capacity were 
designated.
 
Keywords: Coastal management, Pareto frontier, multiobjective 
          programming, Krabi
JEL:      C61 D62 D74 Q24
Date:     2005-12
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n
?u=RePEc:sdk:wpaper:66&r=agr



8. The Role of R&D in Productivity Growth: The Case of 
   Agriculture in New Zealand: 1927 to 2001
  
    Julia Hall
    Grant M Scobie (New Zealand Treasury)

Productivity growth is a key determinant of rising living 
standards. The agricultural sector has been an important 
contributor to the overall growth of productivity in New Zealand. 
The average rate of multifactor productivity growth in 
agriculture from 1926-27 to 2000-01 was 1.8%. We find evidence 
that this rate has been increasing especially since the reforms 
of the 1980s. This paper estimates the contribution that R&D has 
made to agricultural productivity. It develops a theoretical 
framework based on the stock of knowledge available to producers. 
This model incorporates foreign stocks of knowledge and the spill-
in effect for New Zealand. The estimation allows for extended lag 
effects of research spending on productivity. We find that 
foreign knowledge is consistently an important factor in 
explaining the growth of productivity. It appears that the 
agricultural sector relies heavily on drawing on the foreign 
stock of knowledge generated off-shore. The contribution of 
domestic knowledge generated by New Zealand?s investment in R&D 
is less clear cut. However, there is typically a significant 
positive relation between domestic knowledge and the growth of 
productivity. We find a wide range of estimates of the return to 
domestic R&D. The results are sensitive to the type of model used 
and the specification of the variables. Based on our preferred 
model we estimate that investment in domestic R&D has generated 
an annual rate of return of 17%. The results underscore the 
importance of foreign knowledge in a small open economy. The very 
existence of foreign knowledge may be a necessary condition for 
achieving productivity growth in a small open economy. However in 
no way could it be argued that this was sufficient. Having a 
domestic capability that can receive and process the spill-ins 
from foreign knowledge is vital to capturing the benefits. The 
challenge is to be able to isolate those effects from aggregate 
data for the agricultural sector. In that task we claim only 
modest success.
 
Keywords: New Zealand; technological change; R&D; productivity; 
          economics of knowledge; spillovers; rates of return; 
          agriculture
JEL:      O30 O40
Date:     2006-03
URL:      http://d.repec.or
g/n?u=RePEc:nzt:nztwps:06/01&r=agr



9. Tariff Equivalent of Technical Barriers to Trade with 
   Imperfect Substitution and Trade Costs
  
    Chengyan Yue
    John C. Beghin (Center for Agricultural and Rural 
      Development (CARD)) (Food and Agricultural Policy Research 
      Institute (FAPRI))
    Helen H. Jensen (Center for Agricultural and Rural 
      Development (CARD)) (Midwest Agribusiness Trade Research 
      and Information Center (MATRIC))

The price-wedge method yields a tariff-equivalent estimate of 
technical barriers to trade (TBT). An extension of this method 
accounts for imperfect substitution between domestic and imported 
goods and incorporates recent findings on trade costs. We explore 
the sensitivity of this revamped tariff-equivalent estimate to 
its determinants (substitution elasticity, preference for home 
good, trade cost, and to the reference data chosen). We use the 
approach to investigate the ongoing U.S.-Japan apple trade 
dispute and find that removing the Japanese TBT would yield 
limited export gains to the United States. We then draw policy 
implications of our findings.
 
Keywords: apple trade, Japan, price wedge, sanitary and 
          phytosanitary (SPS), tariff equivalent, technical 
          barriers to trade (TBT), trade cost, trade dispute.
JEL:      F1 F18 Q17 Q18
Date:     2005-11
URL:      http://d.repec
.org/n?u=RePEc:ias:cpaper:05-wp383&r=agr



10. GM Cotton Adoption, Recent and Prospective: A Global CGE 
    Analysis of Economic Impacts
  
    Anderson, Kym
    Jackson, Lee Ann
    Valenzuela, Ernesto

This paper provides estimates of the economic impact of initial 
adoption of genetically modified (GM) cotton and of its potential 
impacts beyond the few countries where it is currently common. 
Use is made of the latest version of the GTAP database and model. 
Our results suggest that by following the lead of China and South 
Africa, adoption of GM cotton varieties by other developing 
countries ? especially in Sub-Saharan Africa ? could provide 
even larger proportionate gains to farmer and national welfare 
than in those first-adopting countries. Furthermore, those 
estimated gains are shown to exceed those from a successful 
campaign under the WTO?s Doha Development Agenda to 
reduce/remove cotton subsidies and import tariffs globally.
 
