Natural Services Research Articles

Oil sands mining and reclamation cause massive loss of peatland and stored carbon

We quantified the wholesale transformation of the boreal landscape by open-pit oil sands mining in Alberta, Canada to evaluate its effect on carbon storage and sequestration. Contrary to claims made in the media, peatland destroyed by open-pit mining will not be restored. Current plans dictate its replacement with upland forest and tailings storage lakes, amounting to the destruction of over 29,500 ha of peatland habitat. Landscape changes caused by currently approved mines will release between 11.4 and 47.3 million metric tons of stored carbon and will reduce carbon sequestration potential by 5,734-7,241 metric tons C/y. These losses have not previously been quantified, and should be included with the already high estimates of carbon emissions from oil sands mining and bitumen upgrading. A fair evaluation of the costs and benefits of oil sands mining requires a rigorous assessment of impacts on natural capital and ecosystem services.

Modeling soil conservation, water conservation and their tradeoffs: A case study in Beijing

Natural ecosystems provide society with important goods and services. With the rapid increase in human populations and excessive utilization of natural resources, humans frequently enhance the production of some services at the expense of the others. Although the need for tradeoffs between conservation and development is urgent, the lack of efficient methods to assess such tradeoffs has impeded progress. Three land use strategy scenarios (development scenario, plan trend scenario and conservation scenario) were created to forecast potential changes in ecosystem services from 2007 to 2050 in Beijing, China. GIS-based techniques were used to map spatial and temporal distribution and changes in ecosystem services for each scenario. The provision of ecosystem services differed spatially, with significant changes being associated with different scenarios. Scenario analysis of water yield (as average annual yield) and soil retention (as retention rate per unit area) for the period 2007 to 2050 indicated that the highest values for these parameters were predicted for the forest habitat under all three scenarios. Annual yield/retention of forest, shrub, and grassland ranked the highest in the conservation scenario. Total water yield and soil retention increased in the conservation scenario and declined dramatically in the other two scenarios, especially the development scenario. The conservation scenario was the optimal land use strategy, resulting in the highest soil retention and water yield. Our study suggests that the evaluation and visualization of ecosystem services can effectively assist in understanding the tradeoffs between conservation and development. Results of this study have implications for planning and monitoring future management of natural capital and ecosystem services, which can be integrated into land use decision-making.

Species abundance and potential biological control services in shade vs. sun coffee in Puerto Rico

Birds, lizards and insects were surveyed in three sun and three shade coffee plantations in Puerto Rico to provide a comprehensive comparison of biodiversity between plantations types and to identify potential interrelationships (e.g., biological or natural control services) between members of each taxon and coffee pests. Abundance of avian species, including insectivorous species, was significantly higher in shade coffee. Anolis cristatellus and A. stratulus were significantly more abundant in sun plantations whereas A. gundlachi and A. evermanni were detected more frequently in shade plantations. Insects in the orders Coleoptera, Diptera, Hemiptera, Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera, Neuroptera, and Psocoptera were significantly more abundant in shade coffee, while orthopterans were more abundant in sun. The coffee leaf miner (Leucoptera coffeela) and the flatid planthopper (Petrusa epilepsis) did not differ significantly between plantation types, nor did the abundance of the wasp complex that parasitizes the coffee leaf miner. These findings confirmed that shade plantations harbor a wide array of elements of biodiversity; but sun plantations may also harbor many elements of biodiversity, and in some cases, in higher abundance than in shade plantations.

Natural Capital, Ecosystem Services, and Soil Change: Why Soil Science Must Embrace an Ecosystems Approach

Soil is part of the Earth's life support system, but how should we convey the value of this and of soil as a resource? Consideration of the ecosystem services and natural capital of soils offers a framework going beyond performance indicators of soil health and quality, and recognizes the broad value that soil contributes to human wellbeing. This approach provides links and synergies between soil science and other disciplines such as ecology, hydrology, and economics, recognizing the importance of soils alongside other natural resources in sustaining the functioning of the Earth system. We articulate why an ecosystems approach is important for soil science in the context of natural capital, ecosystem services, and soil change. Soil change is defined as change on anthropogenic time scales and is an important way of conveying dynamic changes occurring in soils that are relevant to current political decision‐making time scales. We identify four important areas of research: (i) framework development; (ii) quantifying the soil resource, stocks, fluxes, transformations, and identifying indicators; (iii) valuing the soil resource for its ecosystem services; and (iv) developing decision‐support tools. Furthermore, we propose contributions that soil science can make to address these research challenges.

