scholarly journals Assessment of freshwater ecosystem services in the Beas River Basin, Himalayas region, India

2018 ◽  
Vol 379 ◽  
pp. 67-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sikhululekile Ncube ◽  
Lindsay Beevers ◽  
Adebayo J. Adeloye ◽  
Annie Visser
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Freshwater Ecosystem ◽  
Western Himalayas ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
Services Delivery ◽  
Provisioning Ecosystem Services ◽  
Flood Regulation ◽  
High Flows ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. River systems provide a diverse range of ecosystem services, examples include: flood regulation (regulating), fish (provisioning), nutrient cycling (supporting) and recreation (cultural). Developing water resources through the construction of dams (hydropower or irrigation) can enhance the delivery of provisioning ecosystem services. However, these hydrologic alterations result in reductions in less tangible regulating, cultural and supporting ecosystem services. This study seeks to understand how multiple impoundments, abstractions and transfers within the upper Beas River Basin, Western Himalayas, India, are affecting the delivery of supporting ecosystem services. Whilst approaches for assessing supporting ecosystem services are under development, the immediate aim of this paper is to set out a framework for their quantification, using the macroinvertebrate index Lotic-Invertebrate Index for Flow Evaluation (LIFE). LIFE is a weighted measure of the flow velocity preferences of the macroinvertebrate community. Flow records from multiple gauging stations within the basin were used to investigate flow variability at seasonal, inter-annual and decadal time scales. The findings show that both mean monthly and seasonal cumulative flows have decreased over time in the Beas River Basin. A positive hydroecological relationship between LIFE and flow was also identified, indicative of macroinvertebrate response to seasonal changes in the flow regime. For example, high LIFE scores (7.7–9.3) in the winter and summer seasons indicate an abundance of macroinvertebrates with a preference for high flows; this represents a high potential for instream supporting ecosystem services delivery. However, further analysis is required to understand these hydroecological interactions in the study basin and the impact on instream supporting ecosystem services delivery.

scholarly journals A Framework for Assessing Instream Supporting Ecosystem Services Based on Hydroecological Modelling

Water ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 1247 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sikhululekile Ncube ◽  
Annie Visser ◽  
Lindsay Beevers
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Western Himalayas ◽  
Water Resources Planning ◽  
River Systems ◽  
Human Needs ◽  
Flood Regulation ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Resources Planning

River systems provide diverse ecosystem services (ES), such as flood regulation (regulating), fresh water (provisioning), nutrient cycling (supporting), and recreation (cultural), among others. The construction of infrastructure (e.g., for hydropower, irrigation) enhances the delivery of tangible ES for example food or energy (generally provisioning) to meet human needs. However, the resulting change to river flows threatens both the ecological health of a river and its ability to provide intangible but vital ES, for example those which support the delivery of other services. Understanding these supporting ES processes in river systems is essential to fully recognise the impact of water resources development on ES delivery. Whilst approaches for assessing instream supporting ES are under development, to date few provide quantitative methods for assessing delivery. Thus, this paper sets out a framework for the assessment of instream supporting ES using hydroecological modelling. It links supporting ES delivery to fluvial hydrological indicators through the use of ecologically relevant hydrological indices and macroinvertebrate flow preferences. The proposed framework is demonstrated on the Beas River basin (Western Himalayas, India), and is flexible enough to be transferred to a basin-wide model, thereby allowing ES relationships to be accounted for in basin-wide water resources planning.

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.

scholarly journals Using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool to Simulate the Pesticide Dynamics in the Data Scarce Guayas River Basin, Ecuador

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 696 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naomi Cambien ◽  
Sacha Gobeyn ◽  
Indira Nolivos ◽  
Marie Anne Eurie Forio ◽  
Mijail Arias-Hidalgo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Model Development ◽  
Model Performance ◽  
Water Quality Monitoring ◽  
Freshwater Ecosystem ◽  
Set Up ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Water Assessment ◽  
Soil And Water

