Maintain Ecosystem Services Research Articles

The big squeeze: maintaining the green infrastructure role of estuarine foreshores while adapting to sea-level rise

ABSTRACT A global challenge concerns reconciling population growth and increasing built infrastructure with foreshore ecosystems that are ‘squeezed’ against a rising sea levels, hampering their ability to deliver life-sustaining ecosystem services. This paper tests established sea-level rise strategies – fortification, accommodation, and retreat – using a city-centre adjacent estuarine case study in Western Australia to understand the implications for foreshore ecosystem service provision. The results indicate that some retreat of urban areas will be required, combined with the migration of the foreshore reserves landward, to maintain ecosystem service functions over the longer term.

Prairie Strips and Lower Land Use Intensity Increase Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services

Agricultural landscapes can be managed to protect biodiversity and maintain ecosystem services. One approach to achieve this is to restore native perennial vegetation within croplands. Where rowcrops have displaced prairie, as in the US Midwest, restoration of native perennial vegetation can align with crops in so called “prairie strips.” We tested the effect of prairie strips in addition to other management practices on a variety of taxa and on a suite of ecosystem services. To do so, we worked within a 33-year-old experiment that included treatments that varied methods of agricultural management across a gradient of land use intensity. In the two lowest intensity crop management treatments, we introduced prairie strips that occupied 5% of crop area. We addressed three questions: (1) What are the effects of newly established prairie strips on the spillover of biodiversity and ecosystem services into cropland? (2) How does time since prairie strip establishment affect biodiversity and ecosystem services? (3) What are the tradeoffs and synergies among biodiversity conservation, non-provisioning ecosystem services, and provisioning ecosystem services (crop yield) across a land use intensity gradient (which includes prairie strips)? Within prairie strip treatments, where sampling effort occurred within and at increasing distance from strips, dung beetle abundance, spider abundance and richness, active carbon, decomposition, and pollination decreased with distance from prairie strips, and this effect increased between the first and second year. Across the entire land use intensity gradient, treatments with prairie strips and reduced chemical inputs had higher butterfly abundance, spider abundance, and pollination services. In addition, soil organic carbon, butterfly richness, and spider richness increased with a decrease in land use intensity. Crop yield in one treatment with prairie strips was equal to that of the highest intensity management, even while including the area taken out of production. We found no effects of strips on ant biodiversity and greenhouse gas emissions (N2O and CH4). Our results show that, even in early establishment, prairie strips and lower land use intensity can contribute to the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services without a disproportionate loss of crop yield.

Benthic Macroinvertebrates and Zooplankton Communities as Ecological Indicators in Urban Wetlands of Argentina

Urban aquatic ecosystems are important sources of fresh water for multiple uses, but often receive a point or diffuse anthropic contamination. Benthic and zooplankton invertebrates are sensitive to water quality, being good indicators of ecosystem health. In this study, the composition and structure of benthic and zooplankton communities and environmental variables were analyzed seasonally in six urban wetlands of Santa Fe City (Argentina). We present the effect of water quality on both communities as bioindicators of ecological conditions, using different community attributes, functional feeding groups, and biotic indices. For the benthic community, the Macroinvertebrate Index for Pampean Rivers (IMRP) and the Benthic Community Index (BCI) were selected. For the zooplankton community, abundance of rotifers/abundance of total zooplankters, microcrustaceans/total zooplankters, cladocerans/total zooplankters, and macrozooplankton/microzooplankton ratios were applied. A functional feeding groups (FFGs) classification, adapted from the literature, is proposed for zooplankters. The urban wetlands showed a gradient from the most to the least disturbed sites. Some benthic and zooplankton species were identified as excellent bioindicators of pollution, and the FFGs and biotic indices revealed the ecological condition of each urban wetland. The present study contributes to the enhancement of management practices in urban landscapes aiming to maintain ecosystem services in sustainable cities.

