scholarly journals Worldwide impacts of past and projected future land-use change on local species richness and the Biodiversity Intactness Index

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samantha L.L. Hill ◽  
Ricardo Gonzalez ◽  
Katia Sanchez-Ortiz ◽  
Emma Caton ◽  
Felipe Espinoza ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Species Richness ◽  
Human Population ◽  
Climate Change Mitigation ◽  
Local Species Richness ◽  
The World ◽  
Local Species ◽  
Average Loss ◽  
Change Mitigation

AbstractAlthough people have modified the world around us throughout human history, the ‘Great Acceleration’ has seen drivers such as land conversion, exploitation of natural populations, species introductions, pollution and human-induced climate change placing biodiversity under increasing pressure. In this paper we examine 1) how terrestrial species communities have been impacted over the last thousand years of human development and 2) how plausible futures defined by alternative socio-economic scenarios are expected to impact species communities in the future. We use the PREDICTS (Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems) database to model impacts of land-use change and human population on local species richness, community abundance, and biodiversity intactness using a mixed-effects modelling structure. Historical impacts are inferred through projection of model results onto maps of historical land use, provided by the land-use harmonization project, and gridded human population density (HYDE 3.1). Future impacts are explored using the Shared Socio-economic Pathway (SSP) scenarios. These scenarios detail five plausible global futures based upon socio-economic factors such as wealth, population, education, technology, and reliance on fossil fuels, and can be combined with Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) scenarios to consider climate mitigation strategies. We project model results onto the gridded outputs of six SSP/RCP scenario combinations: SSP1/RCP2.6, SSP2/RCP4.5, SSP3/RCP7.0, SSP4/RCP3.4, SSP4/RCP6.0, and SSP5/RCP8.5. Historical trend lines show that most losses in local biodiversity are relatively recent, with 75% of all loss in both abundance-based Biodiversity Intactness Index and species richness occurring post-1800. Stark regional differences emerge in all future scenarios, with biodiversity in African regions undergoing greater losses than Oceania, North America and the European regions. Although climate change is expected to have severe detrimental impacts to biodiversity – which are not quantified in these results – it is important to consider how the climate change mitigation itself may also impact biodiversity. Our results suggest that strong climate change mitigation through biofuel production will detrimentally impact biodiversity: SSP4/RCP3.4 (with high biofuel mitigation) is predicted to see two times the decrease in abundance-based biodiversity intactness and three times the decrease in local species richness between 2015–2100 as is predicted for SSP4/RCP6.0 (with lower levels of mitigation). SSP4/RCP3.4 forecasts the greatest impact to average local species richness of all the SSP/RCP combinations with an average loss of 13% of local species richness projected to have occurred by 2100. SSP3/RCP7.0 – a scenario describing a globally segregated, and economically protectionist future with low climate change mitigation – has the worst impacts on abundance-based biodiversity intactness with an average loss of 26% of intactness by 2100. However, a brighter future is possible; SSP1/RCP2.6 describes a more sustainable future, where human populations are provided for without further jeopardising environmental integrity – in this scenario we project that biodiversity will recover somewhat, with gains in biodiversity intactness and species richness in many regions of the world by 2100.

scholarly journals Soil Carbon Modelling in Salix Biomass Plantations: Variety Determines Carbon Sequestration and Climate Impacts

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 1529
Author(s):  
Saurav Kalita ◽  
Hanna Karlsson Potter ◽  
Martin Weih ◽  
Christel Baum ◽  
Åke Nordberg ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Carbon Sequestration ◽  
Climate Change Mitigation ◽  
Biomass Yield ◽  
Climate Impacts ◽  
Carbon Modelling ◽  
Sequestration Potential ◽  
Determining Factor ◽  
Change Mitigation

