Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production: Patterns, Trends, and Planetary Boundaries

Haberl, Helmut; Erb, Karl‐Heinz; Krausmann, Fridolin

doi:10.1146/annurev-environ-121912-094620

Cited by 216 publications

(208 citation statements)

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“…For non-cropland areas, NPPact was assessed by calculating differences to NPPpot due to management 15,20,21 . For artificial grazing lands NPPact was assumed to be 78% of NPPpot , to take the effects of leaf area reductions, shortening of the vegetation period and nutrient withdrawals into account 20 .…”

Section: Npp Of the Actual Vegetation (Nppact )mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…By replacing ecosystems dominated by perennial, often woody lifeforms with agroecosystems dominated by annual, herbaceous lifeforms, land use obviously accelerates biomass turnover (τ b ). Moreover, land use affects both productivity 15,23 and carbon storage 16,24 also within land-cover types. While reductions in biomass C stocks (SC) tend to accelerate τ b , reductions in terrestrial productivity (which happen frequently 15,21,23 ) would reduce τ b .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, land use affects both productivity 15,23 and carbon storage 16,24 also within land-cover types. While reductions in biomass C stocks (SC) tend to accelerate τ b , reductions in terrestrial productivity (which happen frequently 15,21,23 ) would reduce τ b . A comprehensive, global, spatially explicit quantification of the interplay of these effects for τ b is missing at present, despite its obvious importance.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…By adopting an approach that has proved useful in quantifying land-use effects on ecosystem properties such as net primary production (NPP) 15,20,21 , we here compare τ b of the potential and the actual vegetation. The potential vegetation refers to a hypothetical condition that would prevail in the assumed absence of land use but under current climate 15 . We define the acceleration of τ b as turnover of the potential natural vegetation divided by actual turnover: τ b acceleration = τ bpot /τ bact trade-off between carbon turnover and carbon stocks.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Biomass turnover time in terrestrial ecosystems halved by land use

Erb¹,

Fetzel²,

et al. 2016

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The terrestrial carbon cycle is not well quantified1. Biomass turnover time is a crucial parameter in the global carbon cycle2–4, and contributes to the feedback between the terrestrial carbon cycle and climate2–7. Biomass turnover time varies substantially in time and space, but its determinants are not well known8,9, making predictions of future global carbon cycle dynamics uncertain5,10–13. Land use—the sum of activities that aim at enhancing terrestrial ecosystem services14—alters plant growth15 and reduces biomass stocks16, and is hence expected to aect biomass turnover. Here we explore land-use-induced alterations of biomass turnover at the global scale by comparing the biomass turnover of the actual vegetation with that of a hypothetical vegetation state with no land use under current climate conditions. We find that, in the global average, biomass turnover is 1.9 times faster with land use. This acceleration aects all biomes roughly equally, but with large dierences between land-use types. Land conversion, for example fromforests to agricultural fields, is responsible for59%of the acceleration; the use of forestsand natural grazing land accounts for 26% and 15% respectively. Reductions in biomass stocks are partly compensated by reductions in net primary productivity. We conclude that land use significantly and systematically aects the fundamental trade-off between carbon turnover and carbon stocks

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Section: Npp Of the Actual Vegetation (Nppact )mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Biomass turnover time in terrestrial ecosystems halved by land use

Erb¹,

Fetzel²,

et al. 2016

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“…At the contrary, the historical perspective focuses on the dynamic pattern of the appropriation and transformation of "nature" and its repercussion on societal change. Several concepts (important in the regard are concepts like the colonisation of nature, i.e., the transformations of natural ecosystems to increase yields; [57], operationalised in the human appropriation of net primary production or HANPP indicator [60], Long-term Socioecological Research [61,62] and Socio-Natural sites [63], and in particular, the concept of metabolic regimes and the transition between different regimes [64]) offers an important dimension of SETs often neglected within transformation research. Focusing in particular on large-scale and long-term implications of energy and resource use, sociometabolic regimes are marked by a certain energy system and related basic technologies, which constrains the option space for societal developments [58].…”

