Global impacts of the meat trade on in-stream organic river pollution: the importance of spatially distributed hydrological conditions
In many regions of the world, intensive livestock farming has become a significant source of organic river pollution. As the international meat trade is growing rapidly, the environmental impacts of meat production within one country can occur either domestically or internationally. The goal of this...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2018-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research Letters |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aa94f6 |
| _version_ | 1797748181014937600 |
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| author | Yingrong Wen Gerrit Schoups Nick van de Giesen |
| author_facet | Yingrong Wen Gerrit Schoups Nick van de Giesen |
| author_sort | Yingrong Wen |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In many regions of the world, intensive livestock farming has become a significant source of organic river pollution. As the international meat trade is growing rapidly, the environmental impacts of meat production within one country can occur either domestically or internationally. The goal of this paper is to quantify the impacts of the international meat trade on global organic river pollution at multiple scales (national, regional and gridded). Using the biological oxygen demand (BOD) as an overall indicator of organic river pollution, we compute the spatially distributed organic pollution in global river networks with and without a meat trade, where the without-trade scenario assumes that meat imports are replaced by local production. Our analysis reveals a reduction in the livestock population and production of organic pollutants at the global scale as a result of the international meat trade. However, the actual environmental impact of trade, as quantified by in-stream BOD concentrations, is negative; i.e. we find a slight increase in polluted river segments. More importantly, our results show large spatial variability in local (grid-scale) impacts that do not correlate with local changes in BOD loading, which illustrates: (1) the significance of accounting for the spatial heterogeneity of hydrological processes along river networks, and (2) the limited value of looking at country-level or global averages when estimating the actual impacts of trade on the environment. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T16:01:11Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-fe03c4a637e441f28a685807ec66e0e0 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1748-9326 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T16:01:11Z |
| publishDate | 2018-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
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| series | Environmental Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj.art-fe03c4a637e441f28a685807ec66e0e02023-08-09T14:38:21ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262018-01-0113101401310.1088/1748-9326/aa94f6Global impacts of the meat trade on in-stream organic river pollution: the importance of spatially distributed hydrological conditionsYingrong Wen0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0723-5481Gerrit Schoups1Nick van de Giesen2Department of Water Management, Delft University of Technology , Stevinweg 1, 2628CN, Delft, The Netherlands; Author to whom any correspondence should be addressed.Department of Water Management, Delft University of Technology , Stevinweg 1, 2628CN, Delft, The NetherlandsDepartment of Water Management, Delft University of Technology , Stevinweg 1, 2628CN, Delft, The NetherlandsIn many regions of the world, intensive livestock farming has become a significant source of organic river pollution. As the international meat trade is growing rapidly, the environmental impacts of meat production within one country can occur either domestically or internationally. The goal of this paper is to quantify the impacts of the international meat trade on global organic river pollution at multiple scales (national, regional and gridded). Using the biological oxygen demand (BOD) as an overall indicator of organic river pollution, we compute the spatially distributed organic pollution in global river networks with and without a meat trade, where the without-trade scenario assumes that meat imports are replaced by local production. Our analysis reveals a reduction in the livestock population and production of organic pollutants at the global scale as a result of the international meat trade. However, the actual environmental impact of trade, as quantified by in-stream BOD concentrations, is negative; i.e. we find a slight increase in polluted river segments. More importantly, our results show large spatial variability in local (grid-scale) impacts that do not correlate with local changes in BOD loading, which illustrates: (1) the significance of accounting for the spatial heterogeneity of hydrological processes along river networks, and (2) the limited value of looking at country-level or global averages when estimating the actual impacts of trade on the environment.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aa94f6organic river pollutioninternational meat tradespatial distributionhydrological conditionswater management |
| spellingShingle | Yingrong Wen Gerrit Schoups Nick van de Giesen Global impacts of the meat trade on in-stream organic river pollution: the importance of spatially distributed hydrological conditions Environmental Research Letters organic river pollution international meat trade spatial distribution hydrological conditions water management |
| title | Global impacts of the meat trade on in-stream organic river pollution: the importance of spatially distributed hydrological conditions |
| title_full | Global impacts of the meat trade on in-stream organic river pollution: the importance of spatially distributed hydrological conditions |
| title_fullStr | Global impacts of the meat trade on in-stream organic river pollution: the importance of spatially distributed hydrological conditions |
| title_full_unstemmed | Global impacts of the meat trade on in-stream organic river pollution: the importance of spatially distributed hydrological conditions |
| title_short | Global impacts of the meat trade on in-stream organic river pollution: the importance of spatially distributed hydrological conditions |
| title_sort | global impacts of the meat trade on in stream organic river pollution the importance of spatially distributed hydrological conditions |
| topic | organic river pollution international meat trade spatial distribution hydrological conditions water management |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aa94f6 |
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