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Land use and land cover change, trade-offs, and synergies between ecosystem services in a dry Afromontane Forest
... For example, Garmaeepour et al. [21] used the structural equation model and the index of social progress to analyze the complex relationship between the ecosystem services of the mangrove forests of Iran and the welfare of the local community, highlighting the importance of this nexus in achieving sustainability indicators. Kassun et al. [22] argued that conflicts between forest conservation and forest use will lead to trade-offs/synergies between services, exacerbated by land-use changes. However, in studies on value assessments of ecosystem services and their responses to land-use change [23,24] and landscape pattern change [25,26], woodland were only explored as a type of use, and the value of woodland ecosystem services, their driving factors, and the trade-offs/synergies among them still need in-depth research. ...
Research on woodland ecosystem services is the premise of the formulation of regional woodland policies and ecological protection measures in a new round of woodland protection utilization planning. Based on remote-sensing images and socioeconomic data, this study used the InVEST model, geographical detectors, Spearman correlation analysis, and a coupling coordination degree model to evaluate the spatiotemporal changes, driving factors, and trade-off/synergies relationship of habitat quality (HQ), soil conservation (SC), water conservation (WC), and carbon storage (CS) in the woodland of Zhangjiajie City in 1995, 2005, 2015, and 2022. The results show the following: (1) HQ significantly decreased, SC and WC fluctuated and decreased, and CS continued to increase. (2) Natural factors were predominant, and other factors and natural factors interact to increase the driving effect. (3) The four services were dominated by weak synergy, but SC and CS turned into weak trade-offs in 2022. These research results can provide theoretical support for the optimization of the tourism development model, the formulation of ecological compensation policies, and the high-quality sustainable development of woodland in Zhangjiajie City, and provide a case study of the ecological management of world natural heritage sites.
Crop rotation and diversification (CRD) are crucial strategies in sustainable agriculture, offering multiple benefits to both farmers and the environment. By alternating crops or introducing diverse plant species, CRD practices improve soil fertility, reduce pest populations, and enhance nutrient availability. For example, legume-based rotations increase soil nitrogen levels through biological nitrogen fixation, reducing the need for synthetic fertilizers. Moreover, these practices promote more efficient water and nutrient use, reducing the reliance on synthetic fertilizers and minimizing the risk of pests and diseases. This review synthesizes findings from recent research on the role of CRD in enhancing sustainable agriculture and resilience, highlighting the potential contributions of these practices towards climate change mitigation and adaptation. Specific crop rotation systems, such as the cereal–legume rotation in temperate regions and the intercropping of maize with beans in tropical environments, are reviewed to provide a comprehensive understanding of their applicability in different agroecological contexts. The review also addresses the challenges related to implementing CRD practices, such as market demand and knowledge transfer, and suggests potential solutions to encourage broader adoption. Lastly, the potential environmental benefits, including carbon sequestration and reduced greenhouse gas emissions, are discussed, highlighting the role of CRD in building resilient agricultural systems. Collectively, this review paper emphasizes the importance of CRD methods as sustainable agricultural practices and provides key insights for researchers and farmers to effectively integrate these practices into farming systems.
The modeling and mapping of hotspots and coldspots ecosystem services (ESs) is an essential factor in the decision-making process for ESs conservation. Moreover, spatial prioritization is a serious stage in conservation planning. In the present research, based on the InVEST software, Getis–Ord statistics (Gi*), and a set of GIS methods, we quantified and mapped the variation and overlapping among three ESs (carbon storage, soil retention, and habitat quality). Furthermore, an approach was proffered for detecting priority areas to protect multiple ecosystem services. Hotspots recognized via the Gi* statistics technique contain a higher capacity for supplying ESs than other areas. This means that protecting these areas with a bigger number of overlapped hotspots can provide more services. Results indicated that population growth accompanied by the increase in construction sites and low-yield agricultural lands in the Zayanderood dam watershed basin has resulted in ES losses. This situation is represented by increasing soil erosion, reduced carbon storage, reduced biodiversity, and fragmented habitat distribution due to land-use change. The statistically significant carbon storage, soil retention, and habitat quality hotspots with above 95% confidence level account for 21.5%, 39.3%, and 16.9% of the study area, respectively. Therefore, a clear framework was presented in this study for setting ES-based conservation priority. Decision makers and land-use planners can also combine this technique into their framework to identify and conserve ES hotspots to support their targeted ecosystem policies.
Global forests are the hub of many economic, social, and environmental goods and services that influence the contentment of forest-dependent rural communities, regional and national economies, and achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The extent of the forest area continues to decline at an average rate of 4.7 million hectares per year globally. Around 1.6 billion people directly depend on forest resources for their basic requirements. Forests are recognized for reducing food insecurity, addressing poverty alleviation, and enhancing agricultural and environmental sustainability sustenance of rural people across the world. In addition to the increasing population pressure, forests are also experiencing repercussions from fire, diseases and pests, invasive alien species, developmental projects, improper forest governance, and climate change. To address these issues and conserve the forests and their resources, international fora developed numerous conservation strategies as well as global forest goals. The participation of local communities is also critical in this regard, and market prices for timber and timber products must be nondiscriminatory. The maintenance of the sustainability of forests and other natural resources is possible only through participatory and collaborative forest governance.
Agroforestry is one of the key sustainable land management practices recommended for the drylands that are characterized by a myriad of problems among them land degradation that is exacerbated by climate change. Adoption of agroforestry practices has largely remained low and largely unexplained especially in drylands of Kenya. Socio-economic factors such as education level, occupation, age,land size, income, gender, marital status, cultural believes and family size are linked to agroforestry adoption among smallholder farmers. This study sought to determine the factors that influence adoption of agroforestry practices by households in Makueni County of Kenya, where agroforestry has been promoted by various organizations. Structured questionnaires were used to collect data from 240 household heads through face-to-face interview. The data was analyzed using a binomial logistic regression model that allowed for determination of factors that influence the adoption of agroforestry practices by household heads in the study area. The model has shown that the adoption of agroforestry practices were significantly influenced (P < 0.05) by level of education, age, income, gender, marital status and family size of the respondents in the study area. The key policy implication of this study is that efforts aimed at promotion of agroforestry in the drylands should put into consideration these variables for sustainable adoption and out scaling of agroforestry in the drylands.
