scholarly journals Observational Scale Matters for Ecosystem Services Interactions and Spatial Distributions: A Case Study of the Ussuri Watershed, China

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (19) ◽  
pp. 10649
Author(s):  
Jian Zhang ◽  
Hengxing Xiang ◽  
Shizuka Hashimoto ◽  
Toshiya Okuro
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Carbon Sequestration ◽  
Water Retention ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Landscape Patterns ◽  
Spatial Distributions ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Soil Retention

Understanding how observational scale affects the interactions and spatial distributions of ecosystem services is important for effective ecosystem assessment and management. We conducted a case study in the Ussuri watershed, Northeast China, to explore how observational scale (1 km to 15 km grid resolution) influences the correlations and spatial distributions of ecosystem services. Four ecosystem services of particular importance for the sustainable development of the study area were examined: carbon sequestration, habitat provision, soil retention, and water retention. Across the observational scales examined, trade-offs and synergies of extensively distributed ecosystem services were more likely to be robust compared with those of sparsely distributed ecosystem services, and hot/cold-spots of ecosystem services were more likely to persist when associated with large rather than small land-cover patches. Our analysis suggests that a dual-purpose strategy is the most appropriate for the management of carbon sequestration and habitat provision, and cross-scale management strategies are the most appropriate for the management of soil retention and water retention in the study area. Further studies to deepen our understanding of local landscape patterns will help determine the most appropriate observational scale for analyzing the spatial distributions of these ecosystem services.

scholarly journals Spatial priorities for biodiversity and ecosystem services considering theoretical decision-makers' attitudes to risk

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lijuan Wang ◽  
Hua Zheng ◽  
Stephen Polasky ◽  
Yanxu Long
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Carbon Sequestration ◽  
Water Purification ◽  
Water Retention ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Flood Mitigation ◽  
Weighted Averaging ◽  
Risk Scenarios ◽  
Soil Retention ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Choosing appropriate spatial priorities for protected areas (PAs) to conserve ecosystem services (ESs) and biodiversity is a challenge for decision-makers under limited land resources, especially when facing uncertain protection consequences or conflicting protection objectives. Attitudes toward risk will influence actions, which will, in turn, impact consequences. To understand how theoretical decision-maker attitudes towards risk impact protection effectiveness for biodiversity and ESs (e.g., water retention, soil retention, flood mitigation, water purification and carbon sequestration) and how this information can be integrated into effective PAs management, we examined Hainan Island as a case study. We used the ordered weighted averaging algorithm to assess the impact of attitude towards risk in PA management. Decision-makers’ attitude towards risk scenarios (from risk-averse and risk-taking) showed higher mean protection effectiveness (2.41–2.85) than existing PAs (2.37), indicating that there is still room for improvement in biodiversity and ESs conservation in existing PAs. In addition, among the seven examined risk scenarios, the higher risk aversion scenario showed the best outcome. In comparison to existing PAs, this scenario improved mean protection effectiveness (20.13%) as well as the protection effectiveness of water retention (24.84%), water purification (11.46%), flood mitigation (8.84%), soil retention (16.63%), carbon sequestration (5.31%), and biodiversity (12.84%). Thus, our research shows that the influence of theoretical decision-makers’ attitudes towards risk could be considered by OWA method which could provide a normative model of what the right choice given theoretical risk attitudes is while selecting priority area for biodiversity and ESs.

scholarly journals Local Residents’ Perceptions for Ecosystem Services: A Case Study of Fenghe River Watershed

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (19) ◽  
pp. 3602 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongjuan Zhang ◽  
Qian Pang ◽  
Huan Long ◽  
Haochen Zhu ◽  
Xin Gao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Water Retention ◽  
Preference Heterogeneity ◽  
Social Perceptions ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
River Watershed ◽  
Local Residents ◽  
One Way Anova

