Environmental services in home gardens of la Chontalpa, Tabasco, Mexico

Objective: To identify the environmental services provided by home gardens in nine communities of La Chontalpa region in Tabasco, Mexico. Design/methodology/approach: Having previously identified home gardens, a visit route to nine communities was drawn using cartographic and demographic information. Three home gardens per community were randomly selected. Interviews about the use of home gardens were conducted. Physical environmental factors were measured inside and outside the gardens and soil samples were taken to determine organic matter and carbon contents in the soil. According to their category, the environmental services provided by the home gardens in each community were identified and classified into four types: provisioning, supporting, cultural, and regulating services. Results: Thirteen environmental services were identified as being provided by home gardens. Provisioning and cultural services are present in all localities. The most frequent category is the provision of food, followed by the provision of raw materials and education. Supporting and regulating services were observed in most communities —except for climate regulation, since the environmental conditions only allow gardens to provide the said service in four of the evaluated communities. Limitations on study/implications: Knowledge about the benefits of building home gardens suggests that these agrosystems provide environmental services. Categorizing the environmental services provided by home gardens is therefore important. Findings/conclusions: Home gardens in La Chontalpa, Tabasco, do not only provide provisioning services, but also cultural, supporting, and —to a lesser extent— regulating services.

Ecosystem Degradation and Its Implications on Regulating Service

The purpose of the study was to determine the link between ecosystem degradation and regulating services. It was observed that as the ecosystem cover area decreased, the regulating services offered by the ecosystem also dwindled. The literature of the study covered the ecosystems and causes of degradation and different regulating services. The study was guided by three objectives and they included; to describe the carbon stock trends in Volcanoes National Park; to ascertain the temperature and rainfall patterns in VNP and to determine the soil erosion rates in and around VNP. The methodology of the study considered descriptive research design that was composed of both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Additionally, primary and secondary data were used. The study population was 52 households from two parishes and the sample of 44 households. The data collection tools were questionnaires and interviews while presentation was by use of figures and tables. The findings indicated that in the past three decades, as the population increased, the forest ecosystem area reduced and this affected the regulation of the amount of carbon stock. Also, the results revealed that the rainfall and temperature patterns fluctuate frequently due to the unregulated accumulated carbon dioxide and carbon in the atmosphere. The findings further showed that the rates of soil erosion increased as deforestation increases which led to increased soil erosion and runoff. As a result of soil erosion and runoff, the soil fertility decreased and it affected the crop harvests. In conclusion ecosystem degradation affected the regulation services which also affected the host community. It was recommended that deforestation should be stopped to improve regulating service.

Impacts of large-scale landscape restoration on spatio-temporal dynamics of ecosystem services in the Chinese Loess Plateau

Context From 1999 onwards, China has initiated a large-scale landscape restoration project in the Chinese Loess Plateau, which has had profound but variable impacts on the local ecosystem services supply. The dynamics of ecosystem services throughout the restoration process remain poorly understood. Objectives To analyze the spatial and temporal dynamics in ecosystem services before and after the implementation of the land restoration project, and to understand trade-offs and synergies between multiple ecosystem services. Methods We used the InVEST model and statistical yearbook data to quantify the ecosystem services over the period 1990–2018 for the Yan’an area and applied the concept of ecosystem service bundles to understand the dynamics of 11 ecosystem services over its 13 constituent counties. Results A significant increase of fruit production, sediment retention, habitat quality, aesthetic landscape value, and learning and inspiration value was found over time in the Yan’an area, while a decrease of timber production and water yield was also observed. The majority of the county-level ecosystem service bundles were transformed from having a focus on timber production to aesthetic landscape value. The dynamics of ecosystem services change induced by land restoration was discovered to start with increasing regulating services at the expense of provisioning services, while cultural services exceeded regulating services and occupied the main proportion subsequently. Conclusion Both trade-offs and synergies were found between provisioning, regulating and cultural services. Implementation of the large-scale restoration project is recognized as a key driving force inducing change of ecosystem services, starting with an improvement of regulating services followed by a gradually evolving prominence of cultural services.

