Assessing the impact of land-use change for solar park development in the UK: implications for biodiversity and ecosystem services

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabio Carvalho ◽  
Alona Armstrong ◽  
Mark Ashby ◽  
Belinda Howell ◽  
Hannah Montag ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Indicator Species ◽  
Ecosystem Service ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Arable Land ◽  
Food Plants ◽  
Ipcc Report ◽  
The Impact

<p>According to the latest IPCC report, 70 to 85% of electricity generation worldwide will need to come from renewable sources of energy by 2050 if countries are to meet internationally agreed greenhouse gas emissions targets. In the rush to decarbonise energy supplies to meet such targets, solar parks (SPs) have proliferated around the world, with uncertain implications for the biodiversity and ecosystem service (ES) provision of hosting ecosystems. SPs necessitate significant land-use change that could disproportionately affect the local environment compared to other low-carbon sources.</p><p>In Britain, SPs are commonly built on intensive arable land and managed as grasslands. This offers both risks and opportunities for ecosystem health, yet evidence for assessing ecosystem consequences is scarce. Therefore, there is an urgent need to understand how net environmental gains can be integrated into land-use change for solar energy development to address the current biodiversity and climate crises.</p><p>We used vegetation data from over 70 SPs and 50 countryside survey plots (1 km<sup>2</sup>) in England and Wales to assess the effects of land-use change for SPs on plant diversity and ES provision. We assessed ten habitat indicator variables (e.g., species richness, larval food plants, forage grasses, bird food plants) associated to functionally important plant species that have the potential to enhance ecosystem service delivery.</p><p>SPs showed higher diversity of habitat indicator species than arable land and improved grasslands, with vegetation between solar arrays showing higher numbers of species important for ES provision (e.g., N-fixing species important for nutrient cycling) than vegetation under solar panels. Overall, the diversity of habitat indicator species seemed highly dependent on former land-use, showing SPs have the potential to enhance ecosystem services provision if built on degraded agricultural land.</p><p>Developing this understanding will enable optimisation of SP design and management to ensure delivery of ecosystem co-benefits from this growing land-use.</p>

scholarly journals DAMPAK PERUBAHAN PENGGUNAAN LAHAN PERTANIAN TERHADAP SOSIAL EKONOMI PETANI SEKITAR LOKASI PERTAMBANGAN BANYU URIP KECAMATAN GAYAM KABUPATEN BOJONEGORO

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 50
Author(s):  
Aziz Bahtiar Rifa’i ◽  
Fadjar Hari Mardiansjah
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Arable Land ◽  
Mining Area ◽  
Agricultural Land Use ◽  
Socioeconomic Conditions ◽  
Qualitative Approaches ◽  
The Impact

This study examines the impact of agricultural land use change into a petroleum mining area to farmers’ socioeconomic conditions around petroleum mining project area in Gayam District of Kabupaten Bojonegoro. The analyses used a mix method, using both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The quantitative approach is used to determine the impact of agricultural land use change on the social and economic aspects with the respondent farmers were supported with a scoring method to determine the condition of socioeconomic vulnerability of farmers, while the qualitative approach carried out through in-depth interviews to some informants who have been affected by the project. The results shows that the presence of the petroleum mining industry has not had a positive impact yet on the farmers’ socioeconomic conditions. By the 700 hectares of agricultural land conversion, the agricultural production capacity of the area tends to decrease, including by the decreasing of the productivity of some agricultural land in a radius of 500 m from the fenceof the mining area as they are affected by the fence’s spotlight. The farmers' income also tends to decrease because of the decreasing of their working hours as the big loss of agricultural land in the area. As a result, many farmers should work outside of the area to search replacement of the arable land. These situations lead to a moderate condition of social and economic vulnerability for the farmers, especially for those who still have sufficient assets to meet the needs of their economic. 

scholarly journals The Influence of Land Use Change on Ecosystem Service Value in Shangzhou District

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (8) ◽  
pp. 1321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keyue Yuan ◽  
Fei Li ◽  
Haijuan Yang ◽  
Yiming Wang
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Ecosystem Service ◽  
Ecosystem Service Value ◽  
Land Use Patterns ◽  
Service Value ◽  
Ecological Service ◽  
And Function ◽  
The Impact

