Ecosystem Services

Multiple Services from Alpine Forests and Policies for Local Development

by Scolozzi Rocco

Territori sostenibili e resilienti: la prospettiva dei servizi ecosistemici

by Scolozzi Rocco

Territorio, 60/2012 (Franco Angeli)

Gli ecosistemi di un territorio, attraverso l’erogazione dei servizi ecosistemici (SE), forniscono un supporto... more Gli ecosistemi di un territorio, attraverso l’erogazione dei servizi ecosistemici (SE), forniscono un supporto insostituibile alla qualità di vita dei suoi abitanti e i fattori di base per uno sviluppo economico durevole. Tali servizi costituiscono il capitale naturale del territorio ma anche una sorta di assicurazione nei confronti di eventi estremi.
Qui si presentano i primi risultati di un metodo speditivo originale. Emerge che ogni anno gli ecosistemi italiani erogano beni e utilità paragonabili (per difetto) a 71,3 mld di euro. Più rilevante è la dinamica di questi valori: in soli 10 anni alcune province sembrano perdere più del 3% del valore totale e fino al 18%, considerando specifici SE. La prospettiva dei SE integrata nella valutazione e pianificazione territoriale potrebbe supportare strategie di sviluppo più consapevoli dei processi ecologici e più lungimiranti

Understanding Biodiversity with Socio-Cultural & Environmental Aspects. 30 April 2011

by M.T. Abdullah, PhD

This paper discusses on some concepts and new ideas related to the high biological diversity in Malaysia. This may be... more This paper discusses on some concepts and new ideas related to the high biological diversity in Malaysia. This may be known as integrative biological diversity.

ODEMM Linkage Framework Userguide

by Corinne Baulcomb

This is a guide to which I contributed showing how the ODEMM project linked economic activities with marine ecosystems and ecosystem services

Tradeoffs between soil, water, and carbon – A national scale analysis from New Zealand

by Anne-Gaelle Ausseil

Evaluating ecosystem services of Afforestation on Erosion-prone Land: A Case Study in the Manawatu Catchment, New Zealand

by Anne-Gaelle Ausseil

Identification of a new type of ecological hazard of chemicals: inhibition of processes of ecological remediation

by Sergei Ostroumov

Global conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services

by Thomas Brooks

Turner, W.R., Brandon, K., Brooks, T.M., Costanza, R., Fonseca, G.A.B. da & Portela, R. (2007) Global conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services. BioScience 57: 868–873.
DOI: 10.1641/B571009.

Habitat destruction has driven much of the current biodiversity extinction crisis, and it compromises the essential... more Habitat destruction has driven much of the current biodiversity extinction crisis, and it compromises the essential benefits, or ecosystem services, that humans derive from functioning ecosystems. Securing both species and ecosystem services might be accomplished with common solutions. Yet it is unknown whether these two major conservation objectives coincide broadly enough worldwide to enable global strategies for both goals to gain synergy. In this article, we assess the concordance between these two objectives, explore how the concordance varies across different regions, and examine the global potential for safeguarding biodiversity and ecosystem services simultaneously. We find that published global priority maps for biodiversity conservation harbor a disproportionate share of estimated terrestrial ecosystem service value (ESV). Overlap of biodiversity priorities and ESV varies among regions, and in areas that have high biodiversity priority but low ESV, specialized conservation approaches are necessary. Overall, however, our findings suggest opportunities for safeguarding both biodiversity and ecosystem services. Sensitivity analyses indicate that results are robust to known limitations of available ESV data. Capitalizing on these opportunities will require the identification of synergies at fine scales, and the development of economic and policy tools to exploit them.

Temperature-associated population diversity in salmon confers benefits to mobile consumers

by Jonathan Armstrong

The Map of Moral Significance: a new axiological matrix for environmental ethics

by Barbara Muraca

Environmental Values 20:3

One main issue within environmental ethics is the so-called Demarcation Problem, i.e. the question of which entities... more One main issue within environmental ethics is the so-called Demarcation Problem, i.e. the question of which entities are members of the moral community and hold intrinsic value. I argue that the demarcation problem relies mainly on Kantian moral philosophy. While the Kantian framework offers a strong and immediately deontological argument for moral agents holding inherent moral values, it presents problems when stretched beyond its original scope and lacks an adequate ground for addressing relational complexity and the moral significance of collectives. In this paper I outline an alternative axiological framework (‘map of moral significance’) that relies on a relational ontology and encompasses intrinsic and relational values as the two equipollent axes of a matrix in which to embed the question posited by the Demarcation Problem.

Política de Conservação na Amazônia. Globoamazonia

by Philip Fearnside

Fearnside, P.M. 2010-2011. Política de Conservação na Amazônia. Globoamazonia http://g1.globo.com/platb/natureza-philipfearnside

Keeping the forest in the picture to face climate change

by Philip Fearnside

Fearnside, P.M. 2008. Keeping the forest in the picture to face climate change. Sustainable Development Magazine 2008(1): 2-7.

Italiano:
La foresta nel quadro delle azioni a favore del clima. Sustainable Development Magazine (Italia) 2008(1): 2-7.
http://philip.inpa.gov.br/publ_livres/2008/Keeping forest in the picture-SdVision_Italian.pdf

How much are the rainforests worth?

by Philip Fearnside

Fearnside, P.M. 1985. How much are the rainforests worth? UNU Work in Progress 9(3): 3 4 (United Nations University, Tokyo, Japan).

Biomass of Brazil's Amazonian forests: Reply to Brown and Lugo revisited

by Philip Fearnside

, P.M. 1993. Biomass of Brazil's Amazonian forests: Reply to Brown and Lugo revisited. Interciencia 18(1): 5-7.

