Patriotic values for public goods: transnational trade-offs for biodiversity and ecosystem services?

The natural environment is central to human well-being through its role in ecosystem service (ES) provision. Managing ES often requires coordination across international borders. Although this may deliver greater conservation gains than countries acting alone, we do not know whether the public supports such an international approach. Using the same questionnaire in three countries, we quantified public preferences for ES in home countries and across international borders. In all three countries, the people were generally willing to pay for ES. However, our results show that there is a limit to the extent that environmental goods can be considered global. ES with a use element (habitat conservation, landscape preservation) attracted a patriotic premium, such that the people were willing to pay significantly more for locally delivered services. Supranational management of ES needs to be balanced against the preferences that people have for services delivered in their home countries

Salvage logging effects on regulating ecosystem services and fuel loads

We thank several authors who generously provided data for this meta-analysis (WebPanel 2). ABL acknowledges the support of mobility grants from Universidad de Alcalá and Spanish Ministry of Education, postdoctoral fellowships from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and Project AS2013/MAE-2719 “REMEDINAL-3” from the Government of Madrid. The data underlying this paper are available through an institutional repository (http://hdl.handle.net/10481/62260).Salvage logging, or logging after natural disturbances such as wildfires, insect outbreaks, and windstorms, is carried out to recover some of a forest’s natural and/or economic capital. However, trade-offs between management objectives and a lack of consensus on the ecological consequences of salvage logging impair science-based decision making on the management of forests after natural disturbances. We conducted a global meta-analysis of the impacts of salvage logging on regulating ecosystem services and on fuel loads, as a frequent post-disturbance objective is preventing subsequent wildfires that could be fueled by the accumulation of dead trunks and branches. Salvage logging affected ecosystem services in a moderately negative way, regardless of disturbance type and severity, time elapsed since salvage logging, intensity of salvage logging, and the group of regulating ecosystem services being considered. However, prolonging the time between natural disturbance and salvage logging mitigated negative effects on regulating ecosystem services. Salvage logging had no overall effect on surface fuels; rather, different fuel types responded differently depending on the time elapsed since salvage logging. Delaying salvage logging by ~2–4 years may reduce negative ecological impacts without affecting surface fuel loads.Project AS2013/MAE-2719 “REMEDINAL-3” from the Government of Madri

The co-benefits of biodiversity conservation programmes on wider ecosystem services

While multiple ecosystem service benefits are increasingly emphasised in policy as an outcome for land management, most conservation management and legislation is currently focused on conserving specific species and habitats. These management interventions may provide multiple co-benefits for other ecosystem services but more information is needed on where these synergies occur in order to realise these benefits. In this paper, we use expert data obtained from structured interviews with key stakeholders to examine the perceived impacts of 11 species-specific conservation schemes on wider ecosystem services in Scotland, UK. With some exceptions, impacts were perceived to be mostly positive or neutral, suggesting that there are many potential opportunities when looking to manage for the delivery of multiple ecosystem services. Unsurprisingly, 'wild species diversity' and 'environmental settings' are the ecosystem services perceived to benefit the most from species conservation management. Despite the clear benefits of aligning biodiversity conservation and ecosystem service objectives, many challenges remain and future policy and associated management will need to tackle issues of scale as well as the distribution of costs and benefits

Interacting regional-scale regime shifts for biodiversity and ecosystem services

Current trajectories of global change may lead to regime shifts at regional scales, driving coupled human–environment systems to highly degraded states in terms of biodiversity, ecosystem services, and human well-being. For business-as-usual socioeconomic development pathways, regime shifts are projected to occur within the next several decades, to be difficult to reverse, and to have regional- to global-scale impacts on human society. We provide an overview of ecosystem, socioeconomic, and biophysical mechanisms mediating regime shifts and illustrate how these interact at regional scales by aggregation, synergy, and spreading processes. We give detailed examples of interactions for terrestrial ecosystems of central South America and for marine and coastal ecosystems of Southeast Asia. This analysis suggests that degradation of biodiversity and ecosystem services over the twenty-first century could be far greater than was previously predicted. We identify key policy and management opportunities at regional to global scales to avoid these shifts

An ecosystem services approach to the ecological effects of salvage logging: valuation of seed dispersal.

