Fensholt, Rasmus

Horion, Stéphanie Marie Anne F

Ivits, Eva

Verzandvoort, Simone

English

Copenhagen University Research Information System

u n i ve r s i t y  o f  co pe n h ag e n  Københavns UniversitetA new method for large-scale assessment of change in ecosystem functioning inrelation to land degradationHorion, Stéphanie Marie Anne F; Ivits, Eva; Verzandvoort, Simone; Fensholt, RasmusPublished in:EGU2017, proceedings from the conference held 23-28 April, 2017 in ViennaPublication date:2017Document versionPublisher's PDF, also known as Version of recordDocument license:CC BYCitation for published version (APA):Horion, S. M. A. F., Ivits, E., Verzandvoort, S., & Fensholt, R. (2017). A new method for large-scale assessmentof change in ecosystem functioning in relation to land degradation. In EGU2017, proceedings from theconference held 23-28 April, 2017 in Vienna (pp. 13317). Proceedings of the 19th EGU General Assembly(EGU2017)Download date: 03. Feb. 2020Geophysical Research AbstractsVol. 19, EGU2017-13317, 2017EGU General Assembly 2017© Author(s) 2017. CC Attribution 3.0 License.A new method for large-scale assessment of change in ecosystemfunctioning in relation to land degradationStephanie Horion (1), Eva Ivits (2), Simone Verzandvoort (3), and Rasmus Fensholt (1)(1) Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark(stephanie.horion@ign.ku.dk, rf@ign.ku.dk), (2) Land and System Group, European Environmental Agency, Copenhagen,Denmark (Eva.Ivits@eea.europa.eu), (3) Soil, Water and Land Use, Wageningen Environmental Research, Wageningen, TheNetherlands (simone.verzandvoort@wur.nl)Ongoing pressures on European land are manifold with extreme climate events and non-sustainable use of landresources being amongst the most important drivers altering the functioning of the ecosystems. The protection andconservation of European natural capital is one of the key objectives of the 7th Environmental Action Plan (EAP).The EAP stipulates that European land must be managed in a sustainable way by 2020 and the UN Sustainabledevelopment goals define a Land Degradation Neutral world as one of the targets. This implies that landdegradation (LD) assessment of European ecosystems must be performed repeatedly allowing for the assessmentof the current state of LD as well as changes compared to a baseline adopted by the UNCCD for the objective ofland degradation neutrality. However, scientifically robust methods are still lacking for large-scale assessment ofLD and repeated consistent mapping of the state of terrestrial ecosystems. Historical land degradation assessmentsbased on various methods exist, but methods are generally non-replicable or difficult to apply at continental scale(Allan et al. 2007). The current lack of research methods applicable at large spatial scales is notably caused by thenon-robust definition of LD, the scarcity of field data on LD, as well as the complex inter-play of the processesdriving LD (Vogt et al., 2011). Moreover, the link between LD and changes in land use (how land use changesrelates to change in vegetation productivity and ecosystem functioning) is not straightforward.In this study we used the segmented trend method developed by Horion et al. (2016) for large-scale sys-tematic assessment of hotspots of change in ecosystem functioning in relation to LD. This method alleviatesshortcomings of widely used linear trend model that does not account for abrupt change, nor adequately capturesthe actual changes in ecosystem functioning (de Jong et al. 2013; Horion et al. 2016). Here we present a newmethodology for assessing gradual and abrupt changes in ecosystem functioning in Europe. Based on segmentedtrend analysis of water-use efficiency (WUE) time series, an Ecosystem Change Type (ECT) map was producedover Europe at 1km resolution for the period 1999 to 2013. An analysis of auxiliary data on land use/cover change,drought trends, and soil threats was performed over hotspot areas to better understand the observed changes inecosystem functioning and their driving mechanisms. The ECT map was validated using the case study sites fromthe EU-funded RECARE project. Overall, the ECT map accurately highlighted areas characterized by a majorchange in pathways of ecosystem functioning as well as indicated the type and timing of changes.Allan, R. et al. (2007). Climate and land degradation. Verlag Berlin Heidelberg: Springer.de Jong, R et al. (2013). Remote Sensing, 5, 1117-1133Horion, S. et al. (2016). Global Change Biology, 22, 2801-2817Vogt, J. V et al. (2011). Land Degradation & Development, 22: 150–165.

A new method for large-scale assessment of change in ecosystem functioning in relation to land degradation

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A new method for large-scale assessment of change in ecosystem functioning in relation to land degradation

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