Analysis Of Ecosystem Services Research Articles

Analysis of cultural ecosystem services using text mining of residents’ opinions

Abstract Cultural ecosystem services are the benefits experienced by people visiting ecological resources. These services are assessed based on visitors’ behaviors and perception. Existing quantitative methods based on questionnaire surveys and geotagged photographs are useful in comparative analysis; however, they only address the items presented by researchers. This makes it difficult to explain unique user activities related to cultural ecosystem services in a specific area and the reasons behind their use. Qualitative analytics, which has been identified as an alternative, is ideal for confirming the features of local cultural ecosystem services but is limited in terms of quantification. In light of such limitations, this study opted for text mining as a tool for quantifying the opinions of local residents and the features of local cultural ecosystem services that were expressed during workshops. Specifically, the most frequently used keywords were selected from local residents’ texts concerning ecological knowledge and their opinions of cultural ecosystem services, and factor analysis was conducted for each ecological resource to shed light on the features of the cultural ecosystem services provided by each ecological resource. The analysis of Gwangju (Gyeonggi-do) Province, South Korea, showed that the main user activities related to cultural ecosystem services included mountain climbing, farm programs, and history and culture programs, among others. It also revealed local user activities in cultural ecosystem services in each ecological resource—ecosystem services provided by a public stadium in association with adjacent wetlands. It was observed that the indicator “recreation” was subdivided into “mountain climbing,” “exercise,” “strolling,” etc., in relation to “health value.” Meanwhile, the indicator “cultural heritage” was distinguished by the special user activity “ceramics” and was associated with “educational value.” It could also be qualitatively seen that “aesthetic value” was regarded as a benefit that accompanied the experience of “mountain climbing” and “exercise,” which may be enjoyed when visiting places of “nature,” “ecosystems,” or “plants” with “family,” in relation to “social relations value.” “Spiritual/religious value” was related to “cultural heritage” in Catholic sacred sites. However, limitations were found in the analysis of cultural ecosystem services based on the opinions of local residents, as it is difficult to compare them with the services of other regions. Thus, further advanced research on cultural ecosystem services is required to uncover regional user activities and allow for a comparative analysis between regions.

Spatiotemporal analysis of water-related ecosystem services under ecological restoration scenarios: A case study in northern Shaanxi, China

In order to control severe soil erosion, large-scale ecological restoration programs (ERPs) were undertaken, which greatly increased vegetation cover in the Chinese Loess Plateau. Although this has generated positive impacts on soil erosion reduction, the conflicts between water supply and the ERPs in the Loess Plateau remain debatable. The impacts of ERPs and climate change on soil erosion and water supply in the future received little attention. Therefore, the objective of this study is to analyze the potential impacts of ERPs on soil erosion and water yield by 2050 in northern Shaanxi, the Chinese Loess Plateau. Soil erosion and water yield were modelled for 2050 based on land use and land cover (LULC) retrospective datasets and downscaled climate scenarios. We designed three 2050 conservation scenarios (protection, business as usual (BAU), and No LULC change) and compared them to the 2015 baseline. The results indicate that soil erosion under the protection and BAU scenarios showed similar decreasing trends compared with the 2015 baseline. The water yield decreased for all three scenarios: by 28% (No LULC change scenario), 29% (BAU scenario), and 37% (protection scenario), indicating that climate change and ecological restoration are likely to place substantial pressures on water by 2050. Considering the water scarcity and climate scenarios in this region, stabilization of the vegetation cover at the 2015 levels may best support soil and water conservation in the future in northern Shaanxi. This study is expected to provide insights for decision-making to develop optimal soil and water conservation strategies in the semi-arid environment in China.

Multicriteria decision-support system to assess the potential of exclosure-based conservation in Ethiopia

AbstractLand degradation is a global challenge that affects lives and livelihoods in many communities. Since 1950, about 65% of Africa's cropland, on which millions of people depend, has been affected by land degradation caused by mining, poor farming practices and illegal logging. One-quarter of the land area of Ethiopia is severely degraded. As part of interventions to restore ecosystem services, exclosures have been implemented in Ethiopia since the 1980s. But the lack of tools to support prioritization and more efficient targeting of areas for large-scale exclosure-based interventions remains a challenge. Within that perspective, the overarching objectives of the current study were: (i) to develop a Geographic Information System-based multicriteria decision-support tool that would help in the identification of suitable areas for exclosure initiatives; (ii) to provide spatially explicit information, aggregated by river basin and agroecology, on potential areas for exclosure interventions and (iii) to conduct ex-ante analysis of the potential of exclosure areas for improving ecosystem services in terms of increase in above-ground biomass (AGB) production and carbon storage. The results of this study demonstrated that as much as 10% of Ethiopia's land area is suitable for establishing exclosures. This amounts to 11 million hectares (ha) of land depending on the criteria used to define suitability for exclosure. Of this total, a significant proportion (0.5–0.6 million ha) is currently under agricultural land-use systems. In terms of propriety river basins, we found that the largest amount of suitable area for exclosures falls in the Abay (2.6 million ha) and Tekeze (2.2 million ha) river basins, which are hosts to water infrastructure such as hydropower dams and are threatened by siltation. Ex-ante analysis of ecosystem services indicated that about 418 million tons of carbon can be stored in the AGB through exclosure land use. Ethiopia has voluntarily committed to the Bonn Challenge to restore 15 million ha of degraded land by 2025. The decision-support tool developed by the current study and the information so generated go toward supporting the planning, implementation and monitoring of these kinds of local and regional initiatives.

Neuroscience Application for the Analysis of Cultural Ecosystem Services Related to Stress Relief in Forest

The paper presents an integrated methodology to assess psychological and physiological responses of people when exposed to forests, with the main objective of assessing the suitability of different stands for stress recovery on the basis of tree species and density. From the methodological viewpoint, the study applies both a Restoration Outcome Scale (ROS) questionnaire and a neuroscientific technique grounded on electro-encephalographic (EEG) measurement. Results show different outcomes for conifers and broadleaves as well as a statistical significance of density in the evaluation of an individual’s emotional state. A forest with a high density of conifers and low density of broadleaves seems to be the proper combination for stress recovery. The differences among psychological stated preferences and EEG trends highlights potential conflict among “needs” and “wants” of people in the topic of stress relief. Potential applications of the research for health care and territorial marketing operations are suggested.

Ecological Carrying Capacity and Green Development in the “Belt and Road” Initiative Region

Since the 1970s, resource crisis, environmental pollution and ecological degradation have become prominent globally, and the limits to growth have always been an important theoretical and policy issue. The technological system of early warning and regulation based on carrying capacity evaluation has great potential in natural resource utilization, environmental management and ecosystem conservation. In this paper, the evolution of carrying capacity research and the concept of ecological carrying capacity are summarized, and the existing evaluation methods of ecological carrying capacity are classified into ecological footprint method, comprehensive index system method, ecosystem service analysis method and human appropriation of net primary productivity method. The current problems in ecological carrying capacity study were analyzed and the trend was outlooked. Combined with the special issue, the recent proceeding of ecological carrying capacity study in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) region was narrated, from the aspects of ecological carrying capacity evaluation method and application, the supply and consumption of ecosystem services, and the resources use and environment change. Some suggestions have been proposed to improve the accuracy and reliability of ecological carrying capacity evaluation: 1) the spatial heterogeneity and temporal dynamic change of ecological carrying capacity should be explored furtherly; 2) the interaction between ecological process and human activities should be simulated; 3) factors such as climate change, human activities and ecological products and ecological service flows should be integrated into the evaluation system of ecological carrying capacity.

Sensitivity analysis of ecosystem services especially food provisioning due to the dynamics of land use change in Bogor Regency, West Java, Indonesia

Land use changes greatly affect the value of ecosystem services. This study aims to analyse the sensitivity of ecosystem services especially food provisioning, affected by land use changes in Bogor Regency. The method used is visual interpretation and manual digitization of Indonesian Topographic Map (RBI) and the SPOT-7 with a resolution of 1.5 meters. The sensitivity assessment of ecosystem services is carried out through analytical hierarchy process (AHP). The results of the study showed that there was a changing in land use of 8.31% in the period 2000 to 2017. Forests area to be the most significant changes contribute 1.86%. Changes in land use are influenced by regional development and population growth, so that conversion of land use occurs massively at some point. Regulatory and supply functions are the most sensitive elements of ecosystem services to land use changes. Conversion of water catchment area causes a decrease in soil infiltration capacity and triggers erosion. This phenomenon leads to land degradation and natural disasters.

7 questions for energy concept in ecosystems science

Seven questions that fall in the gap between economics and the science of physics and chemistry are posed in a search for eventual improved insight into the processes providing ecosystem services. Economics and science are like two different cultures that both began in an era of awe at Newtonian physics. Economics has continued with models based on that while science has made giant steps into new levels of discovery. The paths of scientific revolution have been bumpy and ad hoc, pragmatically resolving technical questions in ways that “work”, sometimes oblivious of the need for elegance that would explain the macroscopic view of ecosystems. Economic analysis of ecosystem services needs to reverse engineer some scientific discoveries, especially the concept behind the term “energy”, and rebuild in logical blocks that embrace a wider boundary with a clearer focus of workings in space and time.

Social media-based analysis of cultural ecosystem services and heritage tourism in a coastal region of Mexico

Understanding spatial patterns of visitation and benefits accrued to different types of natural and cultural heritage tourists may have important implications for the sustainable management of their destinations. We investigate cultural services accrued to local, domestic and international visitors to the Usumacinta floodplain, a coastal region with one of the highest biological and cultural diversities in Mexico. We combine analysis of social media photographs and high-resolution land cover mapping to identify different cultural services and their association with specific ecosystem and land cover types. Hotspots for international tourists are spatially restricted to well-known and accessible sites. Locals are 2.2–2.5 times more likely than international visitors to be associated with aesthetic appreciation and birdwatching. Locals upload more photographs of coastal lagoons, mangroves, beach and sea. Results are analyzed in light of land cover changes in the region and provide valuable information to decision makers for improved tourism management and conservation strategies.

Understanding local perceptions of the impacts of large-scale oil palm plantations on ecosystem services in the Brazilian Amazon

Despite the increasing research on the impacts of oil palm, few studies have examined local perceptions of environmental changes of large-scale plantations in Latin America. This paper addresses this research gap through focusing on understanding these perceptions in communities bordering two plantations with different time of exposure to land use transformation in the Amazonian state of Pará, Brazil. Drawing on the concept of ecosystem services, results from our survey and qualitative interviews indicate that water availa bility, air and water quality were perceived to be the most heavily impacted ecosystem services by this crop. While respondents were aware of the negative impacts on ecosystem services of future palm plantations in the two sites, the majority tend to support a future expansion of this crop. Demographic characteristics as well as time of exposure to the crop did not correlate with peoples' perceptions as people in both sites tended to privilege job opportunities and economic benefits. We found that people's perceptions of land use change trade-offs were also linked to wider economic and social sustainability issues such as land conflicts, agribusiness management practices and distinct oil palm trajectories. We suggest that information on stakeholders' interactions, social differentiation and social and economic sustainability is needed for policy design and planning to complement an ecosystem services analysis of the trade-offs of oil palm expansion.

Analysis of Ecosystem Services in the Oaxacan Mixtec Region, (Tiltepec Watershed)

Analysis of Ecosystem Services in the Oaxacan Mixtec Region, (Tiltepec Watershed)

A multifunctional approach for achieving simultaneous biodiversity conservation and farmer livelihood in coffee agroecosystems

Ecologically complex agroecosystems often provide multiple conservation benefits, yet understanding the agricultural practices that favor biodiversity is often a theoretical task until we simultaneously demonstrate the economic impact of such practices on farmers. We provide a multifunctional analysis of both biodiversity and ecosystem services that influence coffee farm profit in Puerto Rico. We show that the vegetation heterogeneity of an agroecosystem, more so than any one ecological component (e.g. shade), is associated with a higher biodiversity of plants, birds, lizards, bees, ants, and parasitoid wasps. However, a farm's vegetation heterogeneity does not consistently correlate with profit-related ecosystem services, including coffee yield and biological control of coffee pests and pathogens, due to tradeoffs between services. Therefore, inherent financial incentives that would encourage farmers to manage farms in ways that maintain high associated biodiversity may be lacking. We explored several economic incentives that would allow farms to be simultaneously biodiverse and profitable, which we show is possible through realistic incentive schemes. We found that the combination of a certification premium plus carbon payments (50% premium plus $16 t−1 CO2e) or a restructuring of agricultural subsidies using currently experienced subsidy amounts may be sufficient to make farms that are more heterogeneous, and therefore more biodiverse, the most profitable option for farmers. If these biodiverse farms can also be profitable, it will open critical opportunities for maintaining rural landscapes that support farmers' livelihoods, as well as protect the planet's biodiversity.

Spiritual enrichment or ecological protection?: A multi-scale analysis of cultural ecosystem services at the Mai Pokhari, a Ramsar site of Nepal

Ecosystem services, a globalizing discourse referring to benefits humans gain from ecosystems, has been rapidly mainstreamed into scientific and political thinking of environmental management. However, non-material benefits, also known as cultural services, have been rather subsumed within the dominant ecosystem services discourse. This paper explores local cultural services in the Mai Pokhari, a Ramsar site of Nepal, and adopts a multi-scalar analysis to explore the implications of global policy making at the local scale.The research, informed by political ecology, applies mixed methods. At the local scale, spirituality, sense of place and traditional practices were identified as important local cultural values within ecosystem management. But such local values were found to be marginalized in conservation policy making at national and global levels. The Ramsar listing at the case study site resulted in restrictions on community activities and opened the possibility of resettlement, creating disenchantment among the local community whose access to cultural services was curtailed. The study emphasizes the need to recognise and value local cultural services in policy-making at all levels. This is important not only for refining and improving global conservation policy initiatives based on ecosystem services, but also for securing just and sustainable conservation and development goals.

Sequestro de carbono

A Bacia Hidrográfica do Rio Canoinhas (BHRC) ocupa uma superfície de 1.663km², representando cerca de 16% da área do Planalto Norte Catarinense (PNC). Esta região era originalmente coberta por ecossistemas naturais com predomínio da Floresta Ombrófila Mista (FOM), uma das formações do bioma Mata Atlântica. A Mata de Araucárias apresenta elevados níveis de biodiversidade e alta capacidade de produção de biomassa florestal, sendo que sua ampla abrangência resulta em grandes reservatórios de carbono. O objetivo deste estudo foi verificar a distribuição espacial do estoque de carbono na BHRC. Para isto foram gerados mapas de cobertura e uso dos solos da BHRC, utilizando imagens satelitais de média resolução espacial dos anos de 2006, ano de instauração da Lei da Mata Atlântica, e de 2014. A determinação dos estoques de carbono das coberturas foi realizada por meio de revisão de literatura científica. Finalmente, estes materiais foram utilizados para gerar mapas de distribuição espacial de estoque de carbono. Como resultados se verificou que as áreas com vegetação nativa aumentaram 7.290 hectares, representando uma variação de 11%. As superfícies de produção florestal com espécies exóticas aumentaram 950 hectares (8,5%), com diminuição no uso de espécies do gênero Pinus, e aumento de 519% nas áreas com espécies do gênero Eucalyptus. Com base nas informações geradas se pode evidenciar o papel dos dispositivos legais para conservação da vegetação nativa, bem como identificar as principais áreas de armazenamento de carbono na BHRC. O uso de técnicas de sensoriamento remoto se apresenta como uma ferramenta importante para análises espaciais de Serviços Ecossistêmicos (SE).
 Palavras chave: Serviços Ecossistêmicos. Sensoriamento Remoto. Mata de Araucárias.

Spatio-temporal evolution scenarios and the coupling analysis of ecosystem services with land use change in China

Ecosystem service (ES) supply and demand are affected by changes in land use and the supply of specific ecosystem services for human consumption, respectively. Future spatio-temporal dynamics and their coupling relations with land use in China have not been well analysed. In this study, based on future land use scenarios of Li's database, ES supply, demand and balance (supply minus demand) were revealed utilizing land use and land cover (LULC) matrix model in China in 2010, 2050 and 2100. The results showed that ES supply, demand and balance had great spatial and temporal variations under different scenarios at national and provincial scales. Higher population and higher urban expansion scenarios will lead to a significant decreasing in the balance values of different categories and total ESs in most provinces. The ecological sensitivity index was calculated to indicate the impact of land use intensity on ecosystem services. The results showed that the sensitivity levels in approximately 90% of provinces were low for all the scenarios, as only Anhui, Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Liaoning in 2050 and Gansu in 2100 were extremely sensitive to changes in supply, while only provinces in the central-eastern regions were sensitive with obvious differences from the demand. The coupling coordination analysis between land use intensity and ES balance was applied to identify the provinces with low-level coordination in land use and ES management. The results showed that the coordination change in most provinces remained stable under four scenarios. However, some provinces displayed an improving trend from low to moderate coordination or from moderate to high coordination and a degrading trend from moderate to low coordination or from high to moderate coordination from 2010 to 2100. This study contributes to exploring the effect of land use on ecosystem service evolution, thereby providing credible guidance for future land and ES management.

Devising Urban Biodiversity Habitat Provision Goals: Ecosystem Services Analysis

This paper employs a unique ecosystem services analysis methodology to evaluate how cities could support or generate ecosystem services. Ecosystem services analysis can provide quantifiable goals for urban ecological regeneration that are determined by the site-specific ecology and climate of an urban area. In this research, the ecosystem service of habitat provision is the key focus. The role of urban green space and urban forests is crucial within this. Setting ambitious targets for urban ecological performance and ecosystem services provision is of great importance due to the large negative environmental impact that cities currently have on ecosystems and, therefore, ecosystem service provision, and because healthier ecosystems enable humans to better adapt to climate change through creating potentials for increased resilience. A comparative case study analysing the ecosystem service of habitat provision in two existing urban environments with similar climates (Cfb according to the Köppen Climate Classification System) but in different parts of the world, namely Wellington, New Zealand and Curitiba, Brazil, was conducted to examine how the ecosystem services analysis concept can used to devise urban habitat provision goals. The paper concludes that, although achieving habitat provision goals derived from ecosystem services analysis in urban areas is likely to be difficult, determining quantitative site- and climate-specific staged goals could enable urban design professionals to increase the effectiveness of conservation and regeneration efforts in terms of ecosystem service provision from urban green and blue spaces.

Trade-off analyses of multiple mountain ecosystem services along elevation, vegetation cover and precipitation gradients: A case study in the Taihang Mountains

Mountain ecosystems provide a variety of important ecosystem services (ESs) to humanity; however, the variation in multiple mountain ESs and the trade-off relationships among mountain ESs remain largely unknown. In this study, we took the Taihang Mountains as the study area and used the root mean square error (RMSE) method to quantify the trade-offs among multiple mountain ESs. Our results showed that net primary production (NPP), soil conservation (SC) and habitat quality (HQ) increased significantly with increasing elevation and vegetation cover fraction (VCF), whereas water yield (WY) did not. In addition, the trade-offs among different ES pairs had different sensitivities to changes in elevation, VCF and precipitation. As the elevation and VCF increased, the trade-offs between WY and NPP and WY and HQ increased significantly. As the precipitation increased, the trade-offs between SC and NPP, WY and NPP, HQ and SC, and WY and HQ all decreased significantly. In addition, the trade-offs among these four ESs were lowest in mid-elevation, high-VCF and low-mean annual precipitation (MAP) areas. This study could improve our current understanding of mountain ESs and help ES management for the Taihang Mountains.

Forest decision support systems for the analysis of ecosystem services provisioning at the landscape scale under global climate and market change scenarios

Sustainable forest management is driving the development of forest decision support systems (DSSs) to include models and methods concerned with climate change, biodiversity and various ecosystem services (ESs). The future development of forest landscapes is very much dependent on how forest owners act and what goes on in the wider world; thus, models are needed that incorporate these aspects. The objective of this study is to assess how nine European state-of-the-art forest DSSs cope with these issues. The assessment focuses on the ability of these DSSs to generate landscape-level scenarios to explore the output of current and alternative forest management models (FMMs) in terms of a range of ESs and the robustness of these FMMs in the face of increased risks and uncertainty. Results show that all DSSs assessed in this study can be used to quantify the impacts of both stand- and landscape-level FMMs on the provision of a range of ESs over a typical planning horizon. DSSs can be used to assess how timber price trends may impact that provision over time. The inclusion of forest owner behavior as reflected by the adoption of specific FMMs seems to be also in the reach of all DSSs. Nevertheless, some DSSs need more data and development of models to estimate the impacts of climate change on biomass production and other ESs. Spatial analysis functionality needs to be further developed for a more accurate assessment of the landscape-level output of ESs from both current and alternative FMMs.

Changes in ecosystem services and an analysis of driving factors for China's Natural Forest Conservation Program.

China's Natural Forest Conservation Program (NFCP) is aimed at improving the fragile and unstable ecological environment and has become one of the largest ecological restoration programs in the world because of its enormous investment and effects. It is important to work out and strengthen new measures to overcome difficulties to promote more ecosystem services and human well‐being in the NFCP. This study focused on how to evaluate the ecosystem services change brought about by implementing the NFCP. Taking the key state‐owned forest areas in the Northeast and Inner Mongolia as the study area, we provide a basic overview of development and construct an evaluation index system and a distributed calculation method for the NFCP to analyze the implications of the NFCP on ecosystem services combined with multi‐source data coupling. An evaluation index system for NFCP ecosystem services was constructed. The system includes five ecological service functions and 12 evaluation indices. The trade‐off and/or synergistic analysis of ecosystem services were carried out. The regional characteristics and changes in the NFCP ecosystem services were emphasized. Although it has not been implemented for a long time, the NFCP has had a great impact on ecosystem services because it reduces soil and water losses, increases soil fertility, strengthens the forest carbon sink and helped the forest accumulate nutrients and purify the atmosphere. Socioeconomic factors affect the NFCP ecosystem services, such as the implementation area of NFCP, investment amount of NFCP, area ratio of nature reserves, and yield of tree stock volume. Policy drivers of the NFCP, changes in the economic structure and reductions in forest yield are the main factors affecting the change in NFCP ecosystem services. Although the NFCP has positively affected the society, the economy, and the ecological environment, it has also generated some problems, such as the improper management of forest resources, shortage of capital investment, staff transfer, etc. The social and economic problems will be transient with implementation of the NFCP, and the structural changes in forestry and agriculture may eventually benefit the forestry workers and other stakeholders.

Linking landscape ecology and land system architecture for land system science: an introduction to the special issue

ABSTRACTExplaining global environmental change requires an understanding of the relationships that exist between social systems and the natural environment. Creating integrative research frameworks capable of explaining these coupled human and natural systems has been a central activity in this long-standing intellectual project. One way to advance framework development is to focus on relationships among people, patterns, and processes. Two fields that have been making simultaneous advances to this triad are landscape ecology and land system architecture. In the introduction to this special issue, we highlight new research streams linking these two fields for a more robust Land System Science. We identify three fruitful avenues where these two fields can be linked to advance our theoretical understanding of the land system and develop broadly applicable mixed methodological tools: a renewed study of social and ecological processes, deeper engagement with this issues surrounding scale, and enhanced analyses of ecosystem services.

Ecosystem services impacts as part of building materials selection criteria

The built environment is responsible for large negative ecological impacts due in part to the vast amount of materials used in construction. Concurrently, construction and demolition activities result in vast amounts of materials being buried, burnt, and dumped. It is essential therefore to analyze the impact of building materials acquisition, use, and transformation on the ecosystems people inhabit and rely upon for well-being. Typically, this is examined in terms of material use, energy use, and emission of pollutants including greenhouse gases. The impacts various materials have on complex and interconnected networks of ecosystem services are rarely considered. In light of this, this article introduces the concept of ecosystem services in relation to selecting materials for the construction of the built environment. A methodology for applying ecosystem services analysis to building materials specification is presented, and a series of example matrices that examine a selection of materials that are grown, extracted, or made are provided. The article concludes that the potential for positive change in terms of the ecological impact related to building materials across their lifecycles and in how built environments and the materials within them are designed, specified, valued, built, and used is apparent if an understanding of ecosystem services is integrated into built environment materials selection.