Short-rotation coppice (SRC) Salix plantations have the potential to provide fast-growing biomass feedstock with significant soil and climate mitigation benefits. Salix varieties exhibit significant variation in their physiological traits, growth patterns and soil ecology—but the effects of these variations have rarely been studied from a systems perspective. This study analyses the influence of variety on soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics and climate impacts from Salix cultivation for heat production for a Swedish site with specific conditions. Soil carbon modelling was combined with a life cycle assessment (LCA) approach to quantify SOC sequestration and climate impacts over a 50-year period. The analysis used data from a Swedish field trial of six Salix varieties grown under fertilized and unfertilized treatments on Vertic Cambisols during 2001–2018. The Salix systems were compared with a reference case where heat is produced from natural gas and green fallow was the land use alternative. Climate impacts were determined using time-dependent LCA methodology—on a land-use (per hectare) and delivered energy unit (per MJheat) basis. All Salix varieties and treatments increased SOC, but the magnitude depended on the variety. Fertilization led to lower carbon sequestration than the equivalent unfertilized case. There was no clear relationship between biomass yield and SOC increase. In comparison with reference cases, all Salix varieties had significant potential for climate change mitigation. From a land-use perspective, high yield was the most important determining factor, followed by SOC sequestration, therefore high-yielding fertilized varieties such as ‘Tordis’, ‘Tora’ and ‘Björn’ performed best. On an energy-delivered basis, SOC sequestration potential was the determining factor for the climate change mitigation effect, with unfertilized ‘Jorr’ and ‘Loden’ outperforming the other varieties. These results show that Salix variety has a strong influence on SOC sequestration potential, biomass yield, growth pattern, response to fertilization and, ultimately, climate impact.

scholarly journals The Conditional Sink: Counterfactual Display in the Valuation of a Carbon Offsetting Reforestation Project

2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Véra Ehrenstein ◽  
Fabian Muniesa
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Change Mitigation ◽  
Possible Worlds ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Democratic Republic Of Congo ◽  
Carbon Offsetting ◽  
The World ◽  
Prospective Assessment ◽  
Change Mitigation

This paper examines counterfactual display in the valuation of carbon offsetting projects. Considered a legitimate way to encourage climate change mitigation, such projects rely on the establishment of procedures for the prospective assessment of their capacity to become carbon sinks. This requires imagining possible worlds and assessing their plausibility. The world inhabited by the project is articulated through conditional formulation and subjected to what we call “counterfactual display”: the production and circulation of documents that demonstrate and con!gure the counterfactual valuation. We present a case study on one carbon offsetting reforestation project in the Democratic Republic of Congo. We analyse the construction of the scene that allows the “What would have happened” question to make sense and become actionable. We highlight the operations of calculative framing that this requires, the reality constraints it relies upon, and the entrepreneurial conduct it stimulates.

scholarly journals Contrasting the Effect of Forest Landscape Condition to the Resilience of Species Diversity in a Human Modified Landscape: Implications for the Conservation of Tree Species

Land ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mulugheta Ghebreslassie Araia ◽  
Paxie Wanangwa Chirwa ◽  
Eméline Sêssi Pélagie Assédé
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Species Richness ◽  
Species Diversity ◽  
Conservation Strategy ◽  
Forest Landscape ◽  
Leading Change ◽  
Forest Reserve ◽  
Local Species Richness ◽  
Β Diversity ◽  
Local Species

Using landscape moderation insurance and Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis (IDH) as frameworks, this study assessed the response of local assemblage among different land use regimes (mean β-diversity), using the Jaccard dissimilarity matrix in contrasting Human Modified Forest Landscapes (HMFLs). The study was conducted at the relatively simplified Mafhela Forest Reserve and the complex Thathe Vondo Forest Reserve in South Africa. The patterns of overall β-diversity between HMFL and State-protected Indigenous Forests (SIF) were compared and the leading change drivers were then untangled. This study found that human disturbance affects mean β-diversity of local assemblages among land use regimes between the two HMFLs in an ecologically contrasting manner. The HMFL in Mafhela Forest Reserve had distinct local assemblages among land use regimes and did not conform to the expectation of IDH. On average, HMFL had the same average local species richness as SIF, mainly due to change in species composition (species replacement) induced by land use disturbance. Land use intensity gradient was the leading change driver to explain the overall β-diversity of the Mafhela Forest Reserve. The findings in the Thathe Vondo Forest Reserve were in contrast with the Mafhela Forest Reserve. Although on average the HMFL had the same local species richness as SIFs, this was mainly due to a trade-off of species gain in trees along the rivers and streams and species loss in Culturally Protected Areas (sacred forests) (CPA) as expected by IDH. The contrasting findings imply that the effectiveness of any alternative conservation strategy is context-dependent. The resilience of local assemblages and conservation value of HMFL depends on the condition of the overall forest landscape complexity and cannnot be captured by one theory, nor by one species diversity matrix (e.g., β-diversity or Richness). It thus demands the application of complementary theoretical frameworks and multilevel modeling.