See Amazon Controveersies:
http://philip.inpa.gov.br/publ_livres/AMAZONIAN CONTROVERSIES.htm

Conceptualizing the role of sediment in sustaining ecosystem services:

by Sabine E. Apitz

There is a growing trend to include a consideration of ecosystem services, the benefits that people obtain from... more There is a growing trend to include a consideration of ecosystem services, the benefits that people obtain from ecosystems, within decision frameworks. Not more than a decade ago, sediment management efforts were largely site-specific and held little attention except in terms of managing contaminant inputs and addressing sediments as a nuisance at commercial ports and harbors. Sediments figure extensively in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment; however, contaminated sediment is not the dominant concern. Rather, the focus is on land and water use and management on the landscape scale, which can profoundly affect soil and sediment quality, quantity and fate. Habitat change and loss, due to changes in sediment inputs, whether reductions (resulting in the loss of beaches, storm protection, nutrient inputs, etc.) or increases (resulting in lake, reservoir and wetland infilling, coral reef smothering, etc.); eutrophication and reductions in nutrient inputs, and disturbance due to development and fishing practices are considered major drivers, with significant consequences for biodiversity and the provision and resilience of ecosystem functions and services. As a mobile connecting medium between various parts of the ecosystem via the hydrocycle, sediments both contaminated and uncontaminated, play both positive and negative roles in the viability and sustainability of social, economic, and ecological objectives. How these roles are interpreted depends upon whether sediment status (defined in terms of sediment quality, quantity, location and transport) is appropriate to the needs of a given endpoint; understanding and managing the dynamic interactions of sediment status on a diverse range of endpoints at the landscape or watershed scale should be the focus of sediment management. This paper seeks to provide a language and conceptual framework upon which sediment-ecosystem regional assessments (SEcoRAs) can be developed in support of that goal.

La vulnerabilidad de la selva amazónica frente a los cambios climáticos.

by Philip Fearnside

Fearnside, P.M. 2011. La vulnerabilidad de la selva amazónica frente a los cambios climáticos. pp. 15-31 In: S. Peniche Camps, F. González González, E. Macías Franco, M. Guzmán Arroyo & G. Zavala García (eds.) II Seminario Internacional sobre la Cuenca del Río Santiago (Memorias) El Cambio Climático. Centro Universitario de Ciencias Económico-Administrativos (CUCEA), Universidad de Guadalajara, Guadalajara, Jalisco, México. 220 pp.

Versão anterior em Português:
Fearnside, P.M. 2009. A vulnerabilidade da floresta amazônica perante as mudanças climáticas. Oecologia Australis 13(4): 609-618. doi: 10.4257/oeco.2009.1304.05
H:\2009\Vulnerabilidade da floresta Amazônica.pdf

Biomassa e carbono: Incertezas metodológicas para o mecanismo REDD

by Philip Fearnside

Fearnside, P.M. 2009. Biomassa e carbono: Incertezas metodológicas para o mecanismo REDD. pp 28-34. In: RELATÓRIO DO SEMINÁRIO: Perspectivas e Potencial do Mecanismo de Redução de Emissões por Desmatamento e Degradação (REDD) no Estado do Pará. IDESP, MPEG & SEMA, Belém, Pará. http://www.museu-goeldi.br/Relatorio%20Seminario%20REDD_final.pdf

Conceptual frameworks to balance ecosystem and security goals

by Sabine E. Apitz

In: Linkov I, Wenning, RJ, Kiker, G, editors. Managing Critical Infrastructure Risks. Dordrecht: Springer, 147-173

Emerging European legislation is changing the scope of water management from the local scale to basin scale. The focus... more Emerging European legislation is changing the scope of water management from the local scale to basin scale. The focus is shifting from sectoral, issue-by-issue management to the protection of aquatic ecosystems, as well as the terrestrial ecosystems and wetlands linked to them. There has also been a movement from addressing problems in isolation on land, in freshwaters, in estuaries or the coastal zone, to integrating these zones, and extending the ecosystem approach to whole shelf areas. Ecosystem protection will thus affect how many human activities are regulated and managed in coastal and port areas, but legislation is also designed to balance these ecosystem objectives with socioeconomic needs and goals. Sustainable protection of ecosystems requires an expansion of traditional ecological risk assessment methods, in order to address multiple risk drivers on multiple spatial and temporal scales. If one accepts the Belluck et al. [8] definition of environmental security, which:
involves actions that guard against environmental degradation in order to preserve or protect human, material, and natural resources at scales ranging from global to local…
then the goals of this legislation can be defined as environmental security. However, the current climate of anxiety about terrorism and extreme events often results in a situation where rare but dramatic events (such as terrorist attacks and extreme storms) are not addressed in the same frameworks as the more mundane issues such as contaminant control and habitat degradation. There is a need to develop decision frameworks in which these seemingly disparate issues are addressed together in support of regional budgeting, decision making, and management. To that end, vulnerabilities must be identified and ranked, and decisions must be developed based upon a number of issues including scenario probability, preventability, causality (human-caused or natural), time scale (gradual or sudden), and potential costs and risks. Depending on these assessments, prevention strategies and response strategies (whether a scenario is unpreventable or if prevention fails) must be developed.

Management, Policy and Science-Do We Need a Journal of Soils AND Sediments?

by Sabine E. Apitz

Conceptualizing the role of sediment in sustaining ecosystem services: Sediment-ecosystem regional assessment (SEcoRA)

by Sabine E. Apitz