Ecosystem Services - Science topic

Native forests are considered to be the main centers of terrestrial diversity in the world and they provide important ecosystem services for humanity. Unsustainable logging is currently-one of the greatest threats to the biodiversity of these forests. In northwestern Argentina, about 90 % of the piedmont forest in the Southern Yungas has been trans...

Understanding and Conserving Marine Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services; MDPI Sustainability

Wildfires usually increase the hydrological and erosive response of forest areas, carrying high environmental, human, cultural, and financial on-and off-site effects. Post-fire soil erosion control measures have been proven effective at mitigating such responses, especially at the slope scale, but there is a knowledge gap as to how cost-effective t...

A group of researchers participating in the SERENA project of the EJP Soil program conducted a meta-analysis to study the methods used in existing prospective studies focusing on six soil ES (e.g. biomass production, habitat for biodiversity, hydrological control, environmental pollution control, greenhouse gas and climate regulation, pest and dise...

This study examines the participation of minors in fishing activities in the communities settled in the mangroves of the Gulf of Fonseca, in Honduras. With a survey of 88 fishermen from San Lorenzo (in the province of Valle), we describe the perception of adults regarding the involvement of minors in fishing and we examine the threats to the mangro...

Modelling and mapping water-related ecosystem services (ES) are getting more important in the scientific community and decision making contexts. Especially straightforward, easy to operate ES model suites that are based on Land Use / Land Cover (LULC) data have gained popularity in the scientific realm, including but not limited to the InVEST Model...

Soil compaction of agricultural systems due to the passage of heavy machinery persistently impairs the soil physical, hydrological, and biogeochemical functioning. Despite the existence of numerous studies on the influence of compaction on soil and plant characteristics, we lack studies translating such impacts into soil-related ecosystem services....

The long-term provision of ocean ecosystem services de- pends on healthy ecosystems and effective sustainable man- agement. Understanding public opinion about marine and coastal ecosystems is important to guide decision-making and inform specific actions. However, available data on pub- lic perceptions on the interlinked effects of climate change,...

Mediterranean wetlands provide many ecosystem services to humans and other organisms. However, these services are being increasingly damaged. The prioritization of ecosystem services is essential to start a decision-making process focused on environmental policies, highlighting the necessity of equilibrium between sustainability and human well-bein...

Abandoned, lost, and discarded fishing gear (ALDFG) is claimed to be a global problem with impacts on marine animals and ecosystems, posing considerable ecological and socioeconomic challenges. Nonetheless, insufficient understanding regarding how marine ecosystem services are affected by ALDFG creates a knowledge gap that challenges a holistic est...

Nature-based solutions (NBS) are gaining relevance as sustainable urban actions because of their potential to provide multiple benefits in the form of ecosystem services (ES), and thus mitigate urban challenges. This paper presents an original semi-dynamic modelling framework that simultaneously considers i) ES supply and demand dynamics, ii) negat...

Recreational activity is the single most valuable ecosystem service in many developed countries with a range of benefits for public health. Crowdsourced recreational activity data is increasingly being adopted in management and monitoring of urban landscapes, however inherent biases in the data make it difficult to generalize patterns to the total...

Biodiversity underpins ecosystem functions that provide benefits to people, yet the role of rare and endangered species (RES) in supporting ecosystem services is unclear. Thus, it remains controversial whether arguments for conservation that focus on ecosystem services align with the protection of RES. We designed a systematic review protocol to cr...

Understanding the multiple benefits (i.e. Ecosystem Services, ES) that marine habitats provide to society is key for adequate decision-making that maintains our well-being in the long-term. The main objective of this research was to map and assess, in the context of marine spatial planning, the ES supply of shallow and deep-sea habitats in the Cana...

This research aimed to analyze the land-use dynamics in the Brazilian Central-West region for major agricultural commodities and grassland areas, where an important agricultural frontier is located, and whose use puts pressure on the Amazon and Cerrado biomes. The shift-share model was applied to estimate the sources of growth in agriculture and li...

In Europe, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) encouraged the specialisation of agriculture and forestry systems by supporting schemes that promoted productivity, despite the socio-ecological changes' detrimental effects on ecosystem services and biodiversity. In the case of mountain viticulture of southern Europe, the adoption of intensive manage...

