Ecosystem services research in China: Progress and perspective

Zhang, Biao; Li, Wenhua; Xie, Gaogang

doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2010.03.009

Cited by 141 publications

(77 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Humans frequently enhance the production of some services at the expense of the others (Jackson et al 2001;Zhang et al 2010). Development has generated significant economic and social benefits, but these benefits have often come at high costs associated with the deterioration of natural capital and ecosystem services through processes such as soil erosion, reduced quantity and quality of fresh water, salinity, and biodiversity depletion (Tilman 1999).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling hydrological ecosystem services and tradeoffs: a case study in Baiyangdian watershed, China

et al. 2012

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Policy makers and scientists consider that land use strategies are designed to provide direct benefits to people by protecting vital ecosystem services. However, due to lack of information and evaluation methods, there is no effective and systematic tool for assessing tradeoffs between direct human benefits and ecosystem services. Land use changes influence ecosystem properties, processes and components, which are the basis for providing services. Five alternative land use scenarios (no conversion of agricultural lands, no urban expansion, agricultural expansion, forestry expansion, and riparian reforestation) were modeled for the Baiyangdian watershed, China, a densely populated, highly modified watershed with serious water shortage and pollution problems. The model InVEST (Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs) is designed to inform decisions about natural resource management, with an aim to align economic forces with conservation. Three ecosystem services (agricultural production, hydropower production, and water quality) were modeled to balance direct benefits and hydrological ecosystem services using InVEST. The results showed that: hydropower production was the greatest in the forestry expansion, but the lowest in agricultural expansion; agricultural production was reduced the most in forestry expansion, while retained the most in riparian reforestation. Riparian reforestation also provided the highest N and P retention and lowest N and P exportation. Riparian reforestation was the optimal land use strategy, since it protected and enhanced the vital ecosystem services without undermining direct human benefits. This research presents an initial analytical framework for integrating direct human benefits and ecosystem services in policy planning and illustrates its application. Although there are important potential tradeoffs between ecosystem services, this systematic planning framework offers a means for identifying valuable synergies between conservation and development.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling hydrological ecosystem services and tradeoffs: a case study in Baiyangdian watershed, China

et al. 2012

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“…artificial and natural ecosystems), the creation of a single classification for all ecosystems is not possible (Zhang et al, 2010). However, the ecosystem service parameter list tested in this study proved to be remarkably versatile across a range of sites including urban, crop land, forest, mountain, desert and marine sites.…”

Section: Identification Of Parameters To Assess Ecosystem Servicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The link between the study of ecosystem services and policy formulation is now well established (Constanza et al, 1997;Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA), 2005;Daily et al, 2009;Ring et al, 2010;Zhang et al, 2010;Moldan et al, 2012). The EU biodiversity strategy explicitly calls (action 5) for the mapping of ecosystem services (Maes et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecosytem Services: A Rapid Assessment Method Tested at 35 Sites of the LTER-Europe Network

Dick¹,

Al-Assaf²,

Andrews³

et al. 2014

Ekologia

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Vihervaara P.: Ecosystem services: a rapid assessment method tested at 35 sites of the LTER-Europe network. Ekológia (Bratislava), Vol. 33, No. 3, p. 217-231, 2014.The identification of parameters to monitor the ecosystem services delivered at a site is fundamental to the concept's adoption as a useful policy instrument at local, national and international scales. In this paper we (i) describe the process of developing a rapid comprehensive ecosystem service assessment methodology and (ii) test the applicability of the protocol at 35 long-term research (LTER) sites across 14 countries in the LTER-Europe network (www.lter-europe.net) including marine, urban, agricultural, forest, desert and conservation sites. An assessment of probability of occurrence with estimated confidence score using 83 ecosystem service parameters was tested. The parameters were either specific services like food production or proxies such as human activities which were considered surrogates for cultural diversity and economic activity. This initial test of the ecosystem service parameter list revealed that the parameters tested were relatively easy to score by site managers with a high level of certainty (92% scored as either occurring or not occu-

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“…A second reason is that the economic value of biodiversity (e.g. the ecosystem services) has also often been underestimated; ecological benefits are seldom contemplated because most of them cannot be reflected in the traditional marketplace (Zhang B. et al, 2010). However, some recent large catastrophes (e.g.…”

Section: Scientific Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%