Ecosystem Services最新文献

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.

The behavior of local natural resource users is not only affected by economic incentives but also by a diverse set of motivations and underlying values. These non-monetary drivers are crucial in safeguarding long-term positive conservation outcomes. However, measuring these factors still constitutes a significant challenge. Building on lessons learned from established methodology such as attitudinal or behavioral measures, we showcase how a contingent valuation method and experimental donation tasks can be used to measure relative changes in non-use values and are a good proxy for conservation preferences. We exemplify this approach within the context of a case study in northern Namibia, where it was employed to investigate whether exposure to a community-based conservation program affects individual conservation preferences. Our findings show that our approach can serve as a complement to established measures for conservation preferences while avoiding some of the existing pitfalls such as demand effects or costly data collection associated with behavioral and attitudinal measures.

Human activities have rapidly altered natural ecosystems worldwide, resulting in fragmented ecosystems that are either culturally or formally protected. These ecosystem patches can be critical for ecosystem services (ES) that support human well-being. In the Ethiopian highlands, the remaining church forests and wetlands have a unique conservation status and are part of the global priority areas for biodiversity conservation. ES flows from these ecosystems to surrounding benefiting areas lack local-scale field evidence data and are not well-understood. Here, we empirically quantify the distance-dependent flows for four ES: grass biomass, microclimate regulation, crop pollination, and soil erosion retention since they exhibit considerable variation in spatial scales and processes of ES flows. The effect of spatial distance on each ES benefit flow was analysed using spatially explicit empirical models. The key findings are as follows: (1) The benefit of ES varies significantly with distance to the source ecosystems. (2) ES supply is determined by the extent (fragmentation) and condition of ecosystems, together with ecosystem type. (3) The quantity and number of ES provided decreases with distance from the source, and beneficiaries up to 3 km of the source only receive one type of ES (grass biomass). Approximately 80 % of the benefiting areas are within a radius of 200 m from forests and wetlands. Bundles of multiple ES types are received at the frontiers of service-providing ecosystems, where number of benefits are compared at particular locations from the source point. The investigated ecosystems (440 km²) provided benefits to 8,770 km² for the four types of ES. Our findings imply that non-linear effects of key ecosystem variables need to be considered when mapping the distance-dependent ES flows. This study helps to understand the spatial connectivity between ecosystems and beneficiaries in the human-nature interdependency, which is useful for developing different strategies for ES conservation.

Landslides are destructive geomorphological processes that cause economic and social losses. This stimulates the development of new tools related to landslide hazard. Recently, trees, their growth rings and dendrochronology have become widely used in landslide studies. Thus, this study aims to explore the potential of trees in providing landslide-monitoring ecosystem services through dendrochronology. In our opinion, establishing such an idea would help promote empirical evidence on the efficiency of tree-ring-based tools to decision-makers. We use the example of a landslide in the Moxi basin, Sichuan, China and present results of dendrochronological analysis of growth eccentricity in 48 Nepalese alder (Alnus nepalensis) trees. This analysis provided data on event timing and magnitudes, average frequency and recurrence interval for reactivation of the study landslide, as well as spatial variability of landslide active. Based on dendrochronological data we were also able to determine the current slope balance and general hazard of landslide reactivation on the study slope. Our study shows that trees and dendrochronology can provide data on the activity of landslides that can complement and improve the results of standard engineering methods. Moreover, dendrochronology itself can provide the full information needed for landslide hazard assessment, monitoring and prediction.