Forest conversion and provision of ecosystem services in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest

The importance of quantifying existing ecosystem services, assessing the impacts of various land use decisions and ultimately evaluating the overall costs and benefits of different land use patterns having internalized ecosystem services, is now widely recognized and such work is at the forefront of current landscape management planning. We aim to quantify ecosystem services derived from different land uses within the Atibainha Reservoir catchment in Brazil, determine the spatial distribution of ecosystem services and quantify the impacts of land use changes on the provision of ecosystem services. Four ecosystem services were considered: carbon sequestration, mitigation of sediment delivery into the reservoir, purification of water and maintenance of soil fertility. Results indicate strong increase in the provision of ecosystem services among the main land uses in the following order: urban area/bare soil; pastures; plantation of eucalyptus and native forests. The most important services provided by native forests, when compared with bare soil, were carbon sequestration and prevention of sedimentation, with an additional 864 569 tons of carbon stored in forest biomass in 30 years, and prevention of 244 511 tons of sediment delivery into the reservoir per year, respectively, from 7624 ha of lands around the reservoir. Spatial variation in the provision of ecosystem services were mapped to develop a tool to support decision making at the landscape scale. Results and maps from the decision support tool can support policies that ensure effective land‐use planning and can serve as the basis for the development of payment for ecosystem service schemes in the region. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Factors affecting land reconversion plans following a payment for ecosystem service program

Humans have altered much of the natural land cover, resulting in ecosystem degradation and biodiversity loss worldwide. Many countries have implemented conservation payment programs for agricultural land conversion to counter this trend. However, the sustainability of ecosystem services from these programs is unknown due to uncertainty about land uses when payments cease. We studied post-program land use plans for China’s Grain-to-Green Program (GTGP), one of the world’s largest ecosystem service payment programs, in Wolong Nature Reserve for giant pandas. Although farmers in the reserve planned to reconvert only 22.6% of the land that was enrolled in the GTGP to agriculture after payments cease, these GTGP plots are distributed across the landscape and may be important for many ecosystem services. Along with regional differences, the amount of GTGP land households planned to reconvert was significantly reduced by the respondent’s age and off-farm household income and was significantly increased by the number of household laborers and total amount of land the household had enrolled in the GTGP. Thus, regional, demographic and economic factors should be considered to more efficiently sustain conservation benefits from payment for ecosystem service programs.     

中国耕地生态保护补偿的省级差序分区及补偿标准

耕地生态保护补偿概念的引入为中国耕地保护提供了全新视角,然而国家层面尚未形成系统的制度架构与方法。科学划定补偿分区、量化补偿标准是这一制度设计的关键。该研究以省域为研究单元,辨析耕地生态承载力的空间转移与生态公平的理论关系,依据耕地生态承载力盈亏和耕地保有量目标是否完成构建\     

土地质量评估与监测: 土壤科学面临的新挑战

Sustainable land management (SLM)is the key to harmonizing environmetal and ecolgical concerns of society with the economic realities of producing adequate food and fiber of high quality and ensuring a absi minimal quality of life.The aim of SLM is to maintain the integrity of the biophysical land resource base,but it can only be realized if land users understand the impacts of land management options on their lands but also on other off-site areas and can optimize the socioeconomic and environmetal benefits of their choice.To Facilitate this,the Contribution of soil suvery organizations would be through the assessment and monitoring of land quality.Land quality is a measure of the ability of land to perfor specific functions and is derived by an integration of soil survey information with other environmental,and if necessary,socioeconomic information.The desired reliability influences the operational scale of the assessment,Such an assessment would assist in:1) locating homologous areas for research sites or for transferring technologies;2) providing the geographic basis for systems analysis(e.g.modeling);3) serving as a basis for local,natinal and global resource assessment and monitoring;4) providing an ecosystem context for land use,assessments of temporal and spatial variability,and impact of human interventions;5)serving as a framework for more detailed assessment for all levels of interest;and 6) evaluating global issues such as food security,impacts of climate change,biodiversity montoring,and addressing desertification.Based on an evaluation of the progress made in soil resource inventories and considering the demands of the environment focused world,the paper considers the need for counteries to mount such a program.The authors believe that this is the next demand of soil science and that we can fulfill our soical contract by periodically providing such information on the state of a nation‘s land resource.     