Tropical and Boreal Forest – Atmosphere Interactions: A Review

This review presents how the boreal and the tropical forests affect the atmosphere, its chemical composition, its function, and further how that affects the climate and, in return, the ecosystems through feedback processes. Observations from key tower sites standing out due to their long-term comprehensive observations: The Amazon Tall Tower Observatory in Central Amazonia, the Zotino Tall Tower Observatory in Siberia, and the Station to Measure Ecosystem-Atmosphere Relations at Hyytiäla in Finland. The review is complemented by short-term observations from networks and large experiments. The review discusses atmospheric chemistry observations, aerosol formation and processing, physiochemical aerosol, and cloud condensation nuclei properties and finds surprising similarities and important differences in the two ecosystems. The aerosol concentrations and chemistry are similar, particularly concerning the main chemical components, both dominated by an organic fraction, while the boreal ecosystem has generally higher concentrations of inorganics, due to higher influence of long-range transported air pollution. The emissions of biogenic volatile organic compounds are dominated by isoprene and monoterpene in the tropical and boreal regions, respectively, being the main precursors of the organic aerosol fraction. Observations and modeling studies show that climate change and deforestation affect the ecosystems such that the carbon and hydrological cycles in Amazonia are changing to carbon neutrality and affect precipitation downwind. In Africa, the tropical forests are so far maintaining their carbon sink. It is urgent to better understand the interaction between these major ecosystems, the atmosphere, and climate, which calls for more observation sites, providing long-term data on water, carbon, and other biogeochemical cycles. This is essential in finding a sustainable balance between forest preservation and reforestation versus a potential increase in food production and biofuels, which are critical in maintaining ecosystem services and global climate stability. Reducing global warming and deforestation is vital for tropical forests.

Traditional uses of wild and tended plants in maintaining ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes of the Eastern Cape Province in South Africa

BackgroundMany communities in developing countries rely on ecosystem services (ESs) associated with wild and cultivated plant species. Plant resources provide numerous ESs and goods that support human well-being and survival. The aim of this study was to identify and characterize wild and tended plant species, and also investigate how local communities in the Eastern Cape Province in South Africa perceive ESs associated with plant resources.MethodsThe study was conducted in six local municipalities in the Eastern Cape Province, between March 2016 and September 2021. Data on socio-economic characteristics of the participants, useful plants harvested from the wild and managed in home gardens were documented by means of questionnaires, observation and guided field walks with 196 participants. The ESs were identified using a free listing technique.ResultsA total of 163 plant species were recorded which provided 26 cultural, regulating and provisioning ESs. Provisioning ESs were the most cited with at least 25 plant species contributing towards generation of cash income, food, traditional and ethnoveterinary medicines. Important species recorded in this study with relative frequency of citation (RFC) values > 0.3 included Alepidea amatymbica, Allium cepa, Aloe ferox, Artemisia afra, Brassica oleracea, Capsicum annuum, Cucurbita moschata, Hypoxis hemerocallidea, Opuntia ficus-indica, Spinacia oleracea, Vachellia karroo and Zea mays.ConclusionResults of this study highlight the importance of plant resources to the well-being of local communities in the Eastern Cape within the context of provision of essential direct and indirect ESs such as food, medicinal products, construction materials, fodder, regulating, supporting and cultural services. The ESs are the basis for subsistence livelihoods in rural areas, particularly in developing countries such as South Africa. Therefore, such body of knowledge can be used as baseline data for provision of local support for natural resource management initiatives in the province and other areas of the country.

Effects of landscape structure on abundance and family richness of hymenopteran parasitoids in the olive agroecosystem

Farming systems maintain ecosystem services related to arthropod biodiversity, which need to be understood for its effective conservation. Some of these arthropods may also be enemies of crop pests. It has been shown that farming systems surrounded by other types of natural or semi-natural land covers/uses are less affected by pests. The abundance and richness of hymenopteran parasitoid (HP) families in olive groves were analysed along a gradient of complexity of the landscape surrounding these agroecosystems. The working hypothesis was that landscape structure is related to the abundance and richness of HP families. Through principal component analysis of samples analysed in 15 olive groves during the springs and autumns of 2015 and 2016, we found that a higher richness of HP families is associated to simple landscapes with olive grove predominance and a lower richness in landscapes with higher diversity of land uses. The most abundant families in olive-dominated landscapes were Pteromalidae, Encyrtidae and Eulophidae, and the least abundant were Elasmidae, Eupelmidae, Chrysididae, Platygastridae and Eurytomidae. In the most diverse olive grove landscapes only three families appeared: Mymaridae, the most abundant, and Diapriidae and Signiphoridae with lower abundance. Scelionidae was the most abundant family in all olive landscapes, both simple and complex. The greater richness and abundance of HP in olive-dominated landscapes does not guarantee biological control, but it does provide conservation of arthropod biodiversity as a cross-cutting ecosystem service.

