Soil ecosystem services in different land use types in coastal Ecuador
Soils provide ecosystem services which are natural functions of an ecosystem that can also be used for the benefits of humans. In recent years there is an increasing awareness that ecosystem services are important for human well being, however the ecosystem services that soils provide are not well quantified. In the present thesis some ecosystem services provided by soils are quantified in several study areas of coastal Ecuador. Furthermore the impact of different land uses on these ecosystem services is investigated. The different chapters of this thesis are the result of two different projects that focused on the implementation of payment for ecosystem services for soil C sequestration and biodiversity, which is illustrated by the contents of the different chapters: (1) stabilization mechanisms of soil carbon, which can help to predict the soil C sink function under different land use change scenarios; (2) the influence of soil and landscape characteristics on plant ...