scholarly journals Quantifying Regulating Ecosystem Services with Increased Tree Densities on European Farmland

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (16) ◽  
pp. 6676
Author(s):  
Josep Crous-Duran ◽  
Anil R. Graves ◽  
Silvestre García de Jalón ◽  
Sonja Kay ◽  
Margarida Tomé ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Carbon Sequestration ◽  
Soil Erosion ◽  
Nitrate Leaching ◽  
Agroforestry Systems ◽  
Product Diversification ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Biophysical Model ◽  
Starting Point

Agroforestry systems have been compared to agricultural and forestry alternatives, providing a land-use solution for additional environmental benefits while maintaining similar levels of productivity. However, there is scarce research assessing such patterns across a pan-European scale using a common methodology. This study aims to improve our understanding of the role of trees in three different regulating ecosystem services—(1) soil erosion, (2) nitrate leaching and (3) carbon sequestration—in traditional and innovative agroforestry systems in Europe through a consistent modeling approach. The systems’ assessment spans environmentally from the Mediterranean environmental region in Portugal to the Continental environmental region in Switzerland and Germany to the Atlantic environmental region in the United Kingdom. Modeled tree densities were compared in the different land-use alternatives, ranging from zero (agriculture with only crops or pasture) to forestry (only trees). The methodology included the use of a biophysical model (Yield-SAFE) where the quantification of the environmental benefits was integrated. Results show a consistent improvement of regulating ecosystem services can be expected when introducing trees in the farming landscapes in different environmental regions in Europe. For all the systems, the forestry alternatives presented the best results in terms of a decrease in soil erosion of 51% (±29), a decrease of nearly all the nitrate leaching (98% ± 1) and an increase in the carbon sequestration of up to 238 Mg C ha−1 (±140). However, these alternatives are limited in the variety of food, energy and/or materials provided. On the other hand, from an arable or pure-pasture alternative starting point, an increase in agroforestry tree density could also be associated with a decrease in soil erosion of up to 25% (±17), a decrease in nitrates leached of up to 52% (±34) and an increase in the carbon sequestered of 163 Mg C ha−1 (±128) while at the same time ensuring the same levels of biomass growth and an increase in product diversification.

scholarly journals Green Infrastructure Offset of the Negative Ecological Effects of Urbanization and Storing Water in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area, China

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (21) ◽  
pp. 8077
Author(s):  
Qipeng Liao ◽  
Zhe Wang ◽  
Chunbo Huang
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Carbon Sequestration ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Three Gorges Reservoir ◽  
Land Use Changes ◽  
Ecological Effects ◽  
Three Gorges ◽  
The Three Gorges ◽  
And Storage

Land use planning usually increases the uncertainties of the ecosystem structures and functions because various human demands usually bring both positive and negative ecological effects. It is critical for estimating various land use changes and their ecological effects, but the previous studies have failed to decouple the respective and the combined effects of different land use changes on ecosystem services. Net primary productivity (NPP) could be used to indicate many ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration and storage. Here, we employed a light use efficiency model to estimate the spatial and temporal dynamics of NPP in the Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR) area from 2000 to 2015, and designed four scenarios to analyze the relative roles of afforestation, urbanization and storing water on NPP dynamics. Our results documented that terrestrial NPP of the TGR area increased from 547.40 gC•m−2 to 629.96 gC•m−2, and carbon sequestration capacities were 31.66 TgC (1Tg = 1012g) and 36.79 TgC in 2000 and 2015, respectively. Climate change and land use change both could contribute to carbon sequestration with 4.08 TgC and 1.05 TgC. Among these land use changes, only afforestation could sequester carbon with 2.04 TgC, while urbanization-induced and impoundment-induced emissions were 0.12 TgC and 0.32 TgC, respectively, and other land use changes also could release 0.55 TgC of carbon. This finding suggested that although positive and negative environmental effects happened simultaneously over the past decades, green infrastructure could effectively offset the carbon emissions from urbanization and storing water in the TGR area, which provides some fundamental supports for further ecological restoration and contributes to empowering land use policies towards carbon sequestration and storage at the regional scale.

