Assessing the contribution of communal lands to ecosystem services: A quantification of carbon sequestration in a case study from Portugal

City managers need to understand how land use and land cover (LULC) change in an urban landscape can affect future land degradation and conditions for ecosystem services (ESs) supply and demand. Optimal land use and land management requires explicit spatial mapping of ESs supply and demand under alternative land use scenarios. In this study, we applied spatially explicit models to predict changes in ESs supply and demand, and their coupling mechanisms, under one baseline scenario and three stakeholder‐defined LULC change scenarios (developed, planning, policy) in Shanghai municipality, China. The results suggest that the policy scenario could significantly increase ESs supply and restore degraded urban areas, but would not guarantee that supply meets demand for four key ESs tested: water retention, particulate matter removal, carbon sequestration, and recreation. However, the policy scenario significantly reduced the shortfalls and spatial mismatches in water retention, particulate matter removal and recreation services, and also greatly restored deficit areas for all four ESs. This is valuable scientific evidence that ESs supply and demand information can be incorporated into urban land management planning in a spatially explicit manner, in order to control or prevent future potential land degradation.

Research that connects the effects of urbanization on biodiversity and ecosystem services is lacking. Ants perform multifarious ecological functions that stabilize ecosystems and contribute to a number of ecosystem services. We studied responses of ant communities to urbanization in the Lake Tahoe basin by sampling sites along a gradient of urban land development. We sampled ant communities, measured vegetation characteristics, quantified human activities, and evaluated ant-community responses by grouping ants into service-providing units (SPUs), defined as a group of organisms and their populations that perform specific ecosystem services, to provide an understanding of urbanization impacts on biodiversity and their delivery of ecosystem services. Species richness and abundance peaked at intermediate levels of urban development, as did the richness of 3 types of ant SPUs (aerators, decomposers, and compilers). With increasing land development aerator and decomposer ants significantly declined in abundance, whereas compiler ants significantly increased in abundance. Competing models demonstrated that precipitation was frequently among the strongest influences on ant community structure; however, urban development and human activities also had a strong, negative influence on ants, appearing in most models with DeltaAIC(c) < 2 for species richness and abundance patterns of SPUs and generalists. Response diversity was observed within SPUs, which suggests that the corresponding ecosystem services were maintained until development reached 30-40%. Our data provide evidence that ecosystem functions, such as water infiltration and soil productivity, may be diminished at sites subject to greater levels of urbanization and that conserving ant communities and the ecosystem services they provide could be an important target in land-use planning and conservation efforts.

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

The many opportunities for mitigating atmospheric carbon emissions in developing countries include reforesting degraded lands, implementing sustainable agricultural practices on existing lands and slowing tropical deforestation. This analysis shows that over the next 10 years, 48 major tropical and subtropical developing countries have the potential to reduce the atmospheric carbon burden by about 2.3 billion tonnes of carbon. Given a central price of $10 per tonne of carbon and a discount rate of 3%, this mitigation would generate a net present value of about $16.8 billion collectively for these countries. Achieving these potentials would require a significant global effort, covering more than 50 million hectares of land, to implement carbon-friendly practices in agriculture, forest and previously forested lands. These estimates of host-country income potentials do not consider that outside financial investment may or may not be available. Our calculations take no account of the additional benefits of carbon sequestration in forest soils undergoing reforestation, increased use of biomass and reduced use of fossil-fuel inputs and reduced agricultural emissions. In all events, realizing these incomes would necessitate substantially greater policy support and investment in sustainable land uses than is currently the case.

Understanding the coordination relationship between ecosystem service (ES) supply and demand and elucidating the impact of driving factors is critical for regional land use planning and ecological sustainability. We use a large watershed area as a case to map and analyze ES supply, demand and the coordination relationship, and identify the associated socio-ecological driving variables. This study assessed the supply and demand of five ESs (crop production, water retention, soil conservation, carbon sequestration, and outdoor recreation) in 2000 and 2020, and evaluated the coordination between them employing the coupling coordination degree model (CCDM). Additionally, we utilized the geo-detector model (GDM) to identify driving determinants and their interactive effects on the spatial pattern of the coupling coordination degree (CCD) between ES supply and demand. The results showed that mountainous regions with abundant forest coverage were high-value areas for ES supply, while the ESs were predominantly required in city center areas within each basin area. From 2000 to 2020, there was a slight decline in ES supply and a significant increase in ES demand. Counties were grouped into four coordination zones in the study area: extreme incoordination, moderate incoordination, reluctant coordination, and moderate coordination. The number of counties with extreme incoordination linked to regions with a mountain ecosystem is increasing, where the ES supply is much greater than the demand. The moderate incoordination counties dominated by a cropland ecosystem exhibited slightly higher levels of ES supply than demand. The moderate and reluctant coordination were linked to counties with distinct ecological characteristics. Construction land played a major role in the characteristics of the CCD, followed by grassland. The interaction between construction land and all other factors significantly increased the influence on the CCD. These findings offered valuable insights for land managers to identify areas characterized by incoordination between ES supply and demand and understand associated factors to develop optimal ES management strategies.