Agricultural intensification has stimulated the economy in the Guayas River basin in Ecuador, but also affected several ecosystems. The increased use of pesticides poses a serious threat to the freshwater ecosystem, which urgently calls for an improved knowledge about the impact of pesticide practices in this study area. Several studies have shown that models can be appropriate tools to simulate pesticide dynamics in order to obtain this knowledge. This study tested the suitability of the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to simulate the dynamics of two different pesticides in the data scarce Guayas River basin. First, we set up, calibrated and validated the model using the streamflow data. Subsequently, we set up the model for the simulation of the selected pesticides (i.e., pendimethalin and fenpropimorph). While the hydrology was represented soundly by the model considering the data scare conditions, the simulation of the pesticides should be taken with care due to uncertainties behind essential drivers, e.g., application rates. Among the insights obtained from the pesticide simulations are the identification of critical zones for prioritisation, the dominant areas of pesticide sources and the impact of the different land uses. SWAT has been evaluated to be a suitable tool to investigate the impact of pesticide use under data scarcity in the Guayas River basin. The strengths of SWAT are its semi-distributed structure, availability of extensive online documentation, internal pesticide databases and user support while the limitations are high data requirements, time-intensive model development and challenging streamflow calibration. The results can also be helpful to design future water quality monitoring strategies. However, for future studies, we highly recommend extended monitoring of pesticide concentrations and sediment loads. Moreover, to substantially improve the model performance, the availability of better input data is needed such as higher resolution soil maps, more accurate pesticide application rate and actual land management programs. Provided that key suggestions for further improvement are considered, the model is valuable for applications in river ecosystem management of the Guayas River basin.

scholarly journals Land Use Zoning for Conserving Ecosystem Services under the Impact of Climate Change: A Case Study in the Middle Reaches of the Heihe River Basin

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chenchen Shi ◽  
Jinyan Zhan ◽  
Yongwei Yuan ◽  
Feng Wu ◽  
Zhihui Li
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Heihe River Basin ◽  
Heihe River ◽  
Impact Of Climate Change ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Heihe River Basin

Ecosystem services are the benefit human populations derive directly and indirectly from the natural environment. They suffer from both the human intervention, like land use zoning change, and natural intervention, like the climate change. Under the background of climate change, regulation services of ecosystem could be strengthened under proper land use zoning policy to mitigate the climate change. In this paper, a case study was conducted in the middle reaches of the Heihe River Basin to assess the ecosystem services conservation zoning under the change of land use associated with climate variations. The research results show the spatial impact of land use zoning on ecosystem services in the study area which are significant reference for the spatial optimization of land use zoning in preserving the key ecosystem services to mitigate the climate change. The research contributes to the growing literature in finely characterizing the ecosystem services zones altered by land use change to alleviate the impact of climate change, as there is no such systematic ecosystem zoning method before.

scholarly journals Agricultural Beneficial Management Practices: A Synthesis of Co-benefits, Tradeoffs, and Co-costs between Crop Yield and Non-provisioning Ecosystem Services

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Nicholas Kadykalo ◽  
Kris Johnson ◽  
Scott McFatridge ◽  
C. Scott Findlay
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Crop Yield ◽  
Cover Crops ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Crop Yields ◽  
Crop Rotations ◽  
Agricultural Crop ◽  
Beneficial Management Practices ◽  
Provisioning Ecosystem Services ◽  
The Impact

Although agricultural “best (or beneficial) management practices” (BMPs) first emerged to mitigate agro-environmental resource challenges, they may also enhance ‘non-provisioning’ ecosystem services. The enthusiasm for adopting BMPs partially depends on evidence that doing so will lead to agro-environmental benefits while not substantially reducing crop productivity or farmer income. We survey and synthesize evidence in the existing literature to document the joint effects on agricultural crop yield and 12 ecosystem service (ES) associated with implementation of 5 agricultural BMPs (crop rotations, cover crops, nutrient management, perennial vegetated buffers, reduced or no tillage). We also analyze the prevalence of co-benefits (‘win-win’), tradeoffs, and co-costs (‘lose-lose’) outcomes. On the basis of a set of contextual variables we then develop empirical models that predict the likelihood of co-benefits relative to tradeoffs, and co-costs. We found thirty-six studies investigating 141 combinations of crop yields and non-provisioning ES outcomes (YESs) in the relevant literatures covering the period 1983-2016. The scope of the review is global, but included studies are geographically concentrated in the U.S. Corn Belt (Midwestern United States). In the literature sample, reporting of co-benefits (26%) was much more prevalent than reporting of co-costs (4%) between yields and ES. Tradeoffs most often resulted in a reduction in crop yields and an increase in ES (28%); this was marginally greater than studies reporting a neutral influence on crop yields and an increase in ES (26%). Other Y/ES combinations were uncommon. Mixed-effects models indicated reduced tillage and crop rotations had generally positive associations with YESs. Temporal scale was an informative predictor suggesting studies with longer time scales resulted in greater positive outcomes on YESs, on average. Our results are a step towards identifying those contexts where co-benefits or partial improvement outcomes of BMPs are more likely to be realized, as well as the impact of particular practices on specific ES.