Land use change has an impact on the ecosystem service value because it changes the structure and function of ecosystems. This paper analyzed the changes in land use during the period from 2000 to 2015 in Shangzhou district, and used the equivalent value of ecological services per unit area of land ecosystem combining the natural and economic conditions of Shangzhou district. Based on this method, the ecological service value of Shangzhou district was estimated, and the impact of land use change on the ecological service value was analyzed. The results showed that: (1) the main types of land use in Shangzhou district were grassland, woodland and farmland, among which the contribution rate of woodland to the value of local ecosystem services was the highest; (2) the overall trend in the ecosystem service value in Shangzhou district increased between 2000 and 2015, from 10.74 × 108 yuan in 2000 to 20.32 × 108 yuan in 2015, which is the result of the combined effects of regional economic development and changes in the natural environment and land use patterns; and (3) the main reason for the value increase of ecosystem services in Shangzhou district between 2000 and 2015 was that the grain-for-green policy transformed a considerable amount of farmland into woodland, while the main reasons for a decline in value was the expansion of built-up land that occupied other types of land.

scholarly journals Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Ecosystem Service Value Determined by Land-Use Changes in the Urbanization of Anhui Province, China

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (24) ◽  
pp. 5104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sai Hu ◽  
Longqian Chen ◽  
Long Li ◽  
Bingyi Wang ◽  
Lina Yuan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Ecosystem Service ◽  
Water Area ◽  
Anhui Province ◽  
Ecosystem Service Value ◽  
Service Value ◽  
Study Results ◽  
The Impact

Urbanization-induced land-use change will lead to variations in the demand and supply of ecosystem services, thus significantly affecting regional ecosystem services. The continuous degradation of ecosystem functions has become a serious problem for humanity to solve. Therefore, quantitative analysis of the corresponding impact of land-use change on ecosystem service value (ESV) is important to socio-economic development and ecological protection. The Anhui province in China has experienced rapid urbanization in recent years, and ecological environmental remediation and protection have become important goals for regional development. In this paper, the province of Anhui has been selected as a case of study, we analyzed the land-use change using Landsat images from 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015. We then adjusted the equivalent factor of ESV per unit area and estimated the ESV of Anhui province from 2000 to 2015 to analyze the impact of land-use change on ESV. Our results show that (1) paddy field is the main land-use type in Anhui province, the built-up land area has continuously increased, and the water area has continuously decreased; (2) the total ESV of Anhui province decreased from 30,015.58 × 107 CNY in 2000 to 29,683.74 × 107 CNY in 2015 (the rate of change was −1.11%), and regulating services make the greatest contribution to ESV; and (3) land-use change has led to severe ESV variations, especially for the expansion of water area and built-up land. Our study results provide useful insights for the development of land-use management and environmental protection policies in Anhui province.

scholarly journals Effect of Land Use Change on Ecosystem Service Value in Dujiangyan City

2020 ◽  
Vol 165 ◽  
pp. 02024
Author(s):  
Min Liu ◽  
Shimin Wen ◽  
Chuanjiang Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Ecosystem Service ◽  
Land Use Changes ◽  
Value Assessment ◽  
Ecosystem Service Value ◽  
Construction Land ◽  
Service Value ◽  
The Impact

In order to evaluate the impact of land use change on ecosystem service value in Dujiangyan City, through equivalent factor method, qualitative and quantitative analysis is carried out on the dynamic change of land use change and its caused ecosystem service value in Dujiangyan City from 2010 to 2016. The results show that: (1) Dujiangyan city land use changes a large extent, with the extension of construction land expansion as the main increase part, and at the cost of the reduction of arable land and grassland area. (2) Over the past 7 years, the total value of ecosystem services in Dujiangyan city followed a law of first rising and then falling, showing an overall rising trend, with a total increase of 19.2244 million yuan. (3) The accuracy of the ecological value coefficient of woodland and grassland will greatly affect the value assessment of ecosystem services in Dujiangyan city. (4) From the relationship between land use type and ecosystem service value, cultivated land and construction land are negatively correlated with ecosystem service value, on the contrary, forest land, grassland, water area and construction land are positively correlated with ecosystem service value. In general, the land use of Dujiangyan City did not cause obvious damage to the ecological environment, but also cannot ignore the impact of land use changes on the environment in the process of economic development. It is necessary to control the growth of construction land area, promote the conservation and rational development of Eco-tourism area in Dujiangyan City, maintain the stability of ecosystem services in Dujiangyan City, and realize the strategy of sustainable development of Social-Economic-Ecological benefits.

