Supplanting ecosystem services provided by scavengers raises greenhouse gas emissions.

ABSTRACT: Global warming due to human-induced increments in atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHG) is one of the most debated topics among environmentalists and politicians worldwide. In this paper we assess a novel source of GHG emissions emerged following a controversial policy decision. After the outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy in Europe, the sanitary regulation required that livestock carcasses were collected from farms and transformed or destroyed in authorised plants, contradicting not only the obligations of member states to conserve scavenger species but also generating unprecedented GHG emission. However, how much of this emission could be prevented in the return to traditional and natural scenario in which scavengers freely remove livestock carcasses is largely u

SUBMITTER: Morales-Reyes Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4295086 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature