Quantity Of Ecosystem Services Research Articles

Determinants of Visitors’ Willingness to Pay for Enhanced Ecosystem Services in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, Tamil Nadu, India: A Contingent Valuation Approach

This study examined the factors influencing visitors’ willingness to pay for improved ecosystem services through the conservation of the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) in the Nilgiris District, Tamil Nadu, India. The MTR plays a crucial role in providing and protecting various ecosystem services. However, it is vulnerable to negative externalities and drivers of ecosystem change, which affect the quality and quantity of ecosystem services, leading to the loss of valuable ecosystem services. To address this issue, it is necessary to understand the adverse effects of externalities and drivers of ecosystem change, as well as to consider people’s preferences. To investigate the factors influencing visitors’ willingness to pay for enhanced ecosystem services in MTR, this study used a dichotomous choice-contingent valuation method and a logit regression model. The study found that 64% of visitors expressed concern about mitigating adverse impacts and were willing to provide financial support. The results of the logit regression analysis further revealed that factors such as family size, respondent education, monthly family income, environmental awareness, and bid price significantly influenced visitors’ willingness to pay. To enhance ecosystem benefits and address the challenges in tiger conservation within the reserve, our study suggests that several measures need to be implemented, including prioritizing education, awareness, the mitigation of human–wildlife conflict, and income-linked and dynamic pricing strategies.

Ecosystem services provided by green areas and their implications for human health in Brazil

Green areas provide numerous ecosystem services (ES) that are essential for human well-being, such as climate regulation, air quality regulation, disease regulation, and recreational opportunities. In this study, we assessed the ecosystem services provided by green areas and their implications for human health in Brazil. Considering emerging problems in Brazil, such as population growth, the health crisis, and the increase in deforestation, ES mapping is essential to understand barriers and diagnose strategies for promoting the health and well-being of the Brazilian population. Using remote sensing data and geographic information systems, we evaluated the Green Areas Ecosystem Services (GAES), composed of i) the provision of green areas; ii) regulation of air quality; iii) climate regulation; iv) diseases regulation (cardiorespiratory); and v) cultural services, including recreation, sports, and ecotourism. Our findings suggest that green areas in Brazil provide a considerable amount of ecosystem services that are relevant to human health. Over 70 % of Brazil exhibited GAES values exceeding 0.5 (relative scale ranging from 0 to 1). This indicates that a significant portion of the Brazilian population has access to green spaces that provide important services, such as air and water purification, climate regulation, and disease regulation. The mean GAES value for the entire country was 0.78, with notable regional variations. The highest GAES was found in regions dominated by the Amazon Forest (GAES = 0.81), while the smallest offers of GAES are in the northeast (GAES = 0.40) and south (GAES = 0.41) regions of the country The type of vegetation was an important factor in the regulation of climate and air quality. However, factors such as population density and urbanization interfere with the regulation of diseases. Considering the 10 states with the highest and lowest per capita income and population density, the state of Rio Grande do Sul, located in the South region, had the highest mean GAES value; while the state of Acre, in the North region, had the lowest. Our findings suggest that interventions to improve green area provision and quality may be most effective in the northeast and South regions of Brazil. This is indicative of the observed lower GAES provision in these regions, primarily attributed to elevated urbanization levels leading to the conversion of green areas into urban zones. Overall, our study highlights the importance of green areas for human well-being and provides valuable information for policymakers to prioritize interventions to improve GAES provision across Brazil.

Relative Value of the Forest Stand Ecosystem Services

It is asserted that forest stand value could be presented as an amount of ecosystem services. Computation has been performed in relation to stumpage fees. As a result, the relative normative value of ecosystem services has been obtained, which could be used in order to establish payment for forest use, to definite damage as well as in matters of forest management and forest planning.

Rangeland Ecosystem Service Markets: Panacea or Wicked Problem?

