Abstract
Land use and cover change (LUCC) is the main cause of natural ecosystem degradation and biodiversity loss and can cause a decrease in ecosystem service provision. Animal populations are providers of some key regulation services: pollination, pest and disease control and seed dispersal, the so-called faunal ecosystem services (FES). Here we aim to give an overview on the current and future status of regulation FES in response to change from original habitat to agricultural land globally. FES are much more tightly linked to wildlife populations and biodiversity than are most ecosystem services, whose determinants are largely climatic and related to vegetation structure. Degradation of ecosystems by land use change thus has much more potential to affect FES. In this scoping review, we summarise the main findings showing the importance of animal populations as FES providers and as a source of ecosystem disservices; underlying causes of agriculturalisation impacts on FES and the potential condition of FES under future LUCC in relation to the expected demand for FES globally. Overall, studies support a positive relationship between FES provision and animal species richness and abundance. Agriculturalisation has negative effects on FES providers due to landscape homogenisation, habitat fragmentation and loss, microclimatic changes and development of population imbalance, causing species and population losses of key fauna, reducing services whilst enhancing disservices. Since evidence suggests an increase in FES demand worldwide is required to support increased farming, it is imperative to improve the understanding of agriculturalisation on FES supply and distribution. Spatial conservation prioritisation must factor in faunal ecosystem functions as the most biodiversity-relevant of all ecosystem services and that which most closely links sites of service provision of conservation value with nearby sites of service use to provide ecosystem services of agricultural and economic value.
Highlights
Biodiversity is recognised as a key support for stable life on Earth (Hautier et al 2015) and plays an essential and complex role in all levels of ecosystem services production (Pimentel et al 1997, Balvanera et al 2006, Mace et al 2012)
We summarise the most relevant evidence addressing the following topics: a) the relevance of animal populations as providers of regulation services; b) the role of species richness and of abundance of providers in regulation faunal ecosystem services (FES) provision; c) animal populations as a source of ecosystem disservices, d) the effects of agriculturalisation on FES providers, e) the mechanisms underlying the observed negative impact of provider loss on regulation FES provision, f ) the potential condition of regulation FES under future Land use and cover change (LUCC) and g) the expected demand of regulation FES worldwide
We summarise the evidence available to support the FES concept, which highlights animal populations as essential providers of animal pollination, biological control and seed dispersal, as fundamental regulation services operating in both natural ecosystems and agriculture
Summary
Biodiversity is recognised as a key support for stable life on Earth (Hautier et al 2015) and plays an essential and complex role in all levels of ecosystem services production (Pimentel et al 1997, Balvanera et al 2006, Mace et al 2012). Ecosystem service providers are the species or entities on which the service provision depends and identifying and characterising their functional relationships are amongst the key research areas to increase understanding of the link between biodiversity and ecosystem services production (Luck et al 2003, Kremen 2005, Duncan et al 2015). Animals are key ecosystem services providers; we denominate faunal ecosystem services (FES) as those services that rely heavily on animal population. Kremen et al 2007) services For the latter, animals perform functions that allow ecosystem maintenance and production of other services, such as food or fibre provision. Conserving animal populations that provide FES is essential to maintain the correct functioning of ecosystems to provide ecosystem services where there is demand for them
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