Temporal-spatial changes in ecosystem services and implications for the conservation of alpine rangelands on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

2015 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiao-Wen Li ◽  
Meng-Di Li ◽  
Shi-Kui Dong ◽  
Jian-Bin Shi
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Carbon Storage ◽  
Habitat Quality ◽  
Spatial Patterns ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Sustainable Use ◽  
Conservation Strategy ◽  
Ecosystem Conservation ◽  
Water Provision

Ecosystem services emerged as a concept to bridge ecosystem conservation and the sustainable use of natural resources. Given the limited funding and resources available for ecosystem conservation, fully understanding and identifying the temporal-spatial patterns of ecosystem services can help establish a cost-efficient ecosystem conservation strategy. Although studies have indicated globally important ecosystem services on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP), key ecosystem services, such as carbon storage, water provision and habitat quality, have not been spatial-explicitly quantified, leading to a lack of understanding of key spatial patterns for conservation of this unique alpine ecosystem. To fill this gap, these three key ecosystem services were simulated for the QTP rangelands by using the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade-off model, and the hotspots of those ecosystem services were evaluated and identified. It was shown that alpine meadows played a key role compared with alpine steppe and alpine desert in providing the ecosystem services of water provision, carbon storage and habitat quality in the alpine rangelands of the QTP. In addition, it was shown that there had been a considerable decrease in both the potential and the protected hotspots of ecosystem service between 1990 and 2000, implying that the existing conservation system (i.e. National Nature Reserves) could not effectively maintain these hotspots and that there was a need to restore those degraded rangeland ecosystems within the existing conservation system. The large-scale spatial heterogeneity among the different ecosystem services found in this study can be used to inform a more comprehensive conservation strategy for the provision of ecosystem services as well as biodiversity in the QTP rangelands.

scholarly journals Grassland Subsidies Increase the Number of Livestock on the Tibetan Plateau: Why Does the “Payment for Ecosystem Services” Policy Have the Opposite Outcome?

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 6208
Author(s):  
Yan Yu ◽  
Ya Wu ◽  
Pan Wang ◽  
Yili Zhang ◽  
Liang Emlyn Yang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Rural Households ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Grassland Degradation ◽  
Scale Production ◽  
Sustainable Livelihood ◽  
Payment For Ecosystem Services

The Grassland Ecological Protection Award Policy was implemented to address severe grassland degradation in China. This policy utilizes grassland subsidies as an incentive to control the number of livestock and has become the largest payment for ecosystem services program. Although many studies have analyzed the performance of this policy, it remains controversial as to whether grassland subsidies are effective at reducing the number of livestock; moreover, there is still a lack of quantitative studies on the roles of household livelihood assets and livelihood strategies in reducing the number of livestock. On the basis of the sustainable livelihood framework, this paper constructed an analytical framework to research how grassland subsidies affect the number of livestock under the effects of different livelihood capitals and local socioecological contexts. After choosing the Pumqu River Basin of the Tibetan Plateau as the research area, this study classified sample households on the basis of grassland sizes and then examined the effects of grassland subsidies on the number of livestock of different groups of rural households by considering livelihood capital. The results showed that (1) for all the sample households, grassland subsidies caused herdsmen to raise more livestock, which was contrary to the expectation of the grassland protection policy. The invalidation of grassland subsidies was mainly caused by the poor design and implementation of the policy at the local level. (2) In addition, for rural households with different grassland sizes, the subsidies could be effective in reducing the number of livestock for households with small grassland sizes while increasing the number of livestock for households with large grassland sizes. This indicates that some supporting policies and measures for households with smaller grassland sizes should be provided to stimulate the reduction in the number of livestock, and for households with large grassland areas, grassland circulation should be encouraged to promote the large-scale production of livestock husbandry. The finding of this study can help governments to formulate policies tailored towards appropriate subsidies for addressing grassland degradation.

Canopy Research in Nepal Himalayas: Opportunities and Challenges

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Mohan P. Devkota
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Forest Canopy ◽  
Sustainable Use ◽  
Conservation Strategy ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Interdisciplinary Field ◽  
Use Of Resources ◽  
Functional Aspects ◽  
Canopy Research