Fast-growing tree species, including Eucalyptus sp. and Acacia sp., are widely used to rehabilitate degraded tropical forestland quickly, while mitigating climate change. However, the extent of carbon losses through soil respiration (R S) often remains unknown. Moreover, the promotion of these non-native species has raised concerns over their impac...

Planted forests in South China are necessary for producing and supplying timber in China. However, the plantations in this region have several problems, such as the high proportion of young forest, non-native species, monoculture of elite clones, and short-cycle continuous planting, which result in low productivity of plantation, low woodland outpu...

The basic approaches to comprehension of economic nature and the subject content of the process of market transformation of natural ecosystem into nature-economy in the course of which there is a disturbing system of the formed geobiocenosis, human intrusion which creates artificial nature-ecosystem, which needs constant poly-resource support, are...

Most ecosystem services contribute a lot to human welfare; however, these services are often undervalued because their economic value is not well known. Therefore, accounting for the value of these services can help in making decisions that enable efficient use of environmental resources. This study investigates the economic valuation of recreation...

Regenerative agriculture has recently attracted much attentiondue to its ability to provide a wide range of advantages to producers and the environment, (Schreefel et al., 2020). With this type of farming, the goal is to improve the health of the soil and increase its ability to support natural functions like animal habitat, water filtration, and f...

In late 2021, a range of experts from around the world were approached to provide expert input to the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF)–the new strategic framework under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) that will guide interventions to conserve biodiversity and ecosystem services for the next three decades. In this opinion...

he ecosystem services framework can usefully complement biodiversity assessments in developing socially robust nature conservation strategies in protected areas and beyond. However, there is still little research, especially in Eastern Europe, which links biodiversity assessment and nature related values to the deeper social-economic dynamics and a...

Protected areas are a key tool for conserving biodiversity, sustaining ecosystem services and improving human well-being. Global initiatives that aim to expand and connect protected areas generally focus on controlling ‘above ground’ impacts such as land use, overlooking the potential for human actions in adjacent areas to affect protected areas th...

Termites are the major ecosystem service providers and contribute significantly to soil processes and nutrient cycling in tropical ecosystems. The ecological services provided by termites are often discredited due to their commonly-regarded status as pest in human-dominated landscapes, however. In order to understand the potential roles of termites...

Tidal marshes are important sites of silicon (Si) transformation, where dissolved Si (DSi) taken up by macrophytic vegetation and algal species is converted to biogenic silica (BSi), which can accumulate in the soil, be recycled within the marsh, or be exported to adjacent coastal waters. The role of restored and created tidal marshes in these proc...

A mathematical modelbased approach to assessing water pollution through the ecodynamics of freshwater zooplankton community and remediation strategies

Political discourse around coastal wetland restoration and blue carbon management strategies has increased in the past decade, yet carbon storage has neither been a reason for restoration, nor a criterion to measure the success of current saltmarsh restoration schemes in the UK. To maximise climate change mitigation through saltmarsh restoration, k...

Land use demand change in the Huaihe River basin (HRB) and ecosystem service values (ESVs) in watersheds are important for the sustainable development and use of land resources. This paper takes the HRB as the research object, and using remote sensing images of land use as the data source adopts the comprehensive evaluation analysis method of ESVs...

Soil health degradation is major problem in the present agriculture system due to monoculture, intensive tillage and chemical inputs, which borne negative impact on natural resources and livelihood security. Agroforestry system is a technique where integration of woody perennials/ grass with agriculture crops has huge potential of reviving soil hea...

A recent report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) assessed how the sustainable use of wild species benefits people and nature, and which policies work best to prevent unsustainable exploitation. In the context of an accelerating and alarming biodiversity crisis, the assessment findings...

This Research for Development Brief (R4D) aimed to investigate the trade-offs and synergies between the rehabilitation of the marginal dryland ecosystem (uplands), a sustainable community-based resource management and the irrigated production system in the downstream Jordan Valley.

