Peer Review #3 of "Identifying conservation priorities and management strategies based on ecosystem services to improve urban sustainability in Harbin, China (v0.1)"

Rapid urbanization and agricultural development has resulted in the degradation of ecosystems, while also negatively impacting ecosystem services (ES) and urban sustainability. Identifying conservation priorities for ES and applying reasonable management strategies have been found to be effective methods for mitigating this phenomenon. The purpose of this study is to propose a comprehensive framework for identifying ES conservation priorities and associated management strategies for these planning areas. First, we incorporated 10 ES indicators within a systematic conservation planning (SCP) methodology in order to identify ES conservation priorities with high irreplaceability values based on conservation target goals associated with the potential distribution of ES indicators. Next, we assessed the efficiency of the ES conservation priorities for meeting the designated conservation target goals. Finally, ES conservation priorities were clustered into groups using a K-means clustering analysis in an effort to identify the dominant ES per location before formulating management strategies. We effectively identified 12 ES priorities to best represent conservation target goals for the ES indicators. These 12 priorities had a total areal coverage of 13,364 km2 representing 25.16% of the study area. The 12 priorities were further clustered into five significantly different groups (p-values between groups < 0.05), which helped to refine management strategies formulated to best enhance ES across the study area. The proposed method allows conservation and management plans to easily adapt to a wide variety of quantitative ES target goals within urban and agricultural areas, thereby preventing urban and agriculture sprawl and guiding sustainable urban development.

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Serviços ecossistêmicos prestados por recifes de coral nas ilhas de Tinharé e Boipeba, Baixo Sul da Bahia, Brasil

10.31237/osf.io/za7c9 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Carla Isobel Elliff

Keyword(s):

Ecosystem Services ◽

Coral Reefs ◽

Current Model ◽

Management Strategies ◽

Environmental Indicators ◽

Management Actions ◽

Shoreline Protection ◽

Fringing Reefs ◽

Integrated Valuation ◽

Reef Decline

Coral reefs provide important ecosystem services to coastal communities. The Archipelago of Tinhar?e andBoipeba, Bahia, Brazil, are mostly surrounded by fringing reefs, which have undergone several chronichuman impacts. The objective of the present study was to apply an ecosystem-based approach byanalyzing the ecosystem services provided by the coral reefs of the Archipelago of Tinhar?e and Boipeba inorder to support management actions and serve as a tool for coastal management. Ecosystem serviceswere assessed through the observation of environmental indicators of their occurrence and by using asuite of models from the Integrated Valuation of Environmental Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) softwarecombined with data from the Atlantic and Gulf Rapid Reef Assessment (AGRRA) protocol database. Theservices of greatest occurrence were food provision, habitat maintenance, shoreline protection andrecreation. While the main stressful factors were tourism activities, the absence of a sewage system andfisheries. The coral reefs presented potential for shoreline protection along 50.5% of the islands. Moreover,46.8% of the shoreline would present moderate to high vulnerability in case of coral reef disappearance.The coincidence of areas with high risk of loss in the capacity to provide services and highvulnerability in the scenario of absence of reefs is concerning. Thus, the current model for tourism usedin the area should be altered, as should new management strategies be implemented, which can bringbenefits and avoid reef decline.

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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 ◽

10.3390/f12030267 ◽

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.

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Trends and Evolution in the Concept of Marine Ecosystem Services: An Overview

Water ◽

10.3390/w13152060 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (15) ◽

pp. 2060

Author(s):

Elvira Buonocore ◽

Umberto Grande ◽

Pier Paolo Franzese ◽

Giovanni F. Russo

Keyword(s):

Ecosystem Services ◽

Alternative Assessment ◽

Natural Capital ◽

Marine Ecosystem ◽

Management Strategies ◽

Marine Ecosystems ◽

Global Ocean ◽

Coastal Protection ◽

Policy Dialogue ◽

Marine Ecosystem Services

The biotic and abiotic assets of the marine environment form the “marine natural capital” embedded in the global ocean. Marine natural capital provides the flow of “marine ecosystem services” that are directly used or enjoyed by people providing benefits to human well-being. They include provisioning services (e.g., food), regulation and maintenance services (e.g., carbon sequestration and storage, and coastal protection), and cultural services (e.g., tourism and recreational benefits). In recent decades, human activities have increased the pressures on marine ecosystems, often leading to ecosystem degradation and biodiversity loss and, in turn, affecting their ability to provide benefits to humans. Therefore, effective management strategies are crucial to the conservation of healthy and diverse marine ecosystems and to ensuring their long-term generation of goods and services. Biophysical, economic, and sociocultural assessments of marine ecosystem services are much needed to convey the importance of natural resources to managers and policy makers supporting the development and implementation of policies oriented for the sustainable management of marine resources. In addition, the accounting of marine ecosystem service values can be usefully complemented by their mapping to enable the identification of priority areas and management strategies and to facilitate science–policy dialogue. Given this premise, this study aims to review trends and evolution in the concept of marine ecosystem services. In particular, the global scientific literature on marine ecosystem services is explored by focusing on the following main aspects: the definition and classification of marine ecosystem services; their loss due to anthropogenic pressures, alternative assessment, and mapping approaches; and the inclusion of marine ecosystem services into policy and decision-making processes.

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Spatiotemporal changes in ecosystem services in the conservation priorities of the southern hill and mountain belt, China

Ecological Indicators ◽

10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.107225 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 122 ◽

pp. 107225

Author(s):

Shuai Ma ◽

Liang-Jie Wang ◽

Dianzhen Zhu ◽

Jinchi Zhang

Keyword(s):

Ecosystem Services ◽

Conservation Priorities ◽

Mountain Belt ◽

Spatiotemporal Changes

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The Hidden Half: Linking microbial communities to habitat condition and vegetation management in UK blanket bogs

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-11861 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

William Burn ◽

Andreas Heinemeyer ◽

Thorunn Helgason ◽

David Glaves ◽

Michael Morecroft

Keyword(s):

Water Quality ◽

Ecosystem Services ◽

Microbial Communities ◽

Structural Equation ◽

Management Strategies ◽

Vegetation Management ◽

Equation Model ◽

Habitat Condition ◽

Blanket Bog ◽

The Uk

Peatlands are globally valued for the ecosystem services they deliver, including water quality regulation and carbon sequestration. In the UK, blanket bogs are the main peatland habitat and previous work has linked blanket bog management, especially rotational burning of heather vegetation on grousemoors, to impacts on these ecosystem services. However, we still lack a mechanistic, process-level understanding of how peatland management and habitat status is linked to ecosystem service provision, which is mostly driven by soil microbial processes.Here we examine bacterial and fungal communities across a spectrum of &#8220;intact&#8221; to degraded UK blanket bogs and under different vegetation management strategies. Sites included grousemoors under burnt and alternative mown or uncut management along with further locations including 'near intact', degraded and restored sites across a UK climatic gradient ranging from Exmoor (South UK), the Peak District (Mid) to the Flow Country (North). Moreover, an experiment was setup at the University of York with peat mesocosms taken from all sites and management/habitat conditions to allow a comparison between field and controlled conditions and assessing root-mediated processes. Using a structural equation model, we linked grousemoor management to specific fungal/bacterial functional groups, and have started to relate this to changes in water quality provision and carbon cycle aspects. This represents a significant step in the effort to use microbial communities as indicators of peatland habitat condition in UK upland blanket bogs.&#160;&#160;

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