Social Perceptions of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in the Ecuadorian Amazon

The Amazon basin is widely recognized for its high biological and cultural diversity, enabling the provision of many ecosystem services. This study explores social perceptions of some of the features of biodiversity and ecosystem services in a tropical forest in Sangay Parish, Ecuador. Following a survey of residents, we identified three groups whose perceptions vary in relation to socioeconomic characteristics, cultural backgrounds, lifestyles, and the benefits obtained from the Sangay forest. Mestizo professionals, with a better socioeconomic situation, identify more regulation and cultural services; Shuar farmers have a comprehensive knowledge of biodiversity features and rely on provisioning services; and Shuar gatherers consume more forest products but are the least likely to formally recognize ecosystem services. We emphasize the importance of identifying social groups within a population and understanding their particular characteristics and perspectives before developing conservation and land use planning policies.     

生物多样性和生态系统服务政府间科学–政策平台的概念框架和运作模式

生物多样性和生态系统服务政府间科学–政策平台(Intergovernmental Science–Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services,IPBES)于2012年4月正式成立,其目标是建立科学与政策之间的联系,加强生物多样性保护与可持续利用,确保长期人类福祉和社会可持续发展。为了促进不同学科、知识体系和利益相关方之间的协作,多学科专家小组组织制定了IPBES概念框架,并在2013年第二届全体会议上正式通过。本文介绍了IPBES概念框架的基本要素及其相互关系以及IPBES科学和政策互动的运作模式,讨论了IPBES对政府间气候变化专门委员会(Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,IPCC)、生物多样性科学知识国际机制(International Mechanism of Scientific Expertise on Biodiversity,IMo SEB)和千年生态系统评估(Millennium Ecosystem Assessment,MA)的借鉴和发展。概念框架识别了自然与人类复杂关系中的6个基本要素:(1)自然;(2)自然对人类的福祉;(3)好的生活质量;(4)人类财产;(5)直接驱动力;(6)制度、治理和其他间接驱动力,并说明了各要素间的相互作用及其在时间和空间尺度上的对应关系。IPBES运作的概念模型展示了科学和政策通过IPBES实现互动的过程:科学和其他知识体系经过概念框架的过滤持续向平台流动,并通过IPBES职能和工作方案的实现来影响政策。IPBES将成为今后各国在生物多样性领域对话、博弈、争取利益最大化的舞台,其多学科、多尺度评估结果将在政策的支持和导向方面对国际社会产生重大影响。我国应积极主动参与IPBES的工作并发挥建设性作用,确保我国相关科研成果的应用,同时借鉴IPBES的思路,改进我国生物多样性保护。     

Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity in a Rapidly Transforming Landscape in Northern Borneo

Because industrial agriculture keeps expanding in Southeast Asia at the expense of natural forests and traditional swidden systems, comparing biodiversity and ecosystem services in the traditional forest–swidden agriculture system vs. monocultures is needed to guide decision making on land-use planning. Focusing on tree diversity, soil erosion control, and climate change mitigation through carbon storage, we surveyed vegetation and monitored soil loss in various land-use areas in a northern Bornean agricultural landscape shaped by swidden agriculture, rubber tapping, and logging, where various levels and types of disturbance have created a fine mosaic of vegetation from food crop fields to natural forest. Tree species diversity and ecosystem service production were highest in natural forests. Logged-over forests produced services similar to those of natural forests. Land uses related to the swidden agriculture system largely outperformed oil palm or rubber monocultures in terms of tree species diversity and service production. Natural and logged-over forests should be maintained or managed as integral parts of the swidden system, and landscape multifunctionality should be sustained. Because natural forests host a unique diversity of trees and produce high levels of ecosystem services, targeting carbon stock protection, e.g. through financial mechanisms such as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+), will synergistically provide benefits for biodiversity and a wide range of other services. However, the way such mechanisms could benefit communities must be carefully evaluated to counter the high opportunity cost of conversion to monocultures that might generate greater income, but would be detrimental to the production of multiple ecosystem services.     

Ecosystem Services and Opportunity Costs Shift Spatial Priorities for Conserving Forest Biodiversity

Inclusion of spatially explicit information on ecosystem services in conservation planning is a fairly new practice. This study analyses how the incorporation of ecosystem services as conservation features can affect conservation of forest biodiversity and how different opportunity cost constraints can change spatial priorities for conservation. We created spatially explicit cost-effective conservation scenarios for 59 forest biodiversity features and five ecosystem services in the county of Telemark (Norway) with the help of the heuristic optimisation planning software, Marxan with Zones. We combined a mix of conservation instruments where forestry is either completely (non-use zone) or partially restricted (partial use zone). Opportunity costs were measured in terms of foregone timber harvest, an important provisioning service in Telemark. Including a number of ecosystem services shifted priority conservation sites compared to a case where only biodiversity was considered, and increased the area of both the partial (+36.2%) and the non-use zone (+3.2%). Furthermore, opportunity costs increased (+6.6%), which suggests that ecosystem services may not be a side-benefit of biodiversity conservation in this area. Opportunity cost levels were systematically changed to analyse their effect on spatial conservation priorities. Conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services trades off against timber harvest. Currently designated nature reserves and landscape protection areas achieve a very low proportion (9.1%) of the conservation targets we set in our scenario, which illustrates the high importance given to timber production at present. A trade-off curve indicated that large marginal increases in conservation target achievement are possible when the budget for conservation is increased. Forty percent of the maximum hypothetical opportunity costs would yield an average conservation target achievement of 79%.     