scholarly journals Assessing the Impacts of Urban Expansion on Bundles of Ecosystem Services by Dmsp-Ols Nighttime Light Data

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (21) ◽  
pp. 5888 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yangyang Gu ◽  
Xuning Qiao ◽  
Mengjia Xu ◽  
Changxin Zou ◽  
Dong Liu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Primary Productivity ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Net Primary Productivity ◽  
Urban Expansion ◽  
Forest Recreation ◽  
Ecological Protection ◽  
Expansion Level ◽  
Flood Regulation ◽  
The Impact

Urban expansion poses severe threats to ecosystems. It is therefore important we better understand the impact of different urban expansion level on ecosystems for developing regionally differentiated ecological protection policies. Here, we proposed a conceptual framework to describe the impacts of urbanization on bundles of ecosystem services. Referred to as the concept of land use degree by nighttime light data, we put forward and verified an urban expansion level model. According to this model, study area was divided into a slow increase zone, increase zone, and rapid increase zone. Then, taking Taihu Lake Basin in China as a case, we used Zonal-statistics and Pearson correlation coefficients to reveal the impact in different zones of urban expansion level on multiple ecosystem services: crop production, freshwater supply, aquatic production, net primary productivity, soil conservation, water retention, flood regulation, and forest recreation index. Our results revealed that urban expansion levels significantly impacted all ecosystem services. In either increase zone or rapid increase zone, we found lowered values of crop production, net primary productivity, soil conservation, water retention, and flood regulation, while both aquatic production and forest recreation index increased in all zones from 1990 to 2010. Across the levels of urbanization, urban expansion level was always negatively correlated with provisioning services. This result suggests local governors should improve crop production per unit area and increase the cultivated land area to guarantee food security. In addition, urban expansion level had positive correlations with the trade-offs between flood regulation and forest recreation index, and those among crop production, freshwater supply, and net primary productivity. Therefore, policy-makers should effectively maintain the land use balance among ecological protection, agriculture development, and urban expansion to better coordinate relationships between development and protection. In acquiring quantitative knowledge of how urban expansion level drives ecosystem changes, our findings may help guide future sustainable urban planning with respect to ecosystem services, urban development, and human welfare benefits.

scholarly journals Where is Late Cenozoic climate change most likely to impact denudation?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian G. Mutz ◽  
Todd A. Ehlers ◽  
Martin Werner ◽  
Gerrit Lohmann ◽  
Christian Stepanek ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Cluster Analysis ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Climatic Variability ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Northwest Pacific ◽  
Western Himalayas ◽  
Late Cenozoic ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. The denudation history of active orogens is often interpreted in the context of modern climate and vegetation gradients. Here we address the validity of this approach and ask the question: what are the spatial and temporal variations in paleo-climate for a latitudinally diverse range of active orogens? We do this using high-resolution (T159, ca. 80 × 80 km at the equator) paleo-climate simulations from the ECHAM5 global Atmospheric General Circulation Model and a statistical cluster analysis of climate over different orogens (Andes, Himalaya, SE Alaska, Pacific NW USA). Time periods and boundary conditions considered include the Pliocene (PLIO, ~ 3 Ma), the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, ~ 21 ka), Mid Holocene (MH, ~ 6 ka) and Pre-Industrial (PI, reference year 1850). The regional simulated climates of each orogen are described by means of cluster analyses based on the variability of precipitation, 2 m air temperature, the intra-annual amplitude of these values, and monsoonal wind speeds where appropriate. Results indicate the largest differences to the PI climate are observed for the LGM and PLIO climates in the form of widespread cooling and reduced precipitation in the LGM and warming and enhanced precipitation during the PLIO. The LGM climate shows the largest deviation in annual precipitation from the PI climate, and shows enhanced precipitation in the temperate Andes, and coastal regions for both SE Alaska and the US Pacific Northwest Pacific. Furthermore, LGM precipitation is reduced in the western Himalayas and enhanced in the eastern Himalayas, resulting in a shift of the wettest regional climates eastward along the orogen. The cluster-analysis results also suggest more climatic variability across latitudes east of the Andes in the PLIO climate than in other time-slice experiments conducted here. Taken together, these results highlight significant changes in Late Cenozoic regional climatology over the last ~ 3 Ma. Finally, we document regions where the largest magnitudes of Late Cenozoic changes in precipitation and temperature occur and offer the highest potential for future observational studies interested in quantifying the impact of climate change on denudation and weathering rates.

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