Identification of the ecosystem services and plant diversity in Ramna Park Dhaka

The fast development of urbanization in Dhaka frequently makes gigantic weight on its current green and open spaces. Dhaka city is experiencing e an enormous urban turn of events. The open spaces for example Parks, fields, water bodies among others are paying the cost for those huge advancement ventures of Dhaka city. Ramna Park is an urban recreational centre. It is a huge habitation for flora and fauna species especially avifauna. Various beneficiary ecosystem services are derived from the Ramna Park area. The given perspective inspired the authors to conduct the present study to identify the ecosystem services and the plants' species diversity in Ramna Park, Dhaka. Five specific types of provisioning services are identified in Ramna Park. The identified provisioning services are, eight different types of fish in the lake, Thirty-two different types of fruits (plant), Twenty-eight different types of medicinal (plant), Fifty-eight different types of ornamental (flower) plant species. Due to the huge vegetation cover, lots of dry leaves, twigs and dead dry things are also produced in Ramna Park. There are twenty-seven specific types of cultural services Park and Nine regulating services were identified in Ramna Park. Identified regulating services are, photosynthesis, carbon sequestration and storage, air quality regulation, pollination, and seed dispersal, air temperature regulation, airflow regulation, noise level control, water quality control, and waste management. It was noted in the study that Ramna Park is a huge habitat for plants, avifauna, fish, and some other faunal species. Moreover, it provides a huge range of habitat for eight fish species, forty-two bird species, and one hundred and fifty-one plant species. A total of one hundred fifty-one specific types of plant species were identified in Ramna Park. The identified plant species are categorized into four plant types trees (100 species), Herbs (15 species), Shrubs (24 species), and Climbers (12 species).

Afforestation projects in Qinghai Province: what are the benefits of ecosystem services?

<p>Qinghai is a pivotal area for protection and ecological restoration, which is a unique plateau ecosystem composed of tundra, grasslands, Gobi, and the source of rivers. In response to afforestation projects, the government has successfully implemented the Sloping Land Conversion Program (SLCP), Natural Forest Conservation Program (NFCP), and Three-North Shelter Forest Program (TNSFP), etc. However, the ecological benefits after the implementation of the restoration project lack quantitative evaluation. In this study, we extracted farmland (slope> 25°) and wasteland as appropriate afforestation areas based on the ecological niche of tree species simulated by MaxEnt. Then, ecosystem services are selected as indicators to measure the benefits of restoration, with supply services and recreation services as direct benefits, and regulating services and supporting services as indirect benefits. We compared the impact of afforestation on ecosystem services, highlighting the benefits of ecological engineering. Under the assumption that all afforestation tree species survive, the appropriate afforestation areas are 549.25hm<sup>2</sup>, mainly distributed in the northeast of Qinghai. Regulating services, supporting services and the attractiveness of recreation services have improved, while crop supply and the accessibility of recreation services have decreased. Our findings can enrich theoretical and empirical research on ecosystem services and have implications for afforestation management in similar areas.</p>

Spatial Correlations Don't Predict Changes in Agricultural Ecosystem Services: A Canada-Wide Case Study

Improving the management of multiple ecosystem services (e.g., food provision, water and air quality regulation, carbon storage, and erosion control) in agricultural landscapes is a critical challenge to improve food system sustainability. However, we currently lack spatially-resolved national-level assessments of the relationships among services in agricultural landscapes over time. This limits our ability to make decisions and predict how environmental changes or agricultural management actions will impact multiple services. How do multiple ecosystem services vary across both space and time, at regional-to-national scales? To address this question, we quantified eight indicators of four ecosystem services across 290 Canadian agricultural landscapes in 1996, 2001, and 2006. We observed consistent correlations between pairs of services across the 290 ecodistricts in each of the 3 years of our study. In particular, ecodistricts with high livestock production had low provision of most regulating services, while ecodistricts with high air quality (ammonia retention) also had high soil and water quality regulation services. However, these ‘snapshot’ correlations poorly predicted how pairs of services changed through time. Ecosystem service change from 1996–2001 to 2001–2006 (as measured by pairwise correlations) showed markedly different patterns than snapshot correlations. In particular, where livestock production increased between years, so did most regulating services. Ecosystem service bundles also showed similar divergent patterns. The distribution of ecosystem service “snapshot” bundles—sets of ecodistricts with similar levels of provision across multiple ecosystem services in a single year—was generally stable between 1996 and 2006; only 15% of ecodistricts changed bundle types in this time period. However, ecosystem service “change” bundles—sets of ecodistricts with similar changes in ecosystem service provision through time—were much more dynamic. Nearly 60% of ecodistricts exhibited a different set of ecosystem service changes from 2001 to 2006 compared to 1996 to 2001. Our results add to the growing evidence that relationships between services across space do not necessarily predict service change through time. Improved understanding of the spatial patterns and temporal dynamics of ecosystem services, and better understanding of underlying processes, is crucial to improve agricultural landscape management for multifunctionality and sustainability.