Advanced economic development of the Russian Arctic: sustainable nature management

Ecosystem services across contrasting forested landscapes in Queensland's Wet Tropics Bioregion: contemporary patterns, processes and likely future trends under a changing climate

Ecosystem services at risk: integrating spatiotemporal dynamics of supply and demand to promote long-term provision

Turning the tide: how marine ecosystem-service assessments contribute to preserve healthy seas

CONTEXTMultifunctionality can refer to the capacity of a landscape to provide a wide range of ecosystem services (ES). Maintaining or restoring multifunctionality in agricultural landscapes is considered an efficient solution to achieve sustainable agricultural production because multiple ES provided by a landscape can support both environmental protection and socio-economic benefits. Quantifying the provision of ES provides fundamental information to measure landscape multifunctionality and inform sustainable land management strategies. Although a large number of studies have been carried out to measure landscape multifunctionality and associated ES, comprehensive spatially explicit assessments at the farm scale are limited. OBJECTIVEThis research applies a wide range of spatial models, tools, and methods to spatially quantify the provision of multiple ES as well as the pattern of landscape multifunctionality in farmed landscapes. METHODSTo quantify the provision of multiple ES provided by the landscape, the bio-physical models provided by InVEST (e.g., Nutrient Delivery Ratio and Sediment Delivery Ratio models) and land use land cover-based assessments using spatial analysis tools in ArcGIS were employed. The Analytic Hierarchy Process was applied to calculate the landscape multifunctionality index which is an integration of multiple ES supply. Hot spot analysis using Getis Ord Gi* statistics was utilised to examine the spatial distribution of multiple ecosystem services. A hill country farm in New Zealand is chosen as a case study because it is a good example of a diverse landscape that is facing significant environmental issues due to intensive agricultural production. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONSOur study reveals that the provision of ES and the pattern of landscape multifunctionality is highly variable across the farm. Both positive and negative relationships among ES are found and the interactions between them are mainly reflected in three ES bundles: the agricultural land, the indigenous forest and wetlands, and the mixed land uses. Furthermore, our study demonstrates that the quality of landscape is significantly dependent on the landscape management goals and preferences of the farmer so involving them into the process of ES and landscape multifunctionality assessment at a farm scale is essential step to obtain more comprehensive results. SIGNIFICANCEResults from this study enable important questions to be answered regarding the spatial variation of ES provision and how land use and land management goals relate to the value and quality of landscape multifunctionality. This can provide valuable information to design future multifunctional landscapes and inform decision making in relation to sustainable land use management.

Landscape’s capacity to supply ecosystem service: Mapping and assessment for Kulik forest (Raiganj bird sanctuary), India

Ecosystems supply goods and services to humans and are the basis for sustainable development of human society. The study of the supply of ecosystem services and the demand and consumption of ecosystem services by human society, and the analysis of the supply and demand characteristics and flow relationships of ecosystem service flows are of great significance for the management of regional ecosystems and the development of ecological compensation. Taking the Yangtze River Economic Belt as an example, this paper calculates the supply and demand indices of ecosystem services in 2015 and 2020, and determines the ecosystem spatial flow paths and flow volumes from the ecosystem supply area to the demand area based on various methods and models such as the minimum cumulative resistance (MCR) model and distance decay model. The results indicate that 1). In 2015 and 2020, the supply and demand of ecosystem services in the Yangtze River Economic Zone show an increasing trend numerically, and there is spatial heterogeneity in the spatial distribution. In terms of ecosystem service supply per unit area, the midstream region is higher than the upstream and downstream regions. In terms of the demand for ecosystem services per unit area, the downstream is higher than the midstream and upstream. 2). From the supply-demand balance of ecosystem services in the Yangtze River Economic Zone, the midstream region is mainly the area of surplus supply of ecosystem services, and the downstream region is mainly the area of deficit supply. From 2015 to 2020, the number of areas with balanced supply and demand of ecosystem services in the Yangtze River Economic Belt decreases and the number of areas with unbalanced supply and demand increases, which is related to the changes in the level of economic development and land use patterns. 3). The flow of ecosystem services in the Yangtze River Economic Belt shows an increasing trend, from 726.59 billion yuan in 2015 to 1,450.54 billion yuan in 2020, with Jiangxi Province being the main ecosystem service supply area and Zhejiang Province being the main ecosystem service demand area in the Yangtze River Economic Belt.

