Woody encroachment: social–ecological impacts and sustainable management

IF 11 1区 生物学 Q1 BIOLOGY Biological Reviews Pub Date : 2024-07-03 DOI:10.1111/brv.13104
Jingyi Ding, David J. Eldridge
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Abstract

Woody plants are encroaching across terrestrial ecosystems globally, and this has dramatic effects on how these systems function and the livelihoods of producers who rely on the land to support livestock production. Consequently, the removal of woody plants is promoted widely in the belief that it will reinstate former grasslands or open savanna. Despite this popular management approach to encroachment, we still have a relatively poor understanding of the effects of removal on society, and of alternative management practices that could balance the competing needs of pastoral production, biodiversity conservation and cultural values. This information is essential for maintaining both ecological and societal benefits in encroached systems under predicted future climate changes. In this review, we provide a comprehensive synthesis of the social–ecological perspectives of woody encroachment based on recent studies and global meta-analyses by assessing the ecological impacts of encroachment and its effects on sustainable development goals (SDGs) when woody plants are retained and when they are removed. We propose a working definition of woody encroachment based on species- and community-level characteristics; such a definition is needed to evaluate accurately the effects of encroachment. We show that encroachment is a natural process of succession rather than a sign of degradation, with encroachment resulting in an overall 8% increase in ecosystem multifunctionality. Removing woody plants can increase herbaceous plant richness, biomass and cover, but at the expense of biocrust cover. The effectiveness of woody plant removal depends on plant identity, and where, when and how they are removed. Under current management practices, either removal or retention of woody plants can induce trade-offs among ecosystem services, with no management practice maximising all SDGs [e.g. SDG2 (end hunger), SDG13 (climate change), SDG 15 (combat desertification)]. Given that encroachment of woody plants is likely to increase under future predicted hotter and drier climates, alternative management options such as carbon farming and ecotourism could be effective land uses for areas affected by encroachment.

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木质侵蚀:社会生态影响与可持续管理。
木本植物正在蚕食全球陆地生态系统,这对这些系统的功能以及依靠土地支持畜牧业生产的生产者的生计产生了巨大影响。因此,人们广泛提倡清除木本植物,认为这样做可以恢复以前的草原或开阔的稀树草原。尽管这种管理侵蚀的方法很受欢迎,但我们对移除木质植物对社会的影响以及可平衡畜牧生产、生物多样性保护和文化价值等相互竞争的需求的替代管理方法的了解仍然相对较少。这些信息对于在预测的未来气候变化下保持侵蚀系统的生态和社会效益至关重要。在本综述中,我们根据最新研究和全球荟萃分析,通过评估侵占的生态影响及其对可持续发展目标(SDGs)的影响,全面综述了林木侵占的社会生态观点。我们根据物种和群落层面的特征提出了木本植物侵占的工作定义;准确评估侵占的影响需要这样一个定义。我们的研究表明,侵占是一个自然演替过程,而不是退化的标志,侵占导致生态系统多功能性总体增加了 8%。移除木本植物可以增加草本植物的丰富度、生物量和覆盖度,但要以牺牲生物覆盖度为代价。移除木本植物的效果取决于植物的特性,以及移除的地点、时间和方式。在当前的管理实践中,无论是移除还是保留木本植物,都会导致生态系统服务之间的权衡,没有一种管理实践能最大限度地实现所有可持续发展目标[如可持续发展目标 2(消除饥饿)、可持续发展目标 13(气候变化)、可持续发展目标 15(防治荒漠化)]。鉴于在未来预测的更炎热、更干燥的气候条件下,木本植物的侵蚀可能会加剧,碳耕和生态旅游等替代管理方案可成为受侵蚀影响地区的有效土地利用方式。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
Biological Reviews
Biological Reviews 生物-生物学
CiteScore
21.30
自引率
2.00%
发文量
99
审稿时长
6-12 weeks
期刊介绍: Biological Reviews is a scientific journal that covers a wide range of topics in the biological sciences. It publishes several review articles per issue, which are aimed at both non-specialist biologists and researchers in the field. The articles are scholarly and include extensive bibliographies. Authors are instructed to be aware of the diverse readership and write their articles accordingly. The reviews in Biological Reviews serve as comprehensive introductions to specific fields, presenting the current state of the art and highlighting gaps in knowledge. Each article can be up to 20,000 words long and includes an abstract, a thorough introduction, and a statement of conclusions. The journal focuses on publishing synthetic reviews, which are based on existing literature and address important biological questions. These reviews are interesting to a broad readership and are timely, often related to fast-moving fields or new discoveries. A key aspect of a synthetic review is that it goes beyond simply compiling information and instead analyzes the collected data to create a new theoretical or conceptual framework that can significantly impact the field. Biological Reviews is abstracted and indexed in various databases, including Abstracts on Hygiene & Communicable Diseases, Academic Search, AgBiotech News & Information, AgBiotechNet, AGRICOLA Database, GeoRef, Global Health, SCOPUS, Weed Abstracts, and Reaction Citation Index, among others.
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