Assessing Regional-Scale Impacts of Short Rotation Coppices on Ecosystem Services by Modeling Land-Use Decisions

Measuring changes in financial and ecosystems service outcomes with simulated grassland restoration in a Corn Belt watershed

While provisioning ecosystem services generated through agricultural production are high, this often comes at the expense of other ecosystem services. Approaches that support both farm income and a balanced array of ecosystem services are needed. We employed a landscape modeling approach to demonstrate the financial and ecosystem service outcomes of strategically restoring grassland cover within a Corn Belt agricultural watershed. We assessed potential changes associated with a “Baseline” land use scenario and two alternative scenarios for the Grand River Basin (Iowa and Missouri, USA). In a “Buffered” scenario we simulated the impacts of replacing cropland within 20 m of streams with restored native grassland cover. In a “Productivity-based” scenario we simulated the replacement of annual row crops on poorly performing croplands with native grassland cover. Grasslands comprised 0.4% of the Baseline scenario. Grassland was expanded to 0.8% of the watershed in the Buffered scenario, reducing annual nutrient and sediment loss by 1.44%, increasing soil carbon sequestration by 0.12% over 10 years, and increasing pollinator abundance by 0.01%. The estimated annual value of these enhancements was $1.7 million for nitrogen reduction, $0.1 million for phosphorus reduction, $0.5 million for sediment reduction, and $1.3 million for soil carbon sequestration. Grassland comprised 4.9% of the watershed in the Productivity-based scenario, reduced annual nutrient and sediment loss by 11.50%, increased soil carbon sequestration by 1.13% over 10 years, and increased pollinator abundance by 0.42%. The estimated annual value of enhancements was $18 million for nitrogen reduction, $1.4 million for phosphorus reduction, $2.5 million for sediment reduction, and $14 million for soil carbon sequestration. We also calculated the value of grassland biomass for a potential energy market. The benefit of producing and selling grassland biomass ranged -$445 to $1,291 ha−1 yr−1. Scaled to the watershed, annual revenues ranged -$7.3 million to $21.1 million for the Buffered scenario and -$44.2 million to $128.8 million for the Productivity-based scenario. This study was the first to quantify changes in revenue and the value of ecosystem services associated with grassland restoration in the Grand River Basin and can help inform discussion among watershed stakeholders.

Analyzing the Interrelationships among Various Ecosystem Services from the Perspective of Ecosystem Service Bundles in Shenyang, China

An understanding of the relationships among multiple ecosystem services (ES) facilitates ecosystem management and decision-making. The study of ES bundles can well explain the complex interactions between different ES in a region. Shenyang is a significant economic development and food production area in Northeast China, with a diverse range of ES types. In this study, we quantified eleven ES from Shenyang, China (two provisioning services, eight regulating services, and one cultural service). The trade-offs and synergies among ES were analyzed by Spearman’s correlation analysis. The ES bundles were identified using principal component analysis and k-means cluster analysis. Finally, the random forest method was employed to identify the driving factors affecting the ES bundles. The results showed: (1) all ES in Shenyang improved between 2000 and 2019; (2) the most obvious trade-off was found between sand fixation and water conservation; (3) the ES in the study region could be clustered into five different ES bundles which were primarily affected by land-use type; and (4) social-ecological factors largely explained and predicted the formation and distribution of ES bundles. The study provides reference information for the management and optimization of Shenyang’s ecosystems and land use regulation.

Spatial relationships between ecosystem services and socioecological drivers across a large-scale region: A case study in the Yellow River Basin

Understanding the relationships between ecosystem services (ES) and their underlying socioecological drivers is essential for forming the efficient management decisions of ecosystems. We use a large watershed area as a case-study to analyze trade-offs/synergies and bundles of ESs and identify the associated socioecological variables (SEVs). This study assessed the supply of 7 ES indicators, namely, three provisioning services (crop production, livestock production, and industrial production), three regulating services (water conservation, soil conservation, and carbon sequestration), and one cultural service (recreation), across 65 municipalities in the Yellow River Basin (YRB) in China. We analyzed the paired trade-offs/synergies using Spearman's coefficient and identified the ES bundles (ESBs) by applying principal component analysis and K-means clustering. Subsequently, we detected the SEVs that affect the ES supply using the geo-detector model and characterized the associations between ESBs and socioecological clusters according to the spatial overlap. The results demonstrated that the synergies between ESs substantially exceeded the trade-offs, among which the strongest synergies were between the crop production and the livestock production, and both responded strongly to the cropland and the population density. Trade-offs were identified between provisioning services and soil conservation. Municipalities were grouped into three ESBs in the YRB. The ESB, which was dominated by provisioning ESs, was associated with areas where cropland, precipitation and socioeconomic conditions were all important, and the regulation of ESB was linked to regions with distinct ecological characteristics. We also identified an ESB that was dominated by carbon sequestration, as determined by extensive grassland and bare land. The land use/land cover strongly affected the characteristics of the ESBs. The findings can be used by land managers to identify areas in which ESs are dominant, to determine the associations of these compositions of the ESs with SEVs, and to support the formulation of optimal ES management in large-scale basins.

