The armadillos: from ecosystem services and online opinions to land use in agricultural landscapes

Agricultural land use systems have been optimized for producing provisioning ecosystem services (ES) in the past few decades, often at the expense of regulating and cultural services. Research has focused mainly on the supply side of ES and related trade-offs, but the demand side for regulatory services remains largely neglected. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the usefulness of participatory geographic information system (PGIS) methods for demand assessment in larger rural and agrarian contexts by identifying spatially explicit demand patterns for ES, thereby enlarging the body of participatory approaches to ES-based land use management. Accordingly, we map, assess, and statistically and spatially analyze different demands for five ES by different stakeholder groups in agricultural landscapes in three case studies. The results are presented in a stakeholder workshop and prerequisites for collaborative ES management are discussed. Our results show that poor correlation exists between stakeholder groups and demands for ES; however, arable land constitutes the highest share of the mapped area of demands for the five ES. These results have been validated by both the survey and the stakeholder workshop. Our study concludes that PGIS represents a useful tool to link demand assessments and landscape management systematically, especially for decision support systems.

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Agricultural rewilding: a prospect for livestock systems

10.32942/osf.io/mv6dn ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Aymeric Mondiere ◽

Michael S Corson ◽

Lois Morel ◽

Hayo MG van der Werf

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Ecosystem Services ◽

Ecological Integrity ◽

Agricultural Landscapes ◽

Plant Production ◽

Human Intervention ◽

Ecological Processes ◽

Key Species ◽

Agroecological Transition ◽

Livestock Systems

CONTEXT: Agricultural intensification is a major cause of biodiversity loss. Biodiversity conservation and restoration generally involve human intervention. In comparison, rewilding, a radically different approach to address the erosion of biodiversity, aims to increase the ability of ecological processes to act with little or no human intervention, and thus to enhance biodiversity and the supply of ecosystem services. OBJECTIVE: In this review and call to explore the potential of rewilding for agriculture, in particular for livestock systems, we identified effects of agroecological livestock systems on biodiversity and analysed similarities, differences and complementarities between the agroecological transition and the rewilding of livestock systems.METHODS: We researched literature in the Web of Science Core Collection that focussed on biodiversity, livestock, agriculture, rewilding and interactions among them.RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Agricultural rewilding is an emerging form of land use that we conceptually position between agroecology and rewilding. It combines restoration of ecological processes with some degree of agricultural production, most often of animals. Over time, human land-use has aimed to increase plant and animal output, which has degraded the ecological integrity of ecosystems. This process of dewilding accelerated with the advent of agriculture. In recent decades, certain agricultural landscapes and farms have evolved in the opposite direction, decreasing material human inputs and improving ecological integrity. This evolution takes three forms: agroecological transition, agricultural rewilding and rewilding. Of these, the first and third concern relatively large areas. A selection of 11 agricultural rewilding projects established for at least 5 years in the United Kingdom had areas of 121-4402 ha. The projects targeted 48 key species/breeds, 23 of which were ecosystem engineers: 18 grazers, 4 pig breeds and beavers. The main actions to enhance rewilding were extensive grazing and habitat restoration. The main economic activities were meat or animal sales, tourism and education programmes. Agricultural rewilding may provide a multifunctional model to which livestock farms may transition to respond better to societal demands.SIGNIFICANCE: Agricultural rewilding offers a new and inspiring prospect for livestock systems and poses research questions about its relation to agroecology and rewilding, its implementation, its potential for plant production and its value for livestock farmers. The forms it can take remain to be explored, and the potential influence of these forms on biodiversity, ecosystem services and environmental impacts needs to be characterised. Exploring the forms that agricultural rewilding may take requires close collaboration among ecologists, animal scientists and agronomists.