With the rise of the strategy of Coordinated Development for the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region, it is necessary to evaluate the trade-offs/synergies of the survival environment and human well-being in Hebei, the capital region of China. However, existing methods cannot analyze and express trade-offs/synergies of two or more variables simultaneously. Therefore, this paper proposes a new framework to express the trade-offs/synergies among land-use intensity, ecosystem services, and human well-being. In this paper, we first identified the land-use intensity change and land-use transformation and evaluated ecosystem services and human well-being in Hebei from 2000–2015 under the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment framework. Then, the trade-offs/synergies of the three indicators were determined by GIS-based methods and MATLAB. The results show that land-use intensity and human well-being mainly present a synergistic relationship, while ecosystem services and land-use intensity mainly present a trade-off relationship, and ecosystem services and human well-being also present a trade-off relationship in Hebei during 2000–2015. In addition, some regional solutions to achieve sustainable development were proposed: region 1 needs to adjust land-use structure, region 2 needs to protect the ecological environment to improve the supply of ecosystem services, and region 3 needs to commit to improving the regional comprehensive human well-being. This study not only proposes a new framework for analyzing trade-offs/synergies of land use intensity, ecosystem services, and human well-being, but it also provides regional solutions for Hebei to achieve sustainable development.
Restoring degraded land is essential for regaining ecosystem services (ES) and attaining the UN-Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Unfortunately, 24% of the global lands are degraded, significantly affecting the lives of 3.2 billion people worldwide. Therefore, innovative restoration practices are vital during 'UN-Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.' A meta-analysis of 2093 documents on land degradation and restoration was conducted in this context, and 117 empirical studies were analyzed in detail. These studies were based on the different drivers of land degradation as per the criteria of IPBES and IPCC, respectively. Results suggested that woodland encroachment (18.25%), cropland expansion (18.11%), species loss/ compositional shifts (16.06%), climatic factors (14.96%), infrastructure development/urbanization (14.17%), water erosion (13.87%), wind erosion (9.49%) and other demographic pressures (8.66%) were the significant drivers of land degradation. Interestingly, there was a continent-wide change in the critical drivers of land degradation and depleting ES. The infrastructure development/urbanization, demography, and economic attributes were the essential drivers in Asia-Pacific and African regions. In contrast, the fire-regime shift and invasiveness were the significant drivers in Europe, and the climatic attribute was the crucial driver in the Americas. Out of the 117 studies selected worldwide, some ongoing restoration efforts had little emphasis on research-driven on-site restoration for improving different ES. Furthermore, some restoration projects lack proper stakeholder involvement thereby, fail to attract large-scale public acceptance. Moreover, only 12.8% of the studies focused on improving the ES in highly degraded lands. Therefore, this meta-analysis suggests that site-specific, research-driven, and on-site restoration strategies coupled with proper stakeholder engagement are imperative for regaining the ES and functions of the degraded landscape to attain UN-SDG.
The unidirectional impacts of soil conservation on dryland farming and local livelihood have been well studied. However, there are gaps in literature regarding the interactions among factors, such as labor forces and financial capital, in response to soil conservation, as well as the influence of such interactions on the relationships between environmental projects and agricultural development. By combining the Chinese Soil Loss Equation (CSLE) model and statistical analyses, this study investigated the spatio-temporal characteristics of soil erosion while also identifying the controlling factors that affect crop and livestock farming. The aim was to reveal how these factors interacted to influence agriculture in two case study areas between 2000 and 2017. The results showed that soil erosion substantially declined as a consequence of soil conservation, while the output from crop farming increased, indicating that there was a synergy between soil conservation and dryland farming in both the districts, over time; and factors facilitating crop farming, such as labor force, agricultural machinery, and irrigation, appeared to exert an adverse effect on livestock farming in both areas, implying a tradeoff between livestock and crop farming in the context of programs such as the Grain for Green Program (GGP) in the Loess Hills. Such a tradeoff is a result of the competition for cropland and labor that exists due to grazing prohibition and rural-urban migration. Therefore, policy-related resolutions are required to address the land use conflicts and migration-related rural labor losing due to implementation of the GGP in the Loess Hills.
Most National Parks (NP) and nature reserves in Rwanda have been established opportunistically in the early 1900s, without clear consideration of ensuring the protection to all threatened different taxonomical or functional groups, such as vegetation, invertebrates, fish, and birds. With the increasing conservation objectives, raised expectations into Protected Areas (PA), and within a more challenging environmental context, it is important to identify biodiversity hubs and key areas for Ecosystem Services (ES) to maximize the efficiency of conservation efforts by assisting priority areas under threats. To date, no comprehensive analysis, to the best of our knowledge has been done to assess both biodiversity and ES in Rwanda. This is a notable gap, considering that global-scale research suggests that the spatial overlap between biodiversity targets and ES is low. This study reports a nationwide assessment, mapping the richness of threatened species and three key ES Carbon Storage, Water Quantity, and Water Quality. Our analysis has shown that PAs are neither perfectly delineated to protect biodiversity nor key ES. The state of PAs offers a taxonomic protection bias in favor of mammals and birds but leaves many endangered species in other taxonomic groups in collapsing and unprotected small ecosystems scattered around the country. Rwanda’s PAs cover important carbon stock but can do better at securing higher water balance regions and clean water sources. We propose an improvement of the NP system in Rwanda to help guide the economic development along a path of green growth and ensures the well-being of both people and nature. Locating biodiversity hubs and key ES can help to connect conservationists, local people, and governments in order to better guide conservation actions.
Increased presence of expansive plant species could bring about various ecological influences on biomass carbon, soil organic carbon, and the physical and chemical properties of the soils. However, their impacts on these ecological parameters could differ due to a wide range of life forms, plant communities of the invaded ecosystems, and abiotic conditions. This work was conducted to examine the impacts of Cadia purpurea and Tarchonanthus camphoratus cover on carbon stock in vegetation and soil and soil physicochemical properties in Desa’a forest, northern Ethiopia. Vegetation and soil data were collected from a total of 150 sampling plots (size 20 m × 20 m) from uninvaded and invaded vegetation conditions. The soil samples were collected from topsoil (0–15 and 15–30 cm) of the uninvaded and invaded vegetation conditions. The statistical difference in carbon stock and soil characteristics P
Sustaining multiple ecosystem services across a landscape requires an understanding of how consistently services are shaped by different categories of land uses. Yet, this understanding is generally constrained by the availability of fine-resolution data for multiple services across large areas and the spatial variability of land-use effects on services. We systematically surveyed published literature for New Zealand (1970-2015) to quantify the supply of 17 non-production services across 25 land covers (as a proxy for land use). We found a consistent trade-off in the services supplied by anthropogenic land covers with a high production intensity (e.g. cropping) versus those with extensive or no production. By contrast, forest cover was not associated with any distinct patterns of service supply. By drawing on existing research findings, we reveal complementarity and redundancy (potentially influencing resilience) in service supply from different land covers. This will guide practitioners in shaping land systems that sustainably support human well-being.
