Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability

• Effectiveness of China's protected areas in reducing deforestation

  Published on May 7, 2019
  Our findings highlight the need of systematically evaluating the effectiveness of PAs and incorporating this effectiveness into conservation planning and management to more fully realize the goals of PAs not only in China but also around the world.

• EXPLORING LAND USE CHANGE IN A GLOBALISED WORLD (Book chapter) What is Telecoupling?

  Published on May 5, 2019
  Book chapter -- preview of first 20 pages

• CURRENT OPINION IN ENVIRO SUSTAINABILITY - Governing flows in telecoupled land systems

  Published on May 1, 2019
  We evaluate whether recent land-system science research into telecoupling provides a basis to set normative goals or priorities for addressing sustainability in coupled human-natural systems.

• SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT - Assessing the water and carbon footprint of hydropower stations at a national scale

  Published on April 22, 2019
  Water and CO2 footprint of hydropower have not been studied simultaneously at a large scale. We firstly assess water and CO2 foot- print of China's hydropower at a national scale.

• ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS - Guidance for assessing interregional ecosystem service flows

  Published on April 14, 2019
  We compile different indicators for assessing interregional ES flows and evaluate their suitability for national and regional ES assessments.

• SUSTAINABILITY -- The Role of Citizen Science in Conservation under the Telecoupling Framework

  Published on April 2, 2019
  We use the monarch butterfly, a migratory species of high conservation value, to illustrate how citizen science data can be utilized in telecoupling research to help inform conservation decisions.

• Spatial-temporal assessment of water footprint, water scarcity and crop water productivity in a major crop production region

  Published on April 2, 2019
  This study has implications for revealing potential unsustainable conditions in irrigated agriculture worldwide.

• SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT - Interactive National Virtual Water-Energy Nexus Networks

  Published on March 29, 2019
  We constructed and analyzed interprovincial virtual water and energy transfer networks, using China (the largest energy consumer and is undergoing severe water scarcity) as a demonstration.

• APPLIED ENERGY - Shift in a national virtual energy network

  Published on March 21, 2019
  The total virtual energy transferred from energy scarce to energy-abundant provinces increased from 43.2% to 47.5% from 2007 to 2012.

• SUSTAINABILITY -- Telecoupling Research: The First Five Years

  Published on February 21, 2019
  A systematic review of the first five years of telecoupling research to evaluate the state of telecoupling science and identify strengths, areas to be improved, and promising avenues for future study.

• The changing face of Great Lakes fisheries

  Published on February 3, 2019
  In this paper, we discuss the environmental, cultural, and socioeconomic changes that have characterized the Great Lakes, and we share our perspectives and personal stories about the impacts of these changes.

• Threats to freshwater fisheries in the United States: perspectives and investments of state fisheries administrators and Agricultural Experiment Station directors

  Published on February 3, 2019
  Our purpose was to survey fisheries administrators from state fisheries agencies and Agricultural Experiment Stations (AESs) about their perceptions of, and resource investment toward, threats to freshwater fisheries in the United States.

• Effects of the 2011 Missouri River flood on walleye natal recruitment and habitat use in Lake Sharpe, South Dakota

  Published on February 3, 2019
  Our results show the resilience of the Lake Sharpe walleye population to a catastrophic flood, providing fisheries professionals with an approach for quantifying flood effects on natal recruitment and developing spatially informed management approaches.

• Evolution of multiple global virtual material flows

  Published on January 1, 2019
  To address this knowledge gap, we assessed the evolution and interactions of global flows of virtual water, energy, land, CO2, nitrogen as well as financial capital embodied in international trade from 1995 to 2008.

• SUSTAINABILITY -- Complex interrelationships between ecosystem services supply and tourism demand: General framework and evidence from the origin of three Asian rivers

  Published on December 19, 2018
  This study identifies complex interrelationships between the demand for nature-based tourism, which is a type of cultural ES, ES supply, and the economy simultaneously, using China’s Qinghai Province as a demonstration site.

• JCRM - Spatial distribution of cetacean strandings in the Falkland Islands to define monitoring opportunities

  Published on December 1, 2018
  The Falkland Islands cetacean stranding database was transformed in a geo-spatial database.

• SUSTAINABILITY -- Toward rigorous telecoupling causal attribution: a systematic review and typology

  Published on November 27, 2018
  Systematic review of causal attribution in the telecoupling literature (n = 89 studies) and development of a standardized causal terminology and typology for consistent use in telecoupling research.

• Emerging threats and persistent conservation challenges for freshwater biodiversity

  Published on November 7, 2018
  Efforts to reverse global trends in freshwater degradation now depend on bridging an immense gap between the aspirations of conservation biologists and the accelerating rate of species endangerment.

• Sustainable hydropower in the 21st century

  Published on November 5, 2018
  Hydropower has been the leading source of renewable energy across the world, accounting for up to 71% of this supply as of 2016

• ECOSYSTEM SERVICES -- Global relationships between biodiversity and nature-based tourism in protected areas

  Published on October 30, 2018
  We present results on the interplay between biodiversity conservation and nature-based tourism, while controlling for environmental and socioeconomic factors in and surrounding terrestrial PAs worldwide.