Implications of land sparing and sharing for maintaining regional ecosystem services: An empirical study from a suitable area for agricultural production in China

The clarification of land use management in areas of potential land use conflict plays an important role in maintaining ecosystem services. However, the relationship between land use strategies and ecosystem services in potential conflict zones remains uncertain, lacking quantitative evidence. Therefore, to construct a healthy territorial space system, a spatial classification model for land use was built based on land sparing and sharing. In addition, the inherent characteristics of different modes in the landscape structure and functional heterogeneity were also resolved. Then, an empirical analysis was carried out with the coastal agricultural production area of Maoming City, Guangdong Province. Focusing on the potential area of land use conflicts in Maoming City, that is, the suitable area for agricultural production, this study determined the differences in ecosystem services under multiple land use patterns at the pixel level, explored the trade-offs of ecosystem services in the entire suitable area and a single model, and examined the gradient effect of ecosystem services with the intensity of cultivated land use. According to the results, ecosystem services significantly differed in land use patterns, and the comprehensive ecosystem service was the highest in the land sharing model. Ecosystem services exert a synergistic effect in the entire suitable area for agricultural production, whereas there exists no correlation within a single model. When the arable land area of intensive agriculture exceeds 84.84%, food supply and other ecosystem services will be reduced to varying degrees. The study bridges the gap in research on the relationship between land sparing and sharing and ecosystem services in Chinese regions, and proposes clear land remediation strategies in potential conflict zones, which can thus provide some guidance for achieving sustainable regional development.

Diverse key nitrogen cycling genes nifH, nirS and nosZ associated with Pichavaram mangrove rhizospheres as revealed by culture-dependent and culture-independent analyses.

Mangroves are highly productive unique ecosystems harboring diverse unexplored microbial communities that play crucial roles in nutrient cycling as well as in maintaining ecosystem services. The mangrove-associated microbial communities transform the dead vegetation into nutrient sources of nitrogen, phosphorus, potash, etc. To understand the genetic and functional diversity of the bacterial communities involved in nitrogen cycling of this ecosystem, this study explored the diversity and distribution of both the nitrogen fixers and denitrifiers associated with the rhizospheres of Avicennia marina, Rhizophora mucronata, Suaeda maritima, and Salicornia brachiata of the Pichavaram mangroves. A combination of both culturable and unculturable (PCR-DGGE) approaches was adopted to explore the bacterial communities involved in nitrogen fixation by targeting the nifH genes, and the denitrifiers were explored by targeting the nirS and nosZ genes. Across the rhizospheres, Gammaproteobacteria was found to be predominant representing both nitrogen fixers and denitrifiers as revealed by culturable and unculturable analyses. Sequence analysis of soil nifH, nirS and nosZ genes clustered to unculturable, with few groups clustering with culturable groups, viz., Pseudomonas sp. and Halomonas sp. A total of 16 different culturable genera were isolated and characterized in this study. Other phyla like Firmicutes and Actinobacteria were also observed. The PCR-DGGE analysis also revealed the presence of 29 novel nifH sequences that were not reported earlier. Thus, the mangrove ecosystems serve as potential source for identifying unexplored novel microbial communities that contribute to nutrient cycling.

Local knowledge and relational values of Midwestern woody perennial polyculture farmers can inform tree‐crop policies

Abstract Agricultural producers, academics and policy‐makers are increasingly interested in multifunctional tree crop systems as a solution for maintaining ecosystem services and producing food. The US Midwest is emerging as a hotbed of such systems in the temperate North in the form of farm‐scale woody perennial polyculture enterprises, but they are currently only a tiny fraction of the landscape. Understanding how such approaches might be scaled up, thus, requires learning from the farmers that are at the forefront of the transition of land to woody perennial polyculture to answer a range of questions: What unique management knowledge is being implemented by farmers to manage complexity on multiple scales? What key challenges have farmers faced? And what values and motivations underpin these fledgling efforts? From 13 interviews with 18 midwestern perennial polyculture farmers, we found that they largely used a small portion of their farm's land for their perennial enterprises, and did not earn a large portion of their income from them, though this was projected to increase as trees matured. Through experimentation, innovation and farmer networks, the farmers had amassed unique adaptive management expertise for balancing diverse crops and livestock within multifunctional tree crop systems over time and space, an area largely absent from mainstream agricultural science and policy. The barriers these farmers report facing are largely economic rather than biophysical, involving access to capital, insurance, mid‐sized markets and regional processing infrastructure, as well as government programmes mismatched with perenniality. Cross‐cutting these topics, farmers sought to fulfil values anchored in their relationships to land, to the community or to both. The values of long‐termism, learning and sharing, diversity, stewardship and care of farmland, connection to nature and wildlife, self‐sustenance, other‐sustenance and eudaimonia were embodied and expressed in farmer decisions from the practical to the personal. Economic and agrarian policy, as well as programme development for multifunctional tree crop systems, should (a) be designed to align with farmer's values and motivations and (b) take advantage of their expert management and systems knowledge to drive appropriate and successful transitions to sustainable environments and livelihoods. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

Abandoned farmland: Past failures or future opportunities for Europe’s Green Deal? A Baltic case-study

Competing societal demands on land require careful land management. In the era of the European Green Deal, farmers are required to meet some of these competing demands, specifically around production, greenhouse gas emission reductions, and biodiversity conservation. At the same time, 15.1% of total EU land is abandoned or underutilised, which means that it contributes neither to food, nor to ecosystem services, to its full potential. Reintegrating abandoned agricultural land back into production is therefore one of the potential pathways to deliver on the aspirations of the Common Agriculture Policy post-2020. In this paper we assess the potential of managing and reintegrating abandoned agricultural land in Europe to simultaneously increase primary productivity, carbon regulation and habitat for biodiversity, using Latvia as a national case-study that is representative of this challenge in a Baltic context. Our results show that for some regions, reintegration of abandoned agricultural land can lead to “triple win” synergies. These opportunities can be further exploited by applying best management practices to these reintegrated lands. In other regions, where the area of abandoned agricultural land is limited because of favourable biophysical conditions for intensive agricultural production, such “triple-win” synergies are scarce. In such areas, abandoned land plays a role in maintaining ecosystem services at local and regional scales, and even small increases in primary productivity come at the expense of biodiversity. This calls for careful management that involves diverse actor groups, including land managers, in the decision-making process, and in priority setting in each of the regions.

Understanding Land Changes for Sustainable Environmental Management: The Case of Basilicata Region (Southern Italy)

Sustainable land management is one of the key actions for the achievement of objectives set by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In particular, land represents a fundamental resource to address issues of climate change, biodiversity preservation, maintaining ecosystem services, and at the same time ensuring shared prosperity and well-being. Therefore, it is necessary to activate strategies to monitor changes in land use and land cover in order to evaluate strategies for proper management. To do this, the new open source geospatial analysis tools and the increasing availability of remote sensed open data can allow the activation of methodologies for monitoring changes in land use and land cover in order to provide data usable in other research areas or, for example, to implement a decision support system for environmental sustainability. In this study, a GIS approach based on open remote sensing data has been used to perform a spatial analysis of land cover changes within the Basilicata region (Southern Italy) that is spatially expeditious yet accurate. The results showed a very evident land transformation with important repercussions on the environmental components. The ease of use of techniques makes this methodology replicable in other territory and can be used as a preliminary approach to sustainable development model.