In Europe, the change in forest cover caused by felling activities, especially clear-cutting, is the most significant driver of forest ecosystem change. Monitoring the magnitude of harvest activities and their spatial and temporal distribution can provide essential change indicators of the pressure on forest ecosystems. Satellite remote sensing offers the means to assess and map indicators of forest change dynamics related to a high spatial- and temporal resolution over large areas cost-effectively and objectively. Large-scale maps of forest cover change over time produced by LandTrendr (LT), a temporal segmentation algorithm, and Global Forest Watch (GFW) are evaluated in a Norwegian boreal environment. Their accuracy to detect change at stand-level and their potential to produce landscape-level spatial and temporal change indicators was assessed against a 20-year historical record of harvest activities in Southern Norway. Data from LT were found to be spatially and temporally more coherent with the reference data than GFW. LT detected 85.4% of the clear-cuts and a decrease in harvest activities between 2001 and 2017, a trend confirmed by the reference data, while GFW detected 63.1% of the clear-cuts and an increase in harvest activities for the same period. It was concluded that LT map of changes (LT-map) provides efficient spatial and temporal indicators of forest change dynamics and performed better than GFW tree cover loss map (GFW-map) to identify and monitor clear-cuts in a Norwegian boreal forest.
Forest and Landscape Restoration (FLR) is carried out with the objective of regaining ecological functions and enhancing human well-being through intervention in degrading ecosystems. However, uncertainties and risks related to FLR make it difficult to predict long-term outcomes and inform investment plans. We applied a Stochastic Impact Evaluation framework (SIE) to simulate returns on investment in the case of FLR interventions in a degraded dry Afromontane forest while accounting for uncertainties. We ran 10,000 iterations of a Monte Carlo simulation that projected FLR outcomes over a period of 25 years. Our simulations show that investments in assisted natural regeneration, enrichment planting, exclosure establishment and soil-water conservation structures all have a greater than 77% chance of positive returns. Sensitivity analysis of these outcomes indicated that the greatest threat to positive cashflows is the time required to achieve the targeted ecological outcomes. Value of Information (VOI) analysis indicated that the biggest priority for further measurement in this case is the maturity age of exclosures at which maximum biomass accumulation is achieved. The SIE framework was effective in providing forecasts of the distribution of outcomes and highlighting critical uncertainties where further measurements can help support decision-making. This approach can be useful for informing the management and planning of similar FLR interventions.
Land degradation is one of the environmental challenges in the semi-arid areas of Africa such as Ethiopia. To tackle this problem, exclosures have been established on degraded open grazing lands. However, there was paucity of research regarding their ecological merits, especially in the lowlands of Tigray, Northern Ethiopia. Hence, this study was conducted to explore the effect of conversion of grazing lands to an exclosure on soil chemical properties and soil organic carbon stock (SOC stock) in Tselemti district, which was taken as testing site to represent the lowlands of Tigray. A total of 36 plots (18 from grazing land and 18 from exclosure), measuring 20 m × 20 m, were established along 6 transects for soil sampling. From each plot, 1 composite soil sample for analyses of total nitrogen (TN), available phosphorus (avP), cation exchange capacity (CEC), electrical conductivity (EC), available potassium (avK), soil pH and soil organic carbon content (SOC) and 1 undisturbed soil sample for soil bulk density (BD) determination was collected from a depth of 0–30 cm. Hence, a total of 72 soil samples (36 for nutrients and 36 for bulk density analysis) were analyzed in the laboratory. Paired samples t test statistics at 5% level of significance using SPSS version 20 was used to compare the land uses. Pearson correlation test was also used to analyze the relationship among the different soil properties. The study showed that the conversion of open grazing land to an exclosure enhanced most of the soil properties except soil pH, avP and EC. The results revealed that the exclosure had significantly (p < 0.05) higher SOC (1.89 ± 0.1 and 1.29 ± 0.06) and SOC stock (73.61 ± 4.9 and 45.64 ± 2.57 Mg ha⁻¹), indicating an improvement by 46.5 and 61.3% as compared to the grazing land. Similarly, it enhanced CEC, TN and avK level significantly (p < 0.05) by 16.8, 45.5 and 34%, respectively. It can be concluded that conversion of open grazing lands to exclosures is a viable option to restore degraded soils. For this reason, additional exclosures have to be established on previously degraded open grazing lands in the area and areas with similar biophysical setup.
Emissions from land use and land cover change are a key component of the global carbon cycle. However, models are required to disentangle these emissions from the land carbon sink, as only the sum of both can be physically observed. Their assessment within the yearly community-wide effort known as the “Global Carbon Budget” remains a major difficulty, because it combines two lines of evidence that are inherently inconsistent: bookkeeping models and dynamic global vegetation models. Here, we propose a unifying approach that relies on a bookkeeping model, which embeds processes and parameters calibrated on dynamic global vegetation models, and the use of an empirical constraint. We estimate that the global CO2 emissions from land use and land cover change were 1.36±0.42 PgC yr-1 (1σ range) on average over the 2009–2018 period and reached a cumulative total of 206±57 PgC over the 1750–2018 period. We also estimate that land cover change induced a global loss of additional sink capacity – that is, a foregone carbon removal, not part of the emissions – of 0.68±0.57 PgC yr-1 and 32±23 PgC over the same periods, respectively. Additionally, we provide a breakdown of our results' uncertainty, including aspects such as the land use and land cover change data sets used as input and the model's biogeochemical parameters. We find that the biogeochemical uncertainty dominates our global and regional estimates with the exception of tropical regions in which the input data dominates. Our analysis further identifies key sources of uncertainty and suggests ways to strengthen the robustness of future Global Carbon Budget estimates.
Mountain ecosystems play an essential role in sustainable mountain development, providing benefits and values to humanity not only for the rich biodiversity they contain, but also because of their important role in climate regulation, water cycle, provisioning of recreation, tourism, cultural or spiritual values. The high biodiversity of the mountain areas allow the provision of a wide range of ecosystem services. However, different impacts to the environment threaten the delivery of these services and, consequently, the quality of life of people, both living in the mountains and outside the mountains. Recognizing, demonstrating and capturing the value of ecosystem services can play an important role in setting policy directions for ecosystem management and conservation and, thus, in increasing the provision of ecosystem services and their contributions to human well-being. Quantifying and mapping of these benefits can also help managers and decision makers to realize the importance of these sites for conservation and to allow the proper understandings of the impacts of mountain forest ecosystems on territorial development and welfare of local populations.