Rangelands support nearly one-third of Earth's population and provide a multitude of ecosystem services. Land managers and society face increasing pressures to sustainably intensify rangeland food systems; therefore, the time is ripe for thoughtful approaches to simultaneously produce more food, provide economic opportunities for livestock-dependent communities, and enhance environmental benefits from rangeland ecosystems. Payments for ecosystem services (PES) programs have been put forth as potential mechanisms to maintain the quality and quantity of ecosystem services while enhancing economic viability of livestock operations. Free markets have long been proposed as solutions for mitigating trade-offs from ecosystem services that are not co-produced with livestock production; such markets have failed to emerge at the scale required to address global threats to sustainability. We highlight fundamental obstacles on demand and supply sides that challenge the concept of a market as a panacea; we do so through an interdisciplinary lens of fundamental economic underpinnings overlaid with a social survey of cattle producers' perspectives. Relevant to the demand side, we discuss the most significant impediments to development and function of non-bundled ecosystem service markets; on the supply side, we provide unique perspectives, using novel interview data from California rangeland cattle producers. Producer interviews highlighted substantial financial challenges threatening the economic sustainability of their operations. Among interviewed producers, 85% identified government regulations as the central threat to their livelihoods. Producers identified opportunities for enhancing enterprise sustainability via improved value and marketing of livestock goods co-produced with ecosystem services, participation in conservation easements, and improved connections with society. Only 11% of producers identified PES programs as future opportunities. When asked about willingness to participate in PES markets, 13% of interviewees indicated they would not, 45% were neutral, and 42% indicated they would consider participating. Interviewees stated trust in the market broker is key and they would be less willing to participate if there was government involvement. Ecosystem service markets—whether voluntary or non-voluntary—are likely not sustainable solutions to the complex social-economic-ecological dilemma ranchers and society face. Sustainability on working rangelands will require partnerships to co-develop strategies to build more equitable food systems and sustain these ecosystems.

The loss of farmland trees and shrubs in western Poland in the 21st century assessed with the use of Google Maps

With the loss of natural and semi-natural habitats, the diversity and the amount of ecosystem services that can be provided in the agricultural landscape are diminishing, and self-regulatory abilities decrease. The aim of the research (72 sample plots – 1 x 1 km squares, mean time span equal to 8 years) was to recognise the changes in the number and length of woody (tree or shrub) linear landscape elements, and the number of solitary trees in the Wielkopolska region to verify how rapid development of agriculture in Poland in the 21st century affects the landscape structure. The analyses show a decline by 9.3% (from 2.17 to 1.97 km/km2) in length of woody linear elements, 7.4% (from 16.5 to 15.0 per km2) in number of woody linear elements, and 14.6% (from 28.8 to 24.4 per km2) in solitary trees. The loss was significantly faster in the period (2017-2018) of liberalisation of the regulations on tree and shrub removal, mainly due to a high rate of removal in plots located in an urbanized landscape. The decrease in length of woody linear elements occurred in all the categories of their location distinguished in the study (by 9-41% in a category). The highest loss occurred in the woody linear elements located along melioration ditches and water courses, along roads, and in the outskirt of towns. These changes are similar to those occurring in the 20th century in western Europe. The decrease in the number of woody linear landscape elements and solitary trees can be considered an indicator of the unsustainable agriculture management.

Multi-Scape Interventions to Match Spatial Scales of Demand and Supply of Ecosystem Services

The original focus on supply of ecosystem services is shifting toward matching supply and demand. This new focus underlines the need to consider not only the amount of ecosystem services but also their spatial and temporal distributions relative to demand. Ecosystem functions and services have characteristic or salient scales that are defined by the scales at which the producing organisms or communities exist and function. Provision of ecosystem services (ES) and functions can be managed optimally by controlling the spatio-temporal distribution of landscape and community components. A simple model represents distributions of ES as kernels centered at the location of interventions such as grassland restoration or establishment of nesting habitat for pollinators. Distribution kernels allow non-habitat patches to receive ecosystem services from species they cannot support. Simulations for three contrasting ES producing organisms (bumblebees, Northern Harriers, and oak trees) show the effects of interacting distribution of interventions and demand for ES. More ES demand is met when the intervention is spread out in the landscape and demand is evenly distributed, particularly when the kernel radius is much larger than the minimum intervention required for the ES producing unit to be established. Because different functions have different reaches and saturation points, the level of ES demand met at any point in space can be modulated by controlling the spatial distribution of landscape components created by interventions. Different ES can be promoted by the same type and quantity of intervention by controlling the continuum of scales in the distribution of interventions. This work provides a conceptual and quantitative basis to consider the spatial design of interventions to match ES supply and demand.

