Types Of Terrestrial Ecosystems Research Articles

Responses of gross primary productivity in different types of terrestrial ecosystems to interannual variation in the northern boundary of the East Asian summer monsoon

The northern boundary of the East Asian summer monsoon (EASMNB), located in the transitional zone from humid to arid regions, is characterized by significant north-south fluctuations. These fluctuations can exert profound impacts on the photosynthetic activity of vegetation by causing anomalous climate conditions, and thus play an important role in the carbon cycle over large parts of northern China. In general, a more northward position of the EASMNB generally leads to increasing precipitation and decreasing incoming solar radiation (ISR) over most of northern China. The increasing precipitation leads to positive GPP anomalies in the temperate grassland over the western part of northern China, where water scarcity issues cause the high reliance of vegetation photosynthesis on dry-wet variability. In contrast, the decreasing ISR favors the occurrence of negative signals in the forest ecosystems over the eastern part of northern China, which holds strong resilience and resistance to dry-wet variability but sensitivity to ISR-induced changes in the available energy. Under this circumstance, the GPP responses are characterized by a zonal dipole pattern over northern China, with positive and negative signals situated over the western and eastern parts, respectively. The reverse pattern is also true when the EASMNB adopts a more southward position. Our findings highlight the distinctive impacts of EASMNB fluctuations on GPP changes among different land-cover types. Considering that the EASMNB is expected to shift northward under global warming, our study thus can provide important implications for the study of regional carbon cycles in a warmer world.

Plant diversity in secondary, montane grasslands – a case study of the abandoned plantations of Mariepskop Mountain, South Africa

Grasslands are one of the most threatened terrestrial ecosystem types, and montane grasslands of particular conservation concern. Despite high rates of transformation in recent decades, croplands and plantations are being abandoned in parts of many countries, creating an opportunity for conservation of montane grasslands through restoration. We report on the changes in the cover of major vegetation types (indigenous forest, grassland, and plantations) between 1935 and 2022, in an area that was intensively afforested from 1930 to 1960 and abandoned in 2000. Montane grassland at the site declined from over 50% of all landcover to below 15%, but subsequently recovered to 30% within 20 years. Many former plantations developed into secondary grassland with estimated gamma plant species richness of 231 for herbaceous species and 45 for savanna species. These are high values considering the size of the study area (4000 ha), and comparable to estimates from primary grassland sites in the broader region. However, at the scale of 1 m2 sampling quadrats, richness in the secondary grasslands was below that recorded in the last remaining patches of primary grassland at the site (means of 2.6 versus 4.7 for graminoid species, and 1.9 versus 2.9 for forbs). Some of the former Eucalyptus plantations had transformed into novel savannas dominated by fire-tolerant, resprouting trees, and may require more active restoration. Secondary grasslands such as those reported on here could potentially make a significant contribution to the conservation of montane biodiversity over the coming decades, warranting further research (both socio-economic and ecological) on the factors that lead to abandonment and promote the emerge of secondary grasslands of high diversity.

Common Moths and Their Ecological Importance in Bisra Range, Rourkela Forest Division, Odisha, India

Rourkela Forest Division presents a sub-tropical climatic condition with high humidity and rainfall after the onset of the monsoon. Lepidopterans are a group of insects that are potent pollinators and protectors of different terrestrial ecosystems. Among all the Lepidopterans, moths are cosmopolitan and very important. Moths are mostly nocturnal pollinators and play a vital role in the pollination of different plant species and their seed production. Besides that, they play the important role of both prey and predator in a food chain. They are less known and have always been given less importance, unlike bees and butterflies, because very few studies have been done about moths and their importance in ecosystems. A field survey was done for the documentation of some common moths’ diversity in Bisra Range, Rourkela Forest Division, Odisha, India, during 2022–2023. About 20 species of common moths were reported from the study area. This study depicts the ecological importance of moths, how they are inevitable members of the food chain in different types of terrestrial ecosystems, and their interactions with other plant and animal species in the division. Macrobrochis gigas and Phocoderma velutina larvae are abundant and major defoliators of Shorea robusta during the rainy season; Lymantria mathura is a major defoliator of Mangifera indica, Shorea robusta, Terminalia, Mitragyna, and Eugenia spp.; Xyleutes strix and Xyleutes persona are stem borers; and Phocoderma velutina shows a relationship with a parasitic fungus.