The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES): getting involved

The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) held its 5th plenary session in Bonn during March 2017. After last year’s pollinator assessment, the biodiversity assessments currently being undertaken are shortly to be available for peer review. The scientific community can play an important role in both conducting assessments and in the peer-review process. Independent scientists can contribute to ensure that these assessments are comprehensive with respect to the current state and future trends of biodiversity and the ecosystem services. We outline possibilities for deeper involvement of the scientific community in the IPBES process and draw attention to upcoming reviews in 2017.     

The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES): progress and next steps

Biodiversity and the services ecosystems provide have built the foundation of human civilization and provide for the welfare of people. With the increase of the human population it has become clearer than ever that the human exploitation of our natural resources leads to detrimental interactions between ecological and sociological systems. Only concerted and global actions will be able to reverse ongoing biodiversity loss. In response to these needs, the United Nations agreed the establishment of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) in 2010. Here, we report on the progress IPBES has made since its inception, and suggest how the scientific community can engage with this important science-policy interface.     

Restoration Enhances Wetland Biodiversity and Ecosystem Service Supply,but Results Are Context-Dependent: A Meta-Analysis

Wetlands are valuable ecosystems because they harbor a huge biodiversity and provide key services to societies. When natural or human factors degrade wetlands, ecological restoration is often carried out to recover biodiversity and ecosystem services (ES). Although such restorations are routinely performed, we lack systematic, evidence-based assessments of their effectiveness on the recovery of biodiversity and ES. Here we performed a meta-analysis of 70 experimental studies in order to assess the effectiveness of ecological restoration and identify what factors affect it. We compared selected ecosystem performance variables between degraded and restored wetlands and between restored and natural wetlands using response ratios and random-effects categorical modeling. We assessed how context factors such as ecosystem type, main agent of degradation, restoration action, experimental design, and restoration age influenced post-restoration biodiversity and ES. Biodiversity showed excellent recovery, though the precise recovery depended strongly on the type of organisms involved. Restored wetlands showed 36% higher levels of provisioning, regulating and supporting ES than did degraded wetlands. In fact, wetlands showed levels of provisioning and cultural ES similar to those of natural wetlands; however, their levels of supporting and regulating ES were, respectively, 16% and 22% lower than in natural wetlands. Recovery of biodiversity and of ES were positively correlated, indicating a win-win restoration outcome. The extent to which restoration increased biodiversity and ES in degraded wetlands depended primarily on the main agent of degradation, restoration actions, experimental design, and ecosystem type. In contrast, the choice of specific restoration actions alone explained most differences between restored and natural wetlands. These results highlight the importance of comprehensive, multi-factorial assessment to determine the ecological status of degraded, restored and natural wetlands and thereby evaluate the effectiveness of ecological restorations. Future research on wetland restoration should also seek to identify which restoration actions work best for specific habitats.     

Biodiversity Resources for Restoration Ecology

Biological resources can be more usefully incorporated into many aspects of restoration ecology. During the planning and design stage, the wide genotypic variation in natural plant populations must be recognized and exploited. This will ensure that genotypes used on a site are best adapted to local conditions and have a greater probability of survivorship than arbitrarily chosen material. Also, certain unusual genotypes can be located using the principles of evolutionary ecology and can be installed in areas with extreme conditions, such as soils contaminated with heavy metals, in areas where rapid colonizing ability (high seed set and/or clonal growth) is particularly advantageous, or where soils are of poor quality. Similarly, where high herbivore pressure is a threat to restoration, genotypes that are well defended, chemically or mechanically, against animal enemies should be selected to initiate the restoration process. The nursery industry can be encouraged to supply an ecologically wider selection of material for restoration, originating from local biological reserves and natural habitats. During the management phase of a restoration, local natural habitats are critical as reservoirs of biological control agents, seed sources for plant species, and members of higher trophic levels and additional plant species needed during succession. Mutualists such as pollinators, seed dispersers, and mycorrhizal fungi are vital to the success of a restoration project, and these must invade from nearby natural habitats or must be deliberately introduced. During the evaluation phase of restoration, local natural areas should be used as templates of community composition and structure from which one measures success. A functioning restoration project will interact biologically with surrounding areas, the exchange of species and genes being particularly important. Analysis of the microbial and invertebrate communities that have invaded the installed plant community may be useful and accurate determinants of ecological function. For these latter stages of the restoration process, the value of preserving local habitat remnants is high and complements their usefulness as a source of ecologically precise material for installation.     

Watershed-scale Land Use Change Increases Ecosystem Metabolism in an Agricultural Stream

Ecosystems - Stream metabolism, in the form of gross primary production (GPP) and ecosystem respiration (ER), is an important metric of stream ecosystem function, given GPP and ER are integrative...     

