Human Appropriation Of Net Primary Production Research Articles

Exploring the relationships between human consumption and environmental pressure: A case study of the Yangtze river economic zone in China.

It is crucial to decouple and coordinate human consumption and its environmental pressure for achieving sustainable development. As an important aspect of United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG12), sustainability on material consuming is still in its early stages of research. To address the research gap in sustainable consumption of vegetation net primary productivity (NPP), this study analyzed the spatio-temporal dynamics of human consumption and environmental pressure in the Yangtze River Economic Zone (YREZ) using consumption-based HANPP (cHANPP) and Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production (HANPP) as indicators. Later, we measured their decoupling relationship using Tapio decoupling approach. We found that distribution of HANPP and cHANPP were regionally separated, with the former mainly concentrated in the middle and upper reaches provinces, while the latter concentrated in the lower reach provinces. From 2004 to 2019, the relationship between HANPP and cHANPP changed from strong negative decoupling to weak decoupling in the YREZ. Furthermore, the relationship was differed among different regions. As a whole, developing regions showed a weak decoupling state, experiencing an increase in environmental pressure (i.e., HANPP) alongside increased human consumption (i.e., cHANPP). In contrast, developed regions showed a strong decoupling state, experiencing a decrease in environmental pressure (i.e., HANPP) alongside increased human consumption (i.e., cHANPP). Our study highlights that different countermeasures should be formulated by regions according to their own situation to realize sustainable regional development.

Agricultural HANPP Embodied in Consumption: Tracing Pressure on Ecosystems Based on an MRIO Analysis.

Agriculture is one of humankind's most significant sources of biomass; it also places tremendous pressure on ecosystems through its increasing demand for agricultural products. However, few studies have assessed human pressures on ecosystems from agricultural production and consumption based on a whole-supply-chain perspective. Based on the concept of human appropriation of net primary productivity (HANPP), we evaluate trends of agricultural HANPP embodied in consumption from a global perspective and trace the pressure from agriculture production that is exerted on the environment using an environmentally extended multiregional input-output (MRIO) model. The results show that agricultural HANPP embodied in consumption accounted for over two-thirds of total HANPP but brought about less than 7% of global value added. India, Brazil, and China were found to have the highest level of agricultural HANPP embodied in consumption. Agricultural net exporters were found to usually be low- and lower-income countries, while net importers are found to be high-income countries. According to the driving factor analysis, high-income and low-income countries should cooperate by adjusting consumption patterns and sharing agricultural technology to alleviate the pressure from agricultural production. Our study highlights the importance of agrarian expertise sharing and the need to develop sustainable and green agricultural production.

Land cover flows and land use intensity in the three decades of the post-communist Czechia: Changing trends and driving forces

The land system faces many pressures from the provision of biomass resources and space to the economy. The need to understand land use and cover changes and its drivers is of high importance. This work presents an innovative approach by applying a transdisciplinary approach combining the methods of spatial analysis Land Cover Flows with the methods from the concept of socio-economic metabolism, Material and Energy Flow Accounting, Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production (HANPP) and Final Energy Return on Investment (FEROI). Our main aim is to identify the main land use changes and land cover flows, link them to the underlying socio-economic processes and interpret them in a historical context. Our results show that the overall land use intensity is growing although the positive trends of growing grasslands and forests started after the collapse of communism. The growing intensity of agricultural production with increasing suburbanization reversed these trends. Until the 2000s the HANPP decreased but at the end of the period increased from 55% in 2012 to 70% in 2018. Volumes of the extraction of agricultural biomass are growing while the area of agricultural land has decreased. FEROI grew and stabilized to around 1.0 in the last period (2012–2018) comparable to the value found in the year 2001. The suburbanization rates peaked after the year 2000 at 250 m2/km2/yr.

An integrated method to quantify human appropriation of net primary production in grasslands of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Human appropriation of net primary production (HANPP) is an important indicator for measuring anthropogenic influences on ecosystems. However, it is a challenge to accurately delineate the spatial heterogeneity of the HANPP, mainly due to great uncertainties in the simulation of potential net primary production (NPPp). Here, we established a novel method for simulating grassland NPPp by integrating ecoregion delineation and a random forest (RF) model and derived HANPP calculated by the NPPp minus NPP remaining in the ecosystem after harvest (NPPeco). In a case study of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP), we evaluated the proposed method via validation and comparison with the NPPp and HANPP results in 2010 based on the Thornthwaite Memorial (TM) model and LPJ-GUESS model. The results indicated that the grassland NPPp values simulated by our method were closer to the observed field data in the two ecoregions, while the TM model generally overestimated NPPp. Moreover, the spatial distribution of the grassland HANPP based on the proposed method showed a high correlation coefficient (0.704) with grazing intensity, which was 0.669 higher than that of the TM model and 0.21 higher than that of the LPJ-GUESS model. The proposed method can provide a valuable basis for grassland sustainability assessment and disaggregating livestock data from administrative units into grid cells.

Uncovering the effects of policies, climate, and economic development on carbon neutrality in southern Tibet, China

Partitioning the contributions of climate, economic growth, and policy to a region’s carbon flows is an important process for the Chinese government seeking to optimize their regional development policies to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. A combination of the carbon emission analysis and human appropriation of net primary production (HANPP) framework was applied to a village in the Lhasa river valley, Tibet, to quantify the contributions of these different factors to carbon flows and neutrality. From 2010 to 2019, the average annual net sequestration of CO2 was 374.9 g CO2 m−2 a−1. Changes in climate conditions and the regional policy of Grassland Ecological Protection Subsidy and Reward increased carbon sequestrations by 409.5 and 25.7 g CO2 m−2 a−1, respectively. Socioeconomic development, policies for reducing poverty, and promotion of forage production led to the increase in CO2 emissions by 103.5, 88.8, and 4.3 g CO2 m−2 a−1, respectively. The cumulative CO2 emissions (including HANPP) caused by land use were 298.92 Tg CO2 (2479.63 g CO2 m−2; 1 Tg = 1012 g), while the cumulative CO2 emissions due to energy use were only 11.22 Tg CO2 (93.07 g CO2 m−2), equal to 3.75% of the CO2 emissions driven by land use. Livestock grazing and cropland cultivation were the two main land use factors affecting the carbon balance. We argue that unhooking economic growth from traditional nomadic animal husbandry and lifestyles through policy optimizations would highly contribute the carbon neutrality in Tibet.

China’s Urban and Rural Development Significantly Affects the Pattern of Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production

Increasing human activities have greatly influenced the ecosystem and the use of ecological resources, and the unbalanced urban–rural development in China (urban and rural areas being two major bases of human activities) has always been accompanied by heterogeneous ecological effects. Human appropriation of net primary production (HANPP) is an integrated indicator quantifying the human domination of productivity and harvest in the biosphere. Identifying the unbalanced constraints of urban and rural development on HANPP has become necessary for improving human–land relationships. This study analyzed the spatial distribution and regional differentiations of the HANPP in China in 2015 and investigated how HANPP and its components responded to unbalanced regional urban–rural development. The results show that the total amount of HANPP was 2.68 PgC and gradually decreased from the southeast to the northwest of China in 2015, representing 60.33% of the NPPpot. In addition, HANPPluc, harvest through cropland, livestock grazing, and forestry contributed 60.70%, 29.86%, 8.53%, and 0.91%, respectively, to the total HANPP, with HANPPluc playing the dominant role in 21 provinces. There was a significant differentiation (p < 0.05) in the spatial distribution of HANPP (gC/m2), HANPPharv (gC/m2), and HANPPluc (gC/m2), especially between the Huanyong Hu Line and the western–eastern part of China, fundamentally resulting from uneven regional development. In addition, biomass production–consumption decoupling existed in most regions in China, 17 provinces were identified as consumption type, and a universal positive correlation (p < 0.05) was identified between the production–consumption ratio of occupied biomass and HANPPharv (%HANPP). Different drive mechanisms were found between urban–rural development and HANPP, and each HANPP index was more likely to be affected by urban economy (UE), rural population (RP), and rural agricultural technology (RA) in China. The higher regional average nighttime light intensity, the proportion of the built-up area, and the urban road area corresponded with a large HANPPluc value. Conversely, HANPP would decrease as the proportion of urban green spaces increased. Furthermore, HANPP (%NPPpot) and HANPP (gC/m2) mostly depended on the rural development index, while HANPPluc and HANPPharv were mainly controlled by urban and rural development, respectively. Our findings help understand, first, how unbalanced regional development influences human-induced biomass occupation, the comprehensive urban ecological construction, and rural ecological restoration and, second, that the overall planning of urban–rural integration development must be strengthened to face greater ecological pressures in the future.

Product-Specific human appropriation of net primary production in US counties

Human appropriation of net primary production (HANPP) has been developed in the 21st century as an ecological indicator that may supersede ecological footprint due to its spatial specificity, precise measurement of land use intensity, and potential to be tied to trade in biomass-based products, thus enabling a consumption-based analysis. Fusing publicly available data sources, this paper presents a product-specific, county-level analysis of HANPP harvested from crops, timber and grazing in the conterminous United States in the years 1997, 2002, 2007 and 2012, the most recent dates for which all necessary data are available. Total HANPP(harvest) was 716–834 megatonnes (MT), including 514–615 MT from crops, 105–148 MT from timber and 64–76 MT grazed. Of this total, 432–512 MT, 60–66 percent, was a harvested commodity while the remainder was straw and forest slash; 83–84 percent was above-ground HANPP. Mean HANPP density varied from 92 − 107 gCm-2yr−1 in the years studied. With net primary production (NPP) varying from 558 − 610 gCm-2yr−1, this is 15–17 percent of NPP; NPP(ecological) thus varied from 466 − 577 gCm-2yr−1, 83–85 percent of NPP. The specific products with the largest proportions of HANPP were corn grain (26–32 %), soybeans (9–11 %), hardwood (6–10 %) and softwood (8–9 %) timber, grazing on private land (7–9 %), wheat (6–9 %), alfalfa (5–6 %) and aggregated minor crops (15–18 %). Among states, HANPP density varies from 7 gCm-2yr−1 in Nevada to 391 gCm-2yr−1 in Iowa and from 2 % of NPP in Massachusetts to 53 % in Iowa. Disaggregated analysis for 3101 counties shows even greater variation, from less than 1 to 726 gCm-2yr−1, and delineates regions carrying similar HANPP signatures. In the U.S. context, data availability and stoichiometry choices place only modest limitations on the accuracy of HANPP estimates making it a valuable ecological indicator for analyzing land use intensity, especially in agricultural ecosystems.

Allocation of U.S. Biomass Production to Food, Feed, Fiber, Fuel and Exports

This paper analyzes the end uses—food, feed, fiber, fuel, and exports—of biomass production in the U.S. in 1997, 2002, 2007, and 2012. They are also analyzed at the state level in 2012. Biomass production is measured as human appropriation of net primary production (HANPP), an ecological footprint measured as carbon fixed through photosynthesis, derived from data on crop, timber and grazing yields. HANPP was allocated to end uses using publicly available sources from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and internet-based sources publishing data on agricultural trade. HANPP was 717–834 megatons (MT) of carbon per year, which comprised 515–615 MT of crop-based, 105–149 MT timber-based, and 64–76 MT of grazed HANPP. Livestock feed commanded the largest proportion, but decreased from 395 (50%) to 305 MT (42%) of all HANPP and 320 to 240 MT (58–44%) of crop-based HANPP. The proportion allocated to exports was stable at 118–141 MT (17–18%) of total HANPP and 112–133 MT (21–23%) of crop-based HANPP. Biofiber decreased from 141 MT (18%) to 97 MT (13%) of all HANPP. Biofuel increased strongly from 11 MT to 98 MT, from 1% to 14% of all HANPP and 2% to 18% of crop-based HANPP, surpassing food and biofiber by 2012. Direct food commanded 89–105 MT, the lowest proportion at 12–13% of all HANPP, and 17–18% of crop-based HANPP. The highly fertile Midwest and the drought-prone Intermountain West stand out as regions where a very small percentage of biomass is allocated to direct human food. The high proportions of biomass production allocated to nonfood uses is consistent with the tragedy of ecosystem services and commodification of nature frameworks. Reducing these proportions presents opportunities for improving ecosystem services, food security, and human well-being.

Quantitative assessment of cultivated land use intensity in Heilongjiang Province, China, 2001–2015

Cultivated land is a crucial resource for human survival and development. The sustainable use of cultivated land is the foundation for ensuring food security and maintaining social stability. The Chinese government has promulgated a series of policies to protect cultivated land, focusing on the quantity, quality, and health of cultivated land. However, these policies lack adequate focus on aspects such as the intensity and sustainable use of the cultivated land. Human appropriation of net primary production (HANPP) is an important method for measuring land use intensity and ecosystem sustainability. Based on the HANPP framework, this study estimated the cultivated land use intensity (CLUI) at a 1-km-scale in Heilongjiang from 2001 to 2015. Spatial autocorrelation models were used to analyse the spatio-temporal patterns and aggregation characteristics of CLUI, and correlation analysis model was used to reveal the influencing factors of CLUI in time and space. The results included the following: (1) Utilization intensity of wheat (CLUIwheat), maize (CLUImaize), and all crops (CLUIall) increased by 0.07, 0.44, and 0.26, respectively, and rice (CLUIrice) decreased by 0.07 over 15 years. However, in the long term, cultivated land with rice had a higher utilization intensity with an average of 1.54, followed by maize (1.46) and wheat (1.23), which were significantly higher than the global average CLUI (approximately 0.84). Meanwhile, crop type conversion (from wheat and corn to rice, and from corn to rice) could significantly increase CLUI. (2) CLUIall had significant spatial heterogeneity and spatial aggregation characteristics. The barycentre of high-value aggregation of CLUIall moved to the northwest, while the barycentre of low-value aggregation moved to the southwest during the study period. (3) Fertilizers, pesticides, and plastic mulch had a significant positive correlation with CLUI. Excellent natural conditions could withstand more human disturbance and had lower utilization intensity. (4) Implementing the "Storing Grain in Land and Technology" strategy and cultivated recuperation policy to solve the high utilization intensity should be a priority. Scientific cropping structure, suitable cropping system, and reasonable fossil energy input were effective means to reduce the CLUI and achieve sustainable land use. In addition, establishing CLUI monitoring networks was an effective measure to obtain CLUI dynamics in a timely manner.

Modelling ecological scarcity considering the long-term interaction between human and nature in dry agricultural landscapes. Application in Qazvin (Iran)

Land Use and Cover Change (LUCC) is a pervasive driver of today's global socioecological crisis. In light of the LUCC in many agricultural landscapes worldwide, natural resource conservation is critical. Put-aside dry agricultural landscapes have significant limitations when attempting to guarantee long-term food production and other ecosystem services in ecological scarcity conditions under climate change scenarios. In this research, an Intermediate Disturbance-Complexity (IDC) model was applied to evaluate how ecological scarcity in NW Iran can be affected by anthropogenic disturbance and landscape complexity. This model calculates both the behaviour of the Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production (HANPP), a proxy of the amount of anthropic disturbance, and a Landscape Ecology (Le) metric, which measures complexity as a heterogeneous and well-connected land matrix. HANPP results show how dry pastures are affected by human pressure, while the results for Le indicate how human activities are affecting ecological corridors linking the northern and the southern parts of the study area. Finally, IDC results show that intermediate disturbance can have a positive effect on the provision of human needs and, at the same time, can help maintain the landscape's ecological functionality. The analysis confirms that land use policies should consider the landscape as a whole and should avoid applying a string of ad hoc decisions to minor pieces of the territory. Our findings support the view that a strong relationship between intermediate disturbance and landscape complexity exists, which highlights the importance of traditional economic activities as ways of maintaining biocultural landscapes.

Socio-ecological predictors of global patterns in human appropriation of net primary production

Human impacts on natural systems are often analysed using a statistical model based on the 50-year old IPAT concept, where impact (I) is a function of population (P), affluence (A), and technology (T). Varied results have accrued, but problems remain: ecological predictors are not part of the anthropocentric IPAT concept or statistical model; vastly different countries are often treated as statistical replicates; alternative hypotheses are rarely compared; and most studies evaluated only CO2 emissions as impacts. Here we compare alternative mixed-effect models to predict human appropriation of net primary production (HANPP) as an indicator of global human impacts at relatively fine scale (5 arc-min grid). Predictors represent anthropocentric (P, A and T) and/or ecological (plant biomass and climate) effects, with countries (N = 168) and/or anthropogenic biomes (anthromes; N = 19) as random effects. The most efficient models predict location and amount of HANPP well (R2 = 0.91 and 0.63, respectively) and use all predictors listed above. In both cases, ecological predictors and population have greatest effects on HANPP, consistent with a general, ecological predator–prey relationship modified by socio-ecological conditions. Global human impacts on terrestrial ecosystems (measured as HANPP) depend on both ecological and socioeconomic factors revealed here. Understanding these relationships is a necessary step toward mitigating human impacts on land.

Environmental and anthropogenic drivers of African leopard Panthera pardus population density

Globally three quarters of large terrestrial mammalian predators are in decline and many populations are data deficient, including those of African leopards across much of their range. Here we assess the drivers of decline African leopard populations in 16 camera trap surveys covering a total area of 15,120 km2, across a gradient of anthropogenic impact, management and geography, in protected areas across the Zimbabwean component of the Kavango-Zambezi (KAZA) Transfrontier Conservation Area. Population density was calculated using spatially explicit mark-recapture estimators and Generalised Additive Models (GAM) were used to assess factors affecting population density. Density estimates ranged from 0.7 to 12.2 (mean 2.9 ± 2.7) leopards/100km2. Leopard density was higher in wooded sites and rugged terrain but negatively affected by human factors including human appropriation of net primary productivity (HANPP), trophy hunting risk and bush-meat poaching. High lion densities (>6.0 lions/ 100km2) negatively affected leopard density. Annual rainfall over a gradient of ~300 mm across survey sites was not influential in predicting population density.Previous assessments of the drivers of declining leopard population density (CITES 1988), asserting that leopard densities can be predicted by annual rainfall and are unaffected by human disturbance in unmodified habitat are not supported by our findings. We recommend that the 1988 assessment, used to manage CITES leopard trophy hunting export quotas since the late 1980s, should be reviewed.

Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production Related to Livestock Provisioning Ecosystem Services in Southern Patagonia

Human appropriation of net primary productivity (HANPP) integrates ecological and socioeconomic perspectives on land use by quantifying the amount of net primary production (NPP) appropriated by society through biomass harvest from the ecosystem. The main objective of this study was to determine the spatial patterns of HANPP related to lamb and wool production from sheep farms across the province of Santa Cruz. The HANPP was obtained by dividing the sum of the biomass used in livestock products (lamb and wool) by the NPP. In addition, we examined the spatial relationship between HANPP and potential plant biodiversity and net carbon balance at the farm level under livestock land use across our study region. At the regional level, livestock production accounted for an average of 11.35% of appropriated NPP, and HANPP ranged from 0.75 to 50%. The map of HANPP across Santa Cruz showed low values in the vegetation transition (ecotone) between Nothofagus antarctica forests and grasslands in the west, in the south, and in wetlands where the most productive rangelands dominate. High values were observed in the northwest and central areas of the province. There were differences in HANPP across vegetation types with mean values that varied from 3.93% in grasslands on the Humid Magellanic Steppe to 12.33% in the Central Plateau. Simple linear regression analysis for HANPP evaluated in Southern Patagonia showed a negative linear relationship (p < 0.05) with vascular plant biodiversity and net carbon balance at the farm level. The method used to map HANPP related to livestock provisioning ecosystem services (ES) in the present study (lamb and wool), may be integrated into decision support systems. In this context, low HANPP values (<9%) promote sustainability-oriented economies within the region. Furthermore, keeping plant biodiversity and net carbon balance at the farm level could bring Patagonian export commodities recognition in international markets.

Towards a global behavioural model of anthropogenic fire: The spatiotemporal distribution of land-fire systems

Landscape fire regimes are created through socio-ecological processes, yet in current global models the representation of anthropogenic impacts on fire regimes is restricted to simplistic functions derived from coarse measures such as GDP and population density. As a result, fire-enabled dynamic global vegetation models (DGVMs) have limited ability to reproduce observed patterns of fire, and limited prognostic value. At the heart of this challenge is a failure to represent human agency and decision-making related to fire. This paper outlines progress towards a global behavioural model that captures the categorical differences in human fire use and management that arise from diverse land use objectives under varying socio-ecological contexts. We present a modelled global spatiotemporal distribution of what we term ‘land-fire systems’ (LFSs), a classification that combines land use systems and anthropogenic fire regimes. Our model simulates competition between LFSs with a novel bootstrapped classification tree approach that performs favourably against reference multinomial regressions. We evaluate model outputs with the human appropriation of net primary production (HANPP) framework and find good overall agreement. We discuss limitations to our methods, as well as remaining challenges to the integration of behavioural modelling in DGVMs and associated model-intercomparison protocols.

Mapping human appropriation of net primary production in agroecosystems in the Heihe River Basin, China

The Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production (HANPP) of agroecosystems is critical to food security, sustainable cropland use, and key biogeochemical processes such as carbon cycling and energy flow. However, current agroecosystem management lacks the support of high-resolution crop-type-specific HANPP information. To this end, this study integrated multi-source data of crop type, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) time-series, irrigation and climate, and multiple methods of the Miami model, the Carnegie-Ames-Stanford Approach (CASA) model, and process parameters to map the 30-m resolution spatial distribution of agroecosystem HANPP in the Heihe River Basin (HRB) in 2007 and 2012. We then analyzed the influences of climate condition, irrigation, and crop type on the HANPP. The average HANPP in the HRB decreased from 762.4 to 712.1 g C/m2 from 2007 to 2012, with a decrease by 6.6%. The HANPP values of wheat, barley, and oilseed rape decreased by more than 10.0%, whereas that of corn only decreased by 3.1%. The ratio of HANPP to potential NPP (NPPpot) dropped from 82.7% to 81.4% and that of land-use-induced HANPP (HANPPLUC) to HANPP from 61.9% to 58.5%, whereas that of crop-harvest-induced HANPP (HANPPharv) to HANPP increased from 38.1% to 41.5%. These changes indicated that crop productivity increased whereas NPP loss decreased. Crop type conversion accounted for 84.7% of the HANPP changes in HRB, with a value of −93.6 × 109 g C. Due to irrigation supplementation, the HANPP in high-temperature areas was higher than that in low-temperature areas with high precipitation. However, irrigation above 1000 mm no longer promoted HANPP, indicating that the irrigation efficiency in the HRB is low. Reducing HANPPLUC and carbon-water inputs while increasing HANPPharv is the key approach to obtain food security and sustainable agroecosystem development. Effective irrigation strategies and scientific crop planting adjustment should take into account their spatially heterogeneous and crop-specific impacts on the HANPP to help achieve these goals.

Quantifying and Mapping Human Appropriation of Net Primary Productivity in Qinghai Grasslands in China

Human appropriation of net primary productivity (HANPP) is an important indicator for assessing ecological sustainability. However, the spatiotemporal dynamics of HANPP in the Qinghai grasslands remain unclear. In this study, we used the spatially explicit Biome-BGCMuSo model to quantify and map HANPP in the Qinghai grasslands from 1979 to 2018. Generally, the actual net primary productivity (NPPact) was slightly lower than the potential net primary productivity (NPPpot), and the difference between the NPPpot and NPPact increased slightly over time. From 1979 to 2001, the NPPpot and NPPact were relatively stable; however, from 2001 to 2018, both showed significant fluctuating upward trends. From 1979 to 2018, HANPP showed a fluctuating upward trend from 6.36 to 31.85 gC/m2/yr, with an average increase of 2.14 gC/m2/yr. The average HANPP was 16.90 gC/m2/yr, which represented 18.80% of the NPPpot of Qinghai grasslands. High HANPP mainly occurred in eastern Qinghai, whereas it was low in central and western Qinghai. Conversely, from 1979 to 2018, the HANPP efficiency decreased in a fluctuating way from 98.28% to 72.05%, with an average annual decrease of 0.66%. The interannual variations in the HANPP efficiency and harvest were negatively correlated, with a correlation coefficient of −0.46 (p < 0.01). The average HANPP efficiency was 85.33%, and the values in most grids were between 80% and 100%, being relatively low in southern and eastern Qinghai. In rare cases, the HANPP efficiency was greater than 1. This study clarifies the details of spatiotemporal dynamics of HANPP in the Qinghai grasslands and indicates the need to optimize local management of grassland resources to ensure future ecological sustainability.

Land use intensification increasingly drives the spatiotemporal patterns of the global human appropriation of net primary production in the last century.

Land use has greatly transformed Earth's surface. While spatial reconstructions of how the extent of land cover and land-use types have changed during the last century are available, much less information exists about changes in land-use intensity. In particular, global reconstructions that consistently cover land-use intensity across land-use types and ecosystems are missing. We, therefore, lack understanding of how changes in land-use intensity interfere with the natural processes in land systems. To address this research gap, we map land-cover and land-use intensity changes between 1910 and 2010 for 9 points in time. We rely on the indicator framework of human appropriation of net primary production (HANPP) to quantify and map land-use-induced alterations of the carbon flows in ecosystems. We find that, while at the global aggregate level HANPP growth slowed down during the century, the spatial dynamics of changes in HANPP were increasing, with the highest change rates observed in the most recent past. Across all biomes, the importance of changes in land-use areas has declined, with the exception of the tropical biomes. In contrast, increases in land-use intensity became the most important driver of HANPP across all biomes and settings. We conducted uncertainty analyses by modulating input data and assumptions, which indicate that the spatial patterns of land use and potential net primary production are the most critical factors, while spatial allocation rules and uncertainties in overall harvest values play a smaller role. Highlighting the increasing role of land-use intensity compared to changes in the areal extent of land uses, our study supports calls for better integration of the intensity dimension into global analyses and models. On top of that, we provide important empirical input for further analyses of the sustainability of the global land system.

Forest carbon sink in the U.S. (1870–2012) driven by substitution of forest ecosystem service flows

Understanding the dynamics behind forest transitions, i.e., shifts from deforestation to forest recovery, is crucial for forest conservation and climate-change mitigation i.e., carbon (C) sequestration. We investigated the drivers of the forest transition in the United States, which was characterized by forest thickening despite surges in industrial wood extraction. We employ the concepts of Human Appropriation of Net Primary Productivity (HANPP) and Material and Energy Flow Analysis (MEFA) to quantitatively assess changes in major provisioning ecosystem services demanded from forests, i.e., industrial wood (comprising biomass used in products such as paper and pulp), grazing, and fuelwood, and analyse substitution processes from 1870-2012 at regional, sectoral, and national scales. The share of industrial wood in total annual forest biomass harvest increased from 23% to 84% over the time-period, while fuelwood and biomass grazed declined from 63% to 13%, and 14% to 3%, respectively. Reductions in demand for fuelwood and biomass grazed were enabled by shifts in feed and energy sources, consequently allowing for increases in both livestock numbers and energy use. Feed crops increased six-fold, alleviating grazing pressure on forest ecosystems, particularly in the Eastern states. Fossil fuels replaced fuelwood, especially in the residential sector. Between 1900-2012 the final energy mix increased seventeen-fold. Thus, the increase in biomass C stocks in U.S. forests was connected to substitution of forest ecosystem services with fossil fuel-based production systems, and with manifold increases in societal resource use and C dynamics. Such shifts need to be considered when assessing the positive environmental effects of forest transitions.

Applying the Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production framework to map provisioning ecosystem services and their relation to ecosystem functioning across the European Union

Human intervention on land enhances the supply of provisioning ecosystem services, but also exerts pressures on ecosystem functioning. We utilize the Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production (HANPP) framework to assess these relations in European agriculture, for 220 NUTS2 regions. We put a particular focus on individual land system components, i.e. croplands, grasslands, and livestock husbandry and relate associated biomass flows to the potential net primary productivity NPP. For the reference year 2012, we find that 469 g dm/m2/yr (38% of NPPpot) of used biomass were harvested on total agricultural land, and that one tonne of annually harvested biomass is associated with 1.67 tonnes dry matter (dm) of HANPP, ranging from 0.8 to 8.1 tonnes dry matter (dm) across all regions. EU livestock systems are a large consumer of these provisioning ecosystem services, and invoking higher HANPP flows than current HANPP on cropland and grassland within the EU, even exceeding the potential NPP in one fifth of all NUTS2 regions. NPP remaining in ecosystems after provisioning society with biomass is essential for the functioning of ecosystems and is 563 g dm/m2/yr or 46% of NPPpot on all agricultural land. We conclude from our analysis that the HANPP framework provides useful indicators that should be integrated in future ecosystem service assessments.

Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production: From a Planet to a Pixel

Human appropriation of net primary production (HANPP) is a substantial improvement upon 20th century attempts at developing an ecological footprint indicator because of its measurability in relation to net primary production, its close relationship to other key footprint measures, such as carbon and water, and its spatial specificity. This paper explores HANPP across four geographical scales: through literature review, the planet; through reanalysis of existing data, variations among the world’s countries; and through novel analyses, U.S. counties and the 30 m pixel scale for one U.S. county. Results show that HANPP informs different sustainability narratives at different scales. At the planetary scale, HANPP is a critical planetary limit that improves upon areal land use indicators. At the country macroscale, HANPP indicates the degree to which meeting the needs of the domestic population for provisioning ecosystem services (food, feed, biofiber, biofuel) presses against the domestic ecological endowment of net primary production. At the county mesoscale, HANPP reveals the dependency of metropolitan areas upon regional specialized rural forestry and agroecosystems to which they are teleconnected through trade and transport infrastructures. At the pixel microscale, HANPP provides the basis for deriving spatial patterns of remaining net primary production upon which biodiversity and regulatory and cultural ecosystem services are dependent. HANPP is thus a sustainability indicator that can fulfill similar needs as carbon, water and other footprints.