The paper aims to outline the relevance and applicability of the ecosystem services approach for the assessment of the condition of mountain ecosystems and the services, they provide, for better understanding by the scientific community and to support decision makers in sustainable management of mountain regions.
Correlations tests are arguably one of the most commonly used statistical procedures, and are used as a basis in many applications such as exploratory data analysis, structural modelling, data engineering etc. In this context, we present correlation, a toolbox for the R language (R Core Team, 2019) and part of the easystats collection, focused on correlation analysis. Its goal is to be lightweight, easy to use, and allows for the computation of many different kinds of correlations.
Ensuring food security has become an issue of key importance to countries with different degrees of economic development, while the agricultural sector plays a strategic role in improving food availability. The aim of this paper is to identify relationships between the undernourishment scale and selected characteristics describing the agricultural sector within identified clusters of developing countries. Typological groups of countries were separated using Ward’s method. It results from the analyses that the greatest problems with maintaining food security are observed in the developing countries with a high share of agriculture in their Gross Domestic Product (GDP), adverse conditions hindering agricultural production and deficient infrastructure. Based on research results desirable and tailored strategies for food security improvement in individual clusters were developed. Promoting investments in agricultural infrastructure and extension services along with adopting measures aimed at increasing the households’ purchasing power, especially those in rural areas, appear to be key drivers for improving both food availability and food access. The paper focuses not only on identifying the reasons of undernourishment, but also contributes to recognition of the most effective ways to solve the hunger problem under a country’s unique conditions. It offers a comprehensive perspective for the policy formulation in various areas world-wide, which may be of interest to scholars and policy makers.
Forests cover about 40 % of the European Union (EU), providing a wide spectrum of invaluable ecosystem services to more than half a billion people. In order to protect and harness this crucial asset, EU policies are advancing multifunctional management. This study lays a basis for such an effort by mapping the supply of key forest ecosystem services (FES) across the entire EU: wood, water supply, erosion control, pollination, habitat protection, soil formation, climate regulation and recreation. To further support the operationalization of multifunctionality and targeting of policies, our analysis delineates hotspots, assesses synergies and tradeoffs, and identifies spatial bundles.
We generated maps at 1-km resolution starting from existing datasets through simple modelling (Tier 1). Out of these maps, we denoted the highest supplying pixels (i.e. top 20 %) as hotspots, and performed correlation analysis to detect synergies and tradeoffs. Finally, we used cluster analysis to identify FES bundles. Our analysis shows that hotspots of single FES are spread across the entire EU and that forests of mountain regions and Central Europe (particularly France, Germany, Slovakia) supply significant amounts of multiple FES. The cluster analysis resulted in four bundles: “balanced” in the northeast, “wood & water” in the center, “soil carbon” in the north and “rural-recreational” in the south. While a purely quantitative analysis of the produced maps may be misleading because of the strong links between FES supply and climatic and socio-economic conditions, overlaying hotspots and bundles with administrative layers can be a first step to inform about the role of different countries and regions in securing the sustainable supply of European FES.
This special issue includes six articles that cover a variety of issues about the topic of soil and water conservation in agricultural systems, including the following: a bibliometric analysis of soil and water conservation in the Loess Region of China; regarding croplands, one study evaluated the influence of vegetation covers on topsoil moisture and the effect of physiographic conditions on sediment yield in Spanish vineyards; another study evaluated the influence of plant age on soil water depletion in alfalfa pastures in the Tibet Autonomous Region; in a Chinese forest plantation, the effect of plant age and species on soil bulk density and pH was evaluated, and the most suitable afforestation species and stand age recommended to harvest maximum benefits were determined; regarding water pollution, a study evaluated soil water dynamics during two fallow years and three barley crop seasons in Spain and estimated the effect of the applied fertilizer (slurries or minerals) on nitrate leaching; and finally, another study identified the key information, including heavy metals, for water conservation in the border areas of the Syr Darya River in Kazakhstan. The proper use of soil and water resources is necessary to ensure the future well-being of humans and of the environment.
Anthropogenic activities have substantially changed natural landscapes, especially in regions which are extremely affected by population growth and climate change such as East African countries. Understanding the patterns of land-use and land-cover (LULC) change is important for efficient environmental management, including effective water management practice. Using remote sensing techniques and geographic information systems (GIS), this study focused on changes in LULC patterns of the upstream and downstream Wami River Basin over 16 years. Multitemporal satellite imagery of the Landsat series was used to map LULC changes and was divided into three stages (2000–2006, 2006–2011, and 2011–2016). The results for the change-detection analysis and the change matrix table from 2000 to 2016 show the extent of LULC changes occurring in different LULC classes, while most of the grassland, bushland, and woodland were intensively changed to cultivated land both upstream and downstream. These changes indicate that the increase of cultivated land was the result of population growth, especially downstream, while the primary socioeconomic activity remains agriculture both upstream and downstream. In general, net gain and net loss were observed downstream, which indicate that it was more affected compared to upstream. Hence, proper management of the basin, including land use planning, is required to avoid resources-use conflict between upstream and downstream users.
The Ethiopian economy is heavily dependent on agriculture. Unlike other emerging African countries, Ethiopian economic growth is driven mostly by public investments in infrastructure and agricultural productivity improvement. However, the performance of agriculture was not satisfactory as poverty remained. Lack of appropriate policies and strategies was considered as the ultimate reason for the sector's past stagnation. Consequently, to solve this problem and promote agricultural and economic growth, government a national development strategy called Agricultural Development Led Industrialization (ADLI). While, ADLI argues for a mutually re-enforcing transformation of agriculture and industry, the primary goal of ADLI was to alleviate absolute poverty. The strategy was also complemented by different plans so as to empower industrial sector in addition to agriculture. Therefore, ADLI policy's effectiveness was tested with Structural Break Analysis. The results showed that there was structural break in economic growth in 2004, indicating a higher and steady growth afterwards. The descriptive results also showed that agricultural sector remained the dominant contributor to the GDP growth of the country with only recently that the service sector is outperforming agricultural sector. The contribution of the industrial sector remained low, even though recently it started performing well.
Tropical forests and their biodiversity are disappearing, despite decades of conservation efforts. Are we now in a position to understand whether some conservation strategies work better while others consistently fail in protecting tropical forests? We searched the literature to evaluate four mainstream strategies (forest certification and reduced impact logging, payments for ecosystem services, protected areas, community forest management) in terms of 35 environmental, social, and economic metrics. We evaluated whether applying the strategy improved, left unchanged, or worsened the conservation metrics and we created an interactive platform to view the data. We concluded that (a) the scientific literature on the effectiveness of conservation strategies in tropical forests is still vastly inadequate, due to poor design, lack of scope, and too few examples; (b) the effects of conservation on biodiversity and the economic outcomes of conservation are particularly understudied; and (c) all strategies fail at least some of the times, but all of them succeed at least some times. Our recommendation is that each new instance of implementing a given strategy should consider in detail, at the very least, the negative evidence on the given strategy, in order to avoid repeating the same mistakes. We introduce an interactive, dynamic platform to host various types of conservation effectiveness evidence.
