Trade-offs between tree cover, carbon storage and floristic biodiversity in reforesting landscapes

Land use/cover change (LUCC) has an important impact on the terrestrial carbon cycle. The spatial distribution of regional carbon reserves can provide the scientific basis for the management of ecosystem carbon storage and the formulation of ecological and environmental policies. This paper proposes a method combining the CA-based FLUS model and the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade-offs (InVEST) model to assess the temporal and spatial changes in ecosystem carbon storage due to land-use changes over 1990–2015 in the Qinghai Lake Basin (QLB). Furthermore, future ecosystem carbon storage is simulated and evaluated over 2020–2030 under three scenarios of natural growth (NG), cropland protection (CP), and ecological protection (EP). The long-term spatial variations in carbon storage in the QLB are discussed. The results show that: (1) Carbon storage in the QLB decreased at first (1990–2000) and increased later (2000–2010), with total carbon storage increasing by 1.60 Tg C (Teragram: a unit of mass equal to 1012 g). From 2010 to 2015, carbon storage displayed a downward trend, with a sharp decrease in wetlands and croplands as the main cause; (2) Under the NG scenario, carbon reserves decrease by 0.69 Tg C over 2020–2030. These reserves increase significantly by 6.77 Tg C and 7.54 Tg C under the CP and EP scenarios, respectively, thus promoting the benign development of the regional ecological environment. This study improves our understanding on the impact of land-use change on carbon storage for the QLB in the northeastern Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau (QTP).

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Does the long-term success of REDD+ also depend on biodiversity?

Oryx ◽

10.1017/s0030605314000507 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 49 (2) ◽

pp. 216-221 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Amy Hinsley ◽

Abigail Entwistle ◽

Dorothea V. Pio

Keyword(s):

Carbon Storage ◽

Financial Incentives ◽

Global Climate ◽

Forest Degradation ◽

Forest Tree ◽

Carbon Stocks ◽

Tree Cover ◽

Forest Composition ◽

Tree Survival

AbstractOriginally proposed in 2005 as a way to use financial incentives to tackle global climate change, Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) has evolved to include conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks, in what is now known as REDD+. Biodiversity protection is still viewed principally as a co-benefit of the REDD+ process, with conservation of forest tree cover and carbon stocks providing the main measure of success. However, focusing solely on tree cover and carbon stocks does not always protect other species, which may be threatened by other factors, most notably hunting. We present evidence from the literature that loss of biodiversity can affect forest composition, tree survival and forest resilience and may in some cases ultimately lead to a reduction in carbon storage. We argue that REDD+ projects should specifically mitigate for threats to biodiversity if they are to maximize carbon storage potential in the long term.

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Future Impacts of Land Use Change on Ecosystem Services under Different Scenarios in the Ecological Conservation Area, Beijing, China

Forests ◽

10.3390/f11050584 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 (5) ◽

pp. 584 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Zuzheng Li ◽

Xiaoqin Cheng ◽

Hairong Han

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Ecosystem Services ◽

Land Use Change ◽

Carbon Storage ◽

Soil Conservation ◽

Land Use Changes ◽

Conservation Area ◽

Trade Offs ◽

Ecological Conservation ◽

Flood Regulation

Ecosystem services (ES), defined as benefits provided by the ecosystem to society, are essential to human well-being. However, it remains unclear how they will be affected by land-use changes due to lack of knowledge and data gaps. Therefore, understanding the response mechanism of ecosystem services to land-use change is critical for developing systematic and sound land planning. In this study, we aimed to explore the impacts of land-use change on the three ecosystem services, carbon storage (CS), flood regulation (FR), and soil conservation (SC), in the ecological conservation area of Beijing, China. We first projected land-use changes from 2015 to 2030, under three scenarios, i.e., Business as Usual (BAU), Ecological Land Protection (ELP), and Rapid Economic Development (RED), by interactively integrating the Markov model (Quantitative simulation) with the GeoSOS-FLUS model (Spatial arrangement), and then quantified the three ecosystem services by using a spatially explicit InVEST model. The results showed that built-up land would have the most remarkable growth during 2015–2030 under the RED scenario (2.52% increase) at the expense of cultivated and water body, while forest land is predicted to increase by 152.38 km2 (1.36% increase) under the ELP scenario. The ELP scenario would have the highest amount of carbon storage, flood regulation, and soil conservation, due to the strict protection policy on ecological land. The RED scenario, in which a certain amount of cultivated land, water body, and forest land is converted to built-up land, promotes soil conservation but triggers greater loss of carbon storage and flood regulation capacity. The conversion between land-use types will affect trade-offs and synergies among ecosystem services, in which carbon storage would show significant positive correlation with soil conservation through the period of 2015 to 2030, under all scenarios. Together, our results provide a quantitative scientific report that policymakers and land managers can use to identify and prioritize the best practices to sustain ecosystem services, by balancing the trade-offs among services.