Temperature Sensitivity of Soil Respiration in Grasslands in Temperate Continental Climate Zone: Analysis of 25-Year-Long Monitoring Data

Field observations of soil respiration (SR) in different types of terrestrial ecosystems are very relevant because of high temporal and spatial variations of SR rate. The intra-annual dynamics of SR is mainly determined by the changes in hydrothermal conditions during the year and is often described with temperature sensitivity coefficient (Q10), which usually has a fixed value in many of the used models. This study is focused on the assessment of seasonal and interannual dynamics of SR temperature sensitivity in two grasslands in the southern Moscow oblast (temperate continental climate) based on continuous 25-year-long all-year-round measurements of CO2 emission from soils. The grasslands have been formed on two different soil types: sandy soddy-podbur (Entic Podzol (Arenic)) and gray loamy soil (Haplic Luvisol (Loamic)). The SR rate has been continuously measured from December 1997 to November 2022 with an interval of 7–10 days using the technique of closed static chambers. The temperature sensitivity of SR, estimated from the entire set of data, is higher in Haplic Luvisol as compared with Entic Podzol (3.47 vs. 2.59). The Q10 values for SR in both soils are 1.2–1.4-fold lower in dry years as compared with wet years. The interannual variation of Q10 values in grassland ecosystems amounts to 21–36% depending on the considered temperature range. A statistically significant positive correlation between the Q10 values in the temperature range ≥1°С and wetness indices is observable in both grasslands. A differentiated approach integrating different values of temperature coefficients for SR into the used models is necessary to improve the predictions of C budget in ecosystems.

Temperature Sensitivity of Soil Respiration in Grasslands under the Temperate Continental Climate Zone: Analysis of 25-Year Monitoring Data

Field observations of soil respiration (SR) in different types of terrestrial ecosystems seem to be very relevant, since the SR rate is characterized by high temporal and spatial variability. The intra-annual dynamics of SR is determined mainly by the change in hydrothermal conditions during the year and is often described using a temperature sensitivity coefficient (Q10), which usually has a fixed value in many of the models used. The aim of this study was to assess the seasonal and interannual dynamics of SR temperature sensitivity in two grasslands in the southern part of Moscow region (temperate continental climate) based on continuous 25-year year-round measurements of CO2 emissions from soils. Grasslands were formed on two different types of soils: soddy-podbur sandy soil (Entic Podzol (Arenic)) and gray loamy soil (Haplic Luvisol (Loamic)). The SR rate was measured continuously from December 1997 to November 2022 with an interval of 7–10 days using the closed static chamber method. The temperature sensitivity of SR, estimated from the entire set of data, had higher values on Haplic Luvisol compared to Entic Podzol (3.47 vs 2.59). The values of Q10 for SR in both types of soils in dry years were 1.2–1.4 times lower than in years with a normal moisture level. The interannual variability of Q10 values in grassland ecosystems was 21–36%, depending on the temperature range that was taken into account. A significant positive correlation between Q10 values in the temperature range ≥1°С and humidity indices was found in both grasslands. To obtain more accurate forecasts of the C balance in ecosystems, a differentiated approach should be applied by integrating different values of temperature coefficients for SR into the models.

Mapping global soil acidification under N deposition.