China's ecosystem service value in 1992–2018: Pattern and anthropogenic driving factors detection using Bayesian spatiotemporal hierarchy model

Maintaining ecosystem services (ESs) and reducing ecosystem degradation are important goals for achieving sustainable development. However, under the influence of various anthropogenic factors, the total ecosystem service value (ESV) of China continues to decline, and the detailed processes involved in this decline are unclear. In this paper, a new long-term annual land cover dataset (the Climate Change Initiative Land Cover or CCI-LC dataset) with a spatial resolution of 300 m was employed to estimate the ESV of China, and Bayesian spatiotemporal hierarchy models were built to examine the detailed patterns and anthropogenic driving factors. From 1992 to 2018, the total ESV of China fluctuated and decreased from 3265.3 to 3253.29 billion US$ at an average rate of 0.55 billion US$ per year. Furthermore, the model revealed the spatiotemporal variations in the ESV pattern, and simultaneously detected the influences of 9 variables related to economic factors, population, infrastructure, energy, agriculture and ecological restoration, providing a convenient and effective method for ESV spatiotemporal analysis. The results enrich our understanding of the detailed spatiotemporal variation and anthropogenic driving factors underlying the declining ESV in China. These findings have substantial guiding implications for adjusting ecological regulation policies.

Increasing temperatures reduce invertebrate abundance and slow decomposition.

Decomposition is an essential ecosystem service driven by interacting biotic and abiotic factors. Increasing temperatures due to climate change can affect soil moisture, soil fauna, and subsequently, decomposition. Understanding how projected climate change scenarios will affect decomposition is of vital importance for predicting nutrient cycling and ecosystem health. In this study, we experimentally addressed the question of how the early stages of decomposition would vary along a gradient of projected climate change scenarios. Given the importance of biodiversity for ecosystem service provisioning, we measured the effect of invertebrate exclusion on red maple (Acer rubrum) leaf litter breakdown along a temperature gradient using litterbags in warming chambers over a period of five weeks. Leaf litter decomposed more slowly in the warmer chambers and in the litterbag treatment that minimized invertebrate access. Moreover, increasing air temperature reduced invertebrate abundance and richness, and altered the community composition, independent of exclusion treatment. Using structural equation models, we were able to disentangle the effects of average air temperature on leaf litter loss, finding a direct negative effect of warming on the early stages of decomposition, independent of invertebrate abundance. This result indicates that not only can climate change affect the invertebrate community, but may also directly influence how the remaining organisms interact with their environment and their effectiveness at provisioning ecosystem services. Overall, our study highlights the role of biodiversity in maintaining ecosystem services and contributes to our understanding of how climate change could disrupt nutrient cycling.

Ecosystem services in salmon aquaculture sustainability schemes

The need to employ management strategies that recognize ecosystem services and their trade-offs is considered a cornerstone for the implementation of an Ecosystem Approach to Aquaculture (EAA), yet it is unclear how to operationalize these concepts. Here, the role of certification and sustainable seafood ranking programs (sustainability schemes) in maintaining ecosystem services and supporting an EAA was explored. The representation of ecosystem services within sustainability scheme criteria, as well as the attributes of those criteria, were assessed using marine salmon aquaculture as a case study. Criteria reflected a range of ecosystem services and support reducing pressure on those services. However, consideration of the resilience capacity of ecosystem services, recognition of enhancements to ecosystem services, and attributes that support cost-benefit analysis of salmon farming appear to be limited within sustainability scheme criteria. Overall, the farm-scale assessment approach of many sustainability schemes appears to be incongruent with the broader spatial perspective required to operationalize EAA.

Mitigating Spatial Conflict of Land Use for Sustainable Wetlands Landscape in Li-Xia-River Region of Central Jiangsu, China

Li-Xia-river Wetlands make up the biggest freshwater marsh in East China. Over the last decades, social and economic developments have dramatically altered the natural wetlands landscape. Mitigating land use conflict is beneficial to protect wetlands, maintain ecosystem services, and coordinate local socioeconomic development. This study employed multi-source data and GIS-based approaches to construct a composite index model with the purpose of quantitatively evaluating the intensity of land use conflict in Li-Xia-river Wetlands from 1978 to 2018. The results showed that the percentage of the wetlands’ area declined from 20.3% to 15.6%, with an overall reduction rate of 23.2%. The mean index of land use conflict increased from 0.15 to 0.35, which suggests that the conflict intensity changed from “no conflict” to “mild conflict.” The number of severe conflict units increased by about 25 times. A conspicuous spatial variation of land use conflict was observed across different periods, although taking land for agricultural activities was the overriding reason for wetlands reduction. However, in recent years, urban sprawl has posed the greatest threat to Li-Xia-river Wetlands. Coordinating land use conflict and formulating a practical strategy are the initial imperative steps to mitigate the threat to wetlands.