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Trade-offs in carbon storage and biodiversity conservation under climate change reveal risk to endemic species

Biological Conservation ◽

10.1016/j.biocon.2017.01.004 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 207 ◽

pp. 9-16 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

April Elizabeth Reside ◽

Jeremy VanDerWal ◽

Catherine Moran

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Biodiversity Conservation ◽

Carbon Storage ◽

Endemic Species ◽

Trade Offs

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Tree Cover and Diversity Modulate the Response of Carbon Storage to Precipitation Variability in an Indian Semi-Arid Forest

Current Science ◽

10.18520/cs/v119/i9/1517-1525 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 119 (9) ◽

pp. 1517

Author(s):

Nirav Mehta ◽

Sergio Sanchez ◽

Prashanth Marpu ◽

Ankur R. Desai ◽

N. S. R. Krishnayya

Keyword(s):

Carbon Storage ◽

Precipitation Variability ◽

Tree Cover ◽

Semi Arid

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Soil carbon management in large-scale Earth system modelling: implications for crop yields and nitrogen leaching

Earth System Dynamics ◽

10.5194/esd-6-745-2015 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 6 (2) ◽

pp. 745-768 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

S. Olin ◽

M. Lindeskog ◽

T. A. M. Pugh ◽

G. Schurgers ◽

D. Wårlind ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Ecosystem Services ◽

Carbon Sequestration ◽

Soil Carbon ◽

Carbon Storage ◽

Crop Yields ◽

Nitrogen Leaching ◽

Future Climate Change ◽

Climate Change Scenarios ◽

Trade Offs

Abstract. Croplands are vital ecosystems for human well-being and provide important ecosystem services such as crop yields, retention of nitrogen and carbon storage. On large (regional to global)-scale levels, assessment of how these different services will vary in space and time, especially in response to cropland management, are scarce. We explore cropland management alternatives and the effect these can have on future C and N pools and fluxes using the land-use-enabled dynamic vegetation model LPJ-GUESS (Lund–Potsdam–Jena General Ecosystem Simulator). Simulated crop production, cropland carbon storage, carbon sequestration and nitrogen leaching from croplands are evaluated and discussed. Compared to the version of LPJ-GUESS that does not include land-use dynamics, estimates of soil carbon stocks and nitrogen leaching from terrestrial to aquatic ecosystems were improved. Our model experiments allow us to investigate trade-offs between these ecosystem services that can be provided from agricultural fields. These trade-offs are evaluated for current land use and climate and further explored for future conditions within the two future climate change scenarios, RCP (Representative Concentration Pathway) 2.6 and 8.5. Our results show that the potential for carbon sequestration due to typical cropland management practices such as no-till management and cover crops proposed in previous studies is not realised, globally or over larger climatic regions. Our results highlight important considerations to be made when modelling C–N interactions in agricultural ecosystems under future environmental change and the effects these have on terrestrial biogeochemical cycles.

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Linking microbial communities to soil carbon cycling under anthropogenic change using a trait-based framework

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-8424 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Ashish Malik ◽

Robert Griffiths ◽

Steven Allison

Keyword(s):

Drought Stress ◽

Microbial Communities ◽

Soil Carbon ◽

Stress Tolerance ◽

Carbon Storage ◽

Resource Availability ◽

Growth Yield ◽

Resource Acquisition ◽

Anthropogenic Change ◽

Trade Offs

<p>Microbial physiology may be critical for projecting future changes in soil carbon. Still, predicting the ecosystem implications of microbial processes remains a challenge. We argue that this challenge can be met by identifying microbial life history strategies based on their phenotypic characteristics, or traits, and representing these strategies in models simulating different environmental conditions. By adapting several theories from macroecology, we define microbial high yield (Y), resource acquisition (A), and stress tolerance (S) strategies. Using multi-omics and carbon stable isotope probing tools, we empirically validated our Y-A-S framework by studying variations in community traits along gradients of resource availability and abiotic conditions arising from anthropogenic change. Across a Britain-wide land use intensity gradient, we used isotope tracing and metaproteomics to show that microbial resource acquisition and stress tolerance traits trade off with growth yield measured as carbon use efficiency. Reduced community growth yield with intensification was linked to decreased microbial biomass and increased biomass-specific respiration which subsequently translated into lower organic carbon storage in such soil systems. We concluded that less-intensive management practices have more potential for carbon storage through increased microbial growth yield by greater channelling of substrates into biomass synthesis. In Californian grass and shrub ecosystems, we used metatranscriptomics and metabolomics to infer traits of in situ microbial communities on plant leaf litter in response to long-term drought. This experimental set-up provided gradients of resource availability and water stress. We observed that drought causes greater microbial allocation to stress tolerance. The most discernable physiological adaptations to drought in litter communities were production or uptake of compatible solutes like trehalose and ectoine as well as inorganic ions to maintain cellular osmotic balance. Grass communities also increased expression of genes for synthesis of capsular and extracellular polymeric substances possibly as a mechanism to retain water. These results showed a clear functional response to drought in grass litter communities with greater allocation to survival relative to growth that reduced decomposition under drought. In contrast, communities on chemically complex shrub litter had smaller differences in gene expression and metabolite profiles in response to drought, suggesting that the drought stress response is constrained by litter chemistry which also reduces decomposition rates. Overall, our findings suggest trade-offs between drought stress tolerance, resource acquisition and growth yield in communities across different ecosystems. These empirical studies demonstrate how trade-offs in key microbial traits can have consequences on soil carbon decomposition and storage. We recommend the use of our Y-A-S framework in experimental and modelling studies to mechanistically link microbial communities to system-level processes.</p>