Soil pH is critically important in regulating soil nutrients and thus influencing the biodiversity and ecosystem functions of terrestrial ecosystems. Despite the ongoing threat of nitrogen (N) pollution especially in the fast-developing regions, it remains unclear how increasing N deposition affects soil pH across global terrestrial ecosystems. By conducting a global meta-analysis with paired observations of soil pH under N addition and control from 634 studies spanning major types of terrestrial ecosystems, we show that soil acidification increases rapidly with N addition amount and is most severe in neutral-pH soils. Grassland soil pH decreases most strongly under high N addition while wetlands are the least acidified. By extrapolating these relationships to global mapping, we reveal that atmospheric N deposition leads to a global average soil pH decline of -0.16 in the past 40 years and regions encompassing Eastern United States, Southern Brazil, Europe, and South and East Asia are the hotspots of soil acidification under N deposition. Our results highlight that anthropogenically amplified atmospheric N deposition has profoundly altered global soil pH and chemistry. They suggest that atmospheric N deposition is a major threat to global terrestrial biodiversity and ecosystem functions.

Research progress on calculation method and impact factors of carbon sequestration capacity in urban ecosystems

Achieving carbon neutrality is an urgent, complex and arduous task in China. How to effectively exert carbon sequestration and improve carbon sequestration capacity of urban ecosystems should be solved. Compared with other terrestrial ecosystem types, frequent anthropogenic activities lead to more abundant carbon sink elements of urban ecosystems and more complex factors affecting their carbon sequestration capacity. Based on researches at multiple spatial and temporal scales, we analyzed key factors affecting the carbon sequestration capacity of urban ecosystems from different perspectives. We illuminated the composition and characteristics of carbon sinks of urban ecosystems, summarized the methods and characteristics of carbon sequestration capacity of urban ecosystems, and revealed the impact factors of carbon sequestration capacity of different carbon sink elements and the comprehensive impact factors of carbon sinks of urban ecosystems under the influence of human activities. With the continuous improved understanding of carbon sinks of urban ecosystems, it is necessary to further improve the accounting method of carbon sequestration capacity of artificial carbon sink systems, explore the key impact factors of comprehensive carbon sequestration capacity, change the research method from global to spatially weighted, discover the spatial coupling relationship between artificial and natural carbon sink systems, find out the optimal artificial-natural spatial configuration to achieve carbon sequestration capacity enhancement, break the limitations of increasing carbon sink of urban ecosystems, and finally contribute to the achievement of the urban carbon neutrality goal.

Shifts in vegetation activity of terrestrial ecosystems attributable to climate trends

Climate change is expected to impact the functioning of the entire Earth system. However, detecting changes in ecosystem dynamics and attributing such change to anthropogenic climate change has proved difficult. Here we analyse the vegetation dynamics of 100 sites representative of the diversity of terrestrial ecosystem types using remote-sensing data spanning the past 40 years and a dynamic model of plant growth, forced by climate reanalysis data. We detect a change in vegetation activity for all ecosystem types and find these changes can be attributed to trends in climate-system parameters. Ecosystems in dry and warm locations responded primarily to changes in soil moisture, whereas ecosystems in cooler locations responded primarily to changes in temperature. We find that the effects of CO2 fertilization on vegetation are limited, potentially due to masking by other environmental drivers. Observed trend switching is widespread and dominated by shifts from greening to browning, suggesting many of the ecosystems studied are accumulating less carbon. Our study reveals a clear fingerprint of climate change in the change exhibited by terrestrial ecosystems over recent decades.

Distribution and Ecological Network Construction of National Natural Protected Areas in the Upper Reaches of Yangtze River

The upper reaches are an important part of the Yangtze River Basin. The basin area is large and the terrain is complex, covering nearly all types of terrestrial ecosystems. This study sorts out the information of 313 protected areas in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and uses morphological spatial pattern analysis, a minimum cumulative resistance model, and geospatial indicators to quantitatively analyze the relationship between population density, per capita gross domestic product, and the pattern of protected areas in combination with regional economic and social conditions. Results show that the number of national forest parks is the largest, accounting for 31.31% of the study area. In the study area, all types of protected areas are concentrated distribution, protected areas in sparsely populated areas that are larger, more densely populated, and more economically developed, and the corresponding number of protected areas is greater. The study area is divided into five regions through the analysis of the corridors of the protected areas: the source area of the Yangtze River National Park, the Hengduan Mountain Ecological Strict Protection Area, the Qinling-Daba Mountain Ecological Protection Area, the Northern Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau Ecological Protection Area, and the Three Gorges Ecological Control Area, forming an ecological network pattern of “one park, four districts, and three rings” in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.

