Spatial relationships among soil-based ecosystem services can vary at the regional and local level

Abstract

Ecosystem services (ESs) are currently seen as a useful support tool in the context on land management and environmental policies. Thus, great efforts are in progress for exploiting their potential. One of such ESs-based tools is when two or more ESs are taken into account at the same time. Here we analysed at a regional scale, soil-based ecosystem services (SESs), and their bundles (relationships consistent in space and time among two or more ESs taken into account ), showing their usefulness for decision makers. We used SESs derived from specific-calibrated data (produced through soil digital mapping) on soil properties from the plain area of Emilia Romagna in Italy, and applied spatially-explicit tools to investigate SESs relationships (i.e., synergistic or antagonistic/trade-offs). ESs relationships in the bundles concept are usually understood as constant at a global spatial basis. For instance, a bivariate ESs relationship such as a trade-off between soil carbon and crop production are usually assumed to remain constant all over the extension of a particular area of study. However, our approach shows that, at the local level, there can be deviations from the global relationships among SESs. In such local deviations the sign of the SESs relationship can can even change (e.g., a global SESs trade-off can show local synergies). At our case such deviation from a global trade-off to local scale synergy was observed for such SESs as carbon stock (CST) and water infiltration capacity (WAR). The deviation in the CST-WAR pair relationship was likely caused by how particular soil properties determine these SESs, since the local deviations in this SESs pair were associated to pedo-units at the landscape scale with particular properties. Thus, management practices that try to maximise such SESs with a single approach at a global level (study area) are likely to succeed in some, but not all of such pedo-units. Overall, our approach highlights how SESs can be useful in guiding land management decisions, and how inherent soil properties play a role in determining the relationships among SESs.