Suchergebnisse

Soil Provisioning Ecosystem Services /Brian D. Strahm and Nicholas B. Comerford --Soil Ecosystem Services and Natural Capital /Mary Stromberger, Nick Comerford and David Lindbo --Biogeochemical Processes Underpin Ecosystem Services /Owen W. Duckworth, Alan J. Franzluebbers and Terrence G. Gardner --Interactions of Soils and Land Uses with Water Quantity and Quality /L.A. Morris and C.R. Jackson --A Primer on the Valuation of Ecosystem Services /Alba María Orellana González, Nick Comerford and José R. Suay --Monitoring Soil Natural Capital and Ecosystem Services by Using Large-Scale Survey Data /Aidan M. Keith, Robert I. Griffiths, Peter A. Henrys, Steve Hughes, Inma Lebron, Lindsay C. Maskell, Stephen M. Ogle, David A. Robinson, Ed C. Rowe, Simon M. Smart, Dave Spurgeon, Claire M. Wood and Bridget A. Emmett --Applications of Natural Products from Soil Microbes /Yi Zhang, Rosemary Loria and Yousong Ding.

A very important factor for sustainable development is a balance between the exploitation of natural resources for socio-economic development, and conserving ecosystem services that are critical to everyone's wellbeing and livelihoods. The strategical importance of ecosystem services is set by the UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment in 2005, which put ecosystem services firmly on the policy agenda and the EU Biodiversity Strategy, which states that "Member States must map and assess the state of ecosystems and their services in their national territory by 2014, assess the economic value of such services, and promote the integration of these values into accounting and reporting systems at EU and national level by 2020". The aim of the paper is to present and discuss the approach of ecosystem services assessment for sustainable land use and strategical development scenarios. The paper will focus on the role of ecosystem services in development and spatial planning, and this approach can be integrated in planning processes and decision making. There will be presented a case study for two coastal territories in Latvia, where an ecosystem services assessment was implemented and sequentially different development scenarios considered and analysed.

The ecosystem services approach has attracted tremendous attention from policymaking, planning and interdisciplinary sciences over the last decades. Despite its broad acknowledgement worldwide, there are a number of well-known conceptual and methodological limitations that impair its use and practical operationalisation. A brief discussion of these deficits is conducted from the integrated perspective of natural and social sciences. The paper then critically addresses the question of whether and to what extent the diversity, complexity and hybridity of the human-nature context should be shaped into a uniform scheme, disregarding the differing scales of the social, economic and ecological processes, functions and the trade-offs between them.

The increased salience of how to value ecosystems services has driven up the demand for policy-relevant knowledge. It is clear that advice by epistemic communities can show up in policy outcomes, yet little systematic analysis exists prescribing how this can actually be achieved. This paper draws on four decades of knowledge utilisation research to propose four types of 'possible expert' who might be influential on ecosystems services. Broad findings of a literature review on knowledge use in public policy are reported, and the four-fold conceptualisation pioneered by Carol Weiss that defines the literature is outlined. The field is then systematised by placing these four modes of knowledge use within an explanatory typology of policy learning. With how, when, and why experts and their knowledge are likely to show up in policy outcomes established, the paper then proposes the boundaries of the possible in how the ecosystems services epistemic community might navigate the challenges associated with each learning mode. Four possible experts emerge: with political antenna and epistemic humility; with the ability to speak locally and early to the hearts and minds of citizens; with a willingness to advocate policy; and, finally, with an enhanced institutional awareness and peripheral policy vision. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of the utility of the analysis.

Information about the effect of land management on ecosystem services is essential to make balanced decisions, develop sustainable political strategies, and determine future scenarios. Previous methods and tools have been developed to analyze the effects of land use/land cover on ecosystem services. Nevertheless, being able to model the uncertainties, complexities, interconnections, and different interactions between multiple drivers of change in future scenario analysis are still a challenge in ecosystem service research. Modelling ecosystem service trade-offs and synergies and evaluating their use in scenario analysis are important issues that require more understanding. Therefore, this study explores the link and relationships among scenarios, models, and ecosystem services that support the decision-making processes. Based on electronic database publications, a conceptual framework illustrating the key components of this approach is presented. Further implications in terms of innovative tools that aim to identify pathways towards sustainable and balanced land use are also presented. It was concluded that spatial modelling of ecosystem services relationships associated with scenario building allows decision makers to better understand the complex interactions that occur in social-ecological systems. This approach brings important elements to set decisions, strategies, regulations, and policies for holistic land-use planning and management at different scales, notably in Brazil, a large and environmentally diversified country.