Mapping the information landscape of the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration Strategy

The strategy of the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration identifies three pathways for action for overcoming six global barriers thought to hamper upscaling. We evaluated 6,023 peer‐reviewed and gray literature papers published over the last two decades to map the information landscape underlying the barriers and associated pathways for action across world regions, terrestrial ecosystem types, restorative interventions and their outcomes. Overall, the literature addressed more the financial and legislative barriers than the technical and research‐related ones, supporting the view that social, economic and political factors hamper scaling up ecosystem restoration. Latin America, Africa, and North America were the most prominent regions in the literature, yet differed in the number of publications addressing each barrier. An overwhelming number of publications focused on forests (78%), while grasslands (6%), drylands (3%), and mangroves (2%) received less attention. Across the three pathways for action, the action lines on (1) promoting long‐term ecosystem restoration actions and monitoring and (2) education on restoration were the most underrepresented in the literature. In general, restorative interventions assessed rendered positive outcomes except those of a political, legislative or financial nature which reported negative or inconclusive outcomes. Our indicative assessment reveals critical information gaps on barriers, pathways, and types of restorative interventions across world regions, particularly related to specific social issues such as education for ecosystem restoration. Finally, we call for refining “strength of evidence” assessment frameworks that can systematically appraise, synthesize and integrate information on traditional and practitioner knowledge as two essential components for improving decision‐making in ecosystem restoration.

Soil-atmosphere fluxes of CO2, CH4, and N2O across an experimentally-grown, successional gradient of biocrust community types.

Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) are critical components of dryland and other ecosystems worldwide, and are increasingly recognized as novel model ecosystems from which more general principles of ecology can be elucidated. Biocrusts are often diverse communities, comprised of both eukaryotic and prokaryotic organisms with a range of metabolic lifestyles that enable the fixation of atmospheric carbon and nitrogen. However, how the function of these biocrust communities varies with succession is incompletely characterized, especially in comparison to more familiar terrestrial ecosystem types such as forests. We conducted a greenhouse experiment to investigate how community composition and soil-atmosphere trace gas fluxes of CO2, CH4, and N2O varied from early-successional light cyanobacterial biocrusts to mid-successional dark cyanobacteria biocrusts and late-successional moss-lichen biocrusts and as biocrusts of each successional stage matured. Cover type richness increased as biocrusts developed, and richness was generally highest in the late-successional moss-lichen biocrusts. Microbial community composition varied in relation to successional stage, but microbial diversity did not differ significantly among stages. Net photosynthetic uptake of CO2 by each biocrust type also increased as biocrusts developed but tended to be moderately greater (by up to ≈25%) for the mid-successional dark cyanobacteria biocrusts than the light cyanobacterial biocrusts or the moss-lichen biocrusts. Rates of soil C accumulation were highest for the dark cyanobacteria biocrusts and light cyanobacteria biocrusts, and lowest for the moss-lichen biocrusts and bare soil controls. Biocrust CH4 and N2O fluxes were not consistently distinguishable from the same fluxes measured from bare soil controls; the measured rates were also substantially lower than have been reported in previous biocrust studies. Our experiment, which uniquely used greenhouse-grown biocrusts to manipulate community composition and accelerate biocrust development, shows how biocrust function varies along a dynamic gradient of biocrust successional stages.