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

As global consumption increases, there is a growing emphasis on the production of food and the use of other resources necessary for life. Consequently, many ecosystems are stressed because their ability to produce market goods is favoured over other critical functions and services that ecosystems provide such as energy transfer, water regulation, nutrient filtering, and carbon sequestration. Capturing these benefits using ecosystem services thinking offers decision makers a methodology for considering the multiple benefits that ecosystems provide. However, gaps in our understanding of how we can make the ecosystem services concept operational remain. Recognising the relationship between natural capital stocks and the provision of ecosystem processes and services is a crucial step in operationalising ecosystem services thinking. I advance this concept by identifying that attributes of natural capital are not uniform in their amenability to change. Hence, the central tenet of this thesis is that management actions targeted at manageable attributes of natural capital stocks is effective for influencing provision of ecosystem services and benefits. I test how management practices influence natural capital stocks that contribute to the provision of required ecosystem services, using a ‘provider group’ approach. Provider groups are sets of species which exhibit attributes which contribute to ecosystem services and benefits. The traditionally farmed grassland system in the Southeastern Carpathians, Romania, is a good example of a multifunctional landscape providing provisioning, regulating, and cultural ecosystem services and thus a useful case study to test this approach. I assigned grassland plant species to provider groups (quality fodder, medical and aromatic compounds, honey, pollen, nitrogen fixation, and conservation concern) based on their characteristics and tested the impact of management practices (abandonment of hay meadows, grazing, and mowing) on species diversity and abundance within each group. Over three quarters (77%) of the 210 unique species sampled during this study contributed to at least one provider group and over a third (36%) contributed to more than one group. I found that different management practices favour certain provider groups over others, and thus supply of certain ecosystem services over others. A more nuanced understanding of the influence of management practices on natural capital stocks can better inform agricultural and conservation policies targeted at sustaining multifunctional landscapes. Incorporation of social data, particularly that describing human behaviour and decision making, is critical to embed the ecosystem services concept into natural resource management policy and practice. Riparian management is a common policy option for mitigating the externalities of land use. A riparian management programme has been running in Taranaki Region, New Zealand for over 20 years providing a useful case study to elicit farmers perceptions and experiences of the pros and cons of planting riparian margins. I found the views of dairy farmers farming the Taranaki ring plain to be varied. Farmers with planted margins reported experiencing many on and off-farm benefits from multi-tier riparian plantings including production, environmental, and social values. This group of farmers identified 32 aspects of riparian vegetation across nine categories, 65% of which were positive aspects and 35% of which were negative aspects. Farmers who had fenced but not planted their riparian margins also believe benefits for water quality, animal safety, and farm management can be achieved from fenced grass strip riparian margins but were less convinced about additional benefits from planting. This group of farmers identified 15 aspects of riparian vegetation across four categories, all of which (100%) were negative aspects. Recognising that farmer’s perceptions and/or experiences vary can help inform how best to structure and deliver policies for sustaining provision of multiple ecosystem services and benefits. Biodiversity offsetting represents a critical application of the ecosystem services concept as trading biodiversity also inherently trades the associated ecosystem service values. Further, trading biodiversity in an offset exchange embodies the manipulation of natural capital stocks, in both the removal of species and habitats and in their replacement or enhancement elsewhere. Currencies used to evaluate offset proposals can either aggregate (combine measures of biodiversity attributes into a composite unit) or disaggregate (individually account for each measured biodiversity attribute of interest). I developed a disaggregated accounting model that balances like-for-like biodiversity trades using a suite of area by condition currencies to individually calculate the net present biodiversity value (NPBV) by which to evaluate no net loss for each biodiversity attribute inputted into the model. The model improves on more aggregated models by enabling increased transparency of biodiversity offsetting proposals, and thus improved decision making processes. This thesis provides an increased understanding of the relationship between management actions and ecosystem services and associated benefits at local scales, and a collection of tools and methods to support decision making targeted at sustaining multifunctional landscapes. Overall, this research illustrates that a natural capital focussed ecosystem services approach provides an opportunity to shift land management towards practices that sustain rather than deplete the natural capacity of ecosystems.

In this article, we explore the role of the Slovenian common lands managed by agrarian communities in providing ecosystem services. The study focuses on the Triglav National Park area with a fairly high proportion of common lands. We assessed the ecosystem service carbon sequestration, using MODIS Net Primary Production as a proxy, downscaled to a spatial resolution of 10 m. Despite the moderate overall carbon sequestration capacity of common lands, their forests and scrublands, which cover 14% of Triglav National Park and are characterised by higher productivity, play an important role due to their spatial extent. However, as Slovenia’s forests have experienced a decline in carbon sequestration capacity since 2014, improved management by private owners, including agrarian communities, supported by national and EU funds, is key to strengthening this vital ecosystem service.

Financial incentives for large-scale wetland restoration: Beyond markets to common asset trusts

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

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

Quantifying ecosystem services supply and demand shortfalls and mismatches for management optimisation

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.

Identification of ecosystem services supply and demand areas and simulation of ecosystem service flows in Shanghai

Contribution of microalgae to carbon sequestration in a natural karst wetland aquatic ecosystem: An in-situ mesocosm study