The impact of fictitious land use changes on water management related ecosystem services in a Hungarian catchment

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bence Decsi ◽  
Zsolt Kozma
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Crop Yields ◽  
Land Use Changes ◽  
Water Yield ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Impact

<p>As a result of climate change, improving the efficiency of our water management has become a key social goal in recent decades. In many regions, water management problems are becoming more common as the result of hydrologic extremes, such as water scarcity, drought or floods.</p><p>Countries and regions dealing with water problems, like some parts of Hungary, could avoid major damage by land use change. The possibility of land use change is obviously not an option in certain instances, especially in populated areas or areas with major infrastructure (roads, railways, airports, factories, etc.). At the same time, non-populated areas (primarily agricultural land) may be transformed in the future, in the hope of better water management.</p><p>Complex, multi-dimensional assessment of ecosystem services can be a step forward in the evaluation and planning of future land use changes with the aim of improving water resources management. The strength of this approach is multi-disciplinarity, which requires the collaboration of representatives of the technical, economic, social and ecological sciences.</p><p>In our study, we quantified and mapped the most important water resources related indicators and services of the Zala River basin in Western Hungary. Zala River is the largest sub-catchment of Lake Balaton, Central-Europe’s largest standing water. The lake has great economic and social importance in Hungary, primarily due to its recreational and cultural services, so it is necessary to have sufficient quantity and quality of water.  The catchment area is 1521 km<sup>2</sup>, land use conditions are dominated by agricultural and forest areas (around 57% and 37% respectively).</p><p>For the quantification of ecosystem services indicators, we used the GIS based, static model package InVEST (Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs). InVEST is suggested to describe the socio-ecological state of several services, under various periods or land use conditions. The strength of the model lies in its solid data requirements and low computational demand. In our work, we mapped the following services and indicators: annual water yield, seasonal water yield, quickflow, nutrient retention, sediment retention and agricultural crop yields.</p><p>We examined the impact of different interventions on the ecosystem services. We intervened primarily in areas where agricultural land use is not justified due to different environmental conditions. In these areas, we analyzed the introduction of natural surfaces with afforestation and meadows. We built up a reference (based on a novel LULC map representing actual conditions) and some fictive model variants. These model variants differed in the amount and location of the new semi-natural areas. The variants were compared for two temporal periods: 1980-2010 and 2020-2050 (based on climate models).</p><p>We quantified the tradeoffs as a result of a given land use change. As expected, the future negative effects of climate change could be mitigated by increasing semi-natural areas. All ecosystem services would improve except for crop yields. At the same time, however, farmers would be deprived of significant yields in areas, which are excluded from agriculture. Our research highlights that the positive effects or tradeoffs due to land-use change will be needed in the future.</p>

Improved biodiversity from food to energy: Meta-analysis of land-use change to dedicated bioenergy crops

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caspar Donnison ◽  
Robert Holland ◽  
Zoe Harris ◽  
Felix Eigenbrod ◽  
Gail Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Species Richness ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Arable Land ◽  
Agricultural Landscapes ◽  
Bioenergy Crops ◽  
Amenity Value ◽  
The Impact

<p>Whilst dedicated bioenergy crops with non-food uses are currently sparsely deployed across the world, most future energy pathways necessitate a sizeable scale-up of 100-500 million ha of land converted to these crops to provide both energy substitutes for fossil fuels and negative emissions through bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS). In the face of expected bioenergy expansion, understanding the environmental and societal impact of this land-use change is important in determining where and how bioenergy crops should be deployed, and the trade-offs and co-benefits to the environment and society. Here we review the existing literature on two difficult to measure impacts which could prove critical to the future wide-scale acceptability of global bioenergy cropping in the temperate environment: biodiversity and amenity value. We focus on agricultural landscapes, since this is where large-scale bioenergy planting may be required. A meta-analysis of 42 studies on the biodiversity impacts of land-use change from either arable and grassland to bioenergy crops found strong benefits for bird abundance (+ 109 % ± 24 %), bird species richness (+ 100 % ± 31 %), arthropod abundance (+ 299 % ± 76 %), microbial biomass (+ 77 % ± 24 %), and plant species richness (+ 25 % ± 22 %) and a non-significant upward trend in earthworm abundance. Land-use change from arable land led to particularly strong benefits, providing an insight into how future land-use change to bioenergy crops could support biodiversity. Evidence concerning the impact of bioenergy crops on landscape amenity value highlighted the importance of landscape context, planting strategies, and landowner motivations in determining amenity values, with few generalizable conclusions. In this first meta-analysis to quanitfy the impacts of land-use change to bioenergy on on biodiversity and amenity,  we have demonsrated  improved farm-scale biodiversity on agricultural land but also demonstrated the lack of knowledge concerning public response to bioenergy crops which could prove crucial to the political feasibility of bioenergy policies such as BECCS.</p>

