Catalogue Search | MBRL
Are you sure you want to remove the book from the shelf?
{{itemTitle}}
244,989
result(s) for
"environmental ecosystem"
Sort by:
Capitalizing on nature : ecosystems as natural assets
\"The basic unit of nature - the ecosystem - is a special form of wealth, which we can think of as a stock of natural capital. However, perhaps because this capital is free, we have tended to view it as limitless, abundant and always available for our use, exploitation and conversion. Capitalizing on Nature shows how modeling ecosystems as natural capital can help us to analyze the economic behavior that has led to the overuse of so much ecological wealth. It explains how this concept of ecosystem as natural capital sheds light on a number of important issues, including landscape conversion, ecological restoration, ecosystem resilience and collapse, spatial benefits and payments for ecosystem services. The book concludes by focusing on major policy challenges that need to be overcome in order to avert the worsening problem of ecological scarