Ecosystem Services最新文献

Increased pressure on land resources to provide multiple benefits calls for landscape strategies that optimize the supply of multiple ecosystem services (ES). Previous research into the drivers of landscape multifunctionality have focused on land use composition changes, but the spatial configuration of different land use types also drives ES supply. While the impact of landscape configuration on individual ES is well understood, the net outcome of these influences when considering many ES is not. Here we present the net-balance spatial interactions hypothesis, which posits that the strength and direction of local and surrounding landscape influences on the local supply of an individual ES will drive its optimal landscape configuration. Accordingly, the net balance of these influences across multiple prioritized ES will determine the optimal configuration for landscape multifunctionality. Further, ES that share the same optimal configuration strategy form a bundle that can be managed together. Using data from German grasslands we demonstrate that the net-balance spatial interactions hypothesis is applicable to land-use planning scenarios that aim to maximize multiple ES. It allows general rules to be applied when local, detailed ES data is not available, and can help identify the best option to minimize trade-offs in the face of multiple competing land-use objectives.

While quantified environmental benefits from biosecurity protection programmes are available, they remain scarce, patchy, and context-specific. This contributes to the oversight of non-market economic values such as recreation and conservation in practical decision-making. To better understand this situation, we conducted a systematic review focused on studies that estimated non-market values. Our systematic literature review identified and described the body of knowledge on non-market values of current and future biosecurity protection initiatives worldwide. We identified 75 studies completed between 2000 and 2020 that examined biosecurity protection values across different ecosystems, including forests, freshwater, and marine environments. The results indicated that the three main quantified ecosystem service values were biodiversity conservation and enhancement, recreation, and bundled forest ecosystem services. Among the economic valuation methods, the survey-based stated preference method called choice experiment was the most widely used. This method provides a detailed approach to estimating multiple environmental values derived from biosecurity protection. We identified some significant advancements within the subfield of biosecurity protection, particularly in the valuation methods employed. These advancements include the integration of multiple approaches, such as combining economic valuation with spatial and psychological methods. We envision that our findings will inform the design of future NMV research. This, in turn, will better equip decision-makers to develop more effective, collaborative, and inclusive policies addressing biosecurity issues. These policies will account for the multiple values associated with biosecurity programmes.

The mesopelagic or ocean twilight zone (OTZ) in the ocean contains huge numbers of fish in a relatively pristine environment and may therefore attract interest as a commercial fishery. In this study we evaluate in economic terms, the likely trade-offs between the different services provided by the mesopelagic layer in the Bay of Biscay and the societal benefits of its commercial exploitation. Benefits arise mainly from the likely use of this group of species as raw material for producing fishmeal and fish oil. Costs are derived from the loss in climate regulating and cultural, services, but also from the loss in the provisioning service of other commercial species. To do so we compare the current non-exploited status with a situation in where mesopelagic fishes are harvested at levels capable of producing the Maximum Sustainable Yield. Results suggest that if mesopelagic fishes are harvested, a mean value of 1.2 million Euro loss in a year will be created in the Bay of Biscay, although in a range between 42 million Euro loss and 48 Euro million benefits. This uncertainty comes, mainly, from the limited existing knowledge of the mesopelagic fishes’ biomass but also from the uncertainty on the biomass of the rest of the species of the studied ecosystem. The large range indicates that a better understanding of the mesopelagic ecosystem is needed, however, results also show that ecosystem services under no exploitation provided by the OTZ could be more valuable than the fishmeal and fish oil that potentially could be obtained from the fishes harvested in this sea layer.

Auroral ecosystem services (ES) is a subject that has not yet been formally addressed in the expansive ecosystem services literature. This study conducts a systematic literature review using the Search, Appraisal, Synthesis and Analysis (SALSA) method to investigate the vast multi-century auroral literature for synthesis with the ES concept and identifies the main ES provisioned by the auroral phenomenon. A total of 2,900 publications concerning the aurora were sourced from three scientific databases (ScienceDirect, Scopus and Google Scholar), 1,054 articles were advanced to the synthesis and analysis stage, and 525 of the most illustrative examples were retained for the purposes of this review. Based on the categorization in accordance with Version 5.1 of the Common International Classification for Ecosystem Services typology, a total of 14 auroral ES are identified: provisioning (4), regulation and maintenance (1) and cultural (9). In addition, 9 ecosystem disservices (EDS) are also identified and classified: provisioning (4), regulation and maintenance (3) and cultural (2). The aurora is found to function in geophysical, biophysical and socio-ecological systems in a variety of ways. A novel extension of the ES concept is introduced as “exosystem services” (EXS), accounting for the aurora as an overlap between flows into ecosystems from the space environment, mirroring the geosystem services (GS) concept and its flows into ecosystems from the subsurface environment. Auroral ES in management and decision-making is discussed, and multiple opportunities for additional research are explored.