Spatial patterns of associations among ecosystem services across different spatial scales in metropolitan areas: A case study of Shanghai, China

Ecosystem services supply and demand response to urbanization: A case study of the Pearl River Delta, China

With the acceleration of urbanization, the ecological environment has gradually deteriorated, the supply and demand relationship of ecosystem services has gradually become unbalanced, and human well-being has been seriously threatened. In particular, coal-using cities are facing the dual pressure of the ecological environment and resource depletion due to the concentration of population and resources, and environmental contradictions. Thus, exploring the relationship between the supply and demand of ecosystem services and their evolution help promote scientific ecological management. By using multi-source data from Huainan City in 2010 and 2020 and the ecosystem service supply and demand matrix and ArcGIS quantitative measurement of the supply, the demand and supply of ecosystem services in Huainan City were investigated. The result implies the following. (1) During 2010‒2020, the supply of ecosystem services in Huainan has decreased year by year. In terms of spatial distribution, the ecosystem service supply in Huainan City was high in the south and low in the north, and there is a significant regional differentiation, (2) Between 2010 and 2020, the demand for ecosystem services in Huainan City increased year by year, and its spatial distribution was similar to the distribution of ecosystem service supply. (3) Due to the decline in the supply of ecosystem services between 2010 and 2020, the demand for ecosystem services has increased, which leads to changes in the matching degree of supply and demand of ecosystem services in Huainan City.

Semi-natural habitats (SNHs) in agricultural landscapes represent important refugia for biodiversity including organisms providing ecosystem services. Their spill-over into agricultural fields may lead to the provision of regulating ecosystem services such as biological pest control ultimately affecting agricultural yield. Still, it remains largely unexplored, how different habitat types and their distributions in the surrounding landscape shape this provision of ecosystem services within arable fields. Hence, in this thesis I investigated the effect of SNHs on biodiversity-driven ecosystem services and disservices affecting wheat production with an emphasis on the role and interplay of habitat type, distance to the habitat and landscape complexity. I established transects from the field border into the wheat field, starting either from a field-to-field border, a hedgerow, or a kettle hole, and assessed beneficial and detrimental organisms and their ecosystem functions as well as wheat yield at several in-field distances. Using this study design, I conducted three studies where I aimed to relate the impacts of SNHs at the field and at the landscape scale on ecosystem service providers to crop production. In the first study, I observed yield losses close to SNHs for all transect types. Woody habitats, such as hedgerows, reduced yields stronger than kettle holes, most likely due to shading from the tall vegetation structure. In order to find the biotic drivers of these yield losses close to SNHs, I measured pest infestation by selected wheat pests as potential ecosystem disservices to crop production in the second study. Besides relating their damage rates to wheat yield of experimental plots, I studied the effect of SNHs on these pest rates at the field and at the landscape scale. Only weed cover could be associated to yield losses, having their strongest impact on wheat yield close to the SNH. While fungal seed infection rates did not respond to SNHs, fungal leaf infection and herbivory rates of cereal leaf beetle larvae were positively influenced by kettle holes. The latter even increased at kettle holes with increasing landscape complexity suggesting a release of natural enemies at isolated habitats within the field interior. In the third study, I found that also ecosystem service providers benefit from the presence of kettle holes. The distance to a SNH decreased species richness of ecosystem service providers, whereby the spatial range depended on species mobility, i.e. arable weeds diminished rapidly while carabids were less affected by the distance to a SNH. Contrarily, weed seed predation increased with distance suggesting that a higher food availability at field borders might have diluted the predation on experimental seeds. Intriguingly, responses to landscape complexity were rather mixed: While weed species richness was generally elevated with increasing landscape complexity, carabids followed a hump-shaped curve with highest species numbers and activity-density in simple landscapes. The latter might give a hint that carabids profit from a minimum endowment of SNHs, while a further increase impedes their mobility. Weed seed predation was affected differently by landscape complexity depending on weed species displayed. However, in habitat-rich landscapes seed predation of the different weed species converged to similar rates, emphasising that landscape complexity can stabilize the provision of ecosystem services. Lastly, I could relate a higher weed seed predation to an increase in wheat yield even though seed predation did not diminish weed cover. The exact mechanisms of the provision of weed control to crop production remain to be investigated in future studies. In conclusion, I found habitat-specific responses of ecosystem (dis)service providers and their functions emphasizing the need to evaluate the effect of different habitat types on the provision of ecosystem services not only at the field scale, but also at the landscape scale. My findings confirm that besides identifying species richness of ecosystem (dis)service providers the assessment of their functions is indispensable to relate the actual delivery of ecosystem (dis)services to crop production.

