Antonio J. Castro

Universidad de Almería | UAL · Department of Biology and Geology

We performed a sociocultural preference assessment for a suite of ecosystem services provided by the Kiamichi River watershed in the south-central U.S., a region with intense water conflict. The goal was to examine how a social assessment of services could be used to weigh trade-offs among water resource uses for future watershed management and pla...

Understanding the factors determining the spatial distribution of species is a major challenge in ecology and conservation. This study tests the use of ecosystem functioning variables, derived from satellite imagery data, to explore their potential use in modeling the distribution of the European badger in Mediterranean arid environments. We found...

Los paisajes tropicales están cambiando rápidamente y presentan oportunidades para conciliar la provisión de servicios ecosistémicos, la conservación de la biodiversidad y el mantenimiento de los medios de vida de las comunidades. La identificación de áreas relevantes para la conservación de la biodiversidad y la provisión de servicios ecosistémico...

Human population has become the predominant force causing the decline of ecosystems and biodiversity. People’s disconnection from nature has been proposed as one of the roots underpinning human actions that lead to this environmental degradation. The lack of interaction with nature can reduce our emotional affinity towards the environment and clear...

Almería horticulture in SE Spain hosts the largest concentration of greenhouses in the world and faces important environmental sustainability challenges. Microalgae-derived applications are efficient nature-based solutions as they are used for wastewater regeneration or as biostimulants and biopesticides in agriculture. However, farmers’ knowledge...

En un contexto generalizado de abandono de las áreas rurales hacia áreas urbanas, se considera que la región mediterránea es un área crítica dentro de Europa. El abandono rural está impulsado por complejos procesos sociales, económicos y ecológicos que generan una gran diversidad de impactos, por ejemplo sobre la biodiversidad. En los ecosistemas m...

The Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS) was established in 2011, and is now one of the major international social-ecological systems (SES) research networks. During this time, SES research has undergone a phase of rapid growth and has grown into an influential branch of sustainability science. In this Perspective, we argue that SES res...

Policy interest in socio‐ecological systems has driven attempts to define and map socio‐ecological zones (SEZs), that is, spatial regions, distinguishable by their conjoined social and bio‐geo‐physical characteristics. The state of Idaho, USA, has a strong need for SEZ designations because of potential conflicts between rapidly increasing and impac...

Tropical agricultural frontiers are rapidly changing and present unique opportunities to reconcile ecosystem services (ES) provision, biodiversity conservation, and livelihood maintenance of rural communities. To understand the dynamics of these frontiers, we analyzed preferences, reasons associated with importance, and spatial perceptions of ES an...

Understanding the roots of a sense of place in farmlands is crucial for stopping rural exo-dus to urban areas. Farmers' experiences related to their way of life, peace and quiet, rootedness, pleasure, and inspiration are fundamental components of a sense of place in farmlands. Here, we used the city of Pereira located in the Coffee Cultural Landsca...

The degree of coupling between the social and ecological components of social-ecological systems is seen as fundamental to understanding their functioning, interactions and trajectories. Yet, there is limited work about how to empirically understand the degree of coupling between social and ecological systems, nor the processes by which the degree...

This study implements the ecosystem service framework to link the concepts of farming activity and ecosystem restoration within the circular economy. It proposes a method for identifying social indicators of ecosystem restoration that can be taken into account in the transition towards more circular and sustainable agricultural systems. Using a cas...

Nature-based solutions can significantly contribute restoration projects in areas affected by desertification processes, where they are necessary for reverting land degradation. Currently, one innovative solution is The Cocoon™, which has been designed as a new ecotechnology for improving seedling establishment. The Cocoon consists of a donut-shape...

El propósito de este informe consiste en calcular los diferentes tipos de impactos medioambientales asociados a la pesca profesional desarrollada en los Espacios Naturales Protegidos (ENP) del Parque Natural Cabo de Gata-Níjar (Almería, Andalucía) y la Reserva Marina de Interés Pesquero de Os Miñarzos (Lira, Galicia). Esto, con el fin último de:...

Human-nature connectedness is key to foster environmental and socio-cultural sustainability in agricultural landscapes since it promotes the establishment of belonging, stewardship, and connections to nature. Cooperation, collective action, and the role of women at sustainable agroecological practices could be leverage points in which small interve...

In the light of the current climate crisis, one of the most serious ecological threats is the increase of desertification. In this context, restoration projects are necessary for reverting land degradation, and nature-based solutions could help them. The Cocoon™ has been designed as a new ecotechnology for improving seedling establishment. The Coco...

Bioeconomy is becoming the main driver transforming European agri-food value chains towards global sustainability in the food supply chain Intensive horticultural production systems based on medium and low-tech greenhouses are suitable scenarios implementing bioeconomy strategies to achieve sustainability targets. Since the publication of the Europ...

The study of the relationships between freshwater organisms, pollution and public awareness has been little researched. The public’s perception of risk from pollution is a fundamental component in determining consumer behavior and promoting healthy habits. For instance, understanding how consumers perceive the risks associated with pollution can he...

Combining socio-cultural valuations of ecosystem services with ecological and monetary assessments is critical to informing decision making with an integrative and multi-pronged approach. This study examined di↵erences in the perceptions of ecosystem service supply and diversity across eight major ecosystem types in Spain and scrutinized the social...

