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Ecuadorian páramo grasslands have become the focus of Payment for Ecosystem Services programs that have promoted land-use changes such as afforestation and reduction of burning, grazing of cattle or sheep, and agricultural expansion. However, limited information exists on the relationships between land use in páramos and the production of ecosystem services, including the direction and magnitude of changes in carbon storage. In an evaluation of eight sites representing incentivized land uses, we found significant differences in both soil carbon and aboveground carbon. The results support previous findings on the effects of pine plantations and suggest that limiting burning may be effective at enhancing carbon storage. They also indicate that, in highly productive grasslands such as the páramo, both belowground and aboveground C storage can be high, even when compared to some types of afforestation, providing support for greater attention to the role of grassland conservation in climate mitigation strategies.

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This article summarizes the primary outcomes of an interdisciplinary workshop in 2010, sponsored by the U.S. National Science Foundation, focused on developing key questions and integrative themes for advancing the science of human-landscape systems. The workshop was a response to a grand challenge identified recently by the U.S. National Research Council (2010a)--"How will Earth's surface evolve in the "Anthropocene?"--suggesting that new theories and methodological approaches are needed to tackle increasingly complex human-landscape interactions in the new era. A new science of human-landscape systems recognizes the interdependence of hydro-geomorphological, ecological, and human processes and functions. Advances within a range of disciplines spanning the physical, biological, and social sciences are therefore needed to contribute toward interdisciplinary research that lies at the heart of the science. Four integrative research themes were identified--thresholds/tipping points, time scales and time lags, spatial scales and boundaries, and feedback loops--serving as potential focal points around which theory can be built for human-landscape systems. Implementing the integrative themes requires that the research communities: (1) establish common metrics to describe and quantify human, biological, and geomorphological systems; (2) develop new ways to integrate diverse data and methods; and (3) focus on synthesis, generalization, and meta-analyses, as individual case studies continue to accumulate. Challenges to meeting these needs center on effective communication and collaboration across diverse disciplines spanning the natural and social scientific divide. Creating venues and mechanisms for sustained focused interdisciplinary collaborations, such as synthesis centers, becomes extraordinarily important for advancing the science.

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SUMMARYEcosystem services programmes have been advocated for their potential to join conservation and poverty alleviation efforts, integrate working landscapes, and provide a flow of ecosystem services upon which populations rely. Ecuadorian páramo grasslands have rapidly become the focus of compensation for ecosystem services (CES) programmes intended to conserve hydrologic services, carbon sequestration and biodiversity. This paper reviews CES programmes in Ecuadorian páramos using a combination of semi-structured interviews with project personnel, policy makers and community leaders involved in CES programme development, document analysis, and archival research. Findings indicate that, in some cases, CES schemes can support local development, with potential to contribute to poverty alleviation; however, measures of programme effects on poverty were lacking. The programmes fell across the spectrum of activity-reducing to activity-enhancing, with some functioning as protected areas and others integrating working landscapes; however, designation of land as protected did not necessarily imply more restrictive use. Finally, these cases all reflect scenarios in which limited information is available linking land use with ecosystem services production and underscore the idea that adequate understanding of ecosystem production functions continues to be a barrier to development of effective programmes, particularly where the provision of multiple ecosystem services is anticipated.