To make environmental management decisions more executive and targeted, it is essential for decision-making to include local residents’ perceptions and preferences for ecosystem services (ES) and biodiversity (BD). This study conducted a questionnaire survey with 386 local residents to explore social perceptions for ES and BD in the Fenghe River watershed. ES contain food from agriculture (AGR), food from livestock (LIV), fresh water (FW), air purification (AP), water purification (WP), water retention (WR), soil retention (SR), aesthetics (AES), recreation (RE), and spirit (SP) in this study. Ranking and Likert scales are combined to identify residents’ preferences for ES and BD. The hypothetical market method is used to identify the willingness to pay for BD and ES. Independent sample T-test, one-way ANOVA, and Spearman correlation are used to analyze preference heterogeneity. The results show that: (1) residents prefer WP, AP, AGR, and FW; (2) 51.3% of respondents are willing to pay a fee for improving ES while 48.7% of respondents are unwilling to pay; (3) residents’ personal and residential factors affect preference heterogeneity. Last, we put forward three management suggestions on controlling environmental pollution, improving residents’ awareness of ES, and establishing a multi-channel fund based on government financial resources for improving ES in the Fenghe River watershed. Integrating stakeholders’ perceptions for ES into decision-making can promote the sustainable development in Fenghe River watershed.

scholarly journals Quantitative Assessment for the Spatiotemporal Changes of Ecosystem Services, Tradeoff–Synergy Relationships and Drivers in the Semi-Arid Regions of China

2022 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 239
Author(s):  
Yongge Li ◽  
Wei Liu ◽  
Qi Feng ◽  
Meng Zhu ◽  
Linshan Yang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Water Retention ◽  
Hexi Corridor ◽  
The Past ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Soil Retention ◽  
The Qilian Mountains ◽  
Hexi Region ◽  
Synergistic Relationships

Ecosystem services in arid inland regions are significantly affected by climate change and land use/land cover change associated with agricultural activity. However, the dynamics and relationships of ecosystem services affected by natural and anthropogenic drivers in inland regions are still less understood. In this study, the spatiotemporal patterns of ecosystem services in the Hexi Region were quantified based on multiple high-resolution datasets, the InVEST model and the Revised Wind Erosion Equation (RWEQ) model. In addition, the trade-offs and synergistic relationships among multiple ecosystem services were also explored by Pearson correlation analysis and bivariate spatial autocorrelation, and redundancy analysis (RDA) was also employed to determine the environmental drivers of these services and interactions. The results showed that most ecosystem services had a similar spatial distribution pattern with an increasing trend from northwest to southeast. Over the past 40 years, ecosystem services in the Hexi Region have improved significantly, with the water retention and soil retention increasing by 87.17 × 108 m3 and 287.84 × 108 t, respectively, and the sand fixation decreasing by 369.17 × 104 t. Among these ecosystem services, strong synergistic relationships were detected, while the trade-offs were found to be weak, and showed significant spatial heterogeneity in the Hexi Region. The spatial synergies and trade-offs in the Qilian Mountains were 1.02 and 1.37 times higher than those in the Hexi Corridor, respectively. Human activities were found to exacerbate the trade-offs between ecosystem services by increasing water consumption in the Hexi Corridor, with the exception of carbon storage. In particular, there were significant tradeoffs between food production and water retention, and between soil retention and habitat quality in the oases of the Hexi Corridor, which is affected by rapid population growth and cropland expansion. Additionally, precipitation, temperature and vegetation cover in the Qilian Mountains have increased significantly over the past four decades, and these increases significantly contributed to the enhancements in water retention, carbon storage, habitat quality, soil retention and food production. Nevertheless, the amount of sand fixation significantly decreased, and this was probably associated with the reduction in wind speed over the past four decades. Our results highlighted the importance of climate wetting and water resource management in the enhancement of ecosystem services and the mitigation of food production trade-offs for arid inland regions.

scholarly journals Exploring the Use of Ecosystem Services Conceptual Models to Account for the Benefits of Public Lands: An Example from National Forest Planning in the United States

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 267
Author(s):  
Lydia Olander ◽  
Katie Warnell ◽  
Travis Warziniack ◽  
Zoe Ghali ◽  
Chris Miller ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Ecosystem Service ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Public Lands ◽  
The United States ◽  
Forest Planning ◽  
National Forest ◽  
Planning Team ◽  
National Forest Planning