Forest disturbances diminish ecosystem services and boost disservices. Because post-disturbance management intends to recover the greatest possible value, selling timber often prevails over other considerations. Ecological research has shown diverse effects of salvage logging, yet such research has focused on the biophysical component of post-disturbance ecosystems and lacks the link with human well-being. Here we bridge that gap under the ecosystem services framework by assessing the impact of post-fire management on a non-timber value. By employing the replacement cost method, we calculated the value of the post-fire natural regeneration of Holm oaks in southern Spain under three post-fire management options by considering the cost of planting instead. The value of this ecosystem service in non-intervention areas doubled that of salvage-logged stands due to the preference for standing dead trees by the main seed disperser. Still, most of the value resulted from the resprouting capacity of oaks. The value of this and other ecosystem services should be added to traditional cost/benefit analyses of post-disturbance management. We thus call for a more holistic approach to salvage logging research, one that explicitly links ecological processes with human well-being through ecosystem services, to better inform decision-makers on the outcomes of post-disturbance management

Integrating ecology and evolutionary theory. A game changer for biodiversity conservation?

Currently, one of the central arguments in favour of biodiversity conservation is that it is essential for the maintenance of ecosystem services, that is, the benefits that people receive from ecosystems. However, the relationship between ecosystem services and biodiversity is contested and needs clarification. The goal of this chapter is to spell out the interaction and reciprocal influences between conservation science, evolutionary biology, and ecology, in order to understand whether a stronger integration of evolutionary and ecological studies might help clarify the interaction between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning as well as influence biodiversity conservation practices. To this end, the eco-evolutionary feedback theory proposed by David Post and Eric Palkovacs is analysed, arguing that it helps operationalise niche construction theory and develop a more sophisticated understanding of the relationship between ecosystem functioning and biodiversity. Finally, it is proposed that by deepening the integration of ecological and evolutionary factors in our understanding of ecosystem functioning, the eco-evolutionary feedback theory is supportive of an “evolutionary-enlightened management” of biodiversity within the ecosystem services approach.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Catching the future : Applying Bayesian belief networks to exploratory scenario storylines to assess long‐term changes in Baltic herring (Clupea harengus membras, Clupeidae) and salmon (Salmo salar, Salmonidae) fisheries

Fisheries management aims to ensure that the fishing activities are environmentally sustainable in the long term, while also achieving the economic, social and food security related management objectives. To facilitate this, both the ecological and human dimensions of sustainability need to be included in fisheries assessment. In addition, assessing long-term sustainability calls for taking into account plausible changes in the surrounding societal conditions that shape the characteristics of the fisheries governance system, as well as the ecological conditions. The paper uses a combination of qualitative exploratory scenario storylines (ESS) and Bayesian belief networks (BBN) to integrate the environmental, economic, social and food security dimensions in an interdisciplinary assessment of the future sustainability of Baltic herring (Clupea harengus membras, Clupeidae) and salmon (Salmo salar, Salmonidae) fisheries. First, four alternative ESS were created based on plausible changes in societal drivers. The ESS were then formulated into a BBN to (a) visualize the assumed causalities, and (b) examine quantitatively how changes in the societal drivers affect the social-ecological fisheries system and ultimately the fisheries management objectives. This type of probabilistic scenario synthesis can help in thinking qualitative scenarios in a quantitative way. Moreover, it can increase understanding on the causal links between societal driving forces and the complex fisheries system and on how the management objectives can be achieved, thereby providing valuable information for strategic decision-making under uncertainty.Peer reviewe