海草场生态系统及其修复研究进展

海草场生态系统及其修复研究进展

The impact of human activities on natural capital and ecosystem services of natural pastures in North Xinjiang, China

The implementation of systemic modeling methods to understand the variation of natural capital and ecosystem services in response to economic activities has huge significance for sound decision-making also at local scale. This paper reports the results of an investigation performed on the grassland ecosystem in North Xinjiang. The Emergy Synthesis method introduced by H.T. Odum in the 1980s was used to dynamically simulate the trend of grassland natural capital and its related ecosystem services. The simulation of natural capital was based on indexes of standing biomass, soil organic matter, soil nitrogen and soil water storages; ecosystem services were assessed by means of indexes of annual CO 2 uptake, O 2 release, forage supply as animal feed, food supply for human nutrition, and finally soil conservation. Results indicate that an upper limit of livestock carrying capacity in the region was reached in the year 1994; after that year the natural capital and main ecosystem services of the grassland ecosystem declined steadily. The emergy based currency equivalent value of the grassland ecosystem in terms of ecosystem services was higher than 87.3 billion Yuan RMB/yr in 1990. Such a value declined to 62.3 billion Yuan RMB/yr in 2010. Similarly, the total emergy based value of natural capital was about 331.7 billion Yuan RMB in 1990 and dropped to 155.6 billion Yuan RMB in 2010. According to the simulation model, the natural capital components such as biomass and soil stocks, the ecosystem services and the replacement value declined due to intensive herding and disturbance from human activities. Such trend is not sustainable because it exceeds the renewable carrying capacity of the area, but it is likely to continue until fundamental changes in human behavior and management of the grassland and animal husbandry occur or until the whole area is fully degraded. Social reasons prevent from simply decreasing the intensity of the livestock activities that provide living means to a large number of local farmers. As a consequence, the traditional low-productivity and environmental unfriendly grazing farming system should gradually be converted into a human-managed pasture based on farming higher productivity pasture crops in a small part of the local land, in order to decrease the grazing pressure on natural grassland of North Xinjiang.

Lake Naivasha, Kenya: Ecology, Society and Future

Abstract We examine the degradation of the natural capital and ecosystem services of an important tropical lake, Kenya's Lake Naivasha, in the context of human activities and exploitation since the mid-20th century. These factors have culminated in the recent emergence of innovative governance arrangements with potential contributions to the future sustainability of the lake ecosystem. Lake Naivasha maintains high ecological interest and biodiversity value despite its food web being controlled, at three trophic levels, by alien species for the past 40 years. The lake now has very high economic value, being the centre of Kenya's floricultural industry, itself the top foreign exchange earner for the country. It became internationally-renowned in 1999 as one of the first wetland sites worldwide to be nominated by the government for Ramsar status as a result of local action, guided by the Lake Naivasha Riparian Association (LNRA). This led, in 2004, to gazettement by the Kenyan Government for the management o...

Optimal control of soybean aphid in the presence of natural enemies and the implied value of their ecosystem services

By suppressing pest populations, natural enemies provide an important ecosystem service that maintains the stability of agricultural ecosystems systems and potentially mitigates producers' pest control costs. Integrating natural control services into decisions about pesticide-based control has the potential to significantly improve the economic efficiency of pesticide use, with socially desirable outcomes. Two gaps have hindered the incorporation of natural enemies into pest management decision rules: (1) insufficient knowledge of pest and predator population dynamics and (2) lack of a decision framework for the economic tradeoffs among pest control options. Using a new intra-seasonal, dynamic bioeconomic optimization model, this study assesses how predation by natural enemies contributes to profit-maximizing pest management strategies. The model is applied to the management of the invasive soybean aphid, the most significant serious insect threat to soybean production in North America. The resulting lower bound estimate of the value of natural pest control ecosystem services was estimated at $84 million for the states of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan and Minnesota in 2005.