The Ethiopian economy is heavily dependent on agriculture as the main source of employment, export foreign earning and food security for a vast majority of its population. The peculiarity of the Ethiopian case lies in the fact that, unlike other emerging African countries, the process of economic growth is driven mostly by public investments in infrastructure and the improvement of productivity especially in the agricultural sector. In addition, like many other developing countries in Ethiopia also, the fights to achieve food and nutritional security as well as prosperity for the country will be won or lost in the agricultural sector. However, the performance of agriculture was not satisfactory as poverty continue to be the important feature of the country in the world. In this regards, lack of appropriate policies and strategies was considered as the ultimate reason for the sector's past stagnation. Consequently, to solve this problem and promote growth in agriculture to serve as an engine for the sector and overall economy, government devised the national development strategy called Agricultural Development Led Industrialization (ADLI). Even though ADLI argues for a mutually re-enforcing transformation of agriculture and industry, the primary goal of ADLI was to alleviate absolute poverty and bring progressively takeover of industry in the national GDP. The strategy was also complemented by different plans so as to realize its objectives of transforming the country from economy dominated by agriculture sector to the economy dominated by the industrial sector. To empirically confirm ADLI policy's effectiveness in expanding the economic base of the industry and overall economic growth, structural break analysis was tested using econometric models like Zivot-Andrew (1992) and Bai-Perron (2003) models. The result in both the models showed that there was structural break in economic growth in the year 2004. However, even though ADLI was in practice for a long period of time, there were only two regimes in the ADLI implementation ending and starting in the year 2004.In addition, the descriptive results also showed that agricultural sector remained the dominant contributor to the GDP growth of the country with only recently that the service sector is outperforming agricultural sector. The contribution of the industrial sector remained low relative even though recently it also started performing well.
Forests are one of the most valuable ecosystems in the world, containing over 60% of the world’s biodiversity. This ecosystem has multiple social economic values, apart from its intrinsic value. Forest provides a sustainable environment. Deforestation leads to the disappearance of sustainable development. Deforestation takes place due to multiple of reasons like logging, population growth, urbanization, grazing, construction of dams and reservoirs, habitat fragmentation, slash and burn method of farming, wildfire, global warming, hydroelectric projects. Agriculture is considered to be the backbone of the Ethiopian economy and almost 85% of the societies in Ethiopia engage in agriculture. The agricultural sector in Ethiopia in particular and in Africa, in general, is highly affected by deforestation directly and indirectly. Therefore, this paper focuses not only on the causes and consequences of deforestation but also seeks for better alternatives to tackle deforestation in Ethiopia
Agriculture and the exploitation of natural resources have transformed tropical mountain ecosystems across the world, and the consequences of these transformations for biodiversity and ecosystem functioning are largely unknown1–3. Conclusions that are derived from studies in non-mountainous areas are not suitable for predicting the effects of land-use changes on tropical mountains because the climatic environment rapidly changes with elevation, which may mitigate or amplify the effects of land use4,5. It is of key importance to understand how the interplay of climate and land use constrains biodiversity and ecosystem functions to determine the consequences of global change for mountain ecosystems. Here we show that the interacting effects of climate and land use reshape elevational trends in biodiversity and ecosystem functions on Africa’s largest mountain, Mount Kilimanjaro (Tanzania). We find that increasing land-use intensity causes larger losses of plant and animal species richness in the arid lowlands than in humid submontane and montane zones. Increases in land-use intensity are associated with significant changes in the composition of plant, animal and microorganism communities; stronger modifications of plant and animal communities occur in arid and humid ecosystems, respectively. Temperature, precipitation and land use jointly modulate soil properties, nutrient turnover, greenhouse gas emissions, plant biomass and productivity, as well as animal interactions. Our data suggest that the response of ecosystem functions to land-use intensity depends strongly on climate; more-severe changes in ecosystem functioning occur in the arid lowlands and the cold montane zone. Interactions between climate and land use explained—on average—54% of the variation in species richness, species composition and ecosystem functions, whereas only 30% of variation was related to single drivers. Our study reveals that climate can modulate the effects of land use on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, and points to a lowered resistance of ecosystems in climatically challenging environments to ongoing land-use changes in tropical mountainous regions.
Restoration by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) provides a critical analysis of the state of knowledge regarding the importance, drivers, status, and trends of terrestrial ecosystems. The Report recognizes that combatting land degradation, which is a pervasive, systemic
phenomenon occurring in all parts of the world, is an urgent priority in order to protect the biodiversity and ecosystem services that are vital to all life on Earth and to ensure human well-being. The Report identifies a mix of governance options, policies and management practices that can help support stakeholders working at all levels to reduce the
negative environmental, social and economic consequences of land degradation and to rehabilitate and restore degraded land. The Report encompasses all the terrestrial regions
and biomes of the world, recognizing that land degradation drivers and processes can vary in severity within regions and countries as much as between them, and includes
the full range of human-altered systems, including but not limited to drylands, agricultural and agroforestry systems, savannahs and forests and aquatic systems associated with
these areas.
The Summary for Policymakers of this Assessment Report was approved by the sixth session of the Plenary of IPBES (Medellín, Colombia, 18-24 March 2018) and is included in this report. The chapters and their executive summaries were accepted at this same Plenary session. The chapters are available as document IPBES/6/INF/1/Rev.1 (www.ipbes.net).
The pace of change in land use and cover in Ethiopia depends on three main factors that cause pressure on agriculture land: resettlement programmes, population growth and increasing agricultural investments. Gambella is one of the regions of Ethiopia that attracts large-scale agricultural investments that extensively drive land use and cover changes in the region. The aim of this study is to examine the rate, extent and distribution of various land use and cover changes in Gambella Regional State, Ethiopia, from 1987 to 2017. The analysis is mainly based on Landsat 5 and Sentinel 2A satellite images and fieldwork. Two Landsat Thematic Mapper and a Sentinel 2A image were used for determining the maximum likelihood of land use/cover classification. The results show that farmland decreased by 26 km² from 1987 to 2000; however, during the last two decades, agricultural land area increased by 599 km², mainly at the cost of tropical grasslands and forests. We found that areas cultivated by smallholder farmers increased by 9.17% from 1987 to 2000. However, small-scale farm activities decreased by 7% from 2000 to 2017. Areas cultivated by large-scale state farms totalled 202 km² in 1987; but by 2000, this large-scale state farming had been completely abandoned by the state, and as a result, its land use has decreased to zero. Despite this, in 2017 large-scale farming increased to 746 km². In addition, Gambella National Park, which is the nation's largest national park and ecosystem, was also largely affected by Land Use and Land Cover changes. The conversion of savannah/tropical grasslands to agricultural farmland has caused varied and extensive environmental degradation to the park. The Land Use and Land Cover changes in the Gambella region are discussed on the basis of underlying socioeconomic factors.