scholarly journals Soil carbon management in large-scale Earth system modelling: implications for crop yields and nitrogen leaching

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 745-768 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Olin ◽  
M. Lindeskog ◽  
T. A. M. Pugh ◽  
G. Schurgers ◽  
D. Wårlind ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Carbon Sequestration ◽  
Soil Carbon ◽  
Carbon Storage ◽  
Crop Yields ◽  
Nitrogen Leaching ◽  
Future Climate Change ◽  
Climate Change Scenarios ◽  
Trade Offs

Abstract. Croplands are vital ecosystems for human well-being and provide important ecosystem services such as crop yields, retention of nitrogen and carbon storage. On large (regional to global)-scale levels, assessment of how these different services will vary in space and time, especially in response to cropland management, are scarce. We explore cropland management alternatives and the effect these can have on future C and N pools and fluxes using the land-use-enabled dynamic vegetation model LPJ-GUESS (Lund–Potsdam–Jena General Ecosystem Simulator). Simulated crop production, cropland carbon storage, carbon sequestration and nitrogen leaching from croplands are evaluated and discussed. Compared to the version of LPJ-GUESS that does not include land-use dynamics, estimates of soil carbon stocks and nitrogen leaching from terrestrial to aquatic ecosystems were improved. Our model experiments allow us to investigate trade-offs between these ecosystem services that can be provided from agricultural fields. These trade-offs are evaluated for current land use and climate and further explored for future conditions within the two future climate change scenarios, RCP (Representative Concentration Pathway) 2.6 and 8.5. Our results show that the potential for carbon sequestration due to typical cropland management practices such as no-till management and cover crops proposed in previous studies is not realised, globally or over larger climatic regions. Our results highlight important considerations to be made when modelling C–N interactions in agricultural ecosystems under future environmental change and the effects these have on terrestrial biogeochemical cycles.

scholarly journals Agroforestry trade-offs between biomass provision and aboveground carbon sequestration in the alpine Eisenwurzen region, Austria

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bastian Bertsch-Hoermann ◽  
Claudine Egger ◽  
Veronika Gaube ◽  
Simone Gingrich
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Carbon Sequestration ◽  
Primary Production ◽  
Net Primary Production ◽  
Land Use Policy ◽  
Simultaneous Increase ◽  
Ecological Indicator ◽  
Aboveground Carbon ◽  
Trade Offs

AbstractMountain agroecosystems deliver essential ecosystem services to society but are prone to climate change as well as socio-economic pressures, making multi-functional land systems increasingly central to sustainable mountain land use policy. Agroforestry, the combination of woody vegetation with crops and/or livestock, is expected to simultaneously increase provisioning and regulating ecosystem services, but knowledge gaps concerning trade-offs exist especially in temperate industrialized and alpine regions. Here, we quantify the aboveground carbon (C) dynamics of a hypothetical agroforestry implementation in the Austrian long-term socio-ecological research region Eisenwurzen from 2020 to 2050. We develop three land use scenarios to differentiate conventional agriculture from an immediate and a gradual agroforestry implementation, integrate data from three distinct models (Yield-SAFE, SECLAND, MIAMI), and advance the socio-ecological indicator framework Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production (HANPP) to assess trade-offs between biomass provision and carbon sequestration. Results indicate that agroforestry strongly decreases HANPP because of a reduction in biomass harvest by up to − 47% and a simultaneous increase in actual net primary production by up to 31%, with a large amount of carbon sequestered in perennial biomass by up to 3.4 t C ha-1 yr-1. This shows that a hypothetical transition to agroforestry in the Eisenwurzen relieves the agroecosystem from human-induced pressure but results in significant trade-offs between biomass provision and carbon sequestration. We thus conclude that while harvest losses inhibit large-scale implementation in intensively used agricultural regions, agroforestry constitutes a valuable addition to sustainable land use policy, in particular when affecting extensive pastures and meadows in alpine landscapes.