Evaluating the Return in Ecosystem Services from Investment in Public Land Acquisitions

We evaluate the return on investment (ROI) from public land conservation in the state of Minnesota, USA. We use a spatially-explicit modeling tool, the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST), to estimate how changes in land use and land cover (LULC), including public land acquisitions for conservation, influence the joint provision and value of multiple ecosystem services. We calculate the ROI of a public conservation acquisition as the ratio of the present value of ecosystem services generated by the conservation to the cost of the conservation. For the land scenarios analyzed, carbon sequestration services generated the greatest benefits followed by water quality improvements and recreation opportunities. We found ROI values ranged from 0.21 to 5.28 depending on assumptions about future land use change, service values, and discount rate. Our study suggests conservation is a good investment as long as investments are targeted to areas with low land costs and high service values.     

Restoration Ecology and the Ecosystem Perspective

The ecosystem perspective provides a framework within which most other aspects of the ecology of restoration can be incorporated. By considering the ecosystem functions of a restoration project, the restorationist is forced to consider the placement of the project in the landscape—its boundaries, its connections or lack thereof to adjoining ecosystems, and its receipts and losses of materials and energy from its physical surroundings. These characteristics may set limits on the kind(s) of biotic communities that can be created on the site. The ecosystem perspective also gives restorationists conceptual tools for structuring and evaluating restorations. These include the mass balance approach to nutrient, pollutant, and energy budgets; subsidy/stress effects of inputs; food web architecture; feedback among ecosystem components; efficiency of nutrient transfers, primary productivity and decomposition as system-determining rates; and disturbance regimes. However, there are many uncertainties concerning these concepts, their relation to each other, and their relationships to population- and community-level phenomena. The nature of restoration projects provides a unique opportunity for research on these problems; the large spatial scale of restorations and the freedom to manipulate species, soil, water, and even the landscape could allow ecosystem-level experiments to be conducted that could not be performed otherwise.     

生态质量与生态系统服务功能

生态系统服务功能是自然生态过程对人类的贡献。文章阐述了生态系统服务功能的定义、内涵及其与生态质量和生态系统键康三者间密不可分的关系。迅猛的人口增长、社会变化和技术发展,已使承载人类社会的生命之舟——大自然受到严重破坏和巨大威胁,减少这些破坏和威胁是整个社会特别是生态学工作者面临的重大挑战。只有深入认识三者之间的关系及其重要性,才能自觉防止和减少带有自我毁灭性的经济和社会活动。     

生态质量与生态系统服务功能

生态系统服务功能是自然生态过程对人类的贡献。文章阐述了生态系统服务功能的定义、内涵及其与生态质量和生态系统健康三者间密不可分的关系。迅猛的人口增长、社会变化和技术发展,已使承载人类社会的生命之舟－大自然受到严重破坏和巨大威胁,减少这些破坏和威胁是整个社会特别是生态学工作者面临的重大挑战。只有深入认识三者之间的关系及其重要性,才能自觉防止和减少带有自我毁灭性的经济和社会活动。     

生物多样性与生态系统功能关系研究进展

生物多样性和生态系统功能关系的研究,是生态学和环境学的一个中心论题。围绕这一主题,首先介绍了生物多样性及生态系统功能的含义;其次,一方面历史地回顾了生物多样性与生态系统功能关系的研究,另一方面结合近20年间的研究及实验,分别从多样性与生产力、多样性与稳定性、多样性与生态系统可持续性3个方面系统地阐述了二者关系研究的主要论点;最后,对其今后面临的挑战及发展趋势进行了展望。     

Consistent Effects of Biodiversity on Ecosystem Functioning Under Varying Density and Evenness

Biodiversity experiments typically vary only species richness and composition, yet the generality of their results relies on consistent effects of these factors even under varying starting conditions of density and evenness. We tested this assumption in a factorial species richness x density x evenness experiment using a pool of 60 common grassland species divided into four functional groups (grasses, legumes, tall herbs and short herbs). Richness varied from 1, 2, 4, 8 to 16 species, total planting density was 1,000 or 2,000 seeds/m², and species were sown in even or uneven proportions, where one functional group was made dominant. Aboveground plant biomass increased linearly with the logarithm of species richness in all density and evenness treatments during all three years of the experiment. This was due to a convergence of realized density and evenness within species richness levels, although functional groups which were initially made dominant retained their dominance. Between species richness levels, realized density increased, and realized evenness decreased with species richness. Thus, more individuals could coexist if they belonged to different species. Within species richness levels, higher biomass values were correlated with lower density, suggesting an underlying thinning process. However, communities with low realized evenness also had low biomass values; thus high biomass did not result from species dominance. So-called complementarity and selection effects were similar across density and evenness treatments, indicating that the mechanisms underpinning the biodiversity effects were not altered. Species richness was the dominant driver of aboveground biomass, irrespective of variations in total densities and species abundance distributions at the start of the experiment; rejecting the hypothesis that initial differences in species abundance distributions might lead to different “stable states” in community structure or biomass. Thus, results from previous biodiversity experiments that only manipulated species richness and composition should be quite robust and broadly generalizable.