Integrating a Forest Environmental Services Locator in WEFES, a Web Based Explorer for Forest Ecosystem Services

Poste

Web-interface for geo-referencing forest economic valuation surveys

PosterIn New Zealand, 90% of forests consist of one type of exotic tree: Radiata pine (Pinus radiata). A study on the management of such exotic planted forests in New Zealand for the conservation of threatened native animals and plants (e.g., kiwi, kakabeak) is undergoing and socio-economic questionnaires are an important tool to understand public views on the role of exotic forests for the native species. In such questionnaires, is important to understand the relationship of the answers to landscape elements, either natural (e.g. mountain) or more artificial (e.g. buildings). An online tool to geo-reference the answers has been developed to retrieve (and treat with confidentially) coordinates by the interviewed. The tool uses a mix of programming languages (HTML, Javascript, PHP, and Ajax) as well as the GoogleMaps© application programming interface to interact with the user to locate their living place. The tool supplies the coordinates to the analysts which, through landscape metrics, will relate the qualitative importance given by certain answers to the proximity to certain elements in the landscape. The tool (see link below) can be adapted to any survey that could consider the coordinates of the answers as an added value to the questionnaires analysis. Link: http://home.isa.utl.pt/~joaopalma/surveys/nzfalco

WEFES - Web explorer of forest ecosystems services under climate change

PosterClimate change will change the dynamics of forest environmental services. All the change complexity involved is difficult to visualize under an easy and accessible information tool capable to integrate several services that forests can provide. A preliminary Web-Explorer of Forest Ecosystems Services was developed for New Zealand where forest managers and the general public can observe what are the predictions of the different forest environmental services under current and future climate for each location in the territory. Carbon storage, soil erosion, biodiversity, nitrate leaching, water balance are the preliminary forest environmental services envisaged. The tool uses a mix of programming languages and techniques (HTML, Javascript, PHP, and Ajax) as well as the GoogleMaps© application programming interface to interact with New Zealand online-stored geographical information to supply different models´ needs. A score system is calculated for the user reference where tradeoffs can be observed by changing the climate variables in the models. The tool (see link below) is under development and expecting “expressions of interest” for further improvement but already enabled a good interaction between different scientific background as well as interest from private forest organizations. Tool link: http://home.isa.utl.pt/~joaopalma/projects/tranzfor/wefesTRANZFOR - SCION - ISA/UTL - MORST - FFR - FCT/MCTE

Driving better programme investment and accelerating challenge impact through a prioritisation matrix of international and national perspectives

This report presents the first stage of an overview of international and national drivers which have the potential to affect land use change and/or practice. The report is structured as follows; Chapter 1 will give an introduction and is followed by the methodology for quantifying the importance of these drivers in Chapter 2. Collation and valuation of drivers are described in Chapter 3, followed by scenario analysis to explore different futures in Chapter 4. The report finishes with suggestions for future research in Chapter 5

Health promotion: results of focus groups with African-American men

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jomh.2010.11.00

Adaptive Contact Networks Change Effective Disease Infectiousness and Dynamics

Human societies are organized in complex webs that are constantly reshaped by a social dynamic which is influenced by the information individuals have about others. Similarly, epidemic spreading may be affected by local information that makes individuals aware of the health status of their social contacts, allowing them to avoid contact with those infected and to remain in touch with the healthy. Here we study disease dynamics in finite populations in which infection occurs along the links of a dynamical contact network whose reshaping may be biased based on each individual's health status. We adopt some of the most widely used epidemiological models, investigating the impact of the reshaping of the contact network on the disease dynamics. We derive analytical results in the limit where network reshaping occurs much faster than disease spreading and demonstrate numerically that this limit extends to a much wider range of time scales than one might anticipate. Specifically, we show that from a population-level description, disease propagation in a quickly adapting network can be formulated equivalently as disease spreading on a well-mixed population but with a rescaled infectiousness. We find that for all models studied here – SI, SIS and SIR – the effective infectiousness of a disease depends on the population size, the number of infected in the population, and the capacity of healthy individuals to sever contacts with the infected. Importantly, we indicate how the use of available information hinders disease progression, either by reducing the average time required to eradicate a disease (in case recovery is possible), or by increasing the average time needed for a disease to spread to the entire population (in case recovery or immunity is impossible)

Forest biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and the provision of ecosystem services

Forests are critical habitats for biodiversity and they are also essential for the provision of a wide range of ecosystem services that are important to human well-being. There is increasing evidence that biodiversity contributes to forest ecosystem functioning and the provision of ecosystem services. Here we provide a review of forest ecosystem services including biomass production, habitat provisioning services, pollination, seed dispersal, resistance to wind storms, fire regulation and mitigation, pest regulation of native and invading insects, carbon sequestration, and cultural ecosystem services, in relation to forest type, structure and diversity. We also consider relationships between forest biodiversity and multifunctionality, and trade-offs among ecosystem services. We compare the concepts of ecosystem processes, functions and services to clarify their definitions. Our review of published studies indicates a lack of empirical studies that establish quantitative and causal relationships between forest biodiversity and many important ecosystem services. The literature is highly skewed; studies on provisioning of nutrition and energy, and on cultural services, delivered by mixed-species forests are under-represented. Planted forests offer ample opportunity for optimising their composition and diversity because replanting after harvesting is a recurring process. Planting mixed-species forests should be given more consideration as they are likely to provide a wider range of ecosystem services within the forest and for adjacent land uses. This review also serves as the introduction to this special issue of Biodiversity and Conservation on various aspects of forest biodiversity and ecosystem services