Invertebrates,ecosystem services and climate change

The sustainability of ecosystem services depends on a firm understanding of both how organisms provide these services to humans and how these organisms will be altered with a changing climate. Unquestionably a dominant feature of most ecosystems, invertebrates affect many ecosystem services and are also highly responsive to climate change. However, there is still a basic lack of understanding of the direct and indirect paths by which invertebrates influence ecosystem services, as well as how climate change will affect those ecosystem services by altering invertebrate populations. This indicates a lack of communication and collaboration among scientists researching ecosystem services and climate change effects on invertebrates, and land managers and researchers from other disciplines, which becomes obvious when systematically reviewing the literature relevant to invertebrates, ecosystem services, and climate change. To address this issue, we review how invertebrates respond to climate change. We then review how invertebrates both positively and negatively influence ecosystem services. Lastly, we provide some critical future directions for research needs, and suggest ways in which managers, scientists and other researchers may collaborate to tackle the complex issue of sustaining invertebrate‐mediated services under a changing climate.     

陆地生态系统服务与生物多样性研究进展

在生物多样性迅速消失的压力下,人类面临生态系统服务质量严重下降的威胁。为了使生态系统的重要功能更直观的展现在人们面前,许多学者把生态系统服务对人类的惠益进行整理分类,最有影响力的是千年生态系统评估(MA,Millennium Ecosystem Assessment)把生态系统服务分为供给、调节、文化和支持服务四类,服务的核心是生态系统的产品、过程和格局。生态系统服务的识别与分类是生态系统功能的对象化过程,也是以人类需求来审视生态系统的过程。生态系统通过结构-过程-功能这一途径来实现生态系统服务,各种服务的直接动力来源于自然界生物地球化学循环,生物多样性通过生态系统属性和过程来影响生态系统服务形成和维持。生物多样性越高,生态系统功能性状的范围越广,生态系统服务质量就越高、越稳定。全球变化中的土地利用和土地覆盖变化是生物多样性快速下降的主要原因,也是目前影响生态系统服务最广泛、最剧烈的驱动力,而这正是人类活动造成的,人类需求和生态系统有限的服务能力之间在不同尺度表现出严重冲突。要提高生态系统服务质量,要在不同区域进行重点不同的布局,尽可能的扩大生态系统规模和提高生态系统功能,核心是提高生物多样性水平。     

Climate change alters stability and species potential interactions in a large marine ecosystem

We have little empirical evidence of how large‐scale overlaps between large numbers of marine species may have altered in response to human impacts. Here, we synthesized all available distribution data (>1 million records) since 1992 for 61 species of the East Australian marine ecosystem, a global hot spot of ocean warming and continuing fisheries exploitation. Using a novel approach, we constructed networks of the annual changes in geographical overlaps between species. Using indices of changes in species overlap, we quantified changes in the ecosystem stability, species robustness, species sensitivity and structural keystone species. We then compared the species overlap indices with environmental and fisheries data to identify potential factors leading to the changes in distributional overlaps between species. We found that the structure of the ecosystem has changed with a decrease in asymmetrical geographical overlaps between species. This suggests that the ecosystem has become less stable and potentially more susceptible to environmental perturbations. Most species have shown a decrease in overlaps with other species. The greatest decrease in species overlap robustness and sensitivity to the loss of other species has occurred in the pelagic community. Some demersal species have become more robust and less sensitive. Pelagic structural keystone species, predominately the tunas and billfish, have been replaced by demersal fish species. The changes in species overlap were strongly correlated with regional oceanographic changes, in particular increasing ocean warming and the southward transport of warmer and saltier water with the East Australian Current, but less correlated with fisheries catch. Our study illustrates how large‐scale multispecies distribution changes can help identify structural changes in marine ecosystems associated with climate change.     

Global change tipping points: above- and below-ground biotic interactions in a low diversity ecosystem

Low diversity ecosystems are expected to be more vulnerable to global changes although they have received less attention than high diversity ecosystems. Addressing the present state of the Antarctic Dry Valley region by focusing on the potential global changes that may alter the coupling of above- and below-ground species and ecosystem processes is a realistic and critical need that has value beyond the Antarctic community. Presented here are suggested implications of global change on the Dry Valley terrestrial systems and how these effects might be manifested in the future.     

A niche for ecosystem multifunctionality in global change research

Concern about human modification of Earth's ecosystems has recently motivated ecologists to address how global change drivers will impact the simultaneous provisioning of multiple functions, termed ecosystem multifunctionality (EMF). However, metrics of EMF have often been applied in global change studies with little consideration of the information they provide beyond single functions, or how and why EMF may respond to global change drivers. Here, we critically review the current state of this rapidly expanding field and provide a conceptual framework to guide the effective incorporation of EMF in global change research. In particular, we emphasize the need for a priori identification and explicit testing of the biotic and abiotic mechanisms through which global change drivers impact EMF, as well as assessing correlations among multiple single functions because these patterns underlie shifts in EMF. While the role of biodiversity in mediating global change effects on EMF has justifiably received much attention, empirical support for effects via other biotic and physicochemical mechanisms are also needed. Studies also frequently stated the importance of measuring EMF responses to global change drivers to understand the potential consequences for multiple ecosystem services, but explicit links between measured functions and ecosystem services were missing from many such studies. While there is clear potential for EMF to provide novel insights to global change research, predictive understanding will be greatly improved by insuring future research is strongly hypothesis‐driven, is designed to explicitly test multiple abiotic and biotic mechanisms, and assesses how single functions and their covariation drive emergent EMF responses to global change drivers.     

The impact of ecological restoration on ecosystem services change modulated by drought and rising CO2

Ecological restoration projects (ERPs) are an indispensable component of natural climate solutions and have proven to be very important for reversing environmental degradation in vulnerable regions and enhancing ecosystem services. However, the level of enhancement would be inevitably influenced by global drought and rising CO₂, which remain less investigated. In this study, we took the Beijing-Tianjin sand source region (which has experienced long-term ERPs), China, as an example and combined the process-based Biome-BGCMuSo model to set multiple scenarios to address this issue. We found ERP-induced carbon sequestration (CS), water retention (WR), soil retention (SR), and sandstorm prevention (SP) increased by 22.21%, 2.87%, 2.35%, and 28.77%, respectively. Moreover, the ecosystem services promotion from afforestation was greater than that from grassland planting. Approximately 91.41%, 98.13%, and 64.51% of the increased CS, SR, and SP were contributed by afforestation. However, afforestation also caused the WR to decline. Although rising CO₂ amplified ecosystem services contributed by ERPs, it was almost totally offset by drought. The contribution of ERPs to CS, WR, SR, and SP was reduced by 5.74%, 32.62%, 11.74%, and 14.86%, respectively, under combined drought and rising CO₂. Our results confirmed the importance of ERPs in strengthening ecosystem services provision. Furthermore, we provide a quantitative way to understand the influence rate of drought and rising CO₂ on ERP-induced ecosystem service dynamics. In addition, the considerable negative climate change impact implied that restoration strategies should be optimized to improve ecosystem resilience to better combat negative climate change impacts.     

Impacts of recent climate change on terrestrial flora and fauna: Some emerging Australian examples

The effects of anthropogenic climate change on biodiversity are well known for some high‐profile Australian marine systems, including coral bleaching and kelp forest devastation. Less well‐published are the impacts of climate change being observed in terrestrial ecosystems, although ecological models have predicted substantial changes are likely. Detecting and attributing terrestrial changes to anthropogenic factors is difficult due to the ecological importance of extreme conditions, the noisy nature of short‐term data collected with limited resources, and complexities introduced by biotic interactions. Here, we provide a suite of case studies that have considered possible impacts of anthropogenic climate change on Australian terrestrial systems. Our intention is to provide a diverse collection of stories illustrating how Australian flora and fauna are likely responding to direct and indirect effects of anthropogenic climate change. We aim to raise awareness rather than be comprehensive. We include case studies covering canopy dieback in forests, compositional shifts in vegetation, positive feedbacks between climate, vegetation and disturbance regimes, local extinctions in plants, size changes in birds, phenological shifts in reproduction and shifting biotic interactions that threaten communities and endangered species. Some of these changes are direct and clear cut, others are indirect and less clearly connected to climate change; however, all are important in providing insights into the future state of terrestrial ecosystems. We also highlight some of the management issues relevant to conserving terrestrial communities and ecosystems in the face of anthropogenic climate change.     

不同生态恢复方式下生态系统服务与生物多样性恢复效果的整合分析

全球范围内关键生态系统服务的减少使人类社会面临巨大的威胁,生物多样性是生态系统提供各种产品和服务的基础。生态恢复工程对退化的生态系统服务和生物多样性进行修复,对于缓解人类环境压力具有非常重要的意义。长期的理论和实践工作形成了多种生态恢复措施:(1)单纯基于生态系统自我设计的自然恢复方式,(2)人为设计对环境条件进行干预,反馈影响生态系统的自我设计,(3)人为设计对目标种群和生态系统进行直接干预和重建。这3类恢复方式可以在不同程度上定向的影响生态系统的恢复进程,反映了人类对生态系统的低度、中度和高度介入。哪种恢复方式和介入程度能够实现更好的恢复效果,是生态恢复学中的一个关键问题,但到目前为止,虽广有争议,却无定量的分析和结论。针对这个空白,通过对ISI Web of Knowledge数据库中生态恢复相关文献的整合分析,基于数学统计的方法定量比较在不同条件下低度介入(自然恢复)、中度介入(环境干预)和高度介入(直接干预)3种恢复方式对生态系统服务与生物多样性的恢复效果。论文从4个方面展开研究:(1)低度、中度、高度介入生态恢复方式的划分,(2)比较3大类介入方式对生态系统服务和生物多样性恢复效果的差异,(3)不同气候条件、生态系统类型和恢复时间等背景因素的影响,(4)生物多样性恢复和生态系统服务恢复之间的关系。研究结果揭示了不同生态恢复方式的适用条件,以及对生物多样性和生态系统恢复相互关系的作用,对生态恢复实践中恢复方式的选择有指导作用。对未来的研究也有启示意义,如针对特定生态系统服务或具体研究问题进一步探索低度、中度和高度介入生态恢复方式的作用规律和机制;将地区的社会经济水平、生态系统的受损程度等因素纳入生态恢复方式的考察,以最优化生态恢复成本-效率等。     

生态系统服务的生态学机制研究进展

全面认识和理解生态系统服务的生态学机制是加强生态系统服务功能管理的前提,但目前从生态系统服务的生态学机制研究中提供给管理者的信息还非常有限.针对生态系统服务功能的物质基础(生境、生态系统结构和生态系统过程),目前生态系统服务的生态学机制研究主要集中在3个方面:生物多样性与生态系统服务功能关系;生态系统服务功能的时空尺度特征;气候和土地利用变化对生态系统服务功能的影响机制.在综述上述3方面进展的基础上,提出了今后的研究方向.     

基于生态系统服务的生态安全格局构建与生态韧性评估——以长株潭城市群为例

构建生态安全格局对于保障区域生态安全、优化国土生态空间具有重要意义,科学评估生态韧性是城市高质量发展的重要议题之一。以长株潭城市群为研究对象,基于"源地识别-阻力面构建-廊道提取"的生态安全格局构建模式,定量评估固碳释氧、土壤保持和水源涵养三项生态系统服务功能以识别源地,结合自然和人为因素构建阻力面,使用Linkage Mapper工具基于最小成本路径理论识别生态廊道,提出了一套基于生态安全格局构建过程的生态韧性评估框架,并结合Fragstats和Conefor Sensinode软件对其进行综合评价。研究结果显示:(1)长株潭城市群共55块生态源地,面积为7747.75km²,占城市群总面积的27.58%,东部和南部源地较为集中,西部较分散,林地是生态源地的主要组成部分;生态廊道共113条,廊道总长度为1458.97km,平均长度为12.91km,主要分布于研究区西部和北部。(2)结合生态源地和生态廊道构建了长株潭城市群"一心一环"生态安全格局,可有效缓解长株潭城市群中部生态用地 "空心化"的格局。(3)研究区55块生态源地的韧性指数介于0.1265-0.4682之间,空间上呈现出东高西低,南高北低的特征;113条生态廊道的韧性指数介于0.0027-0.8002之间,韧性指数较高的廊道主要分布在研究区东部和南部,韧性指数较低的廊道分布在西部、中部和北部。西部和中部或将成为影响长株潭城市群生态安全的关键区域,在城市规划过程中应重点关注。研究结果对优化城市空间布局、维护区域生态安全和促进区域一体化发展具有重要意义,并为区域生态韧性的评估提供了新的思路。     

Quantifying resilience of multiple ecosystem services and biodiversity in a temperate forest landscape

Resilience is increasingly being considered as a new paradigm of forest management among scientists, practitioners, and policymakers. However, metrics of resilience to environmental change are lacking. Faced with novel disturbances, forests may be able to sustain existing ecosystem services and biodiversity by exhibiting resilience, or alternatively these attributes may undergo either a linear or nonlinear decline. Here we provide a novel quantitative approach for assessing forest resilience that focuses on three components of resilience, namely resistance, recovery, and net change, using a spatially explicit model of forest dynamics. Under the pulse set scenarios, we explored the resilience of nine ecosystem services and four biodiversity measures following a one‐off disturbance applied to an increasing percentage of forest area. Under the pulse + press set scenarios, the six disturbance intensities explored during the pulse set were followed by a continuous disturbance. We detected thresholds in net change under pulse + press scenarios for the majority of the ecosystem services and biodiversity measures, which started to decline sharply when disturbance affected >40% of the landscape. Thresholds in net change were not observed under the pulse scenarios, with the exception of timber volume and ground flora species richness. Thresholds were most pronounced for aboveground biomass, timber volume with respect to the ecosystem services, and ectomycorrhizal fungi and ground flora species richness with respect to the biodiversity measures. Synthesis and applications. The approach presented here illustrates how the multidimensionality of stability research in ecology can be addressed and how forest resilience can be estimated in practice. Managers should adopt specific management actions to support each of the three components of resilience separately, as these may respond differently to disturbance. In addition, management interventions aiming to deliver resilience should incorporate an assessment of both pulse and press disturbances to ensure detection of threshold responses to disturbance, so that appropriate management interventions can be identified.     

Combined effects of climate and biotic interactions on the elevational range of a phytophagous insect

1. The ranges of many species have expanded in cool regions but contracted at warm margins in response to recent climate warming, but the mechanisms behind such changes remain unclear. Particular debate concerns the roles of direct climatic limitation vs. the effects of interacting species in explaining the location of low latitude or low elevation range margins. 2. The mountains of the Sierra de Guadarrama (central Spain) include both cool and warm range margins for the black-veined white butterfly, Aporia crataegi, which has disappeared from low elevations since the 1970s without colonizing the highest elevations. 3. We found that the current upper elevation limit to A. crataegi's distribution coincided closely with that of its host plants, but that the species was absent from elevations below 900 m, even where host plants were present. The density of A. crataegi per host plant increased with elevation, but overall abundance of the species declined at high elevations where host plants were rare. 4. The flight period of A. crataegi was later at higher elevations, meaning that butterflies in higher populations flew at hotter times of year; nevertheless, daytime temperatures for the month of peak flight decreased by 6.2 degrees C per 1 km increase in elevation. 5. At higher elevations A. crataegi eggs were laid on the south side of host plants (expected to correspond to hotter microclimates), whereas at lower sites the (cooler) north side of plants was selected. Field transplant experiments showed that egg survival increased with elevation. 6. Climatic limitation is the most likely explanation for the low elevation range margin of A. crataegi, whereas the absence of host plants from high elevations sets the upper limit. This contrasts with the frequent assumption that biotic interactions typically determine warm range margins, and thermal limitation cool margins. 7. Studies that have modelled distribution changes in response to climate change may have underestimated declines for many specialist species, because range contractions will be exacerbated by mismatch between the future distribution of suitable climate space and the availability of resources such as host plants.     

新疆玛纳斯河流域冰川生态系统服务功能价值评估

冰川在干旱区内陆河流域中具有极其重要的生态作用,为流域发展提供着巨大的服务功能.然而,在全球气候变暖的影响下,冰川退缩将导致冰川生态系统服务功能降低.应用GIS空间分析技术分析了玛纳斯河流域从1964年至2006年冰川面积变化,并评估其生态系统服务功能价值变化.结果表明,在全球变暖的影响下,流域冰川生态系统服务功能总价值急剧下降.流域冰川面积从1964年557.1km2退缩到2006年的464.1km2,面积减少了16.7%.冰川生态系统服务功能价值从1964年的1228.5×108元下降到2006年的960.1×108元.冰川退缩改变了流域的水资源分布特征,导致冰川生态系统服务功能价值下降.在未来的流域发展规划中,应高度重视冰川变化产生的生态效应.     

IPBES的建立、前景及应对策略

生物多样性和生态系统服务政府间科学-政策平台(IPBES)是一个类似于气候变化专门委员会(IPCC)的独立的政府间机构,其目标是建立科学界和决策者之间的沟通平台,推动全球生物多样性和生态系统服务的保护.从2008年11月到2010年6月,联合国环境规划署(UNEP)主持召开了三次政府间谈判会议.在最后一次会议上各国同意建立IPBES,并形成了一份《釜山成果》文件,确定其基本职能主要是开展评估,还确定IPBES的决策机构是全体会议,向联合国所有会员国和区域经济一体化组织开放,政府间组织和其他利益相关方可作为观察员.IPBES的建立将会在国际社会产生深刻的影响,但其未来走向也有一定的不确定性:一是如何保持科学独立性的问题,二是评估尺度可能会影响其成功,三是能否促进发展中国家的广泛参与.为使我国能在IPBES中发挥重要作用,建议今后应加强对IPBES运作模式的研究,加强评估工具和方法的开发以及加强生物多样性的监测.     

