Ecosystem service Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

The concept of a digital ecosystem (DE) has been used to explore scenarios in which multiple online services and resources can be accessed by users without there being a single point of control. In previous work we have described how the... more

The concept of a digital ecosystem (DE) has been used to explore scenarios in which multiple online services and resources can be accessed by users without there being a single point of control. In previous work we have described how the so-called transaction languages can express concurrent and distributed interactions between online services in a transactional environment. In this paper we outline how transaction languages capture the history of a long-running transaction and highlight the benefits of our true-concurrent approach in the context of DEs. This includes support for the recovery of a long-running transaction whenever some failure is encountered. We introduce an animation tool that has been developed to explore the behaviours of long-running transactions within our modelling environment. Further, we discuss how this work supports the declarative approach to the development of open distributed applications.

Summary Soils are increasingly recognized as major contributors to ecosystem services such as food production and climate regulation (1, 2), and demand for up-to-date and relevant soil information is soaring. But communicating such... more

Summary Soils are increasingly recognized as major contributors to ecosystem services such as food production and climate regulation (1, 2), and demand for up-to-date and relevant soil information is soaring. But communicating such information among diverse audiences remains challenging because of inconsistent use of technical jargon, and outdated, imprecise methods. Also, spatial resolutions of soil maps for most parts of the world are too low to help with practical land management. While other earth sciences (eg, ...

Large-scale anthropogenic changes to the natural environment, including land-use change, climate change, and the deterioration of ecosystem services, are all accelerating. These changes are interacting to generate five major emerging... more

Large-scale anthropogenic changes to the natural environment, including land-use change, climate change, and the deterioration of ecosystem services, are all accelerating. These changes are interacting to generate five major emerging public health threats that endanger the health and well-being of hundreds of millions of people. These threats include increasing exposure to infectious disease, water scarcity, food scarcity, natural disasters, and population displacement. Taken together, they may represent the greatest public health challenge humanity has faced. There is an urgent need to improve our understanding of the dynamics of each of these threats: the complex interplay of factors that generate them, the characteristics of populations that make them particularly vulnerable, and the identification of which populations are at greatest risk from each of these threats. Such improved understanding would be the basis for stepped-up efforts at modeling and mapping global vulnerability...

Current payment for environmental service (PES) schemes face challenges in the form of evaluation of opportunity costs and ecosystem service delivery, high transaction costs, and difficulties in ensuring conditionality. Even when these... more

Current payment for environmental service (PES) schemes face challenges in the form of evaluation of opportunity costs and ecosystem service delivery, high transaction costs, and difficulties in ensuring conditionality. Even when these conditions are met, PES may be undermined by a lack of inclusivity, leading to societal conflicts over land use. We propose a new PES-type approach that we call

The introduction of N2-fixing white clover (Trifolium repens) in grassland is a management measure that may contribute to sustainable grassland systems by making them less dependent on inorganic fertilizers. However, little is known about... more

The introduction of N2-fixing white clover (Trifolium repens) in grassland is a management measure that may contribute to sustainable grassland systems by making them less dependent on inorganic fertilizers. However, little is known about the impact of this measure on soil biota and ecosystem services. We investigated earthworms, nematodes, bacteria and fungi in an experiment in which white clover-only and

A literature survey identified 403 primary research publications that investigated the ecological effects of invasive alien insects and/or the mechanisms underlying these effects. The majority of these studies were published in the last... more

A literature survey identified 403 primary research publications that investigated the ecological effects of invasive alien insects and/or the mechanisms underlying these effects. The majority of these studies were published in the last 8 years and nearly two-thirds were carried out in North America. These publications concerned 72 invasive insect species, of which two ant species, Solenopsis invicta and Linepithema humile, accounted for 18% and 14% of the studies, respectively. Most publications investigated effects on native biodiversity at population or community level. Genetic effects and, to a lesser extent, effects on ecosystem services and processes were rarely explored. We review the effects caused by different insect invaders according to: their ecosystem roles, i.e. herbivores, predators, parasites, parasitoids and pollinators; the level of biological organisation at which they occur; and the direct and indirect mechanisms underlying these effects. The best documented effects occur in invasive ants, Eurasian forest herbivores invasive in North America, and honeybees. Impacts may occur through simple trophic interactions such as herbivory, predation or parasitism. Alien species may also affect native species and communities through more complex mechanisms such as competition for resources, disease transmission, apparent competition, or pollination disruption, among others. Finally, some invasive insects, particularly forest herbivores and ants, are known to affect ecosystem processes through cascading effects. We identify biases and gaps in our knowledge of ecological effects of invasive insects and suggest further opportunities for research.

The complex interactions among endangered ecosystems, landowners’ interests, and different models of land tenure and use, constitute an important series of challenges for those seeking to maintain and restore biodiversity and augment the... more

The complex interactions among endangered ecosystems, landowners’ interests, and different models of land tenure and use, constitute an important series of challenges for those seeking to maintain and restore biodiversity and augment the flow of ecosystem services. Over the past 10 years, we have developed a data-based approach to address these challenges and to achieve medium and large-scale ecological restoration

Payments for environmental services (PES) have attracted increasing interest as a mechanism to translate external, non-market values of the environment into real financial incentives for local actors to provide environmental services... more

Payments for environmental services (PES) have attracted increasing interest as a mechanism to translate external, non-market values of the environment into real financial incentives for local actors to provide environmental services (ES). In this introductory paper, we set the stage for the rest of this Special Issue of Ecological Economics by reviewing the main issues arising in PES design and

Surface coal mining in Appalachia has caused extensive replacement of forest with non-forested land cover, much of which is unmanaged and unproductive. Although forested ecosystems are valued by society for both marketable products and... more

Surface coal mining in Appalachia has caused extensive replacement of forest with non-forested land cover, much of which is unmanaged and unproductive. Although forested ecosystems are valued by society for both marketable products and ecosystem services, forests have not been restored on most Appalachian mined lands because traditional reclamation practices, encouraged by regulatory policies, created conditions poorly suited for reforestation. Reclamation scientists have studied productive forests growing on older mine sites, established forest vegetation experimentally on recent mines, and identified mine reclamation practices that encourage forest vegetation re-establishment. Based on these findings, they developed a Forestry Reclamation Approach (FRA) that can be employed by coal mining firms to restore forest vegetation. Scientists and mine regulators, working collaboratively, have communicated the FRA to the coal industry and to regulatory enforcement personnel. Today, the FRA is used routinely by many coal mining firms, and thousands of mined hectares have been reclaimed to restore productive mine soils and planted with native forest trees. Reclamation of coal mines using the FRA is expected to restore these lands' capabilities to provide forest-based ecosystem services, such as wood production, atmospheric carbon sequestration, wildlife habitat, watershed protection, and water quality protection to a greater extent than conventional reclamation practices.

The central organizing theme of this paper is to discuss the dynamics of the Serengeti grassland ecosystem from the perspective of recent developments in food-web theory. The seasonal rainfall patterns that characterize the East African... more

The central organizing theme of this paper is to discuss the dynamics of the Serengeti grassland ecosystem from the perspective of recent developments in food-web theory. The seasonal rainfall patterns that characterize the East African climate create an annually oscillating, large-scale, spatial mosaic of feeding opportunities for the larger ungulates in the Serengeti; this in turn creates a significant annual variation in the food available for their predators. At a smaller spatial scale, periodic fires during the dry season create patches of highly nutritious grazing that are eaten in preference to the surrounding older patches of less palatable vegetation. The species interactions between herbivores and plants, and carnivores and herbivores, are hierarchically nested in the Serengeti food web, with the largest bodied consumers on each trophic level having the broadest diets that include species from a large variety of different habitats in the ecosystem. The different major habi...

Information on urban tree growth, mortality and in-growth is currently being used to estimate urban forest structure changes and ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration. This study reports on tree diameter growth and mortality in... more

Information on urban tree growth, mortality and in-growth is currently being used to estimate urban forest structure changes and ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration. This study reports on tree diameter growth and mortality in 65 plots distributed among four land use categories, which were established in 2005/2006 in Gainesville, Florida, USA and were re-measured in 2009. Models for mortality

Marine biodiversity is a resource of enormous importance to human societies that provides critical ecosystem services. Economic valuation of some services has been utilized to promote conservation initiatives by revealing a tangible and... more

Marine biodiversity is a resource of enormous importance to human societies that provides critical ecosystem services. Economic valuation of some services has been utilized to promote conservation initiatives by revealing a tangible and causative link between biodiversity declines and economic losses. Other ecosystem services have eluded valuation, including the value of the sea as a repository of novel pharmaceuticals. Here,