Keywords: computable general equilibrium modeling; cotton 
          biotechnology; economic welfare; GMOs; subsidy; tariff 
          reform
JEL:      D58 F17 Q16 Q17
Date:     2006-03
URL:      http://d.repec.org
/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:5568&r=agr



11. Sugar prices, labor income, and poverty in Brazil
  
    Olarreaga, Marcelo
    Krivonos, Ekaterina

This paper assesses the impact that a potential liberalization 
of sugar regimes in OECD countries could have on household labor 
income and poverty in Brazil. The authors first estimate the 
extent of price transmission from world markets to 11 Brazilian 
states to capture the fact that some local markets may be 
relatively more isolated from changes in world prices. They then 
simultaneously estimate the impact that changes in domestic sugar 
prices have on regional wages and employment depending on worker 
characteristics. Finally, they measure the impact on household 
income of a 10 percent increase in world sugar prices. Results 
suggest that workers in the sugar sector and in sugar-producing 
regions have better employment opportunities and experience 
larger wage increases. More interestingly, households at the top 
of the income distribution experience larger income gains due to 
higher wages, whereas households at the bottom of the 
distribution experience larger income gains due to movements out 
of unemployment.
 
Keywords: Markets and Market Access,Economic Theory & Research,
          Agribusiness & Markets,Ag ricultural Trade,Agricultural 
          Industry
Date:     2006-04-01
URL:      http://d.repec.org
/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3874&r=agr



12. Quality and Competition: An Empirical Analysis across 
    Industries
  
    Crespi, John M.
    Marette, St?phan

This paper empirically explores the link between quality and 
concentration in a cross-section of manufactured goods. Using 
concentration data and product quality indicators, an ordered 
probit estimation explores the impact of concentration on quality 
that is defined as an index of quality characteristics. The 
results demonstrate that market concentration and quality are 
positively correlated across different industries. When industry 
concentration increases, the likelihood of the product being 
higher quality increases and the likelihood of observing a lower 
quality decreases.
 
Keywords: concentration, market structure, ordered probit, 
          product differentiation, product quality.
Date:     2006-03-28
URL:      http://d.repec.or
g/n?u=RePEc:isu:genres:12555&r=agr



13. Getting Rich and Eating Out: Consumption of Food Away from 
    Home in Urban China
  
    Ma, Hengyun
    Huang, Jikun
    Fuller, Frank H.
    Rozelle, Scott

The overall goal of this study is to better understand food-away-
from-home (FAFH) consumption in urban China. We use national 
statistical sources and our own data to examine the trends in 
FAFH during the late reform period and to analyze the 
determinants of FAFH demand, examining how different groups of 
consumers have participated in this new area of consumption. 
Besides the normal Tobit model for total food expenditure away 
from home, a system of multivariate Tobit equations was estimated 
simultaneously for three categories of foods consumed outside of 
the home. The results show that the rapid increase of FAFH demand,
a rise that is fueled by higher incomes, is changing consumption 
patterns in China?s post-reform urban economy. We also use our 
findings to illustrate how omission of accounting for FAFH trends 
by China?s official statisticians has affected the reported 
trends in national meat supply and demand statistics.
 
JEL:      D1 Q1 R2
Date:     2006-02-06
URL:      http://d.repec.or
g/n?u=RePEc:isu:genres:12499&r=agr



14. Allocating Nutrient Load Reduction across a Watershed: 
    Implications of Different Principles
  
    Feng, Hongli
    Jha, Manoj
    Gassman, Philip W.

