Embedding the concept of ecosystems services:The utilisation of ecological knowledge in different policy venues

The concept of ecosystem services is increasingly being promoted by academics and policy makers as a means to protect ecological systems through more informed decision making. A basic premise of this approach is that strengthening the ecological knowledge base will significantly enhance ecosystem health through more sensitive decision making. However, the existing literature on knowledge utilisation, and many previous attempts to improve decision making through better knowledge integration, suggest that producing ‘more knowledge’ is only ever a necessary but insufficient condition for greater policy success. We begin this paper by reviewing what is already known about the relationship between ecological knowledge development and utilisation, before introducing a set of theme issue papers that examine—for the very first time—how this politically and scientifically salient relationship plays out across a number of vital policy venues such as land-use planning, policy-level impact assessment, and cost–benefit analysis. Following a detailed synthesis of the key findings of all the papers, this paper identifies and explores new research and policy challenges in this important and dynamic area of environmental governance

Metapopulation modelling of long-term urban habitat-loss scenarios

Context: Increasing human populations in urban areas pose a threat to species’ persistence through habitat loss and fragmentation. It is therefore essential that we develop methods to investigate critical habitat loss thresholds and least detrimental landscape configurations.Objectives: We develop a framework to assess how the pattern of habitat loss impacts the ecological and social characteristics of a landscape and how this varies depending on the species and criteria by which it is judged.Methods: We use a scenario-based approach to test six propositions in which habitat is lost preferentially based on patch characteristics. We use eight bird and two amphibian species as indicator species. To compare scenarios, we present a method combining the output from a metapopulation model with measures of social impacts of land-cover change in a multiple criteria decision analysis. We also determine whether a habitat loss threshold exists, below which small loss of habitat can lead to large loss of species’ occupancy.Results: We found that, of the scenarios presented, preferentially losing common habitats and smaller patches was least detrimental for both ecological and social factors. Threshold effects were found for all but the generalist bird species.Conclusions: We have outlined a workflow which allows for transparent, repeatable comparison between landscapes. This workflow can be used to compare urban landscape plans, or to develop general understanding of the impacts of different forms of habitat loss. Reassuringly, the recommendations based on the scenarios presented are in keeping with received conservation wisdom: to prioritise larger and/or rarer patches

Combinatorial metabolic pathway assembly approaches and toolkits for modular assembly

Synthetic Biology is a rapidly growing interdisciplinary field that is primarily built upon foundational advances in molecular biology combined with engineering design principles such as modularity and interoperability. The field considers living systems as programmable at the genetic level and has been defined by the development of new platform technologies and methodological advances. A key concept driving the field is the Design-Build-Test-Learn cycle which provides a systematic framework for building new biological systems. One major application area for synthetic biology is biosynthetic pathway engineering that requires the modular assembly of different genetic regulatory elements and biosynthetic enzymes. In this review we provide an overview of modular DNA assembly and describe and compare the plethora of in vitro and in vivo assembly methods for combinatorial pathway engineering. Considerations for part design and methods for enzyme balancing are also presented, and we briefly discuss alternatives to intracellular pathway assembly including microbial consortia and cell-free systems for biosynthesis. Finally, we describe computational tools and automation for pathway design and assembly and argue that a deeper understanding of the many different variables of genetic design, pathway regulation and cellular metabolism will allow more predictive pathway design and engineering

Using citizen science data for conservation planning: methods for quality control and downscaling for use in stochastic patch occupancy modelling

The Incidence Function Model (IFM) has been put forward as a tool for assessing conservation plans. A key benefit of the IFM is low data requirements: widely available species occurrence data and information about land cover. Citizen science is a promising source of such data; however, to use these data in the IFM there are typically two problems. First, the spatial resolution is too coarse, but existing approaches to downscaling species data tend not to extend to patch level (as required by the IFM). Second, widely available citizen science data typically report species' presences only. We devise ten different downscaling methods based on theoretical ecological relationships (the species–area relationship and the distance decay of similarity), and test them against each other. The better performing downscaling methods were based on patch area, rather than distance from other occupied patches. These methods allow data at a coarse resolution to be used in the IFM for comparing conservation management and development plans. Further field testing is required to establish the degree to which results of these new methods can be treated as definitive spatially-explicit predictions. To address the issue of false absences, we present a method to estimate the probability that all species have been listed (and thus that a species' absence from the list represents a true absence), using the species-accumulation curve. This measure of confidence in absence helps both to objectively identify a habitat network for fitting the IFM, and to target areas for further species recording

Revision of the Common International Classification for Ecosystem Services (CICES V5.1): A Policy Brief

The Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services (CICES) is widely used for mapping, ecosystem assessment, and natural capital ecosystem accounting. On the basis of the experience gained in using it since the first version was published in 2013, it has been updated for version 5.1. This policy brief summarises what has been done and how the classification can be used

A demonstration of unified TDRS/GPS tracking and orbit determination

We describe results from an experiment in which TDRS and GPS satellites were tracked simultaneously from a small (3 station) ground network in the western United States. We refer to this technique as 'GPS-like tracking' (GLT) since the user satellite - in this case TDRS - is essentially treated as a participant in the GPS constellation. In the experiment, the TDRS K(sub space-to-ground link (SGL) was tracked together with GPS L-band signals in enhanced geodetic-quality GPS receivers (TurboRogue). The enhanced receivers simultaneously measured and recorded both the TDRS SGL and the GPS carrier phases with sub-mm precision, enabling subsequent precise TDRS orbit determination with differential GPS techniques. A small number of calibrated ranging points from routine operations at the TDRS ground station (White Sands, NM) were used to supplement the GLT measurements in order to improve determination of the TDRS longitude. Various tests performed on TDRS ephemerides derived from data collected during this demonstration - including comparisons with the operational precise orbit generated by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center - provide evidence that the TDRS orbits have been determined to better than 25 m with the GLT technique

The effectiveness of clinical networks in improving quality of care and patient outcomes: a systematic review of quantitative and qualitative studies.

BACKGROUND: Reorganisation of healthcare services into networks of clinical experts is increasing as a strategy to promote the uptake of evidence based practice and to improve patient care. This is reflected in significant financial investment in clinical networks. However, there is still some question as to whether clinical networks are effective vehicles for quality improvement. The aim of this systematic review was to ascertain the effectiveness of clinical networks and identify how successful networks improve quality of care and patient outcomes. METHODS: A systematic search was undertaken in accordance with the PRISMA approach in Medline, Embase, CINAHL and PubMed for relevant papers between 1 January 1996 and 30 September 2014. Established protocols were used separately to examine and assess the evidence from quantitative and qualitative primary studies and then integrate findings. RESULTS: A total of 22 eligible studies (9 quantitative; 13 qualitative) were included. Of the quantitative studies, seven focused on improving quality of care and two focused on improving patient outcomes. Quantitative studies were limited by a lack of rigorous experimental design. The evidence indicates that clinical networks can be effective vehicles for quality improvement in service delivery and patient outcomes across a range of clinical disciplines. However, there was variability in the networks' ability to make meaningful network- or system-wide change in more complex processes such as those requiring intensive professional education or more comprehensive redesign of care pathways. Findings from qualitative studies indicated networks that had a positive impact on quality of care and patients outcomes were those that had adequate resources, credible leadership and efficient management coupled with effective communication strategies and collaborative trusting relationships. CONCLUSIONS: There is evidence that clinical networks can improve the delivery of healthcare though there are few high quality quantitative studies of their effectiveness. Our findings can provide policymakers with some insight into how to successfully plan and implement clinical networks by ensuring strong clinical leadership, an inclusive organisational culture, adequate resourcing and localised decision-making authority

Ecosystem services bundles:challenges and opportunities for implementation and further research

Background : the concept of ‘ecosystem services bundles’, i.e. ecosystem services that repeatedly appear together across space and/or time, has been developed and refined as part of an integrated approach to assess interactions between ecosystem services. Nevertheless, published evidence of actual use of bundles in decision-making is lacking. In the light of this gap, a review of what bundle approaches have shown and what they can bring to decision-making is timely. Method : we conducted two separate systematic reviews. The first one addressed emerging issues within what we identify as the diverse utilisation and definition of the concept of ‘bundle’ in the literature. The second one focused on papers dealing with bundles as sets of consistently associated services. Review Synthesis : the review first highlights that the confusion surrounding the term ‘bundle’ in ecosystem services literature threatens to weaken the potential for analysis of bundles to inform decision-making. Then, thanks to the review of peer-reviewed papers that detect bundles as sets of consistently associated services, we analyse the diversity of methodological choices and we detail the interactions observed between different ecosystem services across the literature. We also show that landscape features, socio-economic conditions and institutional factors are all potential drivers for the occurrence of specific bundles in a landscape. Discussion : overall, it appears that the analysis of bundles provides an opportunity to enhance policy effectiveness. Nevertheless, the methodological challenges linked to the identification and interpretation of bundles call for careful and reflective study designs. We anticipate that this review will lead to a better understanding by scientists and practitioners of the potential for bundle studies to inform decision-making

UK national ecosystem assessment follow-on: cultural ecosystem services and indicators

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