Salt Marsh Migration Potential at Cape Cod National Seashore (Massachusetts, U.S.A.) in Response to Sea-Level Rise

Smith, S.M., 2020. Salt marsh migration potential at Cape Cod National Seashore (Massachusetts, U.S.A.) in response to sea-level rise. Journal of Coastal Research, 36(4), 771–779. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.Salt marshes can adjust to sea-level rise (SLR) through vertical elevation gain and horizontal expansion into terrestrial environments. The latter depends on the topography of adjacent uplands and the availability of suitable substrate for halophyte colonization. Within Cape Cod National Seashore (CCNS), calculations of marsh migration potential in response to 1-m of SLR were completed using ArcGIS (version 10.4) based on real-time kinematic GPS marsh elevations, local tide data, land-use, and upland topography derived from 2011 LIDAR scans of CCNS. These estimates were combined with marsh-loss predictions from a previous study within their present-day footprint under the same SLR scenario. The results suggest that individual marshes will respond quite disparately, as dictated by their position in the tidal frame, adjacent terrestrial slopes, land-use, and barrier-beach losses. Most sites are expected to gain or lose relatively small amounts of marsh area under few or no migration constraints. However, there could be a large increase (∼144–240 ha) at one site and an almost a complete loss at another (∼260–290 ha). Where migration was constrained to slopes ≤1%, opportunities for marsh expansion diminished the most—even more so when barrier-beach losses are simulated. Overall, losses at five marsh sites were offset by gains at Hatches Harbor and Pleasant Bay, Massachusetts, such that the total area of salt marsh actually increases with 1-m of SLR, except under the strictest slope constraints. Changes in the spatial distribution and total extent of salt marsh within the CCNS will influence both the quality and quantity of ecosystem services they provide. For coastal land managers, understanding the potential for overland marsh migration is critical for the kind of land-use planning that accommodates these transitioning salt marshes.

Conservation of Tropical Forests in the Anthropocene.

If current trends continue, the tropical forests of the Anthropocene will be much smaller, simpler, steeper and emptier than they are today. They will be more diminished in size and heavily fragmented (especially in lowland wet forests), have reduced structural and species complexity, be increasingly restricted to steeper, less accessible areas, and be missing many heavily hunted species. These changes, in turn, will greatly reduce the quality and quantity of ecosystem services that tropical forests can provide. Driving these changes will be continued clearance for farming and monoculture forest plantations, unsustainable selective logging, overhunting, and, increasingly, climate change. Concerted action by local and indigenous communities, environmental groups, governments, and corporations can reverse these trends and, if successful, provide future generations with a tropical forest estate that includes a network of primary forest reserves robustly defended from threats, recovering logged and secondary forests, and resilient community forests managed for the needs of local people. Realizing this better future for tropical forests and people will require formalisation of land tenure for local and indigenous communities, better-enforced environmental laws, the widescale roll-out of payments for ecosystem service schemes, and sustainable intensification of under-yielding farmland, as well as global-scale societal changes, including reduced consumerism, meat consumption, fossil fuel reliance, and population growth. But the time to act is now, while the opportunity remains to protect a semblance of intact, hyperdiverse tropical forests.

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and the sustainability of water resources: would monetary compensation warrant some more restrictions on dams?

The Ethiopian Government is currently building The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile, one of the largest in Africa. The dam would be used as a hydropower station to generate electricity for Ethiopia domestic use, and also to export to other countries as source of hard currency. The dam reservoir was originally planned to store 14 billion cubic meter. However, this plan was changed, to increase the volume of water behind the dam to 74 billion cubic meter, much greater than the annual flow of the river. Filling the reservoir within short span of time would pose a potential threat to downstream countries, namely Egypt and Sudan. The situation would be even worsened if the filling process coincides with drought that would impact downstream countries even harder. This in turn is likely to cause significant cut down of freshwater supply to Egypt, with major impact on domestic use, agriculture, industry and environmental integrity. Hydropower installation, meanwhile are among the most impactful drivers of ecosystem change. Hence, affecting the quality and quantity of water released downstream, with potential bearing on the riverine and riparian ecosystems services in particular. The construction of the GERD comes amid a world-wide recognition of the negative impacts of dams, and calls for proper planning and site selection well in advance with consultation with all stakeholders, including downstream countries. Monetary valuation of ecosystem goods and services has been among the most widely and fast growing areas in environmental and ecological economics. The construction of dams and the multiple impacts they cause have captured interest in using monetary valuation to assess the monetary value of the damage caused. Economic valuation of ecosystem services is also a deterrent of any act that might negatively affect the quality and/or quantity of ecosystem services, and also for compensation claims between countries. The present study is one of the very few studies that look at GERD from its impacts lens, with special emphases on impact of water sustainability in Egypt. The study would also help drawing attention to the possible claims for compensation as a procedural step that can warrant more restrictions on dam construction.

Compositional Shifts in Forb and Butterfly Communities Associated with Kentucky Bluegrass Invasions

Rangeland management strategies impact biodiversity, the quality and quantity of ecosystem services, and overall rangeland resiliency. Previous management strategies, coupled with climate change, have led to widespread invasion by Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis; bluegrass) in the Northern Great Plains, United States. Bluegrass invasions are expected to have detrimental impacts on biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services provided by rangelands. Yet none have investigated how bluegrass invasions influence pollinator populations, which are a prominent conservation concern and provide ecosystem services. We measured the impact of bluegrass invasion on mixed-grass prairie forb and butterfly communities. Obligate grassland butterflies, those that rely on grasslands, decreased as bluegrass cover increased, including the threatened Hesperia dacotae. Conversely, the abundance of facultative grassland butterflies, those found in grasslands but not fully dependent on them for their life history, increased as bluegrass increased. Moreover, plant species diversity and flowering forb species richness decreased as bluegrass cover increased. Overall, bluegrass invasion led to butterfly and plant community simplification, signaling a loss of biodiversity and potentially ecosystem services. Our research is the first to quantify how grassland butterflies and the floral resources they depend on are negatively impacted by bluegrass invasion. Resource managers should adopt management strategies that reduce bluegrass cover and improve nectar and host resources for obligate grassland butterflies. Management choices that removed disturbance regimes inherent to the Northern Great Plains (i.e., fire and grazing) led to bluegrass dominance in the region. Therefore, restoring disturbance regimes may be one way to reduce bluegrass and benefit pollinator populations.

Functional approach in estimation of cultural ecosystem services of recreational areas

The article is devoted to the identification and analysis of cultural ecosystem services of recreational areas from the different forest plant functional groups in the suburbs of Kazan. The study explored two cultural ecosystem services supplied by forest plants by linking these services to different plant functional traits. Information on the functional traits of 76 plants occurring in the forest ecosystems of the investigated area was collected from reference books on the biological characteristics of plant species. Analysis of these species and traits with the Ward clustering method yielded four functional groups with different potentials for delivering ecosystem services. The results show that the contribution of species diversity to services can be characterized through the functional traits of plants. This proves that there is a stable relationship between biodiversity and the quality and quantity of ecosystem services. The proposed method can be extended to other types of services (regulating and supporting). The analysis can be used in the socio-economic assessment of natural ecosystems for recreation and other uses.

Conserving Biodiversity through Ecological Restoration: The Potential Contributions of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta

Abstract Miller, J.S., P.P. Lowry II, J. Aronson, S. Blackmore, K. Havens & J. Maschinski (2016). Conserving biodiversity through ecological restoration : the potential contributions of botanical gardens and arboreta. Candollea 71 : 91–98. In English, English abstract. In the face of ever-increasing destruction and degradation of ecosystems and landscapes worldwide, there is critical and growing need for ecological restoration to maintain both biodiversity and the quality and quantity of ecosystem services. The term holistic restoration has been used for efforts with these dual goals. Botanical gardens and arboreta often have the full range of skills and resources needed to accomplish ecological restoration, including the ability to identify the appropriate species composition of reference ecosystems, to plan and design succession strategies, to propagate and cultivate trees and other plants for successful reintroduction, to monitor the success of restoration, and to play an important role in education an...