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Deriving a per-field land use and land cover map in an agricultural mosaic catchment

Earth System Science Data ◽

10.5194/essd-6-339-2014 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 6 (2) ◽

pp. 339-352 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

B. Seo ◽

C. Bogner ◽

P. Poppenborg ◽

E. Martin ◽

M. Hoffmeister ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Ecosystem Services ◽

Land Cover ◽

Earth Science ◽

Agricultural Landscapes ◽

Agricultural Practice ◽

Services Research ◽

Additional Information ◽

Lack Of Information ◽

Linear Landscape Elements

Abstract. Detailed data on land use and land cover constitute important information for Earth system models, environmental monitoring and ecosystem services research. Global land cover products are evolving rapidly; however, there is still a lack of information particularly for heterogeneous agricultural landscapes. We censused land use and land cover field by field in the agricultural mosaic catchment Haean in South Korea. We recorded the land cover types with additional information on agricultural practice. In this paper we introduce the data, their collection and the post-processing protocol. Furthermore, because it is important to quantitatively evaluate available land use and land cover products, we compared our data with the MODIS Land Cover Type product (MCD12Q1). During the studied period, a large portion of dry fields was converted to perennial crops. Compared to our data, the forested area was underrepresented and the agricultural area overrepresented in MCD12Q1. In addition, linear landscape elements such as waterbodies were missing in the MODIS product due to its coarse spatial resolution. The data presented here can be useful for earth science and ecosystem services research. The data are available at the public repository Pangaea (doi:110.1594/PANGAEA.823677).

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Deriving a per-field land use and land cover map in an agricultural mosaic catchment

Earth System Science Data Discussions ◽

10.5194/essdd-7-271-2014 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

pp. 271-304 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

B. Seo ◽

C. Bogner ◽

P. Poppenborg ◽

E. Martin ◽

M. Hoffmeister ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Ecosystem Services ◽

Land Cover ◽

Earth Science ◽

Agricultural Landscapes ◽

Agricultural Practice ◽

Services Research ◽

Additional Information ◽

Lack Of Information ◽

Linear Landscape Elements

Abstract. Detailed data on land use and land cover constitutes important information for Earth system models, environmental monitoring and ecosystem services research. Global land cover products are evolving rapidly, however, there is still a lack of information particularly for heterogeneous agricultural landscapes. We censused land use and land cover field by field in an agricultural mosaic catchment Haean, South Korea. We recorded the land cover types with additional information on agricultural practice and make this data available at the public repository Pangaea (doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.823677). In this paper we introduce the data, its collection and the post-processing protocol. During the studied period, a large portion of dry fields was converted to perennial crops. A comparison between our dataset and MODIS Land Cover Type (MCD12Q1) suggested that the MODIS product was restricted in this area since it does not distinguish irrigated fields from general croplands. In addition, linear landscape elements such as water bodies were not detected in the MODIS product due to its coarse spatial resolution. The data presented here can be useful for earth science and ecosystem services research.

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Ecosystem Services in Agricultural Landscapes: A Spatially Explicit Approach to Support Sustainable Soil Management

The Scientific World JOURNAL ◽

10.1155/2014/483298 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 2014 ◽

pp. 1-13 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Mohsen Forouzangohar ◽