The negative approach to urban growth planning of Beijing, China

Among other issues, the degrading environmental and ecological situations, the low performance scrambled city form and the loss of cultural identity in Beijing City have proved that the conventional ‘population projection-urban infrastructure-land use’ approach and the architectural urbanism approach to urban growth planning failed to meet the challenges of swift urbanisation and sustainability issues in China in general, and Beijing in particular. The ‘negative approach’ is proposed that defines an urban growth and urban form through the identification and planning of Ecological Infrastructure (EI). This approach has evolved from the pre-scientific model of Feng-shui as the sacred landscape setting for human settlement, the nineteenth century notion of greenways as urban recreational infrastructure, the early twentieth century idea of green belts as urban form makers, and the late twentieth century notion of ecological networks and EI as a biological preservation framework. EI is composed of critical landscape elements and structure that are strategically identified and planned to safeguard natural assets and ecosystems services, essential for sustaining human society. EI is strategically planned and developed using less land but more efficiently preserving the ecosystems services. Using Beijing City as an example, this paper demonstrates how to use EI as a tool to guide and frame sustainable urban development.

Herramientas científicas para la adaptación al cambio climático: Estimo y optimización de la eficiencia de provisión de los servicios de ecosistemas

<div data-canvas-width="378.77664773160035">Adaptation to the consequences of climate change can depend on efficient use of ecosys tem services (ES), i.e. a better use of natural services through management of the way in which they are delivered to society. While much discussion focuses on reducing consumption and increasing production of services, a lack of scientific instruments has so far prevented other mechanisms to improve ecosystem services efficiency from being addressed systematically as an adaptation strategy. This paper describes new methodologies for assessing ecosystem services and quantifying their values to humans, highlighting the role of ecosystem service flow analysis in optimizing the efficiency of ES provision.</div>

Combining Available Spatial Data to Define Restoration Goals

Defining the restoration target is the first step towards creating a vegetation community restoration plan and is critical for measuring success of a project. We propose a method of determining restoration goals which utilizes publicly available soils data from the Natural Resources Conservation Services (NRCS) website. Ecological site data associated with each soil type provide the dominant vegetation types supported by a particular soil. These data can be used to create potential natural vegetation maps that can be used to guide restoration goals. We employed these methods on 2 barrier strandplain peninsulas in the Texas Coastal Bend—Lamar and Live Oak peninsulas, creating a map of grouped ecological sites. We then related the sites to a current land cover classification scheme by means of a crosswalk to allow for a comparison with current land cover, resulting in a simplification of the natural vegetation map. To address gaps in the vegetation information, we used digital elevation models and knowledge of existing zonation patterns in the vegetation to determine the potential natural vegetation at particular elevations. Two examples demonstrate the utility of this approach where soil and/or vegetation have been altered in a coastal environment. These methods offer a starting point for determining the natural vegetation assemblage and appropriate restoration target.