Biodiversity conservation is critical for sustaining ecosystem services (ES) and preventing ecological degradation. In ecologically fragile environments, agroforestry (AF) plays a crucial role. This study aims to provide a comprehensive overview of biodiversity and ES in AF systems (AF-BES) to enhance the service capacity in karst desertification areas through protection and management strategies. We conducted a systematic review to elucidate how biodiversity within AF contributes to ES. The results demonstrate that AF shows diversity and stability at the taxonomic level, aggregation and internal adaptability at the functional level, and comprehensive, persistent, and environmentally complementary service characteristics. Regarding the relationship between biodiversity and ES, taxonomic diversity is the most commonly used substitute indicator of biodiversity, and functional indicators are rarely considered. Furthermore, the relationship between cultural services and biodiversity has not yet been established, although most empirical evidence shows a linear correlation. Future research should focus on functional diversity, immaterial services, and integrated quantification methods. This work advances our understanding of AF-BES and informs global biodiversity protection efforts, providing a foundation for restoring similar fragile ecosystems.

Ecosystem services support human society at both local and global scale. The globalization of supply chains led to proliferating ecosystem markets around the world. Biocapacity – the provision of biomass-based resources like food, fibers and the CO₂ removal from atmosphere – of land-based ecosystems is particularly involved due to the nature of the services it provides. Since large scale-land acquisitions (LSLAs) commonly involve ecosystems or land located in the Global South and investors in the Global North, they may lead to the displacement of the benefits deriving from such ecosystems and their biocapacity. Previous studies investigated the LSLAs’ consequences in terms of ecological degradation. However, more research is needed for measuring the associated inequalities in order to track the global drivers of such degradation. This study aims to fill this knowledge gap by measuring net gains and losses of ecosystem service value linked with LSLAs by superseding the common approach and considering the involved countries’ biocapacity. The key novelty consists in backtracking the off-market value chain, which is an aspect so far unexplored among LSLAs studies. By focusing on the biocapacity economic value, we reveal that the growing trend in LSLAs is coupled with loss of benefits for the countries ceding land. The analysis captures the effect of the 2008 crisis which triggered more transactions, as well as the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, which exacerbated the already existing loss. Our analysis reveals that for every hectare of cropland acquired through international land markets in 2021, 15,000 US $ were lost, while for forest the loss amounted to 5000 US $ per hectare. Finally, we reveal that developing countries’ presence is growing among the expanding pool of investors, mostly acquiring from other developing countries.

The co-production of ecosystem services (ES) is an intertwined social-ecological process in which natural and anthropogenic contributions together produce a specific ES. Despite multiple studies in which ES trade-offs have been assessed, few empirical studies on arguments for biodiversity and ES exist, in which ES co-production function as a theoretical framework. In this paper, we study the co-production of aquatic ES and analyse political and legal arguments on biodiversity and ES in a long-standing dispute over hydropower and reservoir construction in the Kemi River basin, Finland. Specifically, we investigate what kinds of representations of ES co-production can be identified from stakeholder argumentation and in legal ruling. Our data consists of 26 semi-structured interviews conducted in 2017 and again 2019 to 2020, 144 news articles, and 4 administrative court resolutions. The results show that the arguments used by the stakeholders aim at maintaining the existing hydrological regime and expanding the use of natural resources, establishing river basin management that considers the multiple uses of river, including recreation, or protecting the last untouched stretches of the river and riparian ecosystems. The analysis also reveals that what is considered a valid and effective argument for specific audiences differs for political and legal audiences. The results of this study show that ES co-production concept set emphasis on the diversity of arguments, including the arguments on biodiversity and sociocultural values, which can contribute to governance and management interactions.

Green Belt policies govern peri-urban landscapes globally by restricting built development. Yet, they often have little consideration for the land within them. This is especially the case in England where ecosystem services are poorly accounted for in Green Belt policy, whilst also being viewed as a development obstacle, with few environmental and social benefits; a situation mirrored in peri-urban landscapes globally. Moreover, there is a significant research gap into Green Belts through the socio-ecological lenses of ecosystem services and multifunctionality, which allows populist discourses to go unchallenged. Using modelling and participatory mapping data this paper addresses this gap by quantifying the ecosystem service supply, trade-offs and multifunctionality of the North-East Green Belt, and the wider planning and policy implications. The results show that contrary to claims, Green Belts in England can and do provide multiple benefits to people when studied through these lenses. However, levels of individual ecosystem services and overall multifunctionality differ spatially within Green Belts resulting in opportunity areas as well as potential losses of ecosystem services from development. Areas of deciduous and coniferous woodland as well as key “green wedges” close to urban populations were found to be multifunctionality “hots-spots”, whereas arable and improved grassland provide notable “cold-spots”. Trade-offs were mostly from provisioning services. We argue that Green Belt policies explicitly and holistically accounting for ecosystem services could catalyse a multifunctional opportunity space for climate, nature and people in peri-urban landscapes. Additionally, our study demonstrates the conceptual merits of ecosystem service multifunctionality for planning.