Assessing the costs of land degradation: a case study for the Puentes catchment,southeast Spain

Whereas many studies point out the economic benefits of controlling land degradation through sustainable land management (SLM) approaches, there is often a lack of local adoption of SLM techniques. Analysis of the local impacts and costs of land degradation is critical for understanding farmers' responses to land degradation. The objective of this paper is to analyse the local costs of land degradation in the Puentes catchment in southeast Spain. This catchment has been identified as particularly vulnerable to erosion, yet farmers show a general lack of interest in applying erosion control techniques. The paper subsequently analyses land degradation processes in the Puentes catchment, the income derived from agriculture and several other ecosystem services, and the local costs of land degradation. Erosion is widespread in the catchment, comprising sheet and rill erosion as well as gulley erosion. Relatively high erosion rates are encountered in cropland. The most important source of local income is irrigated agriculture, with revenues of up to €1350/ha y⁻¹. Dryland agriculture, hunting and herding provide additional income. The costs of erosion on cropland, calculated with a replacement method, vary from around €5/ha y⁻¹ on slopes between five per cent and ten per cent, to around €50/ha y⁻¹ on slopes between 30 per cent and 50 per cent. Except on the steepest slopes, these costs are relatively low for the farmers, which explains the limited application of erosion control techniques in the catchment. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Valuing Ecosystem Services in Semi‐arid Rangelands through Stochastic Simulation

Ecosystem services and economic returns from semi‐arid rangelands are threatened by land degradation. Policies to improve ecosystem service delivery often fail to consider uncertainty in economic returns gained through different land uses and management practices. We apply an analytical framework using stochastic simulation to estimate the range of potential monetary outcomes of rangeland ecosystem services under different land uses, including consideration of the uncertainty and variability of model parameters. We assess monetary and non‐monetary dimensions, including those ecosystem services with uncertain and missing information, for communal rangelands, commercial ranches, game farms and Wildlife Management Areas in southern Kgalagadi District, Botswana. Public land uses (communal grazing areas and protected conservation land in Wildlife Management Areas) provide higher economic value than private land uses (commercial ranches and game farms), despite private land uses being more profitable in their returns from meat production. Communal rangelands and protected areas are important for a broader range of ecosystem services (cultural/spiritual services, recreation, firewood, construction material and wild food), which play a key role in sustaining the livelihoods of the largest share of society. The full range of ecosystem services should therefore be considered in economic assessments, while policies targeting sustainable land management should value and support their provision and utilisation. By forecasting the range of plausible ecosystem values of different rangeland land uses in monetary terms, our analysis provides policymakers with a tool to assess outcomes of land use and management decisions and policies. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Farmers' land management practices and status of agricultural land in the Jos Plateau,Nigeria

A wide range of land management practices, including application of fertilizers, contour‐plowing, stone bunds, mulching and agroforestry, have been adopted by farmers in the Jos Plateau to control degradation. This study examined the relative popularity of 13 land management practices based on mainly qualitative primary information collected through a questionnaire survey of 150 farm households and group discussions held during May to August 2007. The results of the analysis revealed four practices, namely, application of chemical fertilizers and farm yard manure, intercropping and crop rotation were highly popular. These practices generally need little technical skills, show positive short‐term benefits and short establishment time, suggesting that the benefits of increased productivity can be obtained quite quickly. Practices like agroforestry, mulching, legume cultivation and crop residue barriers were moderately popular as they take time, sometimes up to 3 years, before some benefits could be manifested. For farmers dependent on the farm income without any financial back‐up, this is too long as many do not have the economic capital to apply a practice that will only start showing benefits after a few years. The least popular practices were stone and earthen bunds, grass strips, alley cropping and contour‐plowing. These prove to be more labour intensive, and with dwindling labour force in the area, the adoption trend favours other practices requiring relative less labour. Farmers could not control land degradation effectively, despite their efforts made to manage land. Broad policy recommendations are made in line with findings of the analysis. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Biodiversity conservation in human-modified landscapes of Mesoamerica: Past, present and future

Mesoamerica provides a unique context for biodiversity conservation in managed landscapes because of its geography, history of human intervention, and present conservation and development initiatives. The long and narrow form of the Mesoamerican landmass, and its division by a central mountain range, has served as both a bridge and a barrier. Conservation efforts in Mesoamerica are unique for the emphasis they place on regional connectivity through the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor and on biodiversity conservation in managed landscapes. The emphasis on conservation in agricultural systems has fostered innovations in payment for ecosystem services, and provides novel insights on the functional role that biodiversity plays in the provisioning of ecosystem services. The increasing rate of economic development in the region and the advent of new payment for ecosystem service schemes have provided new opportunities for forest regeneration and restoration. However, the small scale of private landholdings and the diversity of land uses featured in the region, while contributing to biodiversity conservation due to their structural and floristic complexity, present challenges for biodiversity monitoring and management.     

