Application of vegetation index time series to value fire effect on primary production in a Southern European rare wetland

Fire disturbance is an intrinsic component of the Mediterranean biome playing an important role in ecosystem dynamics and processes. However, frequent and severe anthropogenic wildfires can be detrimental to natural ecosystems, particularly in small natural protected areas, where they may hamper the flow of ecosystem services (ES). While post-fire dynamics of individual ES are heavily context-dependent, the primary productivity of the ecosystem can be regarded as a generic driver of several provisioning and regulating ES, as it represents the amount of energy available to plants for storage, growth, and reproduction, which drives future ecosystem structure and functions. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of anthropogenic wildfire on the primary productivity of a rare wetland ecosystem in the Natura 2000 site \u201cTorre Guaceto\u201d in Southern Europe. Productivity was estimated by calculating a 15-year time series of vegetation indices (EVI and NDWI)from remotely sensed MODIS imagery. Our results in terms of PP trends may be relevant to assess the change in ecosystems services provided by wetlands. Interactions between wildfire, ecosystem productivity and climate were then analyzed. During the selected period, climate did not play a significant effect on primary productivity, which was mainly driven by post-fire vegetation recovery. Findings of the present study demonstrate that the wildfire affecting the Natural Protected Area of Torre Guaceto in summer 2007 had a major effect on primary productivity, inducing the regeneration of Phragmites australis and the replacement of old individuals by structurally and functionally better ones

Sustainable landscape development and value rigidity: the Pirsig's monkey trap

New broader, adaptable and accommodating sets of themes have been proposed to help to identify, understand and solve sustainability problems. However, how this knowledge will foster decisions that lead to more desirable outcomes and analyses necessary to transition to sustainability remains a critical theoretical and empirical question for basic and applied research. We argue that we are still underestimating the tendency to lock into certain patterns that come at the cost of the ability to adjust to new situations. This rigidity limits the ability of persons, groups, and companies to respond to new problems, and can make it hard to learn new facts because we pre-select facts as important, or not, in line with our established values. Changing circumstances demand to reappraise values like in the case of Pirsig's monkey and its rice. There is an urgent need to go beyond such local, static and short-term conceptions, where landscape sustainability has been incorrectly envisioned as a durable, stable condition that, once achieved, could persist for generations. We argue that to manage a global transition toward more environmentally efficient and, therefore, more sustainable land-use we have to reappraise societal values at the root of overregulation and rigidity

Recurrence Analysis of Vegetation Indices for Highlighting the Ecosystem Response to Drought Events: An Application to the Amazon Forest

Forests are important in sequestering CO2 and therefore play a significant role in climate change. However, the CO2 cycle is conditioned by drought events that alter the rate of photosynthesis, which is the principal physiological action of plants in transforming CO2 into biological energy. This study applied recurrence quantification analysis (RQA) to describe the evolution of photosynthesis-related indices to highlight disturbance alterations produced by the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO, years 2005 and 2010) and the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO, year 2015) in the Amazon forest. The analysis was carried out using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) images to build time series of the enhanced vegetation index (EVI), the normalized difference water index (NDWI), and the land surface temperature (LST) covering the period 2001–2018. The results did not show significant variations produced by AMO throughout the study area, while a disruption due to the global warming phase linked to the extreme ENSO event occurred, and the forest was able to recover. In addition, spatial differences in the response of the forest to the ENSO event were found. These findings show that the application of RQA to the time series of vegetation indices supports the evaluation of the forest ecosystem response to disruptive events. This approach provides information on the capacity of the forest to recover after a disruptive event and, therefore is useful to estimate the resilience of this particular ecosystem

The contribution of Utility-Scale Solar Energy to the global climate regulation and its effects on local ecosystem services

One solution to mitigate climate change can be the production of renewable energy. In this context, the aims of this paper are: (1) the identification of local unsuitable areas for the installation of Utility-Scale Solar Energy (USSE) in a municipality in southern Italy; (2) the assessment of the effects of their installation on local natural CO2 sequestration and on avoided CO2; and (3) the evaluation of their contribution to the global climate regulation through scenario analysis. Since 2007, 82 authorizations have been obtained for the installation of USSE in the municipality and 42 over 64 already completed have been installed in unsuitable areas. For what concerns the remaining USSE, two short-term scenarios are analysed in order to take into account their contribution in terms of climate regulation service. The first scenario is called Business As Usual with new planned USSE installed by 2014 also in unsuitable areas, and the second one with the new USSE installed only in suitable areas identified in this study. Surprisingly, Scenario 2 is characterized by a reduced natural capacity to sequester CO2 emissions and by a lower contribution of vegetation in providing the ecosystem service climate regulation in comparison with Scenario 1. Keywords: Sustainable renewable energy use, Spatial ecosystem service trade-offs, Renewable energy–ecosystem services interactio

Socio-ecological Vulnerability of Smallholders due to Climate Change in Mountains: Agroforestry as an Adaptation Measure