Neville D. Crossman ◽

Richard J. MacEwan ◽

D. Dugal Wallace ◽

Lauren T. Bennett

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Ecosystem Services ◽

Water Storage ◽

Agricultural Landscapes ◽

Organic Carbon Content ◽

Land Uses ◽

Soil Ecosystem ◽

Land Use Scenario ◽

Eastern Australia ◽

Soil Ecosystem Services

Soil degradation has been associated with a lack of adequate consideration of soil ecosystem services. We demonstrate a broadly applicable method for mapping changes in the supply of two priority soil ecosystem services to support decisions about sustainable land-use configurations. We used a landscape-scale study area of 302 km2in northern Victoria, south-eastern Australia, which has been cleared for intensive agriculture. Indicators representing priority soil services (soil carbon sequestration and soil water storage) were quantified and mapped under both a current and a future 25-year land-use scenario (the latter including a greater diversity of land uses and increased perennial crops and irrigation). We combined diverse methods, including soil analysis using mid-infrared spectroscopy, soil biophysical modelling, and geostatistical interpolation. Our analysis suggests that the future land-use scenario would increase the landscape-level supply of both services over 25 years. Soil organic carbon content and water storage to 30 cm depth were predicted to increase by about 11% and 22%, respectively. Our service maps revealed the locations of hotspots, as well as potential trade-offs in service supply under new land-use configurations. The study highlights the need to consider diverse land uses in sustainable management of soil services in changing agricultural landscapes.

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Detecting land use and land cover changes in Northern German agricultural landscapes to assess ecosystem service dynamics

Landscape Online ◽

10.3097/lo.201435 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 35 ◽

pp. 1-24 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Marion Kandziora ◽

Katja Dörnhöfer ◽

Natascha M. Oppelt ◽

Felix Müller

Keyword(s):

Remote Sensing ◽

Land Use ◽

Ecosystem Services ◽

Land Cover ◽

Biogas Production ◽

Agricultural Landscapes ◽

Time Period ◽

Remote Sensing Techniques ◽

Agricultural Areas ◽

Number Of Classes

Land use and land cover (LULC) and their changes in share and number of classes can be documented by remote sensing techniques. Information on LULC is needed for the assessment of ecosystem services and is used as input data for mapping and modelling. This information is important for decision-making and management of ecosystems and landscapes. In this study, LULC were analysed in two agricultural areas in Northern Germany by means of a pixel-based maximum likelihood classification approach of 11 Landsat TM 5 scenes between 1987 and 2011 followed by a post-classification refinement using the tool IRSeL. In this time period, grassland declined by about 50 % in both case study areas. This loss in grassland area can be associated with changes in provisioning ecosystem services as the supply of fodder and crops and the number of livestock declined from 1987 to 2007. Furthermore, an on-going increase in maize cultivation area, which is nowadays more and more used as biomass for biogas production, documents the addition of another provisioning service, i.e., biomass for energy. Combining remote sensing and research on ecosystem services supports the assessment and monitoring of ecosystem services on different temporal, spatial, and semantic scales.

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Integrating Ecosystem Services Valuation into Land Use Planning: Case of the Ukrainian Agricultural Landscapes

Forests ◽

10.3390/f12111465 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (11) ◽

pp. 1465

Author(s):

Ihor Soloviy ◽

Roman Kuryltsiv ◽

Józef Hernik ◽

Nadiia Kryshenyk ◽

Taras Kuleshnyk

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Ecosystem Services ◽

Land Use Planning ◽

Agricultural Landscape ◽

Land Reclamation ◽

Current System ◽

Agricultural Landscapes ◽

Baseline Scenario ◽

Land Protection ◽

Alternative Scenarios

Modern agricultural landscapes produce multiple ecosystem services. Ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes have social, economic, and environmental value—providing a wide array of benefits to society. Absence of scientifically based and practically tested methodologies of identification, mapping, and evaluation of ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes hamper integration of its values in the current system of land use planning. The value of ecosystem services is calculated for the case study territory located within the administrative borders of Kolomak Territorial Community in Bohodukhiv district, Kharkiv region (Ukraine). The highest estimated value among non-market ecosystem services is carbon storage service, and among market services—food production. The baseline scenario of land use (business as usual) is compared with two alternative scenarios (Scenario 1. Land reclamation scenario; Scenario 2. Land protection and bioenergy production scenario). Designing of an integrated production system in the forest agro-landscape, which combines multiple ecosystem services, allows us to attain maximum results in terms of value. Amelioration of agricultural landscape through establishing a system of protective forest shelterbelts allows society to increase the total value of ecosystem services, and this is why it should be better integrated into land use planning and land management.

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