Conserving Ecosystem Diversity in the Tropical Andes

Documenting temporal trends in the extent of ecosystems is essential to monitoring their status but combining this information with the degree of protection helps us assess the effectiveness of societal actions for conserving ecosystem diversity and related ecosystem services. We demonstrated indicators in the Tropical Andes using both potential (pre-industrial) and recent (~2010) distribution maps of terrestrial ecosystem types. We measured long-term ecosystem loss, representation of ecosystem types within the current protected areas, quantifying the additional representation offered by protecting Key Biodiversity Areas. Six (4.8%) ecosystem types (i.e., measured as 126 distinct vegetation macrogroups) have lost >50% in extent across four Andean countries since pre-industrial times. For ecosystem type representation within protected areas, regarding the pre-industrial extent of each type, a total of 32 types (25%) had higher representation (>30%) than the post-2020 Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) draft target in existing protected areas. Just 5 of 95 types (5.2%) within the montane Tropical Andes hotspot are currently represented with >30% within the protected areas. Thirty-nine types (31%) within these countries could cross the 30% CBD 2030 target with the addition of Key Biodiversity Areas. This indicator is based on the Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBV) and responds directly to the needs expressed by the users of these countries.

Climate drivers of global wildfire burned area

Wildfire is an integral part of the Earth system, but at the same time it can pose serious threats to human society and to certain types of terrestrial ecosystems. Meteorological conditions are a key driver of wildfire activity and extent, which led to the emergence of the use of fire danger indices that depend solely on weather conditions. The Canadian Fire Weather Index (FWI) is a widely used fire danger index of this kind. Here, we evaluate how well the FWI, its components, and the climate variables from which it is derived, correlate with observation-based burned area (BA) for a variety of world regions. We use a novel technique, according to which monthly BA are grouped by size for each Global Fire Emissions Database (GFED) pyrographic region. We find strong correlations of BA anomalies with the FWI anomalies, as well as with the underlying deviations from their climatologies for the four climate variables from which FWI is estimated, namely, temperature, relative humidity, precipitation, and wind. We quantify the relative sensitivity of the observed BA to each of the four climate variables, finding that this relationship strongly depends on the pyrographic region and land type. Our results indicate that the BA anomalies strongly correlate with FWI anomalies at a GFED region scale, compared to the strength of the correlation with individual climate variables. Additionally, among the individual climate variables that comprise the FWI, relative humidity and temperature are the most influential factors that affect the observed BA. Our results support the use of the composite fire danger index FWI, as well as its sub-indices, the Build-Up Index (BUI) and the Initial Spread Index (ISI), comparing to single climate variables, since they are found to correlate better with the observed forest or non-forest BA, for the most regions across the globe.

Documenting at‐risk status of terrestrial ecosystems in temperate and tropical North America

AbstractThe International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Ecosystems (RLE) is an emerging global standard for ecosystem risk assessment that integrates data and knowledge to document the relative risk status of ecosystem types. Here, we summarize initial findings from applying four IUCN RLE criteria to 655 terrestrial ecosystems in temperate and tropical North America, or 8.5% of the global land surface. A series of indicators are measured for each criterion to address trends in ecosystem extent (A), the relative restricted nature of its distribution (B), and the extent and relative severity of environmental degradation (C), and the extent and relative severity of disruption of biotic processes (D); all to gauge the probability of range wide “collapse.” Ecosystems are listed as collapsed, critically endangered, endangered, vulnerable, near threatened, least concern, data deficient, or not evaluated. Taking uncertainty into account, 219 (33%) of terrestrial ecosystem types were listed as threatened (i.e., either critically endangered, [7%], endangered [14%], or vulnerable [13%]). Examples include tallgrass prairies, oak savannas, longleaf pine woodlands, floodplain forests, mesic hardwood forests, and dry tropical forests. Historically, these threatened ecosystems occurred across about 45% of the continental study area, and today account for about 30%. The RLE provides one important focus for prioritizing conservation effort.