Section: Sociometabolic Transitions and Social-ecological Constraintsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Challenges for Social-Ecological Transformations: Contributions from Social and Political Ecology

et al. 2017

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Transformation has become a major topic of sustainability research. This opens up new perspectives, but at the same time, runs the danger to convert into a new critical orthodoxy which narrows down analytical perspectives. Most research is committed towards a political-strategic approach towards transformation. This focus, however, clashes with ongoing transformation processes towards un-sustainability. The paper presents cornerstones of an integrative approach to social-ecological transformations (SET), which builds upon empirical work and conceptual considerations from Social Ecology and Political Ecology. We argue that a critical understanding of the challenges for societal transformations can be advanced by focusing on the interdependencies between societies and the natural environment. This starting point provides a more realistic understanding of the societal and biophysical constraints of sustainability transformations by emphasising the crisis-driven and contested character of the appropriation of nature and the power relations involved. Moreover, it pursues a transdisciplinary mode of research, decisive for adequately understanding any strategy for transformations towards sustainability. Such a conceptual approach of SET is supposed to better integrate the analytical, normative and political-strategic dimension of transformation research. We use the examples of global land use patterns, neo-extractivism in Latin America and the global water crisis to clarify our approach.

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Quantification of uncertainties in global grazing systems assessment

Fetzel¹,

Havlík

Herrero

et al. 2017

Global Biogeochemical Cycles

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Livestock systems play a key role in global sustainability challenges like food security and climate change, yet, many unknowns and large uncertainties prevail. We present a systematic, spatially explicit assessment of uncertainties related to grazing intensity (GI), a key metric for assessing ecological impacts of grazing, by combining existing datasets on a) grazing feed intake, b) the spatial distribution of livestock, c) the extent of grazing land, and d) its net primary productivity (NPP). An analysis of the resulting 96 maps implies that on average 15% of the grazing land NPP is consumed by livestock. GI is low in most of worlds grazing lands but hotspots of very high GI prevail in 1% of the total grazing area. The agreement between GI maps is good on one fifth of the world's grazing area, while on the remainder it is low to very low. Largest uncertainties are found in global drylands and where grazing land bears trees (e.g., the Amazon basin or the Taiga belt). In some regions like India or Western Europe massive uncertainties even result in GI > 100% estimates. Our sensitivity analysis indicates that the input-data for NPP, animal distribution and grazing area contribute about equally to the total variability in GI maps, while grazing feed intake is a less critical variable. We argue that a general improvement in quality of the available global level datasets is a precondition for improving the understanding of the role of livestock systems in the context of global environmental change or food security. Plain Language SummaryLivestock systems play a key role in global sustainability challenges like food security and climate change, yet, many unknowns and large uncertainties prevail. We present a systematic assessment of uncertainties related to the intensity of grazing, a key metric for assessing ecological impacts of grazing. We combine existing datasets on a) grazing feed intake, b) the spatial distribution of livestock, c) the extent of grazing land, and d) the biomass available for grazing. Our results show that most grasslands are used with low intensity but hotspots of high intensity prevail on 1% of the global grazing area, mainly located in drylands and where grazing land bears trees. The agreement between all maps is good on one fifth of the global grazing area, while on the remainder it is low to very low. Our sensitivity analysis indicates that the input-data for available biomass, animal distribution and grazing area contribute about equally to the total variability of our maps, while grazing feed intake is a less critical variable. We argue that a general improvement in quality of the available datasets is a precondition for improving the understanding of livestock systems in the context of global environmental change or food security.

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Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production: Patterns, Trends, and Planetary Boundaries

Cited by 216 publications

References 134 publications

Biomass turnover time in terrestrial ecosystems halved by land use

Biomass turnover time in terrestrial ecosystems halved by land use

Challenges for Social-Ecological Transformations: Contributions from Social and Political Ecology

Quantification of uncertainties in global grazing systems assessment

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