The LandTrendr (LT) algorithm has been used widely for analysis of change in Landsat spectral time series data, but requires significant pre-processing, data management, and computational resources, and is only accessible to the community in a proprietary programming language (IDL). Here, we introduce LT for the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform. The GEE platform simplifies pre-processing steps, allowing focus on the translation of the core temporal segmentation algorithm. Temporal segmentation involved a series of repeated random access calls to each pixel’s time series, resulting in a set of breakpoints (“vertices”) that bound straight-line segments. The translation of the algorithm into GEE included both transliteration and code analysis, resulting in improvement and logic error fixes. At six study areas representing diverse land cover types across the U.S., we conducted a direct comparison of the new LT-GEE code against the heritage code (LT-IDL). The algorithms agreed in most cases, and where disagreements occurred, they were largely attributable to logic error fixes in the code translation process. The practical impact of these changes is minimal, as shown by an example of forest disturbance mapping. We conclude that the LT-GEE algorithm represents a faithful translation of the LT code into a platform easily accessible by the broader user community.
Recent decades have witnessed a considerable increase in Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES)—programmes that exchange value for land management practices intended to provide or ensure ecosystem services—with over 550 active programmes around the globe and an estimated US$36–42 billion in annual transactions. PES represent a recent policy instrument with often very different programmes operating at local, regional and national levels. Despite the growth of these programmes, comprehensive and reliable data have proven difficult to find. This Analysis provides an assessment of the trends and current status of PES mechanisms—user-financed, government-financed and compliance—across the domains of water, biodiversity, and forest and land-use carbon around the world. We report the various dimensions of growth over the past decade (number of programmes, geographical spread, dollar value) to understand better the range of PES mechanisms over time and to examine which factors have contributed to or hindered growth. Four key features stand out for scaling up PES: motivated buyers, motivated sellers, metrics and low-transaction-cost institutions. A unique dataset of over 550 programmes of Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) worldwide, grouped into water, forest- and land-use carbon, and biodiversity programmes, is used to assess the trends and the current status of such policy instruments.
Changes in land use and land cover (LULC) can have profound effects on terrestrial carbon dynamics, yet their effects on the global carbon budget remain uncertain. While land change impacts on ecosystem carbon dynamics have been the focus of numerous studies, few efforts have been based on observational data incorporating multiple ecosystem types spanning large geographic areas over long time horizons. In this study we use a variety of synoptic-scale remote sensing data to estimate the effect of LULC changes associated with urbanization, agricultural expansion and contraction, forest harvest, and wildfire on the carbon balance of terrestrial ecosystems (forest, grasslands, shrublands, and agriculture) in the conterminous United States (i.e. excluding Alaska and Hawaii) between 1973 and 2010. We estimate large net declines in the area of agriculture and forest, along with relatively small increases in grasslands and shrublands. The largest net change in any class was an estimated gain of 114 865 km² of developed lands, an average rate of 3282 km² yr⁻¹. On average, US ecosystems sequestered carbon at an annual rate of 254 Tg C yr⁻¹. In forest lands, the net sink declined by 35% over the study period, largely a result of land-use legacy, increasing disturbances, and reductions in forest area due to land use conversion. Uncertainty in LULC change data contributed to a ~16% margin of error in the annual carbon sink estimate prior to 1985 (approximately ±40 Tg C yr⁻¹). Improvements in LULC and disturbance mapping starting in the mid-1980s reduced this uncertainty by ~50% after 1985. We conclude that changes in LULC are a critical component to understanding ecosystem carbon dynamics, and continued improvements in detection, quantification, and attribution of change have the potential to significantly reduce current uncertainties.
Across Africa, vast areas of nonforest are threatened by inappropriate restoration in the form of tree planting
The Caatinga biome is the largest and wettest semi-arid environment globally, occupying 10% of the Brazilian territory. Half of the original vegetation from the Caatinga has already been deforested. This research aims to identify the factors associated with Caatinga deforestation (2010–2016). Therefore, the researchers used Geographically Weighted Regression to analyse the drivers of deforestation at the municipal level. Our results showed that five factors are crucial for understanding the spatial variability of deforestation in the Caatinga biome: agricultural credit, cattle, goats, distance from roads, and mining activities. The results were interpreted carefully since the semi-arid Biome is marked by regional asymmetries, mixing subsistence agriculture with agribusiness (MATOPIBA and Vale do Rio São Francisco). The outcome maps allow us to discuss the implication of spatial arrangements and intervention policies towards sustainability.
Changes in land use intensity and types can affect the structure and function of ecosystems, and thus ecosystem services (ESs) as well as their interactions. However, the impacts of changes in land use intensity on ESs remain poorly understood. Through four different land use scenarios, we distinguished the independent contribution of changes in agricultural land use intensity and types to grain production (GP), water purification (WP), and their trade-offs in the Dongting Lake Basin. The results showed that from 1990 to 2015, GP increased across 58.07% of the total area, but WP decreased across 64.81% of the study area. The two ESs simultaneously increased or decreased across 41.93% of the total area. Watersheds covering 48.72% of the study area where GP increased and WP decreased were mainly distributed in areas with increased land use intensity. The other regions where GP decreased and WP increased were mainly distributed in areas with decreased land use intensity. The scenario analysis of GP, WP, and their trade-offs showed that the areas where agricultural land use intensity was the dominant factor were as large as 1.95 times, 2.38 times, and 2.43 times those dominated by land use type respectively, under the same climate conditions. This study highlighted the importance of changes in agricultural land use intensity on ES, which provided further supporting to ES-based land use management.
The Desa'a forest in Tigray is a national forest priority area managed by the government. Government authorities grant access to local communities as the forest is the source of income for many households. To allow the forest provide such economic needs and ecological functions, its sustainability needs to be ensured. We studied the effect of a demand-relevant economic attribute and two policy–relevant ecological attributes to examine preference for alternative forest management mechanisms. We find positive preference for the supply of forest products and soil and water conservation. Marginal WTP is higher for the most sustainable levels, indicating households' preference to forest management mechanisms that ensure supply of forest products for longer periods and significantly reduce soil erosion and water loss. On the other hand, observed heterogeneity implies differences in preferences and tradeoffs between economic benefits (forest products) and ecological improvements (soil and water conservation). Overall, the positive preference for these important attributes emanates both from realizations of economic benefits and ecological services from the forest, suggesting the importance of incorporating such competing preferences (interests and needs) in forest management plans.