Identification of Ecosystem Functional Types from Coarse Resolution Imagery Using a Self-Organizing Map Approach: A Case Study for Spain

Ecosystem state can be characterized by a set of attributes that are related to the ecosystem functionality, which is a relevant issue in understanding the quality and quantity of ecosystem services and goods, adaptive capacity and resilience to perturbations. This study proposes a major identification of Ecosystem Functional Types (EFTs) in Spain to characterize the patterns of ecosystem functional diversity and status, from several functional attributes as the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Land Surface Temperature (LST) and Albedo. For this purpose, several metrics, related to the spatial variability in seasonal and annual patterns (e.g., relative range), have been derived from remote sensing time series of 1 km MODIS over the period 2000–2009. Moreover, precipitation maps from data provided by the AEMet (Agencia Estatal de Meteorología) and the corresponding aridity and humidity indices were also included in the analysis. To create the EFTs, the potential of the joint use of Kohonen’s Self-Organizing Map (SOM) and the k-means clustering algorithm was tested. The EFTs were analyzed using different remote sensing (i.e., Gross Primary Production) and climatic variables. The relationship of the EFTs with existing land cover datasets and climatic data were analyzed through a correspondence analysis (CA). The trained SOM have shown feasible in providing a comprehensive view on the functional attributes patterns and a remarkable potential for the quantification of ecosystem function. The results highlight the potential of this technique to delineate ecosystem functional types as well as to monitor the spatial pattern of the ecosystem status as a reference for changes due to human or climate impacts.

Multifunctionality of floodplain landscapes: relating management options to ecosystem services

The concept of green infrastructure has been recently taken up by the European Commission for ensuring the provision of ecosystem services (ESS). It aims at the supply of multiple ESS in a given landscape, however, the effects of a full suite of management options on multiple ESS and landscape multifunctionality have rarely been assessed. In this paper we use European floodplain landscapes as example to develop an expert based qualitative conceptual model for the assessment of impacts of landscape scale interventions on multifunctionality. European floodplain landscapes are particularly useful for such approach as they originally provided a high variety and quantity of ESS that has declined due to the strong human impact these landscapes have experienced. We provide an overview of the effects of floodplain management options on landscape multifunctionality by assessing the effects of 38 floodplain management interventions on 21 relevant ESS, as well as on overall ESS supply. We found that restoration and rehabilitation consistently increased the multifunctionality of the landscape by enhancing supply of provisioning, regulation/maintenance, and cultural services. In contrast, conventional technical regulation measures and interventions related to extraction, infrastructure and intensive land use cause decrease in multifunctionality and negative effects for the supply of all three aspects of ESS. The overview of the effects of interventions shall provide guidance for decision makers at multiple governance levels. The presented conceptual model could be effectively applied for other landscapes that have potential for a supply of a high diversity of ESS.

Improving cost-efficiency of conservation auctions with joint bidding

Most current models of conservation auctions are incompatible with the assessment that there are environmental externalities and synergies between bidders. Yet, conservation auctions are usually set up for the very purpose of addressing problems associated with environmental externalities. Clearly, these models do not tell the whole story, and they consequently fail to identify waste and inefficiency in these auctions. This paper shows how externalities between bidders can be incorporated into our models of conservation auctions and uses this framework to investigate the cost-efficiency of the uniform-price auction when neighbours can bid jointly. Allowing neighbours to bid jointly allows them to internalise these externalities, but also reduces the competitiveness of the auction. The net effect on cost-efficiency is ambiguous, so we show how simulation can be used as a practical tool to determine in what circumstances joint bidding can be expected to reduce the payments needed to secure a given amount of ecosystem services.

SPATIAL REPRESENTATION AND SPECIFICATION OF ECOSYSTEM SERVICES: A METHODOLOGY USING LAND USE/LAND COVER DATA AND STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT

The challenge for implementing an ecosystems approach to environmental decision-making processes, such as spatial planning, is to understand the range, nature and amount of ecosystem services currently provided and the potential for such service provision in the future. The ability to spatially represent ecosystems services is a critical element of the evidence base on which to make decisions about how physical space is used most effectively and sustainably, and the way people and activities are distributed at different spatial scales. This paper reports on the outcomes of a research project originally undertaken for the UK Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs which developed a methodology for mapping ecosystem services using GIS and readily available, existing land use/land cover datasets. Critical components of the methodology, in order to determine which datasets are appropriate for which services, are network analysis and stakeholder engagement techniques, to define the relevant typology of ecosystem services and their relationship to land use/land cover types. The methodology was developed and tested successfully in the context of green grid (green infrastructure) networks in a major UK regeneration area, the Thames Gateway, to the east of London, and its potential use in impact assessment further explored through a number of case studies.