Chapter 5 from the Intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams: what water managers need to know. Technical report – Cost ACTION CA 15113

This is the list of papers included in the systematic review by Lozano et al. (2019) published in Biological Conservation: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2019.07.002

Conservation easements are the fastest growing private conservation strategy in the United States. However, mechanisms to assess private land conservation as well as their support by the general public are not well understood. This study uses the ecosystem services framework for assessing existing private lands in Idaho and identifies areas for fut...

A large share of our food comes from international supply food chains that are difficult to trace. Therefore, consumers are not aware of their environmental and social effects. We analysed the tomato supply system for Germany. Tomatoes consumed in Germany are produced either in The Netherlands by Polish workers and using large amounts of energy, or...

The future of conservation and human-wildlife relationships in the American West is at a defining moment. The region consists of a mosaic of land-cover types, with large amounts of public land under varying degrees of protection, use, and ownership. This public land provides the foundation for high levels of connectivity and habitat for healthy pop...

In recent years, researchers have begun to adopt a perspective evaluating "winners and losers" regarding the consumption and value of ecosystem services. "Winners" tend to benefit from the ecosystem service and "losers" absorb most associated costs. Our study focuses on water use in Oklahoma (USA) and a plan to divert water from the Kiamichi River...

Carnivore and humans live in proximity due to carnivore recovery efforts and ongoing human encroachment into carnivore habitats globally. The American West is a region that uniquely exemplifies these human-carnivore dynamics, however, it is unclear how the research community here integrates social and ecological factors to examine human-carnivore r...

Los ecosistemas Mediterráneos presentan una alta susceptibilidad a los eventos climáticos generados por el cambio global, esto los hace vulnerables y propensos a la pérdida de servicios ecosistémicos. La restauración ecológica se posiciona como una herramienta de vital importancia para reducir la vulnerabilidad de estos ecosistemas y que de esta fo...

The American West exists in the popular imagination as a distinct region, and policies and politics often suggest that both the challenges and the opportunities for land management and human well-being across the region are relatively homogeneous. In this paper, we argue that there are key characteristics that define the West as a social-ecological...

Globally, current food consumption and trade are placing unprecedented demand on agricultural systems and increasing pressure on natural resources, requiring tradeo↵s between food security and environmental impacts especially given the tension between market-driven agriculture and agro-ecological goals. In order to illustrate the wicked social, eco...

Análisis de la demanda social de los servicios ecosistémicos, usando como área de estudio el SE español, en el marco del Proyecto LIFE The GreenLink

We conducted a systematic review of 502 articles, published between 2000 and 2016, to characterize the research on human-carnivore relations according to (i) temporal and geographical distribution, (ii) biology, (iii) relations between carnivores and humans, (iv) social actors, (v) drivers of change, (vi) management, and (vii) applied methods. We p...

Context Cultivated lands have undergone a shift towards intensification and increased productivity, favoring provisioning services at the expense of regulating and cultural services. Cultivated lands have rarely been researched as a provider of cultural services. Objectives The overarching goal of this study is to assess sense of place across cult...

Context Humans continually transform landscapes, affecting the ecosystem services (ES) they provide. Thus, the spatial relationships among services vary across landscapes. Managers and decision makers have access to a variety of tools for mapping landscapes and analyzing their capacity to provide multiple ES. Objectives This paper characterizes an...

A projected 60% of the world's population will live in urban areas by 2030. Urbanization has major impacts on ecosystem services, and therefore human well-being, but not all groups within a community experience the impacts of urbanization on ecosystem services the same. It is important for decision-makers to understand the trade-offs that occur wit...

Ecosystem service science has gained relevance among scientists, managers, and policy-makers worldwide as a way to communicate societal dependence on ecological life support systems. However, a major barrier to effective implementation of ecosystem services research is their lack of operationalization for land management and planning. This study co...

Land use decisions induce legacies that affect the welfare of future generations. Here, we present a spatial modeling approach for quantifying how past land use decisions influence provision of multiple ecosystem services based on different land use trajectories. We modeled the effect of past land use changes on water regulation, soil protection an...

Facing the challenges of environmental and social changes, sustainable management of ecosystem services is a worldwide priority. The Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS) approach provides a unique opportunity for promoting transdisciplinary place-based comparative research for social-ecological systems (SES) management. As part of the P...

Globally, environmental and social change in water-scarce regions challenge the sustainability of social-ecological systems. WaterSES, a sponsored working group within the Program for Ecosystem Change and Society, explores and compares the social-ecological dynamics related to water scarcity across placed-based international research sites with con...

Sustainable management of ecosystem services (ES) is a worldwide priority, especially in regions experiencing water scarcity and governance issues. ES are particular susceptible to landscape changes such as agricultural expansion or urbanization, but also by watershed decisions that prioritize water supplies for human needs. Here, as part of the PE...

Global sustainability initiatives are gaining momentum and impact, and place-based research can provide complementary insights to strengthen them. Here, we explore the current and potential role of place-based research into informing global sustainability initiatives by assessing the strengths, challenges, and opportunities. We show that place-base...

Spatial planning has to deal with trade-offs between various stakeholders’ wishes and needs as part of planning and management of landscapes, natural resources and/or biodiversity. To make ecosystem services (ES) trade-off research more relevant for spatial planning, we propose an analytical framework, which puts stakeholders, their land-use/manage...

The Program for Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS) provides a unique opportunity for promoting transdisciplinary placed-based comparative research for social-ecological systems (SES) management. As part of the PECS project “water scarcity and governance across social-ecological systems, WaterSES”, we used four place-based SES research sites to ana...