scholarly journals Land-use change from food to energy: meta-analysis unravels effects of bioenergy on biodiversity and amenity

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caspar Donnison ◽  
Robert A Holland ◽  
Zoe M Harris ◽  
Felix Eigenbrod ◽  
Gail Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Species Richness ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Arable Land ◽  
Agricultural Landscapes ◽  
Bioenergy Crops ◽  
Amenity Value ◽  
The Impact

Most decarbonization scenarios of energy systems necessitate more than 500 Mha of land converted to non-food bioenergy crops to provide both energy substitutes for fossil fuels and negative emissions through bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS). Understanding the environmental and societal impact of this significant land-use change (LUC) is important in determining where and how bioenergy crops should be deployed, and the trade-offs and co-benefits to the environment and society. Here, we use two systematic reviews and a meta-analysis to assess the existing literature on impacts that are likely to have an important effect on public perceptions of the acceptability of such land use change: biodiversity and amenity value. We focus on the impact of LUC to non-food bioenergy crops on agricultural landscapes, where large-scale bioenergy planting may be required. Our meta-analysis finds strong benefits for biodiversity overall (up 75 % ± 13 %), with particular benefits for bird abundance (+ 81 % ± 32 %), bird species richness (+ 100 % ± 31 %), arthropod abundance (+ 52 % ± 36 %), microbial biomass (+ 77 % ± 24 %), and plant species richness (+ 25 % ± 22 %), when land moves out of either arable crops or grassland to bioenergy production. Conversions from arable land to energy trees led to particularly strong benefits, providing an insight into how future LUC to bioenergy crops could support biodiversity. There were inadequate data to complete a meta-analysis on the effects of bioenergy crops on landscape amenity value, and few generalizable conclusions from systematic review of the literature, however, findings highlight the importance of landscape context and planting strategies in determining amenity values. Our findings demonstrate improved farm-scale biodiversity on agricultural land with bioenergy crops, but also limited knowledge concerning public response to this land use change which could prove crucial to the effective deployment of bioenergy.

scholarly journals Dynamics of soil organic carbon in the steppes of Russia and Kazakhstan under past and future climate and land use

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanne Rolinski ◽  
Alexander V. Prishchepov ◽  
Georg Guggenberger ◽  
Norbert Bischoff ◽  
Irina Kurganova ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Soil Organic Carbon ◽  
Arable Land ◽  
Future Climate ◽  
Future Climate Change ◽  
Climate Scenarios ◽  
The Impact

AbstractChanges in land use and climate are the main drivers of change in soil organic matter contents. We investigated the impact of the largest policy-induced land conversion to arable land, the Virgin Lands Campaign (VLC), from 1954 to 1963, of the massive cropland abandonment after 1990 and of climate change on soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks in steppes of Russia and Kazakhstan. We simulated carbon budgets from the pre-VLC period (1900) until 2100 using a dynamic vegetation model to assess the impacts of observed land-use change as well as future climate and land-use change scenarios. The simulations suggest for the entire VLC region (266 million hectares) that the historic cropland expansion resulted in emissions of 1.6⋅ 1015 g (= 1.6 Pg) carbon between 1950 and 1965 compared to 0.6 Pg in a scenario without the expansion. From 1990 to 2100, climate change alone is projected to cause emissions of about 1.8 (± 1.1) Pg carbon. Hypothetical recultivation of the cropland that has been abandoned after the fall of the Soviet Union until 2050 may cause emissions of 3.5 (± 0.9) Pg carbon until 2100, whereas the abandonment of all cropland until 2050 would lead to sequestration of 1.8 (± 1.2) Pg carbon. For the climate scenarios based on SRES (Special Report on Emission Scenarios) emission pathways, SOC declined only moderately for constant land use but substantially with further cropland expansion. The variation of SOC in response to the climate scenarios was smaller than that in response to the land-use scenarios. This suggests that the effects of land-use change on SOC dynamics may become as relevant as those of future climate change in the Eurasian steppes.