Wetlands are valuable urban resources and can provide various ecosystem services for cities. In order to face the continuous urbanization and market economy environment, relevant government-related management, decision-makers, and stakeholders can make objective and comprehensive value judgments and decide the fate of urban wetland resources. Our q...

Among the UNCCD SDGs 2030, there is the recognition that land consumption can strongly affect the provision of ecosystem services. From the perspective of land degradation neutrality, urban level is the right scale when planning actions against land consumption. The aims of this research are: (1) to assess land consumption at urban landscape scale...

Resumen& Abstract AKIS: Del conocimiento a la innovación en el sector agroalimentario Acelerar el proceso de innovación es uno de los retos clave para el desarrollo. Su aplicación al sector agroalimentario supone repensar todo el sistema de generación y circulación de conocimiento necesario para esa innovación. El enfoque de los Siste-mas de Conoc...

The sustainability of the mangrove ecosystem in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is an urgent need to conserve these natural treasures and their benefits and services. Two species of mangroves grow in the Kingdom: Avicennia marina and Rhizophora mucronata. This study aimed to evaluate the mangrove ecosystem in the Kingdom through a set of descriptive fr...

Invasive woodland pests have substantial ecological, economic, and social impacts, harming biodiversity and ecosystem services. Mathematical modelling informed by Bayesian inference can deepen our understanding of the fundamental behaviours of invasive pests and provide predictive tools for forecasting future spread. A key invasive pest of concern...

Biological control of pests is an important ecosystem service. This research aimed to explore the dynamic change of spider community in tea plantation ecosystem, and compare the predation efficiency of spiders with different species identities and foraging strategies to the green leafhopper pest, Empoasca vitis Gothe (Homoptera: Cicadellidae). This...

Recreational ecosystem services are crucial for human well-being, and nature-based recreational activities often support local economies. However, tourism is very often one of many threads that contribute to the environment, and, therefore, data regarding its spatial patterns are necessary for the long-term sustainable development of a region. The...

Reducing air pollution is a crucial challenge in urban areas. In this regard, urban green infrastructures could play a pivotal role. In the literature, scholars analyzed both the ability of species-specific and layout-specific green infrastructures to reduce air pollution and the best location sites of new green infrastructures to increase the prov...

Soil invertebrates play a key role in agrosystems as providers of several ecosystem services. In particular, they regulate fungal communities in soils and could contribute to mitigate the impact of phytopathogenic fungi overwintering in crop residues. In this study, we investigated the food preferences of Heteromurus nitidus (Col-lembola) between p...

A major obstacle to mapping Ecosystem Services (ES) and the application of the ES concept has been the inadequacy of data at the landscape level necessary for their quantification. This study takes advantage of free satellite imagery to map and provide relevant information regarding ES and contribute to the sustainable management of natural resourc...

Introduction Coastal detrital bottoms (CDB) are one of the most extensive habitats of the continental shelf worldwide, in the upper levels of the circalittoral zone. Hosting a diverse community structured by sediment grain size, trophic interactions and calcified organisms, CDB exhibit important ecological functions. In the Mediterranean Sea, CDB a...

Urban greenspaces support multiple nature-based services, many of which depend on the amount of soil carbon (C). Yet, the environmental drivers of soil C and its sensitivity to warming are still poorly understood globally. Here we use soil samples from 56 paired urban greenspaces and natural ecosystems worldwide and combine soil C concentration and...

The balance between the supply and demand of ecosystem services (ESs) is an important prerequisite for maintaining the sustainability of ecological protection and restoration project implementation. However, research related to ecological protection and restoration is insufficient for the study of the demand for ecosystem services. Many ecological...

Conducting long-term ecosystem service evolution research in mountain Karst areas from both horizontal and vertical scales can not only deepen the understanding of the development and evolution laws of the ecosystem in mountain Karst areas, but also has important significance for regional sustainable development. Based on the InVEST model, this pap...

The cloud forests of the Taita Hills are valuable refuges for numerous endemic and rare animal and plant species. They also provide various ecosystem services that support subsistence farming. Due to the large-scale destruction and conversion of these species-rich natural forests into subsistence agriculture and plantations of exotic tree species,...

