Abstract
Mountain farming sustains human well-being by providing various ecosystem services (ES). In the last decades, socio-economic developments have led to worldwide changes in land-use/cover (LULC), but the related effects on ES have not been fully explored. This study aimed at assessing the impacts of the transformation of agricultural land on ES in the European Alps. We mapped 19 ES within the agriculturally used areas in the year 2000 and analyzed LULC changes by 2018. We compared eight regions with a similar development, regarding social–ecological characteristics, to outline contrasting trends. Our results indicate that the ES decreased most strongly in regions with a massive abandonment of mountain grassland, while ES in the ‘traditional agricultural region’ remained the most stable. In regions with an intensification of agriculture, together with urban sprawl, ES had the lowest values. Across all regions, a shift from ES that are typically associated with mountain farming towards forest-related ES occurred, due to forest regrowth. By relating differing trends in ES to social–ecological developments, we can discuss our findings regarding new landscapes and farming systems across the European Alps. Our quantitative and spatially explicit findings provide a valuable basis for policy development, from the regional to the international/EU level, and for adopting sustainable management strategies.
Highlights
The IPBES (Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services) conceptual framework names three interactions between human societies and the non-human world: nature, nature’s benefits to humans, and a good quality of life
Our results reveal that the agricultural area in the Alpine region is under massive pressure, as up to 30% of agricultural land in some regions has been abandoned or converted to other uses within the last two decades, despite the efforts made within the framework of the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP)
Our results indicate that LULC change rates and, changes in ecosystem services (ES)
Summary
The IPBES (Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services) conceptual framework names three interactions between human societies and the non-human world: nature, nature’s benefits to humans, and a good quality of life. Small-scale farming systems and sustainable management practices have been developed over centuries to cope with the challenging topographic and climatic conditions [14] This has shaped appealing mountain landscapes, which are rich in biodiversity and provide many ES to local people, tourists, and adjacent lowland populations [15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24]. Less steep areas in the valley bottoms with a favorable climate and easy access have been intensified, often managed by larger and more specialized farms [33,34] Such changes have led to still ongoing transformations in agricultural landscapes, with implications for biodiversity and manifold ES [22,23,35,36,37]. Previous conditions and past processes show an impact on current landscape patterns and functions, but can determine, to a great extent, future pathways of landscape change [40]
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