A watershed based model, the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (
SWAT), along with transfer coefficients is used to assess 
alternative principles of allocating nutrient load reduction in 
the Raccoon River watershed in central Iowa. Four principles are 
examined for their cost-effectiveness and impacts on water 
quality: absolute equity, equity based on ability, critical area 
targeting, and geographic proximity. Based on SWAT simulation 
results, transfer coefficients are calculated for the effects of 
nitrogen application reduction. We find both critical area 
targeting and downstream focus (an example of geographic 
proximity) can be more expensive than equal allocation, a 
manifestation of absolute equity. Unless abatement costs are 
quite heterogeneous across the subwatersheds, the least-cost 
allocation (an application of the principle of equity based on 
ability) have a potential of cost savings of about 10% compared 
to equal allocation. We also find that the gap between nitrogen 
loading estimated from transfer coefficients and nitrogen loading 
predicted by SWAT simulation is small (in general less than 5%). 
This suggests that transfer coefficients can be a useful tool for 
watershed nutrient planning. Sensitivity analyses suggest that 
these results are robust with respect to different degrees of 
nitrogen reduction and how much other conservation practices are 
used.
 
Keywords: Least-cost allocation, Soil and Water Assessment Tool (
          SWAT), Transfer coefficients
JEL:      Q5
Date:     2006-03-24
URL:      http://d.repec.or
g/n?u=RePEc:isu:genres:12554&r=agr



15. Investigating nonlinear speculation in cattle, corn, and hog 
    futures markets using logistic smooth transition regression 
    models
  
    Andreas R?thig (Institut f?r Volkswirtschaftslehre (
      Department of Economics), Technische Universit?t Darmstadt 
      Darmstadt University of Technology))
    Carl Chiarella (School of Finance and Economics, University 
      of Technology, Sydney, Australia)

This article explores nonlinearities in the response of 
speculators' trading activity to price changes in live cattle, 
corn, and lean hog futures markets. Analyzing weekly data from 
March 4, 1997 to December 27, 2005, we reject linearity in all of 
these markets. Using smooth transition regression models, we find 
a similar structure of nonlinearities with regard to the number 
of different regimes, the choice of the transition variable, and 
the value at which the transition occurs.
 
Keywords: Futures markets, speculation, nonlinear dynamics, 
          smooth transition regression model.
JEL:      G10 G11 C22 C53
Date:     2006-02
URL:      http://d.repec.org/
n?u=RePEc:tud:ddpiec:167&r=agr



16. Identifying Technically Efficient Fishing Vessels: A Non-
    Empty, Minimal Subset Approach
  
    Alfonso Flores-Lagunes (University of Arizona)
    William C. Horrace (Center for Policy Research, Maxwell 
      School, Syracuse University, Syracuse NY 13244-1020)
    Kurt E. Schnier (University of Rhode Island)

There is a growing resource economics literature, concerning the 
estimation of the technical efficiency of fishing vessels 
utilizing the stochastic frontier model. In these models, vessel 
output is regressed on a linear function of vessel inputs and a 
random composed error. Using parametric assumptions on the 
regression residual, estimates of vessel technical efficiency are 
calculated as the mean of a truncated normal distribution and are 
often reported in a rank statistic as a measure of a captain's 
skill and used to estimate excess capacity within fisheries. We 
demonstrate analytically that these measures are potentially 
flawed, and extend the results of Horrace (2005) to estimate 
captain skill for thirty-nine vessels in the Northeast Atlantic 
herring fleet, based on homogeneous and heterogeneous production 
functions within the fleet. When homogeneous production is 
assumed, we find inferential inconsistencies between our methods 
and the methods of ranking the means of the technical 
inefficiency distributions for each vessel. When production is 
allowed to be heterogeneous, these inconsistencies are mitigated.
 
JEL:      C12 C16 D24
Date:     2006-03
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n
?u=RePEc:max:cprwps:78&r=agr



17. Combine Harvester Econometric Model with Forward Speed 
    Optimization
  
    Isaac, N.E.
    Quick, G.R.
    Birrell, S.J.
    Edwards, William M.
    Coers, B.A.

A combine harvester econometric simulation model was developed 
with the goal of matching the combine forward speed to the 
maximum harvested net income per acre. The model considers the 
machinery management costs of owning a combine and platform 
header for harvesting wwheat.
 