酸雨对中国陆地生态系统土壤呼吸影响的整合分析

PDF HTML阅读 XML下载 导出引用 引用提醒 酸雨对中国陆地生态系统土壤呼吸影响的整合分析 DOI: 10.5846/stxb202110202959 作者: 作者单位: 作者简介: 通讯作者: 中图分类号: 基金项目: 国家自然科学基金项目（31901296）；广东省基础与应用基础研究基金项目（2021A1515010652）；广州市基础研究计划项目（202102020289） Effects of acid rain on soil respiration in Chinese terrestrial ecosystems: A meta-analysis Author: Affiliation: Fund Project: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31901296), the Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (2021A1515010652), and the Guangzhou Basic Research Program (2021000031). 摘要 | 图/表 | 访问统计 | 参考文献 | 相似文献 | 引证文献 | 资源附件 | 文章评论 摘要:通过整合分析（Meta-analysis）国内外公开发表的81篇模拟酸雨实验论文的2683条有效观测数据，量化了酸雨对中国3个主要陆地生态系统（森林、草地和农田）土壤呼吸（Rs）及其组分（自养呼吸（Ra）、异养呼吸（Rh））的影响。结果表明，酸雨显著降低了Rs （-9.6%）、Rh （-7.7%）和Ra （-11.7%）；酸雨pH越低，Rs及其组分的降幅越大；野外实验对Rh和Ra的负效应大于温室实验。酸雨对Rs的负效应在农田最大（-14.7%），草地次之（-10.8%），森林最小（-8.0%）；森林Rh、Ra对酸雨的响应与Rs一致，不同林型间差异不显著；草地Rh和Ra在酸雨处理下分别显著降低和增加。Rs、Rh与土壤pH显著正相关，与土壤有机碳（SOC）显著负相关；Rh和Ra分别与地上和地下生物量显著正相关。酸雨对Rs和Ra的负效应随纬度的增加而减弱，随年平均温的升高而增强，对Rs的正效应随年平均降水的降低而增强。研究表明，酸雨不仅降低了土壤pH，抑制了植物生长，减少了植物向土壤的碳输入，还降低了微生物活性，减少了Rh，导致SOC分解降低，因而未显著改变土壤碳库。研究结果将为全球变化背景下我国陆地生态系统的碳预算提供科学借鉴。 Abstract:Anthropogenic activities over the last four decades have increased depositions of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) by three to five fold in China, which resulted in a serious problem of acid rain with adverse effects on terrestrial carbon cycle. Soil respiration (Rs) as the second largest flux for the most terrestrial carbon cycle, and its two components (i.e., autotrophic respiration (Ra) and heterotrophic respiration (Rh)) are extremely sensitive to anthropogenic acid rain due to its detrimental effects on plant growth and soil microbes. Although numerous ecosystem-level manipulative experiments were conducted to explore the underlying mechanisms how acid rain affected Rs, a quantitative synthesis of previous studies on the effects of acid rain on Rs and its two components across different terrestrial ecosystems was scarce. By conducting a meta-analysis of 2683 observations from 81 independent experimental studies, we quantified the directions and magnitudes of the responses of Rs, Ra, and Rh to simulated acid rain (SAR) in three major terrestrial ecosystems (i.e., forest, grassland, farmland) in China. Across all the experimental studies, our results showed that SAR significantly reduced Rs (-9.6%), Rh (-11.7%) and Ra (-11.7%), and the degree of reduction was proportional to the pH of SAR. The negative effects of SAR on Rh and Ra were greater in field experiment than that in pot experiment due to the differences in the intensity of SAR and experimental duration. Among different terrestrial ecosystem types, the negative effect of SAR on Rs was the most negative in farmland ecosystems (-14.7%), followed by grassland (-10.8%) and forest (-8.0%) ecosystems. The responses of Rh and Ra to SAR in forest ecosystems were consistent with that of Rs, and there were no significant differences among different forest types (i.e., coniferous forest, coniferous and broadleaved mixed forest and broadleaved forest). In grassland ecosystems, the response to SAR was negative for Rh, but positive for Ra. Linear-regression analysis showed that Rs and Rh were positively correlated with soil pH, but negatively correlated with soil organic carbon (SOC). Rh and Ra were positively correlated with aboveground biomass (AGB) and belowground biomass (BGB), respectively. Meta-regression analysis indicated that the negative effects of SAR on Rs and Ra were decreased with the increase of latitude, and increased with the increase of mean annual temperature (MAT), whereas the positive effect of SAR on Rs increased with a decrease in mean annual precipitation (MAP). Based on this meta-analysis, we found that SAR not only reduced soil pH, inhibited plant growth, and thus reduced plant carbon input to soil, but also inhibited microbial activities, reduced Rh, and SOC decomposition rate. Therefore, anthropogenic acid rain significantly altered the input and output of SOC, but did not significantly change the content of SOC in terrestrial ecosystems. These results will provide scientific basis for assessing the carbon budget of the Chinese terrestrial ecosystems in response to global change. 参考文献 相似文献 引证文献