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Carbon Storage Potential of Silvopastoral Systems of Colombia

Land ◽

10.3390/land9090309 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 9 (9) ◽

pp. 309

Author(s):

Ermias Aynekulu ◽

Marta Suber ◽

Meine van Noordwijk ◽

Jacobo Arango ◽

James M. Roshetko ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Carbon Storage ◽

Latin American ◽

Carbon Stock ◽

Tree Cover ◽

Total Biomass ◽

Silvopastoral Systems ◽

Biomass Carbon ◽

Mitigate Climate Change ◽

Tree Biomass Carbon ◽

Latin American Countries

Nine Latin American countries plan to use silvopastoral practices—incorporating trees into grazing lands—to mitigate climate change. However, the cumulative potential of scaling up silvopastoral systems at national levels is not well quantified. Here, we combined previously published tree cover data based on 250 m resolution MODIS satellite remote sensing imagery for 2000–2017 with ecofloristic zone carbon stock estimates to calculate historical and potential future tree biomass carbon storage in Colombian grasslands. Between 2000 and 2017, tree cover across all Colombian grasslands increased from 15% to 18%, with total biomass carbon (TBC) stocks increasing from 0.41 to 0.48 Pg. The range in 2017 carbon stock values in grasslands based on ecofloristic zones (5 to 122 Mg ha−1) suggests a potential for further increase. Increasing all carbon stocks to the current median and 75th percentile levels for the respective eco-floristic zone would increase TBC stocks by about 0.06 and 0.15 Pg, respectively. Incorporated into national C accounting, such Tier 2 estimates can set realistic targets for silvopastoral systems in nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and nationally appropriate mitigation actions (NAMAs) implementation plans in Colombia and other Latin American countries with similar contexts.

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Canadian boreal forests and climate change mitigation

Environmental Reviews ◽

10.1139/er-2013-0039 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 21 (4) ◽

pp. 293-321 ◽

Cited By ~ 77

Author(s):

T.C. Lemprière ◽

W.A. Kurz ◽

E.H. Hogg ◽

C. Schmoll ◽

G.J. Rampley ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Carbon Storage ◽

Boreal Forests ◽

Fossil Fuels ◽

Wood Products ◽

Mitigation Strategies ◽

Adaptation To Climate Change ◽

Mitigation Potential ◽

Systems Perspective ◽

Trade Offs

Quantitative assessment of Canada’s boreal forest mitigation potential is not yet possible, though the range of mitigation activities is known, requirements for sound analyses of options are increasingly understood, and there is emerging recognition that biogeophysical effects need greater attention. Use of a systems perspective highlights trade-offs between activities aimed at increasing carbon storage in the ecosystem, increasing carbon storage in harvested wood products (HWPs), or increasing the substitution benefits of using wood in place of fossil fuels or more emissions-intensive products. A systems perspective also suggests that erroneous conclusions about mitigation potential could result if analyses assume that HWP carbon is emitted at harvest, or bioenergy is carbon neutral. The greatest short-run boreal mitigation benefit generally would be achieved by avoiding greenhouse gas emissions; but over the longer run, there could be significant potential in activities that increase carbon removals. Mitigation activities could maximize landscape carbon uptake or maximize landscape carbon density, but not both simultaneously. The difference between the two is the rate at which HWPs are produced to meet society’s demands, and mitigation activities could seek to delay or reduce HWP emissions and increase substitution benefits. Use of forest biomass for bioenergy could also contribute though the point in time at which this produces a net mitigation benefit relative to a fossil fuel alternative will be situation-specific. Key knowledge gaps exist in understanding boreal mitigation strategies that are robust to climate change and how mitigation could be integrated with adaptation to climate change.

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