Ecosystem services as the products of land system dynamics: lessons from a longitudinal study of coupled human–environment systems

Abstract

ContextWe address understanding of whole-system and landscape-based approaches to the ecosystem services framework by considering the supply of provisioning services and the dynamics of agricultural land use in Scotland between 1940 and2016. Objectives To characterise and understand the dynamics of change in provisioning services from agriculture in Scotland over the period 1940 to 2016. To identify ways in which funds of capitals and flows of inputs and output ecosystem goods are linked to land management practices and policies at a national scale.Methods Data describing agricultural land use, production, financial and energy inputs and outputs, and drivers of change in land use in Scotland are analysed with an accounting framework that links funds of natural, human, physical and financial capital, with flows of goods and services. Flow-fund ratios are used as benchmarks of system performance and dynamics.Results Scotland's agriculture has modernised since 1940 and become more efficient in conversion of resources, with a consequent increase in delivery of provisioning goods and services. Although the energy ratio, and flow of goods per unit hectare and per unit labour have increased, the inputs necessary to maintain those flows of ecosystem goods are also increasing, even as their relative economic costs decrease. Increases in use of fertiliser suggests that production from the soil, as a natural capital fund, is not being conserved without a large, and increasing, input. Analysis of the complexity of the coupled agricultural land system also suggests that land management rather than biodiversity is a necessary subject for evaluation of provisioning services from agriculture. Understanding of ecosystem services based on accounts that integrate inputs, outputs and flows from funds of natural, human, social, financial and physical capitals, provides a process-based foundation for improved understanding of ecosystem services and human-environmental relationships.Conclusions Adopting an accounting approach for understanding the role of agricultural land use for supply of provisioning services, and particularly examining a long time-series of accounts, enables understanding of land changes and underlying drivers, as well as the contribution of cultural and other aspects of human systems coupled with environment systems. Accounting for ecosystem services using costs as well as benefits, and use of metrics beyond financial benefit, supports debate and evaluation of trade-offs between services and has direct relevance for decision-and policy-making.

Emergent Properties of Land Systems: Nonlinear Dynamics of Scottish Farming Systems from 1867 to 2020

“…The conceptual model in Aspinall and Staiano (2017) does not quantify the funds and flows, although it does indicate some of the time scales over which the fluxes and changes in the system elements operate, from days, months, and seasons to years and decades, and longer. The model has been used to underpin an accounting approach for analysis of supply of provisioning services and the dynamics of agricultural land use in Scotland between 1940 and 2016 [26].…”

“…This analysis is based on understanding the interactions of arable and pastoral farming at a national scale in Scotland over the 19th and 20th Century. Arable and pastoral farming typically are treated as separate land uses and receive separate economic treatment as relatively distinct farming sectors in contemporary studies; this reflects increasing specialization in farming associated with intensification and modernization [26], and land cover and land management differences. However, this separation has not always been the case, and the interaction of pastoral and arable farming has long been widely recognized [21,[27][28][29].…”

The Nexus Times

“…Our analysis is summarised for each year from 1940 to 2016, using a series of benchmarks computed from flows and funds. Source: Aspinall and Staiano, 2019. Figure 3-c shows two flow-flow ratios: food production efficiency of agriculture, as conversion of finance to energy (GJ energy output/£000 input) and the economic return on resource use by farming (£000 output value/TJ energy input).…”

Study on the efficiency evolution trend of coordinated development of the human–earth system in minority areas of Yunnan, China

“…With the maturation of the theoretical basis of human-earth systems, information technology and econometric analysis models, the issue of coordinated development of human-earth systems has gradually become the focus of research in geography, economics, sociology, environmental studies and ecology (Hudak, 1999;Cao and Xie, 2009;Shen and Liu, 2010;Rajaram and Das, 2011;Evans et al, 2013;Yu et al, 2021), scholars have conducted extensive theoretical and empirical research on it in terms of philosophical thinking, structural models, evolutionary processes, influence mechanisms, and optimal regulation (Ye, 2001;Mayes and Pini, 2010;Aspinall and Staiano, 2019;Qiu et al, 2021). And as the core of sustainable development of human society (Giddings et al, 2002;Fang et al, 2020), the issue of harmonious development between humans and the earth has been continuously sublimated, the theoretical system has been improved, and research methods have gradually developed towards multi-perspective, multi-scale and systematic quantitative analysis (Laniak et al, 2013;Nielsen et al, 2020;.…”