Developing a method for calculating conservation targets in systematic conservation planning at the national level

Setting a quantitative conservation target comprises an important step in systematic conservation planning. This paper outlines a first attempt to calculate quantitative conservation targets for selection of national parks, wildlife refuges, and protected areas in 21 terrestrial ecosystems at the national level. To formulate and calculate targets, we further developed Pressey and Taffs’s formula (2001) and included baseline target, natural rarity and potential ecological vulnerability (PEV) in our formulation. The PEV was defined as the potential impacts resulting from exposure to main threats plus ecological sensitivity of any land tract without considering adaptation. Our results showed that the minimum and maximum conservation targets for selection of national parks, wildlife refuges and protected areas as percentages of the area of each terrestrial ecosystem were between 1.44%–3.17%, 3.87%–8.08%, and 6.36%–13.27%, respectively. We showed how to design an effective network of three management categories including the full range of terrestrial ecosystem types within the country. Nationally and under current conditions, we found that the Moderate-Desert Woodland & Shrublands and the Cold-Desert Steppe Scrubland ecosystems required the most and least attention, respectively. This finding provided additional support for the establishment of a representative, comprehensive and balanced network of protected areas in the country and finally a fundamental guide for effective ecological conservation and environmental management.

Valuing Forest Ecosystem Services. Why Is an Integrative Approach Needed?

Among the many types of terrestrial ecosystems, forests have some of the highest levels of biodiversity; they also have many interdependent economic, ecological and social functions and provide ecosystem services. They supply a range of tangible, marketable goods, as well as a variety of nonmarketable and intangible services derived from various forest functions. These translate into social, cultural, health and scientific benefits for people’s quality of life. However, because they cannot be traded on a market, nonmarketable and intangible services are often perceived as free, inexhaustible and, as a result, underestimated. The human–nature interaction has affected both nature (via resource consumption) and society (via development of human welfare and well-being). Decision-makers, both public and private, often manage natural capital for multiple aims. In recent years it has been found that the single, individual approach estimating the value for these goods and services is not able to provide information that generates and supports decisions and policies in complex areas of current relevance such as the constant loss of biodiversity, climate change and global warming in close connection with the need for social development and ensuring an acceptable level of well-being for the greatest part of humanity. An integrated assessment with advanced techniques and methods using a pluralist framework of a heterogeneous set of values is considered a better approach to the valuation of such complex nature of the ecosystem goods and services. This assessment should take into account both costs and benefits trade-off issues among the multiple uses of ecosystem goods and/or services, especially the relationships between them and how they influence or determine the economic, social and cultural development of society. It should also consider the estimation of the complex inverse effect, from society to nature, whose goods and services can be diminished to exhaustion by the extensive and intensive anthropization of natural ecosystems with major impact on the number and quality of goods and services provided by ecosystems. Research has shown that applying an integrative assessment approach that utilizes tools developed by sustainability sciences could be an important component of future environmental policy making.