scholarly journals Plant Diversity and Agroecosystem Function in Riparian Agroforests: Providing Ecosystem Services and Land-Use Transition

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 568 ◽  
Author(s):  
Serra W. Buchanan ◽  
Megan Baskerville ◽  
Maren Oelbermann ◽  
Andrew M. Gordon ◽  
Naresh V. Thevathasan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Functional Diversity ◽  
Plant Communities ◽  
Phylogenetic Diversity ◽  
Agroforestry Systems ◽  
N Cycling ◽  
Riparian Systems ◽  
Functionally Diverse ◽  
Herbaceous Community

Achieving biologically diverse agricultural systems requires a commitment to changes in land use. While in-field agrobiodiversity is a critical route to such a transition, riparian systems remain an important, yet understudied, pathway to achieve key diversity and ecosystem services and targets. Notably, at the interface of agricultural landscapes and aquatic systems, the diversification of riparian buffers with trees reduces the non-point source pollution in waterways. However, in riparian agroforestry systems, little is known about herbaceous community patterns and, importantly, the herbaceous community’s role in governing carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycling. Our study investigated herbaceous community taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity patterns in riparian (i) grasslands (GRASSLAND), (ii) rehabilitated agroforests (AGROFOREST-REHAB), and (iii) remnant forests (AGROFOREST-NATURAL). We then determined the biodiversity-ecosystem function relationships between community functional diversity metrics, C and N cycling, and greenhouse gas fluxes. We observed significant differences in taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity among riparian buffer types. We found that herbaceous plant communities in riparian agroforestry systems expressed plant trait syndromes associated with fast-growing, resource acquiring strategies, while grassland buffer plants exhibited slow-growing, resource conserving strategies. Herbaceous communities with high functional diversity and resource acquiring trait syndromes, such as those in the agroforestry riparian systems, were significantly correlated with lower rates of soil CO2 efflux and N mineralization, both of which are key fluxes related to ecosystem service delivery. Our findings provide further evidence that functionally diverse, and not necessarily taxonomically diverse, plant communities are strongly correlated to positive ecosystem processes in riparian agroforestry systems, and that these communities contribute to the transition of agricultural lands toward biologically and functionally diverse landscapes.

scholarly journals Shedding Light on Peri-Urban Ecosystem Services Using Automated Content Analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (16) ◽  
pp. 9182
Author(s):  
Gabriella Vindigni ◽  
Alexandros Mosca ◽  
Tommaso Bartoloni ◽  
Daniela Spina
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Urban Ecosystems ◽  
Urban Ecosystem ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Urban Ecosystem Services ◽  
Environmental Consequences ◽  
Urban Core ◽  
Starting Point

The objective of this paper is to provide an overall perspective on peri-urban ecosystem services in European Countries. The phenomenon of urbanization affecting our era has seen the shift of the city from compact and well-defined structures to agglomerations with a seamless expansion. This has led to several environmental consequences that have affected the urbanized areas and the surroundings. The peri-urban areas may be the main urban design and planning challenge of the 21st century. These hybrid landscapes, characterized by high fragmentation, can be turned into opportunities to improve the sustainability and quality of urban areas, generating multiple economic, social and environmental benefits. Areas beyond the immediate urban core can be considered a zone of influence, which represent a critical resource in terms of provisioning, regulating, supporting services and cultural ecosystem services. Our study has been developed in the framework of the project “Fertile Lands, Fragile Lands” funded by the University of Catania. A multi-phased method has been applied, showing strong, heterogeneous ties between landscape and ecosystem services. While the importance of literature studies on this topic is well recognized, the same attention has not been placed on the tools and methods of conducting systematic and incremental literature reviews. Using Leximancer software, we propose a text mining approach to extract relevant themes and concepts as well as related topics of interest from identified literature on peri-urban ecosystems. We first introduce the overall methodology and then discuss each phase in detail. The outputs can be used as starting point for broad exploratory reviews and allow further exploration in this issue. The results show how the peri-urban space can be seen as a mosaic in which the settlement, the agricultural and the environmental systems interact and coexist, placing at the centre the relationship of reciprocity between the built environment and the open territory.