喀什市生态系统服务价值对土地利用变化的响应及预测

[目的]通过研究喀什市土地利用变化对生态系统服务价值的影响,为土地科学利用管理决策提供参考。[方法]参考Costanza(1997)和谢高地(2008)等人的研究成果,结合喀什市的实际情况,采用生态系统服务价值计算公式和敏感度分析,通过研究喀什市1997—2010年生态系统服务价值对土地利用变化的响应,并针对喀什市土地利用总体规划(2010—2020年)中土地利用类型的变化,对生态系统服务价值进行预测分析。[结果]按规划发展,1997—2020年,喀什市土地利用结构变化较大。土地利用程度呈加大趋势,生态系统服务总价值则逐年减少,其中耕地、水域的生态服务价值持续下降。敏感性指数分析表明,喀什市生态系统服务价值对生态服务价值系数是缺乏弹性的,研究结果可信。[结论]在喀什市土地利用总体规划实施过程中,应注重提升土地节约和集约利用水平,优化土地利用结构,保持生态系统的平衡和稳定。     

PROJECTED CHANGES IN SOIL ORGANIC CARBON STOCKS UPON ADOPTION OF RECOMMENDED SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION PRACTICES IN THE UPPER TANA RIVER CATCHMENT,KENYA

Large areas in the Upper Tana river catchment, Kenya, have been over‐exploited, resulting in soil erosion, nutrient depletion and loss of soil organic matter (SOM). This study focuses on sections of the catchment earmarked as being most promising for implementing Green Water Credits, an incentive mechanism to help farmers invest in land and soil management activities that affect all fresh water resources at source. Such management practices can also help restore SOM levels towards their natural level. Opportunities to increase soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks, for two broadly defined land use types (croplands and plantation crops, with moderate input levels), are calculated using a simple empirical model, using three scenarios for the proportion of suitable land that may be treated with these practices (low = 40 per cent, medium = 60 per cent, high = 80 per cent). For the medium scenario, corresponding to implementation on ~348 000 ha in the basin, the eco‐technologically possible SOC gains are estimated at 4·8 to 9·3 × 10⁶ tonnes (Mg) CO₂ over the next 20 years. Assuming a conservative price of US$10 per tonne CO₂‐equivalent on the carbon offset market, this would correspond to ~US$48–93 million over a 20‐year period of sustained green water management. This would imply a projected (potential) payment of some US$7–13 ha⁻¹ to farmers annually; this sum would be in addition to incentives that are being put in place for implementing green water management practices and also in addition to the benefits that farmers would realize from the impact on production of these practices themselves. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Harvesting European knowledge on soil functions and land management using multi‐criteria decision analysis

Soil and its ecosystem functions play a societal role in securing sustainable food production while safeguarding natural resources. A functional land management framework has been proposed to optimize the agro‐environmental outputs from the land and specifically the supply and demand of soil functions such as (a) primary productivity, (b) carbon sequestration, (c) water purification and regulation, (d) biodiversity and (e) nutrient cycling, for which soil knowledge is essential. From the outset, the LANDMARK multi‐actor research project integrates harvested knowledge from local, national and European stakeholders to develop such guidelines, creating a sense of ownership, trust and reciprocity of the outcomes. About 470 stakeholders from five European countries participated in 32 structured workshops covering multiple land uses in six climatic zones. The harmonized results include stakeholders’ priorities and concerns, perceptions on soil quality and functions, implementation of tools, management techniques, indicators and monitoring, activities and policies, knowledge gaps and ideas. Multi‐criteria decision analysis was used for data analysis. Two qualitative models were developed using Decision EXpert methodology to evaluate “knowledge” and “needs”. Soil quality perceptions differed across workshops, depending on the stakeholder level and regionally established terminologies. Stakeholders had good inherent knowledge about soil functioning, but several gaps were identified. In terms of critical requirements, stakeholders defined high technical, activity and policy needs in (a) financial incentives, (b) credible information on improving more sustainable management practices, (c) locally relevant advice, (d) farmers’ discussion groups, (e) training programmes, (f) funding for applied research and monitoring, and (g) strengthening soil science in education.     