面向生态系统服务的森林生态系统经营:现状、挑战与展望

森林生态系统是地球陆地生态系统的主体,它具有很高的生物生产力和生物量以及丰富的生物多样性,对全球生态系统和人类经济社会发展起着至关重要和无可替代的作用。伴随着人口的不断增长和经济社会的迅猛发展,对森林资源和森林生态系统服务的需求不断高涨,而且人类对森林资源价值的认识也发生了很大程度的改变。推进森林资源可持续经营,增加森林总量、提高森林质量、增强生态功能,已成为中国林业可持续发展乃至推进中国生态文明建设和建设美丽中国的战略任务。本文全面综述了森林生态系统经营发展历程,分析了森林生态系统经营的现状和存在问题,在此基础上,提出整合基于生态系统管理与满足现代人类福祉对森林多重需求的新的森林生态系统经营理念,面向生态系统服务的森林生态系统经营理念是未来的发展趋势。森林经营发展战略表现为:1)从单纯的森林面积数量扩张,转变到提高单位面积的森林生产力和森林质量;2)从单一追求木材生产逐步转变为多目标经营,将森林林产品单一的经营目标转变为广泛的生态、经济和社会等多目标经营;3)森林经营重点从林分水平转变为森林景观的经营,强调森林景观的时空异质性和动态变化,权衡和协同多种生态系统的服务功能,倡导森林景观的多样性和连通性,提高森林与其它土地利用模式镶嵌构成的复合景观的可持续性和稳定性,增强森林生态系统对气候变化影响的适应能力;4)森林生态系统经营将从依赖传统经验的主观决策转变为信息化、数字化和智能化的决策,发展森林生态系统经营决策支持系统和森林景观恢复与空间经营规划系统。     

Understanding relationships among multiple ecosystem services

Ecosystem management that attempts to maximize the production of one ecosystem service often results in substantial declines in the provision of other ecosystem services. For this reason, recent studies have called for increased attention to development of a theoretical understanding behind the relationships among ecosystem services. Here, we review the literature on ecosystem services and propose a typology of relationships between ecosystem services based on the role of drivers and the interactions between services. We use this typology to develop three propositions to help drive ecological science towards a better understanding of the relationships among multiple ecosystem services. Research which aims to understand the relationships among multiple ecosystem services and the mechanisms behind these relationships will improve our ability to sustainably manage landscapes to provide multiple ecosystem services.     

Multiple stressors on biotic interactions: how climate change and alien species interact to affect pollination

Global change may substantially affect biodiversity and ecosystem functioning but little is known about its effects on essential biotic interactions. Since different environmental drivers rarely act in isolation it is important to consider interactive effects. Here, we focus on how two key drivers of anthropogenic environmental change, climate change and the introduction of alien species, affect plant–pollinator interactions. Based on a literature survey we identify climatically sensitive aspects of species interactions, assess potential effects of climate change on these mechanisms, and derive hypotheses that may form the basis of future research. We find that both climate change and alien species will ultimately lead to the creation of novel communities. In these communities certain interactions may no longer occur while there will also be potential for the emergence of new relationships. Alien species can both partly compensate for the often negative effects of climate change but also amplify them in some cases. Since potential positive effects are often restricted to generalist interactions among species, climate change and alien species in combination can result in significant threats to more specialist interactions involving native species.     

Response diversity,nonnative species,and disassembly rules buffer freshwater ecosystem processes from anthropogenic change

Integrating knowledge of environmental degradation, biodiversity change, and ecosystem processes across large spatial scales remains a key challenge to illuminating the resilience of earth's systems. There is now a growing realization that the manner in which communities will respond to anthropogenic impacts will ultimately control the ecosystem consequences. Here, we examine the response of freshwater fishes and their nutrient excretion – a key ecosystem process that can control aquatic productivity – to human land development across the contiguous United States. By linking a continental‐scale dataset of 533 fish species from 8100 stream locations with species functional traits, nutrient excretion, and land remote sensing, we present four key findings. First, we provide the first geographic footprint of nutrient excretion by freshwater fishes across the United States and reveal distinct local‐ and continental‐scale heterogeneity in community excretion rates. Second, fish species exhibited substantial response diversity in their sensitivity to land development; for native species, the more tolerant species were also the species contributing greater ecosystem function in terms of nutrient excretion. Third, by modeling increased land‐use change and resultant shifts in fish community composition, land development is estimated to decrease fish nutrient excretion in the majority (63%) of ecoregions. Fourth, the loss of nutrient excretion would be 28% greater if biodiversity loss was random or 84% greater if there were no nonnative species. Thus, ecosystem processes are sensitive to increased anthropogenic degradation but biotic communities provide multiple pathways for resistance and this resistance varies across space.