Chillo, V., Amoroso, M. M., Rezzano. C. A. 2018. Silvopastoral use intensity modifies the provision of ecosystem services through changes in diversity in forests of NW Patagonia, Argentina. Ecosistemas 27(3):75-86. Doi.: 10.7818/ECOS.1486 Silvopastoral use intensity modifies the provision of ecosystem services through changes in diversity in forests of NW Patagonia, Argentina. Changes in land use affect biodiversity, but our knowledge about the impact of diversity on ecosystem services (ES) is scarce. In Argentinean north-west Patagonia, mixed forests of cordilleran cypress ( Austrocedus chilensis ) and coihue ( Nothofagus dombeyi ) with extensive silvopastoral use are characterized by a spatial segregation of sites with high and low use intensity. Our objective was to evaluate the effect of silvopastoral use intensity (SUI) on the functional diversity of understory vegetation and on different ES, using generalized linear models. Also, we evaluated the relationship between multiple ES under different SUI in order to identify changes in synergies and trade-offs, using pairwise correlations between ES. We found that higher functional diversity values are found in communities under higher SUI, mainly due to a change of the community towards rapid resource acquisition strategy. ES such as soil fertility, forage production and erosion prevention were mainly related to changes in biodiversity, while cultural heritage was mainly relate to SUI. We identify synergies between most ES. Only forage production showed trade-offs with soil fertility and erosion prevention. With increasing SUI, this relationship changed the intensity but not the direction. Higher SUI promotes increases in biodiversity but notin the provision of multiple ES. An increase in the provision of provisioning ES is achieved at the expense of regulating and supporting ES. An heterogeneous distribution of areas of higher SUI within the landscape could allow the maintenance of diversity and the provision of multiple ES.

Chillo, V., Amoroso, M. M., Rezzano. C. A. 2018. Silvopastoral use intensity modifies the provision of ecosystem services through changes in diversity in forests of NW Patagonia, Argentina. Ecosistemas 27(3):75-86. Doi.: 10.7818/ECOS.1486 Silvopastoral use intensity modifies the provision of ecosystem services through changes in diversity in forests of NW Patagonia, Argentina. Changes in land use affect biodiversity, but our knowledge about the impact of diversity on ecosystem services (ES) is scarce. In Argentinean north-west Patagonia, mixed forests of cordilleran cypress (Austrocedus chilensis) and coihue (Nothofagus dombeyi) with extensive silvopastoral use are characterized by a spatial segregation of sites with high and low use intensity. Our objective was to evaluate the effect of silvopastoral use intensity (SUI) on the functional diversity of understory vegetation and on different ES, using generalized linear models. Also, we evaluated the relationship between multiple ES under different SUI in order to identify changes in synergies and trade-offs, using pairwise correlations between ES. We found that higher functional diversity values are found in communities under higher SUI, mainly due to a change of the community towards rapid resource acquisition strategy. ES such as soil fertility, forage production and erosion prevention were mainly related to changes in biodiversity, while cultural heritage was mainly relate to SUI. We identify synergies between most ES. Only forage production showed trade-offs with soil fertility and erosion prevention. With increasing SUI, this relationship changed the intensity but not the direction. Higher SUI promotes increases in biodiversity but notin the provision of multiple ES. An increase in the provision of provisioning ES is achieved at the expense of regulating and supporting ES. An heterogeneous distribution of areas of higher SUI within the landscape could allow the maintenance of diversity and the provision of multiple ES.

Understanding the balance between supply and demand of ecosystem services (ESs) is helpful for sustainable urban management. However, the interactions among multiple ESs supplies and demands remain under-researched, and ESs supply and demand spatial heterogeneity and correlation characteristics at the city level are rarely studied, especially in arid areas. To fill this gap, we established a comprehensive assessment framework of ESs supply and demand through integrating multi-source remote sensing data, social economy, and policy objectives, for the oasis city of Urumqi, China. The ESs supply-demand mismatches were revealed at the city level, and the spatial relationship between the ESs supply and demand was analyzed using spatial statistics. The results demonstrated that: (1) The total quantity of supply and demand of food provision, carbon sequestration, PM10 removal, and recreation services in Urumqi revealed that the demand was greater than the supply, the deficits being 16.10 × 107 kcal/ha, 6.88 × 104 t/ha, 155.86 kg/ha, and 697.26, respectively. (2) The supply and demand assessment of ESs revealed spatial differences from the city center to the suburbs, which further indicated that there are neighborhood similarities between the supply and demand of ESs. (3) The matching types of ESs supply and demand present obvious spatial heterogeneity, which can be divided into four types: High-high, high-low, low-high, and low-low. Owing to rapid urban development in the inner city, the city center is dominated by low-high, whereas the urban-rural ecotone is characterized by high-low, owing to the higher elevation and water resource advantages in the suburbs. Based on the analysis of the supply, demand, and matching of ESs, economic development and sustainable management policies are proposed for different ecological spaces. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2021;17:1293-1304. © 2021 SETAC.

Effects of shade, altitude and management on multiple ecosystem services in coffee agroecosystems

Assessment of spatial variability of multiple ecosystem services in grasslands of different intensities