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1. Assessing the effects of payments for ecosystem services programs on forest structure and species biodiversity

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-020-01953-3  

   Chen, H.L. (February 2020, Biodiversity and conservation)

   Globally, biodiversity has declined at an unprecedented rate, challenging the viability of ecosystems, species, and ecological functions and their corresponding services. Payments for ecosystem services (PES) programs have been established and implemented worldwide to combat the degradation or loss of essential ecosystems and ecosystem services with-out sacrificing the well-being of people. With an overarching goal of reducing soil ero-sion, China’s Grain-to-Green program (GTGP) converts cropland to forest or grassland. As one of the largest PES programs in the world, GTGP has great potential to offer biodi-versity conservation co-benefits. To consider how GTGP may influence biodiversity, we measured forest structure and plant and wildlife species diversity at both GTGP forest and natural forest sites in Fangjingshan National Nature Reserve, China. We also evaluated the relationship between canopy cover and biodiversity measures to test whether forest cover, the most commonly measured and reported ecological metric of PES programs, might act as a good proxy for other biodiversity related parameters. We found that forest cover and species diversity increased after GTGP implementation as understory and overstory plant cover, and understory and midstory plant diversity at GTGP sites were similar to natural forest. Our results suggest that GTGP may also have been associated with increased habitat for protected and vulnerable wildlife species including Elliot’s pheasant (Syrmaticus elli-oti), hog badger (Arctonyx collaris), and wild boar (Sus scrofa). Nevertheless, we identi-fied key differences between GTGP forest and natural forest, particularly variation in forest types and heterogeneity of overstory vegetation. As a result, plant overstory diversity and wildlife species richness at GTGP forest were significantly lower than at natural forest. Our findings suggest, while forest cover may be a good proxy for some metrics of forest struc-ture, it does not serve as a robust proxy for many biodiversity parameters. These findings highlight the need for and importance of robust and representative indicators or proxy vari-ables for measuring ecological effects of PES programs on compositional and structural diversity. We demonstrate that PES may lead to biodiversity co-benefits, but changes in program implementation could improve the return on investment of PES programs to sup-port conservation of biodiversity. 

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2. Promoting Educational Success: Which GEAR UP Services Lead to Postsecondary Enrollment and Persistence?

   https://doi.org/10.1177/0895904818813301  

   Kim, Sanga; Bowman, Nicholas A.; Ingleby, Laura; Ford, David C.; Sibaouih, Christina (January 2021, Educational Policy)

   null (Ed.)

   Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) is a federal program designed to promote postsecondary readiness and success among low-income students. Some evidence suggests that this program promotes college enrollment and persistence, but GEAR UP may include a wide variety of services, and it is unclear which ones actually contribute to these apparent overall effects. The present study investigates this issue using doubly robust propensity score analyses to provide stronger causal conclusions. Four general service types and seven specific services were examined; the results provide important implications for GEAR UP and other programs designed to promote postsecondary attainment. 

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3. Bridging the gap: A sequential mixed methods study of trust networks in graduate application, admissions, and enrollment

   https://doi.org/10.1615/JWomenMinorScienEng.2023045735  

   Villarreal, Cynthia; Posselt, Julie; Hernandez, Theresa; Rudolph, Alexander (January 2023, Journal of women and minorities in science and engineering)

   Undergraduate education in the US is racially/ethnically stratified, and there is limited mobility for Black and Latinx BS recipients in STEM majors into the PhD programs from which faculty hiring disproportionately occurs. Bridge programs are proliferating as a means of increasing minoritized students’ enrollment in STEM graduate programs, but little social science examines mechanisms of their impact or how impacts depend on the graduate programs to which students seek access. This sequential mixed methods study of the Cal-Bridge program analyzed trust networks and mechanisms of relational trust as factors in graduate school application, admissions, and enrollment decisions. First, using social network analysis, we examined patterns in the graduate programs to which seven cohorts of Cal-Bridge scholars applied, were admitted, and chose to enroll. Then, we conducted an in-depth case study of the organization in the Cal-Bridge network with the highest centrality: University of California, Irvine’s physics and astronomy PhD program. We find the positive admission and enrollment outcomes at UC Irvine were due to intentional, institutional change at multiple organizational levels. Change efforts complemented the activities of the Cal-Bridge program, creating conditions that cultivated lived experiences of mutual, relational trust between bridge scholars and their faculty advisors and mentors. Findings illustrate mechanisms and antecedents of trust in the transition to graduate education. We use these findings to propose a framework that may inform the design of future research and practical efforts to account for the role of trust in inequities and creating more equitable cultures in STEM. 