In the management of forest ecosystems, spatial information about the extent, condition and pressures are essential. In the current study, we present a framework for a remote sensing-based forest ecological base map covering Norway. Combining remotely sensed imagery from optical satellite systems such as Sentinel-2 and Landsat provides information about forest ecosystem extent and change over time. Utilizing a national dataset of airborne laser scanning (ALS) data allowed predicting a range of attributes describing forest condition, including naturalness. In total, seven definitions of naturalness were evaluated. Pressures on the forest ecosystems were mapped using a change detection algorithm and satellite data from 1986 to 2020. Change detection is the cornerstone in monitoring and for understanding the pressures on the ecosystems. The predicted forest extent had an overall accuracy of 85 to 89% using Sentinel-2 imagery from 2020 and 71 to 81% using Landsat imagery from 1986. For the forest condition attributes, the explained portion of the variances were >70% for biomass, height and volume and from 21% to 64% for number of stems, crown coverage and a diversity index. Naturalness was classified with accuracies of 77 to 98%, except for age-based definitions. Nevertheless, a large number of false positives were present. Change detection was evaluated in terms of final harvest and was identified with an overall accuracy of 84–92%. The land cover change classification had an overall accuracy of 70–92%. The detailed maps of forest condition and forest pressures were aggregated to a local level using model-based inference, providing estimates of mean values and uncertainty at a scale suitable for ecosystem indicator development. The collection of map layers describing forest extent, condition and pressures form a forest ecological base map important for environmental management.
As an important domain of sustainability science, trade-offs in ecosystem services (ES) is crucial for spatial planning to sustainably manage natural resources while satisfying the needs of local and non-local beneficiaries. However, there is still a growing debate in understanding, characterization, and visualization of the trade-off relationships. This paper systematically reviews a total of 473 articles, published in the last 16 years (2005–2020) through 135 academic journals, based on empirical studies conducted in over 80 countries, and led by the researcher from over 50 countries. Trade-off relationships are often visualized as spatial associations of ES, but very few articles have characterized trade-offs as the causal interaction among ES. More than two-thirds of the studies were carried out in temperate and sub-tropical regions, but we depicted an under-representation of the critical ecosystems in tropics. About 90% of the articles were based on funded research but the involvement of government institutions was very low (<10%). Trade-off analysis was based only on biophysical constraints of the ecosystem, as observed in more than 80% of the selected articles, without due regards of the divergence in utility functions of different stakeholders and ecosystem beneficiaries. This study identifies a total of 198 pairs of conflicting ES, of which the trade-off between crop production and carbon/climate services has the highest records of observation (i.e., as identified by 20% of the total studies). Further, this study identifies the major drivers (i.e., ecological and social) and stakeholders (i.e., land users and government agencies) of trade-off in ES, and major gaps in the analytical approach to understand the trade-off relationships. Based on our findings, we have discussed and recommended a number of research trajectories, including trans-disciplinary research considering both biophysical constraints and utility functions, in order to guide the future direction of sustainability science through the creation of win-win scenarios.
This study explored local communities’ willingness to accept compensation for the conservation of Desa’a state forest, which is located in northern Ethiopia. For this purpose, a sample of two hundred forty rural households living around the forest was randomly selected. A choice experiment approach encompassing three forest-related choice attributes namely, biodiversity, soil and water conservation and agro-forestry, was used to elicit willingness to accept compensation for conservation of the forest. Mixed logit model that helps account for differences in household preferences was then used to estimate marginal willingness to accept compensation for forest conservation. Results show that households would be willing to accept an average compensation of 7.7 USD to work for 5–10 additional days of public work on soil and water conservation as part of contributing to Desa’a forest conservation. On the other hand, households’ preferences to work on biodiversity conservation and agroforestry expansion were found to be negligible as the respective marginal willingness to accept estimates show. Given costs that the government of Ethiopia incurs for environmental rehabilitation programs through soil and water conservation, strengthening such investments in and around forestlands could prove useful in creating incentives for households to sustainably conserve and use forests.
Expansive native species have the same ecological and economic consequences as invasive alien species through the reduction of ecosystem goods and services. We assessed human disturbance and environmental factors that are contributing to the expansion of two expansive shrubs, Cadia purpurea and Tarchonanthus camphoratus in Desa’a dry Afromontane forest, northern Ethiopia. We also evaluated their expansion effect on plant species composition, diversity, structure, and regeneration, and herbaceous cover. The forest was stratified into “invaded” and “uninvaded” based on percentage coverage of the two shrubs. Vegetation data were collected from each stratum using 75 nested plots per strata of 20m × 20m, 5m × 5m, and 1m × 1m for adult tree/shrub, sapling, and seedling, respectively. Moreover, data on environmental and human disturbance variables were collected from the main plots. We found that higher cover of the expansive shrubs was related to both human disturbance and environmental variables while some were species-specific. Species richness and diversity of plant species decreased significantly with an increase in abundance of the expansive shrubs. However, evenness did not change significantly with an increase in the abundance of the expansive shrubs. The density, mean diameter, mean height, and mean basal area of the plants decreased significantly with an increase with the cover of the shrubs. The expansive shrubs had a significant negative impact on regeneration and herbaceous cover. This study shows a distinctive variation in floristic composition, diversity, and regeneration status between the invaded and uninvaded communities, which suggests the need to be counteracted by management measures. Converting the underutilized expansive species into use as part of the management option should be given urge attention before it loses its ecological resilience.
Sustainable development is a part of every recent global agenda; the world has been trying to establish a more sustainable path and various goals and targets have been set to achieve this. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), introduced by the United Nations in 2015, aim to tackle economic, social and environmental issues that plague the world and to promote the concept of sustainability. This paper provides a comprehensive literature review regarding each SDG, the problem that each one addresses and why it is important to tackle it. Recent data regarding various targets are provided and compared to previous years, while a trend analysis is carried out to evaluate global progress and in different world regions. Based on UN estimations, an evaluation is extracted of each SDG’s progress and those areas where attention is needed are identified. These assessments reveal that economy-related targets, such as targets included in the 8th SDG (decent work and economic growth), the 9th (industry, innovation and infrastructure) and 12th SDG (responsible consumption and production) are close to being achieved, while acceleration is needed in order to achieve targets and goals regarding education (4th SDG), cities and communities’ sustainability (11th SDG) and in particular climate change (13th SDG).