A modified footprint method: The case study of Brazil

As the concept of sustainable development is more accepted and incorporated by institutions, it becomes necessary to evaluate the performance of the national economy based on new methods and not only on economic indicators. Despite the importance of sustainability to the preservation of natural ecosystems and services, there is no agreement in the world scientific community concerning a methodology to evaluate that concept. In the last decade, two scientific tools have been extensively used worldwide to measure the human impact on nature: Ecological Footprint and Emergy Synthesis. Papers trying to combine them, and to obtain more accurate results have appeared in scientific literature, of which Zhao's et al. (2005) approach is an important one. Unfortunately, some weak points of the original methods still remain in the new approaches proposed. The objective of this work is to discuss some weak points found in the Ecological Footprint and Emergy Synthesis and to use the positive aspects and potential improvements from both methodologies at a national level. Emergy deals with the notion that all energy that is used directly and indirectly in a process to deliver an output product, flow or service should be accounted for. A new definition for Biocapacity was introduced meaning “the natural area's capacity of receiving renewable energy”, rather than “usable biomass” as proposed by the conventional Ecological Footprint methodology. The questions to be answered by the proposed methodology are how much land would be equivalent to consumption, if products were generated solely by the use of natural renewable resources (Emergetic Footprint), and how much land would be available in the system considering world's average capacity of receiving renewable energy (Emergetic Renewable Biocapacity). A new category called “areas not occupied by humans” is included in the Biocapacity. It is composed of open ocean, deserts and frozen land (areas excluded from the conventional Footprint method). Footprint or consumption means the load imposed by humans on the environment and was grouped in categories: cropland, forestry, animal products and energy resources. Ecological Fooptrint using Emergy was used to assess Brazil as a case study, resulting in a Biocapacity of 62.2 gha person −1 and a Footprint of 41.9 gha person −1, using data from 2004. The positive aspects of the approach proposed are: (i) its ease of application at global and national scales; (ii) the indicator of consumption (Footprint) accounts for the direct and indirect energy used to generate products and services; (iii) a new category considering areas excluded from the conventional method was included in the Biocapacity calculation, which can be a valid step towards the evaluation and assessment of services provided by nature. On the other hand, the approach has as main limitations: (i) it is not possible to make comparisons between the Biocapacity and Footprint for each category; (ii) there is a need for a handbook with well-explained calculations of emergy intensity factors.

Societal Learning Needed to Face the Water Challenge

News reports on catastrophic floods and devastatingdroughts and their implications abound in recent years.Extreme events are becoming more frequent and theirimpacts increase in magnitude (Solomon et al. 2007) butsocieties have also become more vulnerable (Fuhrer et al.2006; Maslin 2008). A proposed major reason for thisincrease in vulnerability and the associated environmentaldegradation is that the values of natural capital and asso-ciated ecosystem services remain unrecognized. Instead ofpreserving natural infrastructure to build adaptive capacityand reduce vulnerability to climate change impacts, naturalcapital is being destroyed (Opperman et al. 2009; Smithand Barchiesi 2009). This implies that the increasing trade-offs between human and environmental needs are notentirely inevitable but depend on how and by whom thebenefits derived from nature are conceptualized. Counter-acting these undesirable developments is an importantgovernance challenge. Central questions relate to whichknowledge and which services are valuable, which insti-tutions could stabilize current behavioral patterns, andwhich barriers and drivers impede or support multi-levelprocesses of societal change. The required change willhave to be profound and embrace structural changes.However, institutions (cultural rules, societal norms, andlegal frameworks), technical infrastructure, and actor net-works that shape human–environment relations have co-developed over a long time. Such systems exhibit strongpath-dependence and inertia stabilizing prevailing systemconfigurations and impeding major processes of change(Pahl-Wostl 2007). What is required may be also describedas ‘‘unlearning’’ of deeply engrained beliefs in establishedpractices.The nature of such change can be captured by theconcept of triple-loop learning as depicted in Fig. 1 (Har-grove 2002; Pahl-Wostl 2009). This concept posits thatsocietal transformations can be described as multi-leveland multi-loop processes. Single-loop learning refers to anincremental improvement of action strategies and dailyroutines without questioning the underlying assumptions.Double-loop learning refers to a revisiting of assumptions(e.g., about cause–effect relationships) within a value-normative framework. In triple-loop learning, underlyingvalues and beliefs and world views are reconsidered ifassumptions within a world view are no longer valid. Inother words, triple-loop learning allows for re-examiningthe underlying ideological and value system. Societallearning is an exploratory search process where actorsexperiment with innovation and try to overcome or evenremove constraints and boundaries they encounter.SOCIETAL LEARNING: TRAJECTORIESAND AGENTS OF CHANGEHistorically, flood management was dominated by theobjective of reducing flood hazards and increasing thesafety of human life and infrastructure on floodplains.Taming rivers and conquering swampy, disease-pronefloodplains for human habitation were celebrated as majorsuccesses of engineering and technology. However, overtime the drawbacks also became increasingly visible.