Disruptions and re-establishment of the calcium-bicarbonate equilibrium in freshwaters

During recent decades, increasing anthropogenic activities have affected natural ionic composition, including the strongest and most common relationship between ionic concentrations in the majority of natural global freshwaters, i.e., the Ca2+-ANC (acid neutralizing capacity) equilibrium. Using long-term monitoring data and MAGIC modelling, we evaluated effects of major present environmental stressors (synthetic fertilizers, liming, acidic deposition, forest disturbances, and climate change) on the Ca2+-ANC equilibrium. We evaluated the effects for three different types of terrestrial ecosystems, a circumneutral lowland agricultural catchment, two acid sensitive mountain forest catchments differing in forest health, and one acid sensitive alpine catchment. All catchments are in a region with the world-largest changes in fertilizing rates and acidic deposition in the 20th century, with increasing impacts until the late 1980s, and their subsequent abrupt, dramatic decreases. These strong changes resulted in a substantial disruption, followed by continuing re-establishment of the Ca2+-ANC relationship in all study waters. The shape of the disruption and the following re-establishment of its new value were dependent on the intensity, duration, and combination of stressors, as well as on catchment characteristics (bedrock composition, soil amount and composition, vegetation status, and hydrology). We conclude that a new equilibrium may deviate from its natural value due to the (1) legacy of fertilizing, acidic deposition and liming, affecting the soil Ca2+ pools, (2) forest disturbances and management practices, and (3) climate change.

Long-term loss in extent and current protection of terrestrial ecosystem diversity in the temperate and tropical Americas.

Documenting changes in ecosystem extent and protection is essential to understanding status of biodiversity and related ecosystem services and have direct applications to measuring Essential Biodiversity Variables, Targets under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and IUCN Red List of Ecosystems. We developed both potential and current distribution maps of terrestrial ecosystem types for the temperate and tropical Americas; with “potential” estimating where a type would likely occur today had there not been prior land conversion for modern land uses. We utilized a hierarchical classification to describe and map natural ecosystem types at six levels of thematic detail, with lower thematic levels defining more units each with narrower floristic range than upper levels. Current land use/land cover was derived using available global data on human land use intensity and combined with the potential distribution maps to estimate long-term change in extent for each ecosystem type. We also assessed representation of ecosystem types within protected areas as defined by IUCN I-VI land status categories. Of the 749 ecosystem types assessed, represented at 5th (n = 315) vs. 6th (n = 433) levels of the classification hierarchy, 5 types (1.6%) and 31 types (7.1%), respectively, have lost >90% of their potential extent. Some 66 types (20.9%) and 141 types (32.5%), respectively, have lost >50% of their potential extent; thus, crossing thresholds of Vulnerable status under IUCN Red List criterion A3. For ecosystem type representation within IUCN protected area classes, with reference to potential extent of each type, 111 (45.3%) and 125 (28.8%) of types, respectively, have higher representation (>17%) than CBD 2020 targets. Twelve types (3.8%) and 23 (5.3%) of types, respectively, are represented with <1% within protected areas. We illustrate an option for visualizing and reporting on CBD targets (2020 and proposed post-2020) for ecosystem representativeness using both potential extent as a baseline.

Classification of the desert steppes ecosystems of Western Kazakhstan

The results of the steppe zone ecosystems investigation in Western Kazakhstan are presented. Theclassification of the main types of terrestrial ecosystems of the desert steppes subzone, divided by the forms of macrorelief(elevated plains, river valleys, sand massifs) and grouped into categories according to the type of water regime (automorphic,semihydromorphic, hydromorphic), is presented. Within the automorphic category, one zonal class of ecosystems hasbeen distinguished: cereal-wormwood desert steppes on light chestnut soils. The semi-hydromorphic category includesecosystems of wormwood-halophytic-cereal steppe meadows on meadow-chestnut soils. The hydromorphic categoryof river valleys is characterized by ecosystems of floodplain forest-meadow and tree-shrub tugai on floodplain meadowsoils.