scholarly journals The Land Use and Cover Change in Miombo Woodlands under Community Based Forest Management and Its Implication to Climate Change Mitigation: A Case of Southern Highlands of Tanzania

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Z. J. Lupala ◽  
L. P. Lusambo ◽  
Y. M. Ngaga ◽  
Angelingis A. Makatta
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Climate Change Mitigation ◽  
Mitigation Strategies ◽  
Miombo Woodlands ◽  
Miombo Woodland ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Cover Density ◽  
Change Mitigation ◽  
Land Use And Cover

In Tanzania, miombo woodland is the most significant forest vegetation with both ecological and socioeconomic importance. The vegetation has been threatened from land use and cover change due to unsustainable utilization. Over the past two decades, community based forest management (CBFM) has been practiced to address the problem. Given the current need to mitigate global climate change, little is known on the influence of CBFM to the land use and cover change in miombo woodlands and therefore compromising climate change mitigation strategies. This study explored the dynamic of land use and covers change and biomass due to CBFM and established the implication to climate change mitigation. The study revealed increasing miombo woodland cover density with decreasing unsustainable utilization. The observed improvement in cover density and biomass provides potential for climate change mitigation strategies. CBFM also developed solidarity, cohesion, and social control of miombo woodlands illegal extraction. This further enhances permanence, reduces leakage, and increases accountability requirement for carbon credits. Collectively with these promising results, good land use plan at village level and introduction of alternative income generating activities can be among the best options to further reduce land use change and biomass loss in miombo woodlands.

Mochary example: how the highest European local species richness of pimpliform ichneumonid parasitoids (Ichneumonidae: Pimplinae, Poemeniinae and Rhyssinae) is under threat of disappearance in the Carpathian forests

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 31-40
Author(s):  
OLEKSANDR VARGA
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Habitat Destruction ◽  
Forest Patch ◽  
Local Species Richness ◽  
The World ◽  
Local Species ◽  
Sampling Programme ◽  
Group Species ◽  
Small Forest

A small forest patch (approx. 250 ha) of the Ukrainian Carpathian forest revealed an unexpected diversity of ichneumonid parasitoids: 95 species of Pimplinae, Poemeniinae and Rhyssinae), comprising appoximately 39 % of the total number of European species. This is the highest local species richness of the group ever recorded in Europe and one of the highest in the World. These results were obtained due to the use of a long-term multi-method sampling programme. Being extremely diverse and highly specialized ichneumonids (saproxylic parasitoids especially) are relatively vulnerable to habitat destruction and endangered because of deforestation. This is important for conservation of natural Carpathian forests and understanding the requirements for further study and estimation of the studied group species richness. Key words: Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae, Pimplinae, Rhyssinae, Poemeniinae, parasitoids, species richness, conservation, Ukraine

Carbon Reduction in the Post-Kyoto era. Have we progressed? A comparison

2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-37
Author(s):  
Bruno Zeller ◽  
Michael Longo
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Change Mitigation ◽  
Common Law ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Global Environment ◽  
Carbon Reduction ◽  
Legal Proceedings ◽  
The World ◽  
Change Mitigation ◽  
The Eu

In a fragmented global environment, the efforts of state and non-state actors are important in assessing the state of play on climate change mitigation actions around the world. This article will consider from a comparative perspective the various legislative models for addressing climate change and the reduction of GHG emissions with particular focus on the EU, USA, Australia and Switzerland. As legal developments are not limited to legislative schemes, this article will examine the voluntary carbon offset market and other trade related solutions to GHG emissions which have emerged in the absence of mandatory limitation systems. Also warranting attention are the actions of private parties in common law jurisdictions to bring legal proceedings against power companies for damage caused by climate change. Together, these developments demonstrate that climate change abatement is not the sole remit of the legislature.

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