Biological Diversity and Ecosystem Functions

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oswald J. Schmitz
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Ecosystem Functions ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter reflects on the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functions. Drawing connections between ecosystem functions and ecosystem services can make the concept of sustainability less nebulous. It offers tangible ways to translate science into practice by revealing the intricacies of nature and the many threads that link humans to nature through such intricacies. Establishing such connections illustrates why it is important to ensure that ecosystem functions endure. The chapter shows how the New Ecology is helping us appreciate how and why the complex ways that species that have evolved and forged interdependencies with each other matter to sustainability. It argues that maintaining diversity within ecosystems ensures that a wide range of options is available for adapting to environmental change.

scholarly journals A protocol for an intercomparison of biodiversity and ecosystem services models using harmonized land-use and climate scenarios

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 4537-4562 ◽  
Author(s):  
HyeJin Kim ◽  
Isabel M. D. Rosa ◽  
Rob Alkemade ◽  
Paul Leadley ◽  
George Hurtt ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Multiple Scales ◽  
Convention On Biological Diversity ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Intergovernmental Panel ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Global Impacts

Abstract. To support the assessments of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), the IPBES Expert Group on Scenarios and Models is carrying out an intercomparison of biodiversity and ecosystem services models using harmonized scenarios (BES-SIM). The goals of BES-SIM are (1) to project the global impacts of land-use and climate change on biodiversity and ecosystem services (i.e., nature's contributions to people) over the coming decades, compared to the 20th century, using a set of common metrics at multiple scales, and (2) to identify model uncertainties and research gaps through the comparisons of projected biodiversity and ecosystem services across models. BES-SIM uses three scenarios combining specific Shared Socio-economic Pathways (SSPs) and Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) – SSP1xRCP2.6, SSP3xRCP6.0, SSP5xRCP8.6 – to explore a wide range of land-use change and climate change futures. This paper describes the rationale for scenario selection, the process of harmonizing input data for land use, based on the second phase of the Land Use Harmonization Project (LUH2), and climate, the biodiversity and ecosystem services models used, the core simulations carried out, the harmonization of the model output metrics, and the treatment of uncertainty. The results of this collaborative modeling project will support the ongoing global assessment of IPBES, strengthen ties between IPBES and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scenarios and modeling processes, advise the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) on its development of a post-2020 strategic plans and conservation goals, and inform the development of a new generation of nature-centred scenarios.

When the Rainbows Bring the Crawfish

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 90-101
Author(s):  
V. Constanza Ocampo-Raeder
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
River Valley ◽  
Cultural Meanings ◽  
Liminal Space ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Relationship

In this article I present the social life of camarones, a Peruvian river crustacean used in some of the region’s favorite dishes, and the liminal space they occupy in the geography, minds, and ecosystem of Peru and its people. I situate the relationship between these crawfish and the folks who capture them, known as camaroneros, within insights of environmental anthropologists and food scholars who also explore the connections between cultural and biological diversity and the entangled socio-ecological histories that inform the manner in which nature is mediated and understood by local societies. In this article, however, I expand this understanding to reveal unexpected spaces of engagement, especially those that emerge while eating, which tend to be overlooked by bounded notions of culture and nature and limit the ways we can imagine human-nature relationships. Via the story of camarones and camaroneros of one river valley of Peru, I argue that eating is a socio-ecological act that is imbued with profound cultural meanings involving a wide range of participants—not just farmers or producers—each with their own ecological identities yet still implicitly linked to one another through the process of producing, preparing, and consuming food.

scholarly journals A protocol for an intercomparison of biodiversity and ecosystem services models using harmonized land-use and climate scenarios

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
HyeJin Kim ◽  
Isabel M. D. Rosa ◽  
Rob Alkemade ◽  
Paul Leadley ◽  
George Hurtt ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Multiple Scales ◽  
Convention On Biological Diversity ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Intergovernmental Panel ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Global Impacts

Abstract. To support the assessments of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), the IPBES Expert Group on Scenarios and Models is carrying out an intercomparison of biodiversity and ecosystem services models using harmonized scenarios (BES-SIM). The goals of BES-SIM are (1) to project the global impacts of land use and climate change on biodiversity and ecosystem services (i.e. nature’s contributions to people) over the coming decades, compared to the 20th century, using a set of common metrics at multiple scales, and (2) to identify model uncertainties and research gaps through the comparisons of projected biodiversity and ecosystem services across models. BES-SIM uses three scenarios combining specific Shared Socio-economic Pathways (SSPs) and Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) to explore a wide range of land-use change and climate change futures. This paper describes the rationale for scenarios selection, the process of harmonizing input data for land use, based on the second phase of the Land Use Harmonization Project (LUH2), and climate, the biodiversity and ecosystem service models used, the core simulations carried out, the harmonization of the model output metrics, and the treatment of uncertainty. The results of this collaborative modelling project will support the ongoing global assessment of IPBES, strengthen ties between IPBES and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scenarios and modelling processes, advise the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) on its development of a post-2020 strategic plans and conservation goals, and inform the development of a new generation of nature-centred scenarios.