Economic analysis of private and public benefits of corn, switchgrass and mixed grass systems in Eastern South Dakota

2013 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 355-365
Author(s):  
Nelly Bourlion ◽  
Larry Janssen ◽  
Michael Miller
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Carbon Sequestration ◽  
Economic Analysis ◽  
South Dakota ◽  
Field Experiments ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Public Benefits ◽  
Budget Analysis ◽  
Farm Model ◽  
Mixed Grass

AbstractThe objective of this research is to develop an economic analysis of different crop mix biofuels programs for meeting ethanol and sustainability demands. Primary data are from South Dakota State University field experiments on farms located in east-central South Dakota. The data include 4 years of field data, three crop systems (mixed grass, switchgrass and corn), two residue treatments (no removal, removal of biomass), and three landscape positions (back slope, crest and foot slope). A representative farm model and five scenarios are developed to conduct a full budget analysis over a 12-year period. Public benefits are evaluated, using the benefit transfer method to value ecosystem services, by allocating a dollar value to three environmental variables; carbon sequestration, reduction of sedimentation and pheasant production. Stochastic simulation results are compared for each of the five scenarios, one with only annualized net private returns, and one including the value of environmental benefits. Results indicate that: (1) the conventional continuous corn scenario has the highest net returns over the 12-year budget, (2) carbon sequestration represents 80% of the environmental benefits, and (3) the added economic value of ecosystem services does not provide enough incentives for farmers to convert from corn production to grass production.

scholarly journals Analysis of the Impact of Built Environment on Coastline Ecosystem Services and Values

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 44-63
Author(s):  
Mkama Thomas Manyama ◽  
Cuthbert Leonard Nahonyo ◽  
Aloyce Shaban Hepelwa
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Soil Erosion ◽  
Built Environment ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Carbon Dioxide Emission ◽  
Dar Es Salaam ◽  
Geographical Information ◽  
Anthropogenic Systems ◽  
The Impact

The degradation of any ecosystem services (ES) and the benefits human being enjoy from nature freely involve multifaceted processes such as those in built environment. The ecological security and multiple functions of the coastal zone of Dar es Salaam is of paramount importance to the sustainability of its natural and anthropogenic systems. Therefore, permanent/temporary conversion of a piece of land for construction space provisions profoundly affects the functionality and connectedness of nature–anthropogenic ecosystem. This study quantified land use landcover changes from Landsat satellite imageries, then evaluated the changes using recognizable coefficients for ecosystem services values (ESV). Applying Geographical Information System (GIS) techniques, the impacts of built environment on ESV were analysed using land use landcover change (LULCC) transfer matrix, carbon stock dynamics and soil erosion influence on soil fauna. The results revealed expansive BE from 10.6 percent in 1995 to 22.8 percent in 2016. Loss of forest by 64.5 percent in the study period explained the declining total ESV by 56.1 percent and per capita recreation potential by 2.3 percent. Similarly, decreasing forest cover led to high carbon dioxide emission, notably, the 353.24 t CO2 ha-1 yr-1 in the period between 1995 and 2005. Furthermore, in 1995 bushland experienced high soil erosion while in 2016 built environment displayed a similar trend as the rest of the land use landcover (LULC) classes. From geospatial analysis, the southern area displayed significant vegetation cover change as compared to the built environment dominant in the northern section of Dar es Salaam coastline. Initiative to reducing built environment by 1 percent saves forest loss by 5.28 percent and carbon sequestration at a tune of 28.95 t CO2 ha-1 yr-1; hence improves ecological services values by 4.60 percent.

scholarly journals Modeling the Soil Erosion Regulation Ecosystem Services of the Landscape in Polish Catchments

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (22) ◽  
pp. 3274
Author(s):  
Mustafa Nur Istanbuly ◽  
Tomáš Dostál ◽  
Bahman Jabbarian Amiri
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Soil Erosion ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Carbon Content ◽  
Soil Carbon ◽  
Arable Land ◽  
Land Use Land Cover ◽  
Construction Sites ◽  
Soil Carbon Content