No evidence of widespread algal bloom intensification in hundreds of lakes

Algal blooms, the rapid proliferation of algal biomass often to nuisance or harmful levels, diminish aquatic ecosystem services. Freshwater blooms can cause substantial economic damage by interrupting water supply, limiting recreation, and reducing property values. The interaction between eutrophication and climate change has been hypothesized to drive widespread intensification of blooms in inland waters, although there is little empirical evidence that this trend is pervasive. Here, we show that bloom intensification in inland waterbodies – defined as trends in chlorophyll‐a of increasing bloom magnitude, severity, or duration – has not been widespread for hundreds of lakes in the US. Only 10.8% of the 323 waterbodies analyzed had significant bloom intensification. Conversely, 16.4% of the waterbodies had significant decreasing trends during the same period. While it is encouraging that bloom intensification is not currently widespread, continued efforts toward aquatic ecosystem protection and restoration are imperative for maintaining ecosystem services into the future.

Nature-based solutions must be realized - not just proclaimed - in face of climatic extremes

Natural hazards resulting from climate change are increasing in frequency and intensity. As this is not a linear trend but rather by singularities and anomalies including a broad spectrum of climatic and weather extremes with high temporal and spatial uncertainty, focused avoidance strategies are difficult to prepare. However, the effects of climate change are mostly addressed with outdated ‘business as usual’ approaches by governments and most stakeholders, which are unfit to tackle the complexity of current challenges. Coping action for natural hazards is mostly undertaken during and after such events compensating damage through payments and restoration. In the future, pro-active nature-based solutions are needed for risk mitigation and avoiding severe damage through enhancing all facets of biodiversity from species richness, structural roughness, to spatial heterogeneity of ecosystems. This will not avoid extreme weather events, but it will reduce the damage of increasingly appearing natural hazards. However, this strategy cannot be implemented all of a sudden. Long-term and spatial concepts are needed. For this purpose, currently missing governance structures based on geographical, geoscientific, ecological, meteorological, and societal expertise should be installed. In recent years, a good scientific and knowledge basis for the required solutions has been developed, which now must translate into action. Here, a series of suggestions is compiled for a broad spectrum of extreme events and societal fields, which is far from being complete but should stimulate critically needed creativity and commitment. Nature-based solutions will not deliver a complete protection and cannot be the only kind of action, but we can no longer rely on post-disaster compensation or on the safety illusion of mere engineering and construction works. The efficiency of biodiversity as an insurance for maintaining ecosystem services is well understood. The implementation of nature-based adaptation, coping, and protection measures is less expensive than traditional end-of-the-pipe constructions. It requires an in-depth understanding of interacting processes and trans-disciplinary cooperation based on a broad acceptance in the public. Investments into these solutions would pay off, not tomorrow, but in the future. It is the best sustainable and feasible approach for disaster prevention.

Impacts of management at a local and landscape scale on pollinators in semi‐natural grasslands

Abstract Managing farmland to benefit biodiversity is becoming increasingly necessary to combat biodiversity declines and maintain ecosystem services. Results‐based agri‐environmental schemes are a tool used to achieve this by paying farmers based on environmental results delivered. These schemes often utilise plant indicator species to assess results at field scale; however, it is unknown if focusing on enhancing a subset of one biodiversity group within results‐based schemes impacts wider biodiversity, and whether local‐scale implementation of results‐based schemes or/and the wider landscape are more important drivers of biodiversity patterns. Insect pollinators provide important pollination services for many crop and wild plants, and as mobile organisms often experience landscape at large spatial scales. We tested whether insect pollinators are affected at local scale by a results‐based scheme scored based on plant indicators, or if landscape management is more important, and whether there were different responses between taxon‐specific groups. Bumblebees, solitary bees, hoverflies and butterflies were sampled using transects and pan traps in 23 fields with varying scores assigned by the scheme, situated in high‐intensity (≥65% improved grassland) or low‐intensity (≥65% semi‐natural grassland) landscapes. Results indicate taxon‐specific responses to local and landscape management in semi‐natural grasslands. Bumblebees responded positively to local‐scale management in fields with higher floral diversity, whereas hoverflies and butterflies responded positively to low‐intensity landscape management. Synthesis and applications. Using plant species as indicators for biodiversity in agri‐environment schemes can have indirect benefits for non‐target taxa like bumblebees, but broader indicators should be developed to incorporate other pollinator groups. Pollinator groups respond differently to local and landscape management in semi‐natural grasslands. Agri‐environmental management should consider a range of different management measures and landscape scale approaches where possible, to maximise benefits for a range of pollinator taxa.

