维也纳自然资源与生命科学大学

India generates rapidly growing volumes of electronic waste but struggles to regulate these flows. This article traces the contested control of India’s printed circuit board (PCB) destruction network, examining who controls materials, labor, capital, and profits at each stage — from doorstep collection to international end-refining. Drawing on 25 expert interviews (2022–2023) and site visits in Delhi, we combine industrial ecology’s attention to material flows with political ecology’s focus on power and labor relations. We find that India’s PCB destruction network is not a failing system but a functioning one, even if its logic is not captured by the regulatory framework designed to govern it. Collection is controlled by informal networks whose infrastructure outperforms formal alternatives. Dismantling concentrates through skilled manual labor in dense informal communities that regulation has rendered invisible. End-refining is contested between European smelters, Chinese buyers, and India’s ambitions for domestic critical raw material recovery. Three lenses structure the analysis: the interdependence of formal and informal economies, where selective formalization serves the state, formal recyclers, and international smelters while the workers whose labor constitutes the network remain unrecognized; the power relations of labor and capital, in which control over the upstream stages rests on skilled labor organized through petty capital while global capital controls the profitable downstream stage; and geopolitical competition, in which India seeks sovereignty over materials it can neither process domestically nor prevent from leaving informally. We show how the valorization of secondary raw materials is shaped by informal networks, capital relations, and geopolitical interests.

Sustainability is essentially about enabling everyone to live a good life within planetary boundaries. Analysing this goal is hindered by problems of definition, measurement, and the large number of relevant factors. Comprehensive assessments of countries' resource requirements and emissions (i.e. their socioeconomic metabolism or SEM) related to human wellbeing are missing. To advance the field, we develop a multi-dimensional set of SEM indicators and analyse its relationship with the number of ‘years of good life’ (YoGL) of their inhabitants. The wellbeing indicator ‘YoGL’ measures years a person can expect to live above absolute poverty while enjoying health and life satisfaction. A descriptive analysis of ~110 countries from 1990 to 2019 reveals saturation curves: strong association of SEM and YoGL at low and weaker relations at higher levels of SEM and wellbeing. In a range of panel analyses we introduce mediating factors capturing how countries' provisioning systems turn resources into well-being relevant services (e.g. GDP, education, pollution or inequality). The association between SEM indicators and YoGL mostly disappears or even becomes inverse when mediating factors are considered. GDP is positively associated with YoGL in many but not all analyses. Education is positively and air pollution negatively associated with YoGL when the other explanatory variables are controlled. A cluster analysis of high-YoGL countries identifies a group enjoying highest YoGL at intermediate levels of resource use and emissions. Our results imply that raising wellbeing for all while reducing resource use and emissions will require moving beyond simple ‘decoupling’ and resource-use efficiency approaches.

The lyocell process, which utilizes N-methylmorpholine N-oxide monohydrate (NMMO) as a direct, non-derivatizing solvent for cellulose, currently represents the most environmentally benign technology for producing man-made cellulosic fibers. While dissolution and spinning are often perceived as physical processes, the system is, in fact, governed by a complex network of chemical side reactions. This review provides a critical examination of the “chemistry” of the lyocell process, with a focus on developments from the past two decades. The discussion encompasses the homolytic (radical) and heterolytic (ionic) degradation pathways of NMMO, which lead to solvent consumption and the formation of byproducts, such as N-methylmorpholine and morpholine. These reactions are linked to the autocatalytic degradation of NMMO and related “exothermic events”, but also to oxidative degradation of cellulose, resulting in chain scission and the generation of carbonyl functionalities. A significant consequence of these processes is the formation of chromophores, which cause discoloration of the spinning dope and the final fibers; their identification and formation mechanisms are also discussed. Given the unavoidable nature of these side reactions, a substantial part of this account is dedicated to the chemistry of the stabilizers, with propyl gallate serving as a key example, which are introduced to minimize those side reactions and their effects. The review analyzes the dual antioxidant and intermediate-scavenging roles of stabilizers, their consumption mechanisms, and their unintended involvement in chromophore generation. Finally, the influence of critical process factors, such as temperature, cellulose feedstock quality, and the impact of metal ions, is evaluated, providing a comprehensive overview of the chemical challenges and advancements in modern lyocell technology.

Aim: To quantify how interacting regional anthropogenic pressures and climate warming have driven long-term changes in wild bee community composition and diversity. Location: Eight sites within a 300 km(2) region around Linz, Upper Austria (266-616 m a.s.l.). Methods: We analysed 11,934 museum and contemporary occurrences (out of a larger dataset of 17,515 records) of 340 wild bee species collected between 1910 and 2021. Temporal presence-absence data (in six 15-year intervals) were linked to interval-averaged temperature, precipitation and human population density (proxy for anthropogenic impact) as well as sampling effort (total number of sampling events). We fitted a single binomial generalised linear mixed model (GLMM) with species and site as random effects and species category (Intermittent, Disappearing, Appearing) interacting with environmental predictors. Post hoc trend comparisons and trait-based analyses further elucidated group-specific responses. Results: Community turnover drove an similar to 18% decline in species richness over the observation period. Disappearing specialists declined under rising human impact and warming. Intermittent species were favoured by wetter and warmer intervals but negatively affected by higher human densities. Appearing generalists expanded under warming and anthropogenic pressures with no precipitation response. Omnipresent generalists remained consistently present irrespective of environmental variation, underscoring their broad tolerance but contributing to functional homogenisation. Sampling effort improved detection but did not alter these ecological patterns. Main Conclusions: Compounded anthropogenic pressures and climate warming drive specialist losses and generalist expansions, while precipitation buffers only intermittent species. Omnipresent generalists sustain baseline pollination, but community shifts toward generalists homogenise functional diversity and undermine ecosystem-level pollination resilience. Conservation must address multiple drivers-protecting specialist habitats, maintaining connectivity as well as climate- and precipitation-sensitive refugia-to preserve functional diversity and pollination services under ongoing global change.

For silver fir (Abies alba), a species expected to play an important role in climate-change adaptation of Central European forests, seed viability in Austria appears to be declining. Therefore, it is crucial to examine the constraints on seed viability and to identify ways to counteract the observed trend. In this study, we investigated factors associated with silver fir seed viability in seed stands and seed orchards in Austria. We hypothesized that seedling emergence is affected by endogenous (tree age, species abundance) and exogenous (climatic) conditions of seed stands, and that differences in emergence occur among seed production unit types, with higher success expected in seed orchards. We conducted a common garden experiment using seed lots from 63 seed stands and 6 seed orchards across Austria to investigate the likelihood of seedling emergence as a function of the proportion of silver fir-associated forest cover in seed stands, tree age, climate parameters and seed weight. Our results show a positive relationship between seedling emergence and the proportion of silver fir-associated forest cover, as well as between seedling emergence and the maximum age of the silver trees in stands. The effect of mean annual temperature on seedling emergence depended on annual precipitation levels: seeds from stands in warmer conditions had a higher probability of emergence, but only under sufficient precipitation. Synthesis and applications. As climate change, habitat loss and fragmentation intensify, seed-sourcing strategies should explicitly incorporate ecological filters when selecting stands for seed harvest to safeguard seed viability and genetic diversity for nursery production. Seed stand management should be refocused on promoting structural conditions that enhance reproductive success, while seed orchards should continue to serve as essential sources of quality and genetically diverse reproductive material.