scholarly journals The Needs for Developing Experiments on Reservoirs in Hantavirus Research: Accomplishments, Challenges and Promises for the Future

Viruses ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 664 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madrières ◽  
Castel ◽  
Murri ◽  
Vulin ◽  
Marianneau ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Ecology ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Mortality Rates ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Many ◽  
Human Infections ◽  
The Relationship

Due to their large geographic distribution and potential high mortality rates in human infections, hantaviruses constitute a worldwide threat to public health. As such, they have been the subject of a large array of clinical, virological and eco-evolutionary studies. Many experiments have been conducted in vitro or on animal models to identify the mechanisms leading to pathogenesis in humans and to develop treatments of hantavirus diseases. Experimental research has also been dedicated to the understanding of the relationship between hantaviruses and their reservoirs. However, these studies remain too scarce considering the diversity of hantavirus/reservoir pairs identified, and the wide range of issues that need to be addressed. In this review, we present a synthesis of the experimental studies that have been conducted on hantaviruses and their reservoirs. We aim at summarizing the knowledge gathered from this research, and to emphasize the gaps that need to be filled. Despite the many difficulties encountered to carry hantavirus experiments, we advocate for the need of such studies in the future, at the interface of evolutionary ecology and virology. They are critical to address emerging areas of research, including hantavirus evolution and the epidemiological consequences of individual variation in infection outcomes.

Militarism, Capitalism, and the Nation-State: Towards a Realist Synthesis

1987 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 283-302 ◽  
Author(s):  
J Lovering
Keyword(s):  
Industrial Complex ◽  
Science Literature ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Capitalist Production ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Social And Economic Development ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Relationship

Military activities currently play a major role in social and economic development, even in noncombatant countries, This fact has received remarkably little attention in the social science literature, until recently. As a result, the theoretical frameworks which are available for the analysis of military activities arc underdeveloped. In this paper it is argued that there are in effect two such frameworks, derived from the Marxist and Weberian traditions, respectively. The many weaknesses of these, and the conflicts between them, are blurred rather than resolved in most recent studies of military phenomena, such as the ‘military industrial complex’. This is because the theory of the relationship between capitalist production and state institutions embedded in each perspective is seriously inadequate. A realist reconstruction is presented which highlights the significance of the national form of the state, and the contingent nature of capitalist production. This is designed to provide a new framework for appraising military activities, but it has implications for a wide range of questions concerned with the relationship between capital and state.

Ecosystem threats and management strategies for wetlands in China

2020 ◽  
Vol 71 (12) ◽  
pp. 1557 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nasreen Jeelani ◽  
Wen Yang ◽  
Lu Xia ◽  
Hai Liang Zhu ◽  
Shuqing An
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Population Growth ◽  
Hot Spots ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Habitat Degradation ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Wetland Ecosystems ◽  
Wise Use ◽  
Wide Range

Wetlands provide a wide range of ecosystem services, and so their conservation and wise use are receiving increasingly greater attention globally. China has a wealth of wetland ecosystems that are well known as hot spots of biological diversity. China has experienced a serious loss of wetlands owing to rapid urbanisation, population growth and industrialisation. Some of the major threats and challenges to wetlands are related to habitat degradation, loss of biodiversity and weaknesses in their protection and management. In this paper we review the distribution of wetlands in China and discuss the key factors that degrade these wetlands. We further discuss management strategies and make recommendations to strengthen the network of wetlands in China.

EARLY FORMATIVE PERIOD BIRD USE AT PASO DE LA AMADA, MEXICO

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 311-330
Author(s):  
Katelyn J. Bishop ◽  
Thomas A. Wake ◽  
Michael Blake
Keyword(s):  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Formative Period ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Early Date ◽  
Ritual Performance ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Early Formative

Avifaunal remains from archaeological sites have a largely unrecognized explanatory potential. Archaeological, ethnohistoric, and ethnographic records have shown that, especially in Mesoamerica, birds and their products have served a wide range of utilitarian, decorative, and symbolic purposes. Despite their ability to inform research on many aspects of prehistoric life, avifaunal remains from archaeological contexts remain under-studied. This paper demonstrates how a holistic approach to their analysis—one that explores several types of human-bird interaction—can move beyond studies of subsistence. A previously reported and newly updated avifaunal collection was reanalyzed to shed light on the relationship between the many uses of birds and the establishment of hereditary inequality at Paso de la Amada, an Early Formative period ceremonial center on the Pacific coast of Chiapas, Mexico. Results indicate that Early Formative people used birds as a source of food, feathers, and bone, and that the ritual use of birds was an important component of status display. Even at this early date, birds were symbolically valuable and played a role in ritual performance, suggesting that their later significance in Mesoamerican ritual, religion, and iconography has an antecedent beginning no later than 1700 BC.

scholarly journals The 2010 challenge: data availability, information needs and extraterrestrial insights

2005 ◽  
Vol 360 (1454) ◽  
pp. 221-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Balmford ◽  
Peter Crane ◽  
Andy Dobson ◽  
Rhys E Green ◽  
Georgina M Mace
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Information Needs ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Biodiversity Loss ◽  
Data Availability ◽  
Convention On Biological Diversity ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Human Welfare ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Status

At the 2002 Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development, 190 countries endorsed a commitment to achieve, by 2010, a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss at the global, regional and national levels. A wide range of approaches is available to the monitoring of progress towards this objective. The strengths and weaknesses of many of these approaches are considered, with special attention being given to the proposed and existing indicators described in the other papers in this issue. Recommendations are made about the development of indicators. Most existing and proposed indicators use data collected for other purposes, which may be unrepresentative. In the short term, much remains to be done in expanding the databases and improving the statistical techniques that underpin these indicators to minimize potential biases. In the longer term, indicators based on unrepresentative data should be replaced with equivalents based on carefully designed sampling programmes. Many proposed and existing indicators do not connect clearly with human welfare and they are unlikely to engage the interest of governments, businesses and the public until they do so. The extent to which the indicators already proposed by parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity are sufficient is explored by reference to the advice an imaginary scientific consultant from another planet might give. This exercise reveals that the range of taxa and biomes covered by existing indicators is incomplete compared with the knowledge we need to protect our interests. More fundamentally, our understanding of the mechanisms linking together the status of biodiversity, Earth system processes, human decisions and actions, and ecosystem services impacting human welfare is still too crude to allow us to infer reliably that actions taken to conserve biodiversity and protect ecosystem services are well chosen and effectively implemented. The involvement of social and Earth system scientists, as well as biologists, in collaborative research programmes to build and parameterize models of the Earth system to elucidate these mechanisms is a high priority.

scholarly journals Environmental Change and Human Mobility: Trends, Law and Policy

2017 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan F. Martin
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Human Mobility ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Evidence Base ◽  
Population Movements ◽  
Law And Policy ◽  
Policy Frameworks ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

Enhancing the protection of persons displaced by natural disasters and the impacts of climate change will require sustained attention. This article identifies practical solutions, many of which are currently under consideration by governments and international organizations, to improve the lives of millions of people affected by environmental crises. It begins with a brief overview of why people move, the nature of those movements, and the relationship between human mobility and adaptation to environmental change by highlighting three types of mobility – migration, displacement and planned relocation. Next, the international and regional level will be discussed, with particular focus on legislative and policy frameworks for addressing human mobility in the context of environmental change. The article identifies gaps in existing frameworks as well as recent efforts to address them, particularly through mini-multilateral initiatives aimed at identifying principles and practices that should guide governmental action. The article concludes that efforts to improve responses require a better evidence base than currently exists on issues such as the environmental determinants of migration, displacement and planned relocation; the multi-faceted ways in which environmental factors relate to the many other causes of population movements in the cases of human mobility; and the impact of such movements on the well-being of migrants, communities of origin, and communities of destination.

scholarly journals Biodiversity ecosystem functioning research in freshwater phytoplankton: A comprehensive review of trait-based studies

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Venail
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Functioning ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Temporal Stability ◽  
Ecosystem Functions ◽  
Comprehensive Review ◽  
Freshwater Phytoplankton ◽  
Individual Trait ◽  
Mechanistic Understanding ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Lentic Systems

In an effort to reach a clearer mechanistic understanding of the influence of biological diversity on ecosystem functioning, research in the field is increasingly applying a trait-based approach. In this comprehensive review, I searched for and analyzed studies that focused on the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (BEF) using a trait-based approach in freshwater phytoplankton from lentic systems (lakes, ponds, reservoirs). I found that this type of studies is very rare and included a plethora of traits, diversity metrics, statistical analyses and study locations that contributed to the high variability in the results they obtained. Overall, trait-based diversity is not a very good predictor of ecosystem functioning in freshwater lentic ecosystems. Null relationships between trait-based diversity and ecosystem functioning in freshwater lentic systems were the more frequent outcome. When significant, the amount of variation in ecosystem functioning explained by trait-based diversity was small. Still, trait-based research remains a promising approach to increase the mechanistic understanding of BEF relationships. For this purpose, studies directly testing the underlying mechanistic rationale, exploring diversity effects on the temporal stability of ecosystem functions, including multiple functions at a time, focusing more in cell size and shape and confirming the relative importance of individual trait variation for ecosystem functioning are needed. 

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