A shared understanding of the benefits and tradeoffs to people from alternative land management strategies is critical to successful decision-making for managing public lands and fostering shared stewardship. This study describes an approach for identifying and monitoring the types of resource benefits and tradeoffs considered in National Forest planning in the United States under the 2012 Planning Rule and demonstrates the use of tools for conceptualizing the production of ecosystem services and benefits from alternative land management strategies. Efforts to apply these tools through workshops and engagement exercises provide opportunities to explore and highlight measures, indicators, and data sources for characterizing benefits and tradeoffs in collaborative environments involving interdisciplinary planning teams. Conceptual modeling tools are applied to a case study examining the social and economic benefits of recreation on the Ashley National Forest. The case study illustrates how these types of tools facilitate dialog for planning teams to discuss alternatives and key ecosystem service outcomes, create easy to interpret visuals that map details in plans, and provide a basis for selecting ecosystem service (socio-economic) metrics. These metrics can be used to enhance environmental impact analysis, and help satisfy the goals of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the 2012 Planning Rule, and shared stewardship initiatives. The systematic consideration of ecosystem services outcomes and metrics supported by this approach enhanced dialog between members of the Forest planning team, allowed for a more transparent process in identification of key linkages and outcomes, and identified impacts and outcomes that may not have been apparent to the sociologist who is lacking the resource specific expertise of these participants. As a result, the use of the Ecosystem Service Conceptual Model (ESCM) process may result in reduced time for internal reviews and greater comprehension of anticipated outcomes and impacts of proposed management in the plan revision Environmental Impact Statement amongst the planning team.

scholarly journals How Do Trade-Offs and Synergies between Ecosystem Services Change in the Long Period? The Case Study of Uxin, Inner Mongolia, China

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (21) ◽  
pp. 6041 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhang ◽  
Li ◽  
Buyantuev ◽  
Bao ◽  
Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Inner Mongolia ◽  
Stepwise Regression ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Extended Period ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Development And Utilization ◽  
Long Term Trends

Ecosystem services management should often expect to deal with non-linearities due to trade-offs and synergies between ecosystem services (ES). Therefore, it is important to analyze long-term trends in ES development and utilization to understand their responses to climate change and intensification of human activities. In this paper, the region of Uxin in Inner Mongolia, China, was chosen as a case study area to describe the spatial distribution and trends of 5 ES indicators. Changes in relationships between ES and driving forces of dynamics of ES relationships were analyzed for the period 1979–2016 using a stepwise regression. We found that: the magnitude and directions in ES relationships changed during this extended period; those changes are influenced by climate factors, land use change, technological progress, and population growth.

Response and Simulation of Trade-offs/synergies Among Ecosystem Services to Ecological Restoration Program: a Case Study of the Chengdu-Chongqing Urban Agglomeration, China

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiantian Chen ◽  
Li Peng ◽  
Qiang Wang
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Carbon Sequestration ◽  
Habitat Quality ◽  
Soil Conservation ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Water Yield ◽  
Ecological Security ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Synergistic Relationships

Abstract The Grain to Green Program (GTGP), as a policy tool for advancing ecological progress, has been operating for 20 years and has played an important role in improving ecosystem service values. However, there are few studies on the trade-off/synergy changes in ecosystem services during the implementation of the GTGP and how to select the optimal scheme for regional ecological security based on the trade-off relationship. Thus, we took the Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration (CCUA) in southwestern China as the study area; we used multisource data and the corresponding models and methods to estimate the regional food production, carbon sequestration, water yield, soil conservation and habitat quality services. Then, we clarified the trade-off/synergy relationships among ecosystem services from 2000 to 2015 by spatial analysis and statistical methods and evaluated the influential mechanism of the GTGP on trade-offs between ecosystem services. Finally, different risk scenarios were constructed by the ordered weighted average algorithm (OWA), and the regional ecological security pattern was simulated under the principle of the best protection efficiency and the highest trade-off degree. We found that (1) the trade-offs/synergies of regional ecosystem services changed significantly from 2000 to 2015. Among them, food production, water yield and soil conservation have always had trade-off relationships, while carbon sequestration, soil conservation and habitat quality have all had synergistic relationships. The relationships between carbon sequestration and water yield and food production changed from non-correlated to trade-off/synergistic, and the relationship between habitat quality and food production and water yield was not obvious. (2) Except for carbon sequestration service, the trade-off intensity between other ecosystem services decreased, indicating that the change trend of ecosystem services in the same direction was obvious. (3) The GTGP has been an important factor affecting the trade-off intensity of regional ecosystem services. On the one hand, it has strengthened the synergistic relationships among carbon sequestration, soil conservation and habitat quality; on the other hand, it has increased the constraints of water resources on soil conservation and vegetation restoration. (4) The decision risk coefficient α = 1.6 was the most suitable scenario, the total amount of regional ecosystem services was high, and the allocation was balanced under this scenario. The ecological security area corresponding to this scenario was also the area with high carbon sequestration and habitat quality services. The purpose of this study was to provide a scientific reference for the precise implementation of the GTGP.