AbstractThe present study aims to assess the socioecological vulnerability of smallholders through an index of Tehri Garhwal Himalaya. The index provides a realistic approach to recognize the contributions of social and ecological factors for household welfare vulnerability to climate change. The approach puts forward various indices for each component of vulnerability to climate change - exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity including two more indices: one for overall impact under the exposure of climate change and another for overall vulnerability. The five indices were proposed to assess the vulnerability status of with and without agroforestry practicing households in Himalayan region. These indices are based on 35 indicators (8 for exposure; 12 for sensitivity, 15 for adaptive capacity), selected through inductive approaches. A questionnaire for households was designed for the above aim and was administered to 121 heads of households through face-toface interviews with 77 households practicing agroforestry and 44 without agroforestry. The questionnaire dealt the general household information, and indicators of the vulnerability including the issues related to agroforestry. The results highlight slightly higher adaptive capacity of agroforestry practicing households due to specific contribution of agroforestry. The low contribution of agroforestry among smallholders was due to small land holding. The study also results that remoteness, specific issues of smallholders' such as poverty, education and employment are responsible for the present condition. In particular this study clearly shows that poverty is the key driver for vulnerability. All of these issues can be addressed if future programs and policies, include and implement regulations to remedy attributive factors. This paper may be applicable to other mountainous regions providing insights for effective adaptation strategies to climate change

A constructed treatment wetland as an opportunity to enhance biodiversity and ecosystem services.

none8noToday we have to face new challenges about decreasing water resources, wastewater treatment, limited spaces and ecological preservation. This problem must be solved in a sustainable way using innovative water management strategies that combine technology with landscape design by enhancing ecosystem services provision. An effective way of tackling this problem is to use Constructed Treatment Wetlands (CTW) as low-cost alternative to conventional secondary or tertiary wastewater treatment. The aim of this paper is to evaluate their multifunctional role in terms of biodiversity and ecosystem services’ enhancement by taking into account a case study in southern Italy. For this purpose an annual monitoring of fauna and vegetation has been carried out in order to identify species of national and international interest strongly related to the new habitats availability. Results have shown the ability of CTW in providing ancillary benefits, well beyond the primary aim of water purification, such as sustaining wildlife habitats and biodiversity at local and global scales, as well as its potential role in terms of recreational and educational opportunities.restrictedSemeraro, Teodoro; Giannuzzi, Cosimo; Beccarisi, Leonardo; Aretano, Roberta; DE MARCO, Antonella; Pasimeni, MARIA RITA; Zurlini, Giovanni; Petrosillo, IreneSemeraro, Teodoro; Giannuzzi, Cosimo; Beccarisi, Leonardo; Aretano, Roberta; DE MARCO, Antonella; Pasimeni, MARIA RITA; Zurlini, Giovanni; Petrosillo, Iren

Dendrochemistry: Ecosystem Services Perspectives for Urban Biomonitoring

none8noThe worldwide increase in urban and industrial areas represents a challenge for urban green management, pollutant mitigation and environmental monitoring. We propose an analysis approach for the spatial and spatial-temporal distribution of pollutants in the environment through dendrochemistry techniques, in order to gauge the value of this discipline in urban ecosystem. The proposed analysis models can be useful to evaluate significant changes in space and time related to economic activities and to describe the “impacts” of adopted strategies, as demonstrated in the case study of the opening or closure of factories, and therefore to describe the cause-effect relation connected with human activities. Trees represent a key factor for urban planning, providing a wide variety of ecosystem services including in-depth environmental monitoring, which is one of the main elements to be included in a high quality urban design. The proposed approach aims at suggesting the dendrochemistry as a novel and feasible tool definable as a cost-saving ecosystem service in the urban context.openSemeraro T.; Luvisi A.; De Bellis L.; Aretano R.; Sacchelli S.; Chirici G.; Marchetti M.; Cocozza C.Semeraro, T.; Luvisi, A.; De Bellis, L.; Aretano, R.; Sacchelli, S.; Chirici, G.; Marchetti, M.; Cocozza, C

Key fundamental aspects for mapping and assessing ecosystem services: Predictability of ecosystem service providers at scales from local to global

How an apparent static and ordered landscape condition in social ecological landscapes (SELs), can be made sustainable in terms of maintenance and improvement of the provision of ecosystem services (ESs) in face of unpredictable disturbance and change? Our contribution to the Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystem Services (MAES) working group is to advance some recommendations on how to approach the dynamic analysis of complex adaptive systems to improve ecosystem resilience, habitat connectivity and the delivery of ESs. We show exemplary cases where we utilize the NDVI provided by remote sensing to evaluate land cover transformations and processes and ES provisioning. We focus on NDVI because it allows the supply of information on net primary production, i.e., the energetic foundation of nearly all ecosystems and that provides the basis of most of ESs. The use of spectral entropy, and nonlinear analysis of spatial temporal dynamics to investigate trajectory predictability of SELs provide very useful insight into the dynamics of SELs and can assist in the characterization of the links between land cover patterns with ecological processes to support more reliable assessments and accountings of ESs