Soil meso‐fauna community composition predicts ecosystem multifunctionality along a coastal‐inland gradient of the Bohai Bay

AbstractPrevious studies have determined the importance of soil biodiversity for maintaining ecosystem services and multifunctionality. However, the relationship between soil meso‐fauna biodiversity and ecosystem multifunctionality in the real world has yet to be evaluated. In this study, the relationships between soil meso‐fauna community compositions and ecosystem multifunctionality along a coastal‐inland distance gradient were investigated, including 1 km (1T), 15 km (2T), 30 km (3T), 45 km (4T), and 60 km (5T) locations. Our results showed that the soil properties were significantly indicated a decreasing trend after the 3T line. However, the soil meso‐fauna biodiversity indices were observed to have all reached the peak value at the 4T line. In addition, it was found that the soil meso‐fauna biodiversity indices were highly correlated with the ecosystem multifunctionality. These findings further confirmed the fact that the contributions of the soil meso‐fauna community biodiversity indices (59.34%) to ecosystem multifunctionality were as important as, or even more important than, those of the soil environmental factors (40.66%). Therefore, it was concluded that the variations in ecosystem multifunctionality were closely related to the changes in the soil meso‐fauna community biodiversity. In other words, soil meso‐fauna community compositions can be effectively used to predict ecosystem multifunctionality along coastal‐inland ecosystems. These findings, are the first study to provide empirical evidence linking soil meso‐fauna community compositions to ecosystem multifunctionality in real‐world coastal‐inland ecosystems. Certainly, future studies that combine multi‐trophic levels and consider their interactions will be able to clarify the relationships between the below‐ground soil fauna communities and ecosystem multifunctionality.

Evaluating the Impact of Grazing Cessation and Reintroduction in Mixed Prairie Using Raster Time Series Analysis of Landsat Data

Great efforts have been made to manage and restore native prairies to protect native species, enrich biodiversity, protect ecological resilience, and maintain ecosystem services. Much of this has been focused on preventing degradation from overgrazing and crop conversion. Understanding the consequences of management polices is important to identify best practices. Previous research has compared restoration outcomes from variable intensity grazing, prescribed fire, and grazing removal. However, few studies have explored the optimal durations of management practices and variation in restoration outcomes among vegetation communities. This study evaluates whether the impact of grazing cessation and reintroduction varies among native vegetation communities and measures the effective time periods of grazing cessation and reintroduction. Restoration outcomes were evaluated using four biophysical indicators (fresh biomass, soil organic matter, green cover, and litter cover) and two vegetation indices (normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and normalized difference water index (NDWI)) measured from Landsat images using seasonal Kalman filter and raster time series analysis. The results show that: (i) Grazing cessation increased soil organic matter and green cover while decreasing fresh biomass compared to moderate grazing management, while grazing reintroduction influences those indicators in an opposite direction; (ii) The effective time period for prairie conservation is about 11–14 years and varies among vegetation communities and biophysical indicators; (iii) The effective intensity of grazing cessation is highest in valley grassland, moderate in upland grassland, and mildest in sloped grassland; (iv) Grazing reintroduction returned the three native vegetation communities to the initial condition (i.e., the stage in 1985 before large grazers were removed), with less time than the time consumed for grazing cessation to restore the prairie ecosystem to the maximum changes; (v) Grazing reintroduction effectively influences upland and valley grasslands for 7 to 9 years, varying from different indicators, while it continuously affected sloped grassland with no clear time lag; (vi) The intensity of grazing reintroduction was strongest in sloped grassland, moderate in upland grassland, and mildest in valley grassland. The results of this study suggest expected time periods for prairie management methods to achieve results.