Ecosystem services provided by playas in the High Plains: potential influences of USDA conservation programs

Playas are shallow depressional wetlands and the dominant wetland type in the non‐glaciated High Plains of the United States. This region is one of the most intensively cultivated regions in the Western Hemisphere, and playas are profoundly impacted by a variety of agricultural activities. Conservation practices promoted through Farm Bills by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that influence playas and surrounding catchments impact ecosystem functions and related services provided by wetlands in this region. As part of a national assessment, we review effects of agricultural cultivation and effectiveness of USDA conservation programs and practices on ecosystem functions and associated services of playas. Services provided by playas are influenced by hydrological function, and unlike other wetland types in the United States, hydrological function of playas is impacted more by accumulated sediments than drainage. Most playas with cultivated catchments have lost greater than 100% of their volume from sedimentation causing reduced hydroperiods. The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) has the largest influence on playa catchments (the High Plains has >2.8 million ha), and associated sedimentation, of any USDA program. Unfortunately, most practices applied under CRP did not consider restoration of playa ecosystem function as a primary benefit, but rather established dense exotic grass in the watersheds to reduce soil erosion. Although this has reduced soil erosion, few studies have investigated its effects on playa hydrological function and services. Our review demonstrates that the Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) has seldom been applied in the High Plains outside of south‐central Nebraska. However, this is the primary program that exists within the USDA allowing conservation practices that restore wetland hydrology such as sediment removal. In addition to sediment removal, this practice has the greatest potential effect on improving hydrologic function by reducing sedimentation in vegetative buffer strips. We estimate that a 50‐m native‐grass buffer strip could improve individual playa hydroperiods by up to 90 days annually, enhancing delivery of most natural playa services. The potential for restoration of playa services using USDA programs is extensive, but only if WRP and associated practices are promoted and playas are considered an integral part of CRP contracts.

Parasitoid diversity reduces the variability in pest control services across time on farms

Recent declines in biodiversity have increased interest in the link between biodiversity and the provision and sustainability of ecosystem services across space and time. We mapped the complex network of interactions between herbivores and parasitoids to examine the relationship between parasitoid species richness, functional group diversity and the provision of natural pest control services. Quantitative food webs were constructed for 10 organic and 10 conventional farms. Parasitoid species richness varied from 26 to 58 species and we found a significant positive relationship between parasitoid species richness and temporal stability in parasitism rates. Higher species richness was associated with lower variation in parasitism rate. A functional group analysis showed significantly greater parasitoid species complementarity on organic farms, with on average more species in each functional group. We simulated parasitoid removal to predict whether organic farms experienced greater robustness of parasitism in the face of local extinctions. This analysis showed no consistent differences between the organic and conventional farm pairs in terms of loss of pest control service. Finally, it was found that the different habitats that make up each farm do not contribute equally to parasitoid species diversity, and that hedgerows produced more parasitoid species, significantly more so on organic farms.

Relationships among rotational and conventional grazing systems, stream channels, and macroinvertebrates

Cattle grazing in riparian areas can reduce water quality, alter stream channel characteristics, and alter fish and macroinvertebrate assemblage structure. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Services has recommended Rotational Grazing (RG) as an alternative management method on livestock and dairy operations to protect riparian areas and water quality. We evaluated 13 stream channel characteristics, benthic macroinvertebrate larvae (BML), and chironomid pupal exuviae (CPE) from 18 sites in the Upper Midwest of the United States in relation to RG and conventional grazing (CG). A Biotic Composite Score comprised of several macroinvertebrate metrics was developed for both the BML assemblage and the CPE assemblage. Multi-Response Permutation Procedures (MRPP) indicated a significant difference in stream channel characteristics between RG and CG. Nonmetric Multidimensional Scaling indicated that RG sites were associated with more stable stream banks, higher quality aquatic habitat, lower soil compaction, and larger particles in the streambed. However, neither MRPP nor Mann–Whitney U tests demonstrated a difference in Biotic Composite Scores for BML or CPE along RG and CG sites. The BML and CPE metrics were significantly correlated, indicating that they were likely responding to similar variables among the study sites. Although stream channel characteristics appeared to respond to grazing management, BML and CPE may have responded to land use throughout the watershed, as well as local land use.

