Cascading extinctions, functional complementarity, and selection in two-trophic-level model communities: A trait-based mechanistic approach

The influence of diversity on ecosystem functioning and ecosystem services is now well established. Yet predictive mechanistic models that link species traits and community-level processes remain scarce, particularly for multitrophic systems. Here we revisit MacArthur's classical consumer resource model and develop a trait-based approach to predict the effects of consumer diversity on cascading extinctions and aggregated ecosystem processes in a two-trophic-level system. We show that functionally redundant efficient consumers generate top-down cascading extinctions. This counterintuitive result reveals the limits of the functional redundancy concept to predict the consequences of species deletion. Our model also predicts that the biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationship is different for different ecosystem processes and depends on the range of variation of consumer traits in the regional species pool, which determines the sign of selection effects. Lastly, competition among resources and consumer generalism both weaken complementarity effects, which suggests that selection effects may prevail at higher trophic levels. Our work emphasizes the potential of trait-based approaches for transforming biodiversity and ecosystem functioning research into a more predictive science.     

Questioning the ecosystem services argument for biodiversity conservation

One of the central justifications for the conservation of biodiversity is the notion that species diversity is essential for the maintenance of ecosystem services. However, an important observation overlooked by proponents of this argument is that most ecosystem services are provided not by whole ecosystems, but by any group of species that fulfils certain basic functional criteria. Distinguishing between services that are resilient in response to species decline, and those that are not, is a far less challenging task than identifying the precise influence on ecosystem functioning of rare species. Conservationists have been almost unanimous in their failure to acknowledge this distinction between resilient and sensitive ecosystem services. Not only does this threaten the credibility of conservation science, but also increases the likelihood that natural area management becomes hijacked by the demand that ecosystem service provision be made the dominant management criteria.     

黄淮海湿地生态系统服务与生物多样性保护格局的耦合性

研究生物多样性格局与生态系统服务格局之间的空间耦合效应,探讨以生物多样性保育为核心目标的自然保护体系同时能多大程度满足对生态系统服务功能的维护和支撑,已成为自然保护领域新的热点关注问题。目前研究多限于陆域生态系统,其方法难以适用于湿地生态系统。以黄淮海湿地——这一高强度人类活动的区域为研究区,基于湿地生态系统的横向连接度、纵向连接度(2D)以及结合地下水的垂向连接度(3D),对黄淮海地区湿地具有的生态系统服务功能进行了空间评估和分析,识别出具有重要意义的生态系统服务功能区域,结合现有保护区分布情况进行空间分析,评价现有保护区对生态系统服务功能的支持程度,即生物多样性保护与生态系统服务功能重点区域的空间耦合性。研究结果表明:目前湿地保护区并未有效覆盖湿地生态系统关键区域,湿地生态系统服务关键格局也存在大量明显的保护空缺。同时,随着2D到3D延伸,保护区对生态系统服务功能的支持程度也稍有提高,这与系统保护规划中选择不同保护目标后保护规划格局发生变化的情况类似,而生态系统服务功能的\"热点地区\"(重要区域)与保护生物学中所指的物种保护的热点地区类似,这表明生态系统服务功能的规划和保护也可以借鉴保护生物学中系统保护规划的理论和方法,为后续研究提供参照。     

Looking to the Future of Ecosystem Services

Ecosystem services—the benefits that people obtain from ecosystems—are essential to human existence, but demands for services often surpass the capacity of ecosystems to provide them. Lack of ecological information often precludes informed decision making about ecosystem services. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) was conceived in part to provide the necessary ecological information to decision makers. To this end, the MA set out to address the stated needs and concerns of decision makers and examine the ecological dynamics and uncertainties underlying these concerns. To improve our understanding of their information needs and concerns, we interviewed 59 decision makers from five continents. The respondents indicated that although most people generally agree about the ideal state of the planet—free of poverty and extreme inequality, replete with cultural and biological diversity—they often disagree about the best way to achieve these goals. Further, although nonspecialists are generally concerned about the environment and may have a good understanding of some of issues, they often have a more limited grasp of the ecological dynamics that drive the issues of concern. We identify some of the principal uncertainties about ecosystem dynamics and feedbacks that underlie the concerns of decision makers. Each of the papers in this special feature addresses these ecological feedbacks from the perspective of a specific discipline, suggesting ways in which knowledge of ecological dynamics can be incorporated into the MA’s assessment and scenario-building process.     

基于文献计量的草地生态补偿效益与影响因素研究进展

草地生态补偿致力于保护草地生态系统服务数量和质量,同时提高畜牧业的经济可行性,是实现草地生态系统可持续管理的重要政策之一。梳理世界范围内草地生态补偿研究,综述生态补偿是否解决草地生态系统已有问题以及归纳其影响因素,对探寻未来草地生态补偿的发展方向具有重要意义。以草地生态补偿为主题,利用Web of Science数据库收集了2007年至2022年共69个案例,已有研究以公共产品、生态系统服务价值和社会生态系统3个理论为基础,重点关注草地补偿的生态效益、社会经济效益和影响因素,发文量占比分别为34.78%、17.39%、43.48%。主要结果如下:草地生态补偿的生态效益以恢复草地面积与质量、保护物种多样性和提升草地多种生态系统服务为主;社会经济效益重点包括增加牧户经济收入和改善以传统畜牧业为主的生计结构;影响因素以牧民主观认知、牧户客观条件、牧区生态环境、社会政策背景及补偿支付方式为主。建议未来草地生态补偿研究可从不同类型生态系统服务效益间的权衡、牧民为重要利益相关者行为的影响、生态目标和牧民需求导向的支付方式多样性3个方面重点探索。     

Ecological restoration: A new frontier for nature conservation and economics

Ecological restoration is still perceived by many conservationists, and the majority of economists, as a diversion, a delusion, and – far worse – a waste of money. In this paper we point out that restoration is in fact complementary not only to nature conservation but also to sustainable, equitable socio-economic development. This is because restoring and augmenting the natural capital base generates jobs and improves livelihoods and the quality of life of all in the economy.

In developing countries, where most biodiversity hotspots occur, both conservation of nature and the restoration of degraded ecosystems will find local support only if they are clearly linked to socio-economic development. Conversely, sound socio-economic development in the environmentally damaged portions of those countries undoubtedly will require ecological restoration of the natural capital base. Nature conservation, ecological restoration, and sustainable economic development policies should therefore be planned, budgeted and executed conjointly.     

Educational values and services of ecosystems and landscapes – An overview

Education is one of the multiple services that ecosystems and landscapes provide to societies. Despite its importance to formal and informal learning and nature-based, cognitive tourism, it is hardly taken into account in the various quantification approaches of ecosystem services. The article provides an overview of landscape educational values and the educational ecosystem service. Here, the forms of the use of landscape educational values have been summarised and the indicators for the quantification of the educational ecosystem service proposed in the literature reviewed. The criteria for the evaluation of the educational values of landscape were acquired from the literature and discussed. In order to obtain more practical viewpoints on those criteria, an exploratory survey with young experts (n = 37) from two universities of environmental sciences was conducted. Within this step, the expert method for the evaluation of the educational values of landscapes was applied. However, the results show an extremely high level of subjectivity and dependence on personal experience regarding outdoor environmental education. Nonetheless, the article can contribute to acquiring knowledge in cultural ecosystem service assessment and the application of this concept, especially in terms of the criteria and indicators which can be potentially used for the assessments.     

Introduction to the Special Issue “Functional monitoring in megadiverse tropical ecosystems”

Land-use and climate change are major threats to biodiversity and ecosystem functions. Most of the current biodiversity monitoring systems are based on periodic records of the populations of a set of threatened or popular ‘flagship’ indicator species. In contrast to the abundance-based monitoring of species, also specific indicators of processes and functional interactions in an ecosystem may become targets of a more functional monitoring which can unveil early responses of an ecosystem to environmental changes at different spatial and temporal scales. The contributions of this Special Issue present such functional indicators for assessing and predicting responses to environmental changes of ecosystem functions in a hotspot of tropical biodiversity.     

城市生态系统修复研究进展

城市生态系统是社会-经济-自然复合生态系统。城市生态系统修复的实质是协调好城市复合生态系统的自然过程、经济过程和社会过程之间的关系,促进复合生态系统的各方面协调高效可持续发展。以城市绿地、城市湿地、城市废弃地三类主要的城市生态空间为对象,论述了城市生态系统修复的研究进展,提出当前城市生态系统修复存在以人工修复技术为主、自然修复不足、机理和量化研究缺乏、理论和应用脱节、管理机制不健全、复合生态系统理论体现不足等问题。梳理了当前城市生态系统修复的研究热点,包括城市生态系统修复机理、城市生态资产与生态系统服务、城市生态系统质量和健康、问题导向的生态修复、面向人类福祉的生态修复、生态修复多学科融贯,以及新方法和新技术的应用等几个方面。提出了城市生态修复与管理的相关对策和建议,可为我国城市生态系统修复的研究和实践提供参考。