In this study, the soil erosion regulation ecosystem services of the CORINE land use/ land cover types along with soil intrinsic features and geomorphological factors were examined by using the soil erosion data of 327 catchments in Poland, with a mean area of 510 ± 330 km2, applying a multivariate regression modeling approach. The results showed that soil erosion is accelerated by the discontinuous urban fabric (r = 0.224, p ≤ 0.01), by construction sites (r = 0.141, p ≤ 0.05), non-irrigated arable land (r = 0.237, p ≤ 0.01), and is mitigated by coniferous forest (r = −0.322, p ≤ 0.01), the clay ratio (r = −0.652, p ≤ 0.01), and the organic content of the soil (r = −0.622, p ≤ 0.01). The models also indicated that there is a strong relationship between soil erosion and the percentage of land use/land cover types (r2 = [0.62, 0.82, 0.83, 0.74]), i.e., mixed forest, non-irrigated arable land, fruit trees and berry plantations, broad-leaf forest, sport and leisure facilities, construction sites, and mineral extraction sites. The findings show that the soil erosion regulation ecosystem service is sensitive to broadleaf forests, rainfed agriculture, soil water content, terrain slope, drainage network density, annual precipitation, the clay ratio, the soil carbon content, and the degree of sensitivity increases from the broadleaf forest to the soil carbon content.

scholarly journals Quantitative Assessment of the Relative Impacts of Land Use and Climate Change on the Key Ecosystem Services in the Hengduan Mountain Region, China

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 4100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erfu Dai ◽  
Le Yin ◽  
Yahui Wang ◽  
Liang Ma ◽  
Miao Tong
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Soil Erosion ◽  
Water Conservation ◽  
Decisive Role ◽  
Mountain Region ◽  
Water Yield ◽  
Hengduan Mountain ◽  
The Impact

In the Hengduan Mountain region, soil erosion is the most serious ecological environmental problem. Understanding the impact mechanism of water yield and soil erosion is essential to optimize ecosystem management and improve ecosystem services. This study used the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) and Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) models to separate the relative contributions of land use and climate change to water yield and soil erosion. The results revealed that: (1) Although soil and water conservation has been strengthened in the past 25 years, both water yield and soil erosion increased from 2010 to 2015 due to the conversion of woodland to grassland, which indicates that continuous benefits after the implementation of ecological restoration projects were not obtained; (2) Climate change played a decisive role in water yield and soil erosion changes in the Hengduan Mountain region from 1990 to 2015, and soil erosion was not only related to the amount of precipitation but also closely related to precipitation intensity; (3) The contribution of land use and climate change to water yield was 26.94% and 73.06%, while for soil erosion, the contribution of land use and climate change was 16.23% and 83.77%, respectively.

The Coffee Agroforestry System in Mexico

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria Cessa-Reyes ◽  
Octavio Ruiz-Rosado ◽  
Liliana Alcudia-Armida
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Sequestration ◽  
Soil Erosion ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Agroforestry System ◽  
Agroforestry Systems ◽  
Environmental Services ◽  
Coffee Plantations ◽  
Coffee Agroforestry ◽  
Water Catchment

Objective: To identify the current knowledge about the coffee agroforestry systems, with emphasis on Mexico. Design/methodology/approach: A documentary internet search based on Google® was carried out using the keywords "agroforestry and coffee plantations”, and “coffee agroforestry systems in Mexico". Results: As a result, 88 documents were obtained; 91% of the publications were in Spanish, 40% are from Colombia, 24% from Mexico, 7% from Costa Rica and the last 29% from other countries. Limitations of the study/implications: This topic is studied by several institutions, although it is not part of a systematic line of study. Findings/Conclusions: Most of the research are focused on the importance of the coffee agroforestry system as a provider of environmental services, standing out the carbon sequestration, water catchment, biodiversity reservation and soil erosion buffering.

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