Keywords: combine harvesters, econometric modeling, machinery 
          management, yield monitor
JEL:      Q1
Date:     2006-03-22
URL:      http://d.repec.or
g/n?u=RePEc:isu:genres:12547&r=agr



18. Amplifying effects of land-use change on future atmospheric 
    CO2 levels
  
    Vincent Gitz (CIRED - Centre International de Recherche sur 
      l'Environnement et le D?veloppement - http://www.centre-
      cired.fr - [CNRS : UMR8568] - [] - [Ecole des Hautes Etudes 
      en Sciences Sociales][Ecole Nationale du G?nie Rural des 
      Eaux et des For?ts][Ecole Nationale des Ponts et 
      Chauss?es])
    Philippe Ciais (LSCE - Laboratoire des sciences du climat et 
      de l'environnement - http://www.lsce.cnrs-gif.fr - [CNRS : 
      UMR1572][CEA] - [] - [])

We constructed a model to analyze the interactions between land-
use change and atmospheric CO2 during the recent past and for the 
future. The primary impact of the conversion of forested lands to 
cultivated lands is to increase atmospheric CO2, via losses of 
biomass and soil carbon to the atmosphere. This increase is 
likely to continue in the next decades, but its magnitude can 
vary according to each land-use scenario. We show that this first-
order effect is further amplified by the correlated diminution of 
terrestrial sinks, because when croplands replace forests, the 
turnover time of excess carbon in the biosphere decreases, and 
hence the sink capacity of terrestrial ecosystems decreases. This 
effect acts to further increase by up to 100 ppm the CO2 level 
reached by 2100, and it is of<br />the same order of magnitude, 
although smaller, than climate-carbon feedbacks. Uncertainties on 
the magnitude of this land-use induced effect are large, because 
of uncertainties in the sink role of terrestrial ecosystems in 
the future and because of uncertainties inherent to the modeling 
of land-use induced carbon emissions. Such an extra rise in 
atmospheric CO2 is however partially offset by the ocean 
reservoir and by sinks operating over undisturbed, pristine 
ecosystems, suggesting that conserving pristine forests with long 
turnover times might be efficient in mitigating the greenhouse 
effect
 
Keywords: land-use change; carbon cycle; future scenarios
Date:     2006-03-30
URL:      http
://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:halshs-00009826_v1&r=agr


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Dauphin County Edition

Zip Code:  
The zipcode value determines localized news and weather content.
Clear
Current Conditions in
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

Weather Advisories

Last Updated:10:56 PM EST December 2, 2008
Conditions:Clear
Temperature:27° F
Wind Chill:27° F
Humidity:81%
Dew Point:22° F
Wind:North at 0 MPH
Pressure:30.22 Inches
Visibility:10.0 Miles
Sun Rise:07:12 AM
Sun Set:04:41 PM
Moon Rise:10:59 AM
Moon Set:09:02 PM


U.S. Department of Agriculture

Weekly Weather and Crop Bulletin



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 Midday Report: Downtown Arby's In Way Of Car; High-rise, Arts Center Proposed For Fraternity Spot; I-99 Rock Removal ...

 Ethanol Pushes Up Cumberland Feed Prices

 Will Higher Prices mooove In Their Favor?

 Region Gets Soaked

 Local News

 Animal Research: A Sensitive Topic

 Ag Secretary Addresses Variety Of Issues

 Sustenance Grown Locally

 Legislators Are Unhappy With County Schools Share

 Washington County Animal Shelter Operator May Be Charged


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 Economists: Credit Will Tighten For Farmers

 2009 Virginia Forage-beef Summit To Address Key Issues Facing Livestock Industry

 Nashville Stocks Take Hit Monday

 Elephant Exhibit Underway At L.A. Zoo Raising A Ruckus

 Stenberg: AG, 4-H Work Made 40 YRS. With Extension In Dawson Rewarding

 Bock, Malone Vie For District 64

 Experts: Langford's Indictment Will Hurt Economic Development

 Strain To Speak To Republican Women

 Agriculture Futures Trade Mixed On The Cbot

 Maryland Police Play Spies--and Look Like Fools


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