Assessment and Restoration Scaling of Stream Services Impaired by the Obed River 2002 Oil Spill

ABSTRACT Under federal regulations, natural resource trustees are charged with making the environment whole after injury to or loss of natural resources and services as a result of anthropogenic activities such as waste sites, vessel groundings, or oil spills. Here we provide a case study that uses the Habitat Equivalency Analysis (HEA) model to quantify injury and determine restoration compensation after an oil spill contaminated aquatic resources in the Obed Wild and Scenic River in Morgan County, Tennessee. Our goal is to describe the methodology used for scaling the injury to the restoration activities using the condition of a benthic macroinvertebrate assemblage as the metric. The total injury to stream services was 26.1 discounted service-acre years (DSAYs). The restoration projects chosen to compensate for the injured stream services included streambank restoration (generating 3.68 DSAYs), invasive vegetation removal along 229 meters of stream (generating 0.18 DSAYs), creation of 0.86 ha of bog gar...

The relationship between resilience and sustainability of ecological-economic systems

Resilience as a descriptive concept gives insight into the dynamic properties of an ecological-economic system. Sustainability as a normative concept captures basic ideas of intergenerational justice when human well-being depends on natural capital and services. Thus, resilience and sustainability are independent concepts. In this paper, we discuss the relationship between resilience and sustainability of ecological-economic systems. We use a simple dynamic model where two natural capital stocks provide ecosystem services that are complements for human well-being, to illustrate different possible cases of the relationship between resilience and sustainability, and to identify the conditions under which each of those will hold: a) resilience of the system is necessary, but not sufficient, for sustainability; b) resilience of the system is sufficient, but not necessary, for sustainability; c) resilience of the system is neither necessary nor sufficient for sustainability; and d) resilience is both necessary and sufficient for sustainability. We conclude that more criteria than just resilience have to be taken into account when designing policies for the sustainable development of ecological-economic systems, and, vice versa, the property of resilience should not be confused with the positive normative connotations of sustainability.

The Marine Strategy Framework Directive: A New European Approach to the Regulation of the Marine Environment, Marine Natural Resources and Marine Ecological Services

This article reviews the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, which requires the Member States of the European Union (EU) to put in place measures to achieve and maintain good environmental status of marine waters by 2020. Apart from redressing a long-standing lacuna in EU law, the Directive is also the first concerted attempt by the EU to apply an ecosystem-based approach in the regulation and management of the marine environment, marine natural resources and marine ecological services. The legislative history, conceptual approach, structure and content of the Directive, as well as some of its unique regulatory features, are discussed here. This article concludes that the Directive is primarily focused on harmonising the regulatory and administrative activities of the Member States and that it is too early in the transposition process to identify the practical impacts of the new instrument on the activities of offshore industries and businesses. The Directive nonetheless has the potential to become the principal source of marine environmental management measures in the EU for many decades to come.

Ecological economics and institutional change

Ecological economics remains unfinished in its effort to provide a framework for transforming the economy so that it is compatible with biophysical limits. Great strides have been made in valuing natural capital and ecosystem services and recognizing the need to limit the scale of economic activity, but the question of how to effectively transform the economy to limit the scale of economic activity remains unclear. To gain clarity about the institutional changes necessary to limit the scale of economic activity, it is essential that ecological economics understands the limitations of its neoclassical roots and expands its theoretical framework to include how markets are embedded in social and institutional structures. This has long been the domain of institutional economics and heterodox political economy.