Resettlement has been implemented in Ethiopia responding to drought, famine, political and socioeconomic issues mismatch of population and environmental conditions, and also coping with landscapes that could not sufficiently nurture their inhabitants. This review aimed to assess, identify and describe the causes and impacts of different rural reset...

Discussion of an ongoing review paper into the influence of different management practices on salt marsh ecosystem services

Water yield capacity assessment is critical for water management and ecosystem improvement. Using the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) model, we assessed the effects of land use changes and climate variability on annual water yield in the Dire and Legedadi watersheds. The model was run using meteorological data, lan...

Responses of grazing #households to different levels of #payments for ecosystem services https://tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/20964129.2022.2052762

The highly metal-contaminated Odiel-Tinto River basin, located in the Iberian Pyrite Belt (IPB), has been the focus of many environmental studies as a natural lab for biodiversity and environmentally catastrophic scenarios and as a reference site for mining places with similar conditions. This study demonstrates the feasibility and effectiveness of...

The limited access to urban green spaces during the COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on the human-nature interaction in cities and human well-being. Number of visitors to green areas, initially declined due to imposed restrictions, was restored after they were lifted as established by several studies across the globe However, little is still...

Non-native tree species-defined as those species intentionally or unintentionally introduced by humans-have long been a part of the Alpine Space, providing numerous benefits, but also posing a potential threat to native biodiversity and related ecosystem services. Compared to the urban space where non-native trees comprise most tree species, the nu...

Microorganisms are the primary engines of biogeochemical processes and foundational to the provisioning of ecosystem services to human society. Free‐living microbial communities (microbiomes) and their functioning are now known to be highly sensitive to environmental change. Given microorganisms' capacity for rapid evolution, evolutionary processes...

ContextIberian wood-pastures (dehesas) constitute important habitats for flower-visiting insects, thus supporting the delivery of essential ecosystem services. However, dehesas have been experiencing increasing degradation either by farming intensification or abandonment.Objectives We assess if alternative management strategies linked to ecological...

As the hot spot and key topic in landscape ecology, the construction of ecological security pattern strives to maintain the integrity of landscape patterns and the continuity of the ecological process, and achieve sustainable development of the region. Taking Hefei City in China as a study area, according to the basal ecological features of Hefei C...

We conducted a thorough and in-depth study during 2016 on the impact of tiger prawn seed collection on socioeconomic and biodiversity profiles of Indian Sundarbans considering Patharpratima as a model site. Our first order analysis reflects an adverse impact of this profession on both these sectors and calls urgently for developing few alternative...

The mangrove ecosystem of Indian Sundarbans in the lower Gangetic delta region sustains a number of mangrove associate floral species whose ecosystem services have not been properly evaluated. We present here few ecosystem services of Porteresia coarctata and Ipomoea pes-caprae in the sphere of environment upgradation and alternative livelihood. Re...

The ecosystem services (ES) framework has been proposed as an alternative to face the multiple challenges presented by biodiversity conservation, but the spatial conservation priorities of ES have been found to show low concordance levels with areas of high importance for biodiversity, which can lead to conflict during reserve design. To address th...

Ecosystems in rural areas play a crucial role in promoting human well-being and economic development by providing essential resources such as food, water, raw materials, and energy. Furthermore, rural ecosystems offer various services, such as recreational opportunities, climate regulation, biodiversity conservation, and environmental mitigation. H...

This thesis is under EU project ,VARCITIES , and still ongoing.

Ecosystem services are highly affected by human activities, especially in the fast-urbanizing regions. It is important that the regional development or urbanization strategy be implemented by maintaining or protecting the long-term provision ability of multiple ecosystem services. The spatial pattern of ecosystem services and zoning for spatial con...

Citation: Amer, A.; Franceschi, E.; Hjazin, A.; Shoqeir, J.H.; Moser-Reischl, A.; Rahman, M.A.; Tadros, M.; Pauleit, S.; Pretzsch, H.; Rötzer, T. Structure and Ecosystem Services of Three Common Urban Tree Species in an Arid Climate City. Forests 2023, 14, 671. https:// Abstract: Urban forests play a critical role in improving the quality of life i...