应用危险确认模型评估土地管理的可持续发展

New Zealand is highly dependent on its soil resource for continued agricultural production.To avoid depleting this resource,there is a need to identify soils and associated land management practices where there is a risk of soil degradation.Environmental integraity and ecosystem services also need to be maintoained.Accordingly,to ensure sustainable production,The on -and off-site environmental impacts of aldn management need to be identified and managed.We developed a structural vulnerability index for New Zealand soils.This index ranks solis according to their inherent susceptibility to physical degradation when used for agricultural (pasture,forestry and cropping) Purposes.We also developed a rule-based model to assess soil sompaction vulnerability by characterising the combined effects of resistance and resilience,Other soil attributes have been approatised using seven chemical,physical and biological indicators of soil quality.These indicators have been applied in a nation -wide project involving data collection from over 500 sites for a range of land uses.These soil quality data can be interpreted via the World Wide Web -through the in teractive decisionsupport tool SINDI,The land-use impact model is a framework to assess agricultural land management and environmental sustainability,and may be applied to land units at any scale.Using land resource data and information the model explicitly identifies hazards to land productivity and environmental integrity,It utilises qualitative expert and local knowledge and quantitative model-based evaluations to assess the potential environmental impacts of land-management pratices.The model is linked to a geographic information system(GIS),allowing model outputs.such at the environmental impacts of site-specific best management practices,to be identified in a spatially explicit manner,The model has been tested in New Zealand in an area of pastoral land use.Advantages of this risk identification model include:utilising current knowledege of the causes and effects of land-management practices on soil degradation;linking land management practice to both on-and off-site environmental consequences;identifying important gaps in local knowledge,and providing spatially explicit information on the environmental impact of land-management practices.     

Soil capability as a predictor of cropland change in Alberta,Canada from 1988 to 2010

Understanding the mutual influences between cropland use and soil characteristics is important in anticipating and planning for food production, environmental protection and resource sustainability. Numerous studies focus on the relationship between crop rotations and soil characteristics at a microscale, but fewer studies focus on the relationships between soil capability and cropland use and change at a medium scale. We explore how soil capability has influenced cropland changes over 22 yr, using statistical and land use transition analysis. Landsat images from the years 1988, 2002 and 2010 were used to map cropland changes by soil capability class within a pilot site in Alberta, Canada. Between the late 1980s and 2010: (i) the area of annual crops increased substantially while that of forest and summer‐fallow decreased; (ii) changes in cropland use among annual crops, perennial crops and summer‐fallow differed substantially depending on soil capability; and (iii) a transition from annual crops and summer‐fallow to perennial crops was more likely on land of poorer soil capability, whereas the transition from perennial crops and summer‐fallow to annual crops was more likely on land with higher soil capability. The changes in land use practices identified in this study indicate that producers are actively intensifying production on their best land to optimize profitability while simultaneously reducing the intensity of production on poorer land for either financial or environmental reasons, or both.     

Extraction of soil‐available phosphate,nitrate, and sulphate ions using ion exchange membranes and determination by ion exchange chromatography

Abstract

In recent years, ion exchange membranes (IEM) have been used successfully to determine the availability of soil nutrient elements for plants. In general, the procedures proposed are applied to the determination of a single ion, and in only a few of these studies, the selectivity of these IEM was considered. Therefore, this work was conducted (a) to find the most suitable extraction conditions for phosphate (H₂PO₄ ^‐), nitrate (NO₃ ^‐), and sulfate (SO₄ ^2‐) in soils by IEM and their subsequent determination by ion chromatography, (b) to test the effectiveness and selectivity of IEM, (c) to compare the results obtained by IEM with the common procedure for determining the availability of the soil nutrient elements, and (d) to verify whether a relation exits between the concentration of phosphorus (P) extracted by IEM and the plant P requirement. The soil samples used for this study were Humic Cambisols located in four forest plots under natural conditions and four plots fertilized with 100 kg P ha^‐1 as triple superphosphate. The efficacy of the IEM was high (85% for SO₄ ^2‐, and 92% for H₂PO₄ ^‐ and NO₃ ^‐). Statistically significant correlations were obtained between the H₂PO₄ ^‐ extracted by IEM and the H₂PO₄ ^‐ obtained by the Bray P1 procedure (r²=0.936) and with the H₂PO₄ ^‐ extracted using Saunders and Williams (1955) procedure (r²=0.370). The correlation obtained between the amount of NO₃ ^‐ extracted with IEM and that obtained using 2M potassium chloride (KCl) was also highly significant (r²=0.828). The IEM extraction allowed to know in a single extraction process and a single subsequent measurement by ion chromatography the concentrations of soil available H₂PO₄ ^‐, NO₃ ^‐, and SO₄ ^2‐ ions, which are of great plant nutrition interest. Phosphorus extractable with IEM yielded a close relationship with biomass production and could be used for determining the P requirement of these forest trees.     