 Despite a rapidly expanding interdisciplinary field worldwide, forest canopies of Nepal Himalayas are yet to be explored and the national conservation strategy still has to recognize the importance to identify it as an essential domain of canopy dwelling animals and plants. In the last few decades canopy science has emerged as a new discipline with more interdisciplinary and large-scale research possibilities are coming including canopy-atmosphere interactions, structural and functional aspects of canopy on biodiversity are a few among them. Canopies are important in supporting high terrestrial diversity and providing goods and services. Diverse rural mountain societies not only depend on goods and services provided by canopy but it also provides opportunities to explore sustainable use of resources for local livelihood generation. New frontiers of forest canopy research can also provide inputs to understand the potential impacts of climate change on the changing availability of goods and services affecting rural communities of Nepal. Yet, it still remains one of the unexplored and overlooked areas in the biodiversity sector of Nepal. Here, the opportunities of canopy research in Nepal Himalayas and various challenges associated with this are reviewed.

scholarly journals Spatial patterns of agricultural expansion determine impacts on biodiversity and carbon storage

2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (24) ◽  
pp. 7402-7407 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Chaplin-Kramer ◽  
Richard P. Sharp ◽  
Lisa Mandle ◽  
Sarah Sim ◽  
Justin Johnson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Carbon Storage ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Spatial Configuration ◽  
Land Development ◽  
Spatially Explicit ◽  
Agricultural Expansion ◽  
Land Conversion ◽  
Product Demand ◽  
Explicit Analysis

The agricultural expansion and intensification required to meet growing food and agri-based product demand present important challenges to future levels and management of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Influential actors such as corporations, governments, and multilateral organizations have made commitments to meeting future agricultural demand sustainably and preserving critical ecosystems. Current approaches to predicting the impacts of agricultural expansion involve calculation of total land conversion and assessment of the impacts on biodiversity or ecosystem services on a per-area basis, generally assuming a linear relationship between impact and land area. However, the impacts of continuing land development are often not linear and can vary considerably with spatial configuration. We demonstrate what could be gained by spatially explicit analysis of agricultural expansion at a large scale compared with the simple measure of total area converted, with a focus on the impacts on biodiversity and carbon storage. Using simple modeling approaches for two regions of Brazil, we find that for the same amount of land conversion, the declines in biodiversity and carbon storage can vary two- to fourfold depending on the spatial pattern of conversion. Impacts increase most rapidly in the earliest stages of agricultural expansion and are more pronounced in scenarios where conversion occurs in forest interiors compared with expansion into forests from their edges. This study reveals the importance of spatially explicit information in the assessment of land-use change impacts and for future land management and conservation.

scholarly journals Response of land use change and ecosystem services based on different functional scenarios: Case study of Nanjing

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ziyi Wang ◽  
Yu wang ◽  
Jingxiang Zhang ◽  
Dongqi Sun ◽  
Zihang Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Carbon Storage ◽  
Habitat Quality ◽  
Water Purification ◽  
Soil Conservation ◽  
Urban Land Use ◽  
Main Function ◽  
Trade Offs

AbstractLand Use/Land Cover Change (LUCC) is one of the important reasons for the change of ecosystem services (ESs). Due to the uncertainty of future development policies and the complexity of LUCC, assessing the impact of future urban sprawl on ecosystem services remains challenging. We simulated the effect of urban land-use change on ESs on the basis of different functional scenarios, which is of important value to urban land-use planning and ESs protection. In our study, we designed three scenarios: Production function priority scenario (PFP scenario)、 Living function priority scenario (LFP scenario)、 Ecological function priority scenario (EFP Scenario). And we used the GeoSOS-FLUS software to realize visualization. Based on invest model, we evaluated five types of ESs: carbon storage, warter yield, habitat quality, water purification and soil conservation. Research showed that from 2000 to 2015, carbon storage, habitat quality and water production in Nanjing decreased significantly, soil conservation increased slightly, and the performance of the two indicators for water purification was not consistent. From different scenarios, carbon storage and habitat quality were the highest in EFP scenario, water yield was the highest in PFP scenario and soil conservation was the highest in LFP scenario. We analyzed the trade-offs among various ESs, found that the change of land-use types in cities does not fundamentally change the trade-offs among various ESs. We believed that the determination of the main function of LUCC was the first condition to judge the applicability of scenario, and the scenario simulation which integrated the main function of the city could provide more references for the related research.

scholarly journals Impacts of alpine shrub-meadow degradation on its ecosystem services and spatial patterns in Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

2022 ◽  
Vol 135 ◽  
pp. 108541
Author(s):  
Dawen Qian ◽  
Yangong Du ◽  
Qian Li ◽  
Xiaowei Guo ◽  
Bo Fan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Spatial Patterns ◽  
Alpine Shrub ◽  
Meadow Degradation

scholarly journals Impacts of Land Use Changes on Wetland Ecosystem Services in the Tumen River Basin

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (23) ◽  
pp. 9821 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanan Zhang ◽  
Ri Jin ◽  
Weihong Zhu ◽  
Da Zhang ◽  
Xiaoxue Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Carbon Storage ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Habitat Quality ◽  
Paddy Fields ◽  
Ecosystem Functions ◽  
Water Yield ◽  
Wetland Ecosystem ◽  
Tumen River

Climate change and global rapid agricultural expansion have drastically reduced the area of wetlands globally recently, so that the ecosystem functions of wetlands have been impacted severely. Therefore, this study integrated the land use data and the integrated valuation of ecosystem services and tradeoffs (InVEST) model to evaluate the impacts of the land-use change (LUC) on wetland ecosystem services (ES) from 1976 to 2016 in the Tumen River Basin (TRB). Results reveal that the area of wetlands in TRB had decreased by 22.39% since 1976, mainly due to the rapid conversion of wetlands to dry fields and construction lands, and the LUC had induced notable geospatial changes in wetland ES consequently. A marked decrease in carbon storage and water yield was observed, while the habitat quality was enhanced slightly. Specifically, the conversion of rivers and paddy fields to ponds and reservoirs were the main reasons for the increase in habitat quality and caused the habitat quality to increase by 0.09. The conversion of marshes to lakes, paddy fields, grasslands, dry fields, and artificial surfaces were the key points for the decline in carbon storage; the conversion of marshes to lakes (5.38 km2) and reservoir ponds (1.69 km2) were the dominant factors driving the losses of water yield. According to our results, we should center on the conservation of wetlands and rethink the construction of the land use. The findings are expected to provide a theoretical reference and basis for promoting environmental protection in TRB and the construction of ecological civilization in border areas.

scholarly journals Analyzing Land-Use Change Scenarios for Ecosystem Services and their Trade-Offs in the Ecological Conservation Area in Beijing, China

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (22) ◽  
pp. 8632
Author(s):  
Zuzheng Li ◽  
Xiaoqin Cheng ◽  
Hairong Han
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Carbon Storage ◽  
Habitat Quality ◽  
Soil Conservation ◽  
Land Use Changes ◽  
Conservation Area ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Ecological Conservation ◽  
Beijing China

It is generally believed that land-use changes can affect a variety of ecosystem services (ES), but the relationships involved remain unclear due to a lack of systematic knowledge and gaps in data. In order to make rational decisions for land-use planning that is grounded in a systematic understanding of trade-offs between different land-use strategies, it is very important to understand the response mechanisms of various ecosystem services to changes in land-use. Therefore, the objective of our study is to assess the effects of land-use change on six ecosystem services and their trade-offs among the ecosystem services in the ecological conservation area (ECA) in Beijing, China. To do this, we projected future land-use in 2030 under three different scenarios: Business as Usual (BAU), Ecological Protection (ELP), and Rapid Urban Development (RUD), using GeoSOS-FLUS model. Then, we quantified six ecosystem services (carbon storage, soil conservation, water purification, habitat quality, flood regulation, and food production) in response to land-use changes from 2015 to 2030, using a spatially explicit InVEST model. Finally, we illustrated the trade-offs and/or synergistic relationships between each ecosystem service quantified under each of the different scenarios in 2030. Results showed that built-up land is projected to increase by 281.18 km2 at the cost of water bodies and cultivated land from 2015 to 2030 under the RUD scenario, while forest land is projected to increase by 152.38 km2 under the ELP scenario. The carbon storage, soil conservation, habitat quality, and the sum of ecosystem services (SES) would enrich the highest level under the ELP scenario. Land-use strategies that follow the ELP scenario can better maintain the ecosystem services and sustainable development of natural and social economic systems.

The value of ecosystem services

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linus Blomqvist ◽  
R. David Simpson
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Random Sample ◽  
International Institutions ◽  
Evidence Base ◽  
Conservation Strategy ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Opportunity Costs ◽  
Monetary Value ◽  
Pollution Treatment ◽  
Diminishing Returns

This chapter investigates whether the growing enthusiasm for ecosystem services recently expressed by conservation NGOs and international institutions is supported by evidence. Ecosystem services—the benefits humans receive from nature—have become the darlings of conservation on the assumption that the valuation of selected services may justify protecting land. A critical examination of a random sample of monetary valuations for regulating ecosystem services such as pollution treatment, finds that only onethird can be considered reliable, and that only ten percent of monetary value estimates can be transferred to other contexts. This suggests that the overall evidence base for assigning monetary value to nature is limited. Furthermore, diminishing returns, high opportunity costs, and technological substitutes might limit the amount of conservation that can be justified on the basis financial assessments of ecosystem services. As such, this chapter concludes that ecosystem services as a conservation strategy should not be embraced uncritically.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document