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4. An integrated bioeconomic local economy-wide assessment of the environmental impacts of poverty programs

   https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1816093116  

   Gilliland, Ted E.; Sanchirico, James N.; Taylor, J. Edward (April 2019, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

   A new generation of poverty programs around the globe provides cash payments to poor and vulnerable households. Studies show that these social cash transfer programs create income and welfare benefits for poor households and the local economies where they live. However, this may come at the cost of damaging local environments if cash payments stimulate food production that conflicts with natural resource conservation. Evaluations of the economic impacts of poverty programs do not account for the welfare consequences of environmental impacts, which are potentially large for poor communities closely tied to natural resources. We use an ex-ante policy simulation tool, a bioeconomic local computable general equilibrium model parameterized with microsurvey data, to analyze the expected welfare consequences of environmental degradation caused by a cash transfer program. For a Philippine fishing community that is a net importer of fish, we show that a government cash transfer program initially increases real incomes for all households. However, increased demand for fish leads to a decline in the local fish stock that reduces program benefits. Household groups experience declines in real income benefits of 2–63%, with fishing households suffering the largest declines. Impacts on local fish stocks depend on the extent to which markets link fishing communities to outside regions through trade. Greater market integration can mitigate the fish stock decline, but this reduces the local income benefits of cash transfers. 

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5. Ancient Lowland Maya neighborhoods: Average Nearest Neighbor analysis and kernel density models, environments, and urban scale

   https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0275916  

   Thompson, Amy E.; Walden, John P.; Chase, Adrian S.; Hutson, Scott R.; Marken, Damien B.; Cap, Bernadette; Fries, Eric C.; Guzman Piedrasanta, M. Rodrigo; Hare, Timothy S.; Horn, Sherman W.; et al (November 2022, PLOS ONE)

   Hart, John P. (Ed.)

   Many humans live in large, complex political centers, composed of multi-scalar communities including neighborhoods and districts. Both today and in the past, neighborhoods form a fundamental part of cities and are defined by their spatial, architectural, and material elements. Neighborhoods existed in ancient centers of various scales, and multiple methods have been employed to identify ancient neighborhoods in archaeological contexts. However, the use of different methods for neighborhood identification within the same spatiotemporal setting results in challenges for comparisons within and between ancient societies. Here, we focus on using a single method—combining Average Nearest Neighbor (ANN) and Kernel Density (KD) analyses of household groups—to identify potential neighborhoods based on clusters of households at 23 ancient centers across the Maya Lowlands. While a one-size-fits all model does not work for neighborhood identification everywhere, the ANN/KD method provides quantifiable data on the clustering of ancient households, which can be linked to environmental zones and urban scale. We found that centers in river valleys exhibited greater household clustering compared to centers in upland and escarpment environments. Settlement patterns on flat plains were more dispersed, with little discrete spatial clustering of households. Furthermore, we categorized the ancient Maya centers into discrete urban scales, finding that larger centers had greater variation in household spacing compared to medium-sized and smaller centers. Many larger political centers possess heterogeneity in household clustering between their civic-ceremonial cores, immediate hinterlands, and far peripheries. Smaller centers exhibit greater household clustering compared to larger ones. This paper quantitatively assesses household clustering among nearly two dozen centers across the Maya Lowlands, linking environment and urban scale to settlement patterns. The findings are applicable to ancient societies and modern cities alike; understanding how humans form multi-scalar social groupings, such as neighborhoods, is fundamental to human experience and social organization. 

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