Vegetation Effects on Soil Properties in the Monteagle Sandy Loam Series: Implications for Land‐use Change

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allison Neil
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Organic Matter ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Soil Properties ◽  
Soil Carbon ◽  
Sugar Maple ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Deciduous Forest ◽  
Coniferous Forest ◽  
The Impact

Soil properties are strongly influenced by the composition of the surrounding vegetation. We investigated soil properties of three ecosystems; a coniferous forest, a deciduous forest and an agricultural grassland, to determine the impact of land use change on soil properties. Disturbances such as deforestation followed by cultivation can severely alter soil properties, including losses of soil carbon. We collected nine 40 cm cores from three ecosystem types on the Roebuck Farm, north of Perth Village, Ontario, Canada. Dominant species in each ecosystem included hemlock and white pine in the coniferous forest; sugar maple, birch and beech in the deciduous forest; grasses, legumes and herbs in the grassland. Soil pH varied little between the three ecosystems and over depth. Soils under grassland vegetation had the highest bulk density, especially near the surface. The forest sites showed higher cation exchange capacity and soil moisture than the grassland; these differences largely resulted from higher organic matter levels in the surface forest soils. Vertical distribution of organic matter varied greatly amongst the three ecosystems. In the forest, more of the organic matter was located near the surface, while in the grassland organic matter concentrations varied little with depth. The results suggest that changes in land cover and land use alters litter inputs and nutrient cycling rates, modifying soil physical and chemical properties. Our results further suggest that conversion of forest into agricultural land in this area can lead to a decline in soil carbon storage.

scholarly journals Spatial Pattern Analysis of a Water-Related Ecosystem Service and Evaluation of the Grassland-Carrying Capacity of the Heihe River Basin under Land Use Change

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (19) ◽  
pp. 2658
Author(s):  
Rui Luo ◽  
Shiliang Yang ◽  
Yang Zhou ◽  
Pengqun Gao ◽  
Tianming Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Carrying Capacity ◽  
Animal Husbandry ◽  
Heihe River Basin ◽  
Heihe River ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Heihe River Basin

A key challenge to the sustainability and security of grassland capacity is the protection of water-related ecosystem services (WESs). With the change of land use, the supply of aquatic ecosystem services has changed, and the grassland-carrying capacity has been affected. However, the correlation mechanism between WESs and the grassland-carrying capacity is not clear. In this study, we used the InVEST(Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs) model to evaluate the impact of land-use change on WESs, and made a tradeoff analysis between WESs and grassland-carrying capacity. Considering that the Heihe River Basin (HRB) was an important grassland vegetation zone, which was a milestone for the development of animal husbandry in China, HRB was taken as a case. The main findings are as follows: (1) the spatial distribution of WESs shows the dissimilation rule, the upper reaches are the main water yield area, the soil retention is weakening in the middle and lower reaches, and the pollution has further increased in the middle and upper reaches. (2) The carrying capacity of animal husbandry decreased in the upper reaches, increased in Shandan County and Zhangye City in the middle reaches, and decreased sharply in other regions. (3) There was a positive correlation between the livestock-carrying capacity and nitrogen export in 2018, which was increasing. As the change of land use has changed the evapotranspiration structure, WESs have undergone irreversible changes. Meanwhile, the development of large-scale irrigated farmland and human activities would be the source of a further intensification of regional soil erosion and water pollution. Therefore, it is necessary to trade off the WESs and animal husbandry under land-use change. This paper revealed how WESs changed from 2000 to 2018, the characteristics of the changes in the spatial and temporal distribution, and the carrying capacity. It aims to provide a scientific basis for coordinating the contradiction between grassland and livestock resources, improving the regional ecological security situation, and carrying out ecosystem management.

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