scholarly journals Exploring Farmers’ Management Practices and Values of Ecosystem Services in an Agroecosystem Context—A Case Study from the Eastern Cape, South Africa

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (23) ◽  
pp. 6567 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis Junior Choruma ◽  
Oghenekaro Nelson Odume
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Crop Yields ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Agricultural Management ◽  
Eastern Cape ◽  
Provisioning Ecosystem Services

Globally, farmers remain the key ecosystem managers responsible for increasing food production while simultaneously reducing the associated negative environmental impacts. However, research investigating how farmers’ agricultural management practices are influenced by the values they assign to ecosystem services is scarce in South Africa. To address this gap, a survey of farmers’ agricultural management practices and the values they assigned towards ecosystem services was conducted in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Results from the survey show that farmers assign a high value on food provisioning ecosystem services compared to other ecosystem services. Irrigation and fertiliser decisions were mostly based on achieving maximum crop yields or good crop quality. The majority of farmers (86%) indicated a willingness to receive payments for ecosystem services (PES) to manage their farms in a more ecosystems-oriented manner. To encourage farmers to shift from managing ecosystems for single ecosystem services such as food provision to managing ecosystems for multiple ecosystem services, market-oriented plans such as PES may be employed. Effective measures for sustainable intensification of food production will depend on the inclusion of farmers in the development of land management strategies and practices as well as increasing farmers’ awareness and knowledge of the ecosystem services concept.

scholarly journals Balancing ecosystem services with energy and food security – Assessing trade-offs from reservoir operation and irrigation investments in Kenya's Tana Basin

2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (8) ◽  
pp. 3259-3277 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. P. Hurford ◽  
J. J. Harou
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Optimal Allocation ◽  
Search Algorithm ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Pareto Optimal ◽  
Management Problem ◽  
Economic Sectors ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Trade Offs

Abstract. Competition for water between key economic sectors and the environment means agreeing allocations is challenging. Managing releases from the three major dams in Kenya's Tana River basin with its 4.4 million inhabitants, 567 MW of installed hydropower capacity, 33 000 ha of irrigation and ecologically important wetlands and forests is a pertinent example. This research seeks firstly to identify and help decision-makers visualise reservoir management strategies which result in the best possible (Pareto-optimal) allocation of benefits between sectors. Secondly, it seeks to show how trade-offs between achievable benefits shift with the implementation of proposed new rice, cotton and biofuel irrigation projects. To approximate the Pareto-optimal trade-offs we link a water resources management simulation model to a multi-criteria search algorithm. The decisions or "levers" of the management problem are volume-dependent release rules for the three major dams and extent of investment in new irrigation schemes. These decisions are optimised for eight objectives covering the provision of water supply and irrigation, energy generation and maintenance of ecosystem services. Trade-off plots allow decision-makers to assess multi-reservoir rule-sets and irrigation investment options by visualising their impacts on different beneficiaries. Results quantify how economic gains from proposed irrigation schemes trade-off against the disturbance of ecosystems and local livelihoods that depend on them. Full implementation of the proposed schemes is shown to come at a high environmental and social cost. The clarity and comprehensiveness of "best-case" trade-off analysis is a useful vantage point from which to tackle the interdependence and complexity of "water-energy-food nexus" resource security issues.

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