scholarly journals Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production: From a Planet to a Pixel

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 8606
Author(s):  
Suman Paudel ◽  
Gustavo A. Ovando-Montejo ◽  
Christopher L. Lant
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Primary Production ◽  
Net Primary Production ◽  
Substantial Improvement ◽  
Cultural Ecosystem Services ◽  
Planetary Scale ◽  
Provisioning Ecosystem Services ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
Spatial Specificity ◽  
Pixel Scale

Human appropriation of net primary production (HANPP) is a substantial improvement upon 20th century attempts at developing an ecological footprint indicator because of its measurability in relation to net primary production, its close relationship to other key footprint measures, such as carbon and water, and its spatial specificity. This paper explores HANPP across four geographical scales: through literature review, the planet; through reanalysis of existing data, variations among the world’s countries; and through novel analyses, U.S. counties and the 30 m pixel scale for one U.S. county. Results show that HANPP informs different sustainability narratives at different scales. At the planetary scale, HANPP is a critical planetary limit that improves upon areal land use indicators. At the country macroscale, HANPP indicates the degree to which meeting the needs of the domestic population for provisioning ecosystem services (food, feed, biofiber, biofuel) presses against the domestic ecological endowment of net primary production. At the county mesoscale, HANPP reveals the dependency of metropolitan areas upon regional specialized rural forestry and agroecosystems to which they are teleconnected through trade and transport infrastructures. At the pixel microscale, HANPP provides the basis for deriving spatial patterns of remaining net primary production upon which biodiversity and regulatory and cultural ecosystem services are dependent. HANPP is thus a sustainability indicator that can fulfill similar needs as carbon, water and other footprints.

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 Persistent Uncertainties in Ocean Net Primary Production Climate Change Projections at Regional Scales Raise Challenges for Assessing Impacts on Ecosystem Services

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Tagliabue ◽  
Lester Kwiatkowski ◽  
Laurent Bopp ◽  
Momme Butenschön ◽  
William Cheung ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Primary Production ◽  
Model Uncertainty ◽  
Net Primary Production ◽  
Marine Ecosystems ◽  
Climate Impacts ◽  
Marine Phytoplankton ◽  
Historical Period ◽  
Model Variability

Ocean net primary production (NPP) results from CO2 fixation by marine phytoplankton, catalysing the transfer of organic matter and energy to marine ecosystems, supporting most marine food webs, and fisheries production as well as stimulating ocean carbon sequestration. Thus, alterations to ocean NPP in response to climate change, as quantified by Earth system model experiments conducted as part of the 5th and 6th Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5 and CMIP6) efforts, are expected to alter key ecosystem services. Despite reductions in inter-model variability since CMIP5, the ocean components of CMIP6 models disagree roughly 2-fold in the magnitude and spatial distribution of NPP in the contemporary era, due to incomplete understanding and insufficient observational constraints. Projections of NPP change in absolute terms show large uncertainty in CMIP6, most notably in the North Atlantic and the Indo-Pacific regions, with the latter explaining over two-thirds of the total inter-model uncertainty. While the Indo-Pacific has previously been identified as a hotspot for climate impacts on biodiversity and fisheries, the increased inter-model variability of NPP projections further exacerbates the uncertainties of climate risks on ocean-dependent human communities. Drivers of uncertainty in NPP changes at regional scales integrate different physical and biogeochemical factors that require more targeted mechanistic assessment in future studies. Globally, inter-model uncertainty in the projected changes in NPP has increased since CMIP5, which amplifies the challenges associated with the management of associated ecosystem services. Notably, this increased regional uncertainty in the projected NPP change in CMIP6 has occurred despite reduced uncertainty in the regional rates of NPP for historical period. Improved constraints on the magnitude of ocean NPP and the mechanistic drivers of its spatial variability would improve confidence in future changes. It is unlikely that the CMIP6 model ensemble samples the complete uncertainty in NPP, with the inclusion of additional mechanistic realism likely to widen projections further in the future, especially at regional scales. This has important consequences for assessing ecosystem impacts. Ultimately, we need an integrated mechanistic framework that considers how NPP and marine ecosystems respond to impacts of not only climate change, but also the additional non-climate drivers.

scholarly journals Quantifying the potential impact of the European wasp (Vespula germanica) on ecosystem services in Western Australia

NeoBiota ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 50 ◽  
pp. 55-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
David C. Cook
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Western Australia ◽  
Return On Investment ◽  
Government Expenditure ◽  
Cultural Ecosystem Services ◽  
Government Control ◽  
Vespula Germanica ◽  
Provisioning Ecosystem Services ◽  
Net Benefits ◽  
Potential Impact

This paper estimates the ecosystem services return on investment in government control of the introduced European wasp (Vespula germanica) in the state of Western Australia. The predictive model used accounts for uncertainties in the spread and impact ofV. germanicaon provisioning ecosystem services, represented by pollination, apiculture and viticulture, and cultural ecosystem services represented by households. Results produced by simulating a 20-year period suggest government expenditure on management will generate net benefits of AU$3.2–6.3 million per year, most of which will accrue to producers of pollination-dependent crops. This provides justification for investment from the government’s agriculture portfolio to manage an insect often thought of as an urban pest.

Valuing ecosystem services: A shadow price for net primary production

2007 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 454-462 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Richmond ◽  
Robert K. Kaufmann ◽  
Ranga B. Myneni
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Primary Production ◽  
Net Primary Production ◽  
Shadow Price
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