The contribution of agriculture to the state of climate: Workshop summary and recommendations

An international workshop to discuss the contribution of agriculture to climate was held in Ottawa, Canada, from 27 to 30 September 2004. It was organized under the auspices of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Environment Canada and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC). Topics included the development of agriculture, land use change, the interactions between physiological properties of vegetation, ecosystem physical properties and climate, the impact of agriculture on weather and climate, interactive mechanisms resulting from human activities, the acquisition of relevant greenhouse gas (GHG) emission data, and the promotion/adoption of management practices to reduce the impact of agriculture on the environment. It was demonstrated that important biophysical forcing with significant climate feedback exist as a result of agriculture-related land use change. It was concluded that biogeochemical forcing is usually considered but that biophysical impacts are not well characterized, and few studies have included both of these aspects. For example, human disturbances of the earth's surface that affect the energy budget might be as important climatologically as GHG emissions arising from land disturbance. It was suggested that current GHG mitigation practices should be reassessed to account for both the biogeochemical and the biogeophysical forcing, and that there are significant opportunities and risks that occur in the complex interactions between agriculture and the environment. Workshop recommendations on how to minimize the impact of agriculture on climate were developed for the scientific community, funding agencies, and the agricultural community.     

Appraising and selecting conservation measures to mitigate desertification and land degradation based on stakeholder participation and global best practices

Most desertification research focuses on degradation assessments without putting sufficient emphasis on prevention and mitigation strategies, although the concept of sustainable land management (SLM) is increasingly being acknowledged. A variety of already applied conservation measures exist at the local level, but they are not adequately recognised, evaluated and shared, either by land users, technicians, researchers, or policy makers. Likewise, collaboration between research and implementation is often insufficient. The aim of this paper is to present a new methodology for a participatory process of appraising and selecting desertification mitigation strategies, and to present first experiences from its application in the EU‐funded DESIRE project. The methodology combines a collective learning and decision approach with the use of evaluated global best practices. In three parts, it moves through a concise process, starting with identifying land degradation and locally applied solutions in a stakeholder workshop, leading to assessing local solutions with a standardised evaluation tool, and ending with jointly selecting promising strategies for implementation with the help of a decision support tool. The methodology is currently being applied in 16 study sites. Preliminary analysis from the application of the first part of the methodology shows that the initial stakeholder workshop results in a good basis for stakeholder cooperation, and in promising land conservation practices for further assessment. Study site research teams appreciated the valuable results, as burning issues and promising options emerged from joint reflection. The methodology is suitable to initiate mutual learning among different stakeholder groups and to integrate local and scientific knowledge. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

北京区位土地利用与生态服务价值变化研究

不同区位土地利用随城市化发展改变,生态服务价值随之改变,生态服务价值变化决定着区域的可持续发展。该文对生态服务价值核算方法——偿付意愿法进行经济学分析,利用经济学模型对其修正,得到北京单位生态服务价值。在此基础上,核算1993～2003年北京不同区位土地利用和生态服务价值变化情况,分析不同区位土地利用结构对生态服务价值的影响。研究表明土地利用结构决定生态服务价值,生态服务价值反映了土地利用结构的生态优劣;文中探讨了不同区位生态服务提高的土地利用结构调整方法,提出生态服务可持续发展的北京土地利用调整措施。     

小流域综合治理工程对生态服务价值的影响

以第5期长江上游水土保持重点防治综合治理工程凉山州治理区为研究对象,参照中国陆地生态系统单位面积生态系统服务价值当量表,结合研究区粮食平均产量和收购价格,分析了研究区生态系统服务价值的变化情况,并构建了小流域综合治理措施与生态服务价值模型。研究结果表明,1999-2003年治理区土地利用类型变化较大,其中未利用地和耕地分别减少36 038.67和5 498.50hm2,林地和草地分别增加35 614.30和5 889.53hm2。通过实施治理工程,治理区生态服务总价值从1999年的1.37×109元增加到2003年的1.85×109元;单项生态服务功能除食物生产功能的价值量减少3.31×105元外,其余均有不同程度增长;各土地利用类型只有林地和草地对生态服务价值增量起到正效应,其中林地对生态服务价值变化的贡献率为89.04%,是治理区生态服务价值变化的主要原因。小流域综合治理措施与生态服务价值的PCA-RBF模型表明,网络平均预测精度为94.8%,可准确反映小流域治理措施对生态服务价值变化的影响。