Multifunctionality of Forests: A White Paper on Challenges and Opportunities in China and Germany

Both in Germany and in China, there is strong expertise regarding the different aspects of forest management, as well as forest products management. Nevertheless, forestry in both countries is facing challenges, some of which are regional, but many of which are shared. Therefore, experts from both countries (Technical University of Munich Germany; Northwest A&F University Yangling, China; Forestry Academy of Shaanxi, China; Thünen Institut, Germany; FEDRC GIZ Forest Policy Facility (Forestry Economics Development and Research Center of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH), Germany; and Center for Natural Forest Protection in Shaanxi, China) met to share their knowledge and deduce recommendations for future multifunctional forest management for the temperate zone. The workshop, held at the Northwest A&F University in September 2018, included presentations and intensive discussions, as well as a field tour. The results of the workshop that are summarized in this white paper are meant to provide an overview of the multi-faceted nature of the topic for interested scientists and forest practitioners, describe tools that can be used to analyze various aspects of multifunctionality and, in an exemplary fashion, highlight gathered experience from long- and short-term experiments. Included are social demands, economic goals, and scientific baselines. The topics reach from economic evaluations of forest ecosystem services over forest management practices, including afforestation, restoration, and preparations to face climate change, to wood/forest products utilization and participation of local people for poverty reduction. Overall, an optimistic picture emerges, showing that by using adapted forest management practices, which try to embrace the concept of multifunctionality, various use schemes and demands can be integrated at single sites, allowing us to achieve both environmental protection and productive forests, including societal demands, as well as aspects of tradition and national identity.

Spatially explicit LCA analysis of biodiversity losses due to different bioenergy policies in the European Union

In this study, the potential global loss of species directly associated with land use in the EU and due to trade with other regions is computed over time, in order to reveal differences in impacts between the considered alternatives of plausible bioenergy policies development in the EU. The spatially explicit study combines a life cycle analysis (LCA) for biodiversity impact assessment with a global high resolution economic land use model. Both impacts of domestic land use and impacts through imports were included for estimating the biodiversity footprint of the member states of the (EU28). The analyzed scenarios assumed similar biomass demand until 2020 but differed thereafter, from keeping the growth of demand for bioenergy constant (CONST), to a strong increase of bioenergy in line with the EU target of decreasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 80% by 2050 (EMIRED) and with the baseline (BASE) scenario falling between the other two. As a general trend, the increasing demand for biomass was found to have substantial impact on biodiversity in all scenarios, while the differences between the scenarios were found to be modest. The share caused by imports was 15% of the overall biodiversity impacts detected in this study in the year 2000, and progressively increased to 24% to 26% in 2050, depending on the scenario. The most prominent future change in domestic land use in all scenarios was the expansion of perennial cultivations for energy. In the EMIRED scenario, there is a larger expansion of perennial cultivations and a smaller expansion of cropland in the EU than in the other two scenarios. As the biodiversity damage is smaller for land used for perennial cultivations than for cropland, this development decreases the internal biodiversity damage per unit of land. At the same time, however, the EMIRED scenario also features the largest outsourcing of damage, due to increased import of cropland products from outside the EU for satisfying the EU food demand. These two opposite effects even out each other, resulting in the total biodiversity damage for the EMIRED scenario being only slightly higher than the other two scenarios. The results of this study indicate that increasing cultivation of perennials for bioenergy and the consequent decrease in the availability of cropland for food production in the EU may lead to outsourcing of agricultural products supply to other regions. This development is associated with a leakage of biodiversity damages to species-rich and vulnerable regions outside the EU. In the case of a future increase in bioenergy demand, the combination of biomass supply from sustainable forest management in the EU, combined with imported wood pellets and cultivation of perennial energy crops, appears to be less detrimental to biodiversity than expansion of energy crops in the EU.