Understanding the dynamic of land use/land cover (LULC) can assist relevant authorities in implementing them along with management options for natural forests like Desa'a forest in Northern Ethiopia. It is worth mentioning that no comprehensive study has been done so far on the overall change of LULC within the surrounding of Desa'a forest areas. This study aimed at analyzing the LULC changes and driving factors in Desa'a forest through Landsat images (i.e., 1973 (MSS), 1986 (TM), and 2015 (OLI)) and maximum likelihood supervised classification. Post classification pixel to pixel comparison was also performed to detect changes from year to year. Finally, focus group discussions were made to identify the LULC change drivers and support the accuracy of the computer-based classification. Results demonstrated that both dense (54.11%) and open forest (28.48%) in 1973 covered almost 83% of the total forest area while only 17% was covered by grasslands (10%), farmland (3%), and bare land (4%). This is despite the fact that woody vegetation covered only 39% of the total forest reserve in 2015. During the study period, almost 54,000 ha of grasslands and open and dense forests have been converted to either bare land or farmland, of which 48,163 ha were previously open dense forests. Continuing with such a trend will lead to more severe deforestation and it is necessary to identify and modify the driving variables in Desa'a forest. The results also showed that fire, agricultural expansion, grazing and browsing effect, drought, extraction of wood, and lack of government attention are the major deforestation driver in Desa'a forest. The results of this study can provide a practical perspective for land use planners to manage LULC changes, reduce greenhouse gases, and enhance the biodiversity conservation in the region. In addition, the findings of the current study could provide a perfect source for calculations and choosing the best policy-making decisions to protect and manage plans for Desa'a forest.
Determining what factors affect the relationship between ecosystem services (benefits people derive from ecosystems) and how the impact distributed, is conducive to strengthening ecological governance and improving the sustainable development of the ecological environment. However, previous studies remained difficulties in directly regressing with potential impact factors after spatializing the relationship between ecosystem services (ESs) and neglected the impact of urbanization. Therefore, we asked the following: (i) Whether the relationship between ecosystem services is spatially heterogeneous? (ii) Whether the relationship between ecosystem services is only related to the natural environment or is also affected by urbanization? (iii) Are the correlations between such relationship and latent influencing factors consistent in space? In this study, we mapped the relationships between four ESs (grain productivity, carbon storage, outdoor recreation, and biodiversity conservation), and analyzed the spatial correlation between such relationships and ecological factors and urbanization factors, using geographically weighted logical regression (GWLR). The relationship between ESs is spatially heterogeneous, and a refined mechanism for the relationship between ESs was proposed in this study to explain it. The occurrence of the synergy and tradeoff between ESs is not only related to the natural environment but also affected by urbanization, that the relationships are robustly correlated to landform factor, meteorological factors, and urbanization factors; and the properties and intensity of the correlations varied with space. This study allows generalization, that the data, models, and software used in this study are universal in the field; the relevant factors selected in this study are also universal and meaningful in other study areas; research in other regions or larger scale regions can refer to the method and mechanism proposed in this study.
Urban development and human activities threaten ecosystem structures and ecological processes. Since 1995, the gross domestic product (GDP) of the Pearl River Delta (PRD) has increased by more than thirteen fold. However, our understanding of how the ecosystem service value (ESV) has responded to land-use/cover changes (LUCC) in the PRD remains limited. In this paper, we use a multi-source data approach to assess the patterns of ESV in the PRD from 1995 to 2015. The hot/cool-spot mapping method is used to analyse the spatial differences in ESV at a 1 km scale. The results revealed the following: (a) the proportion of increase in built-up land area is 6.3% in the PRD; this change occurred mainly through the occupation of farmland and forest land. (b) The area of hot spots increased from 37% in 1995 to 41% in 2015, while the area of cool spots increased from 34.6% to 36.3%. The ESV hot spots are mainly distributed in Zhaoqing and Huizhou. (c) The ESV has changed due to a combination of natural and anthropogenic factors in the PRD. Furthermore, corresponding management measures are identified according to the results of the exploratory spatial data analysis. The findings of this study have practical significance for establishing mathematical models to reveal the patterns of ESV in urban agglomerations.
Biodiversity is essential to healthy ecosystem function, influencing productivity and resilience to disturbance. Biodiversity loss endangers essential ecosystem services and risks unacceptable environmental consequences. Global biodiversity observations are needed to provide a better understanding of the distribution of biodiversity, to better identify high priority areas for conservation and to help maintain essential ecosystem goods and services. Traditional in situ biodiversity monitoring is limited in time and space and is usually a costly and time-consuming enterprise. Remote sensing can provide data over a large area in a consistent, objective manner and has been used to detect plant biodiversity in a range of ecosystems, typically based on relating spectral properties to the distribution of habitat, species or functional groups. Recent years have witnessed the emergence of methods using imaging spectroscopy to assess biodiversity via plant traits or spectral information content. However, questions regarding the complex drivers of plant optical properties and the scale dependence of spectral diversity – biodiversity relationship confound diversity monitoring using remote sensing and must first be better understood before these methods can be operationally applied. To address some of these topics, we (1) review the history of remote sensing approaches in biodiversity estimation, summarizing the pros and cons of different methods, (2) illustrate successes and major gaps of remote sensing of biodiversity, and (3) identify promising future directions. We focus on emerging methods using spectral diversity (optical diversity) as a proxy for terrestrial plant diversity that offer to revolutionize the study of diversity in its different dimensions (phylogenetic, taxonomic, and functional diversity) from remote sensing. We also discuss remaining knowledge gaps and ways spectral diversity might be effectively integrated into a global biodiversity monitoring system, bridging a gap between ecology and remote sensing.
Positive (synergistic) and negative (trade-off) relationships among ecosystem services are influenced by drivers of change, such as policy interventions and environmental variability, and the mechanisms that link these drivers to ecosystem service outcomes. Failure to account for these drivers and mechanisms can result in poorly informed management decisions and reduced ecosystem service provision. Here, we review the literature to determine the extent to which drivers and mechanisms are considered in assessments of ecosystem service relationships. We show that only 19% of assessments explicitly identify the drivers and mechanisms that lead to ecosystem service relationships. While the proportion of assessments considering drivers has increased over time, most of these studies only implicitly consider the drivers of ecosystem service relationships. We recommend more assessments explicitly identify drivers of trade-offs and synergies, which can be achieved through a greater uptake of causal inference and process-based models, to ensure effective management of ecosystem services.