Times are displayed in (UTC-07:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada)Change
Human appropriation of net primary production: a critical component of the U.S. food-energy-water system
Topics: Land Use and Land Cover Change
, Sustainability Science
,
Keywords: human appropriation of net primary production, ecological footprint, agroecosystems Session Type: Virtual Paper Day: Friday Session Start / End Time: 4/9/2021 01:30 PM (Pacific Time (US & Canada)) - 4/9/2021 02:45 PM (Pacific Time (US & Canada)) Room: Virtual 22
Authors:
Christopher Lant, Utah State University
Suman Paudel, Utah State University
Lauren Tango, Utah State University
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
Abstract
The ecological footprint of human economies is best captured by the concept of human appropriation of net primary production (HANPP), first studied by Vitousek and others in the 1980s and further developed by researchers at the Institute of Social Ecology in Vienna. Like other footprint measures, such as carbon or water, HANPP can be fairly accurately measured and mapped in a temporally and spatially-explicit basis, thereby revealing critical elements of socio-economic metabolism and the interdependence of food-energy-water systems. Like virtual water trade, embodied HANPP reveals how human consumption in one, often urban, location is dependent upon ecosystems, usually rural, elsewhere. These teleconnections are best captured at the mesoscale of counties, small watersheds, and metropolitan areas.
Heretofore, HANPP has largely been studied at the global scale, using national-scale data, with a focus on the dependence of European economies on distant ecosystems. In this paper we present a first look at HANPP within the U.S. at a county scale to capture spatial and temporal dynamics and trends in American ecological footprints embedded within economic production, trade and consumption. The relationship between HANPP and other ecologically-related footprints such as water and nutrients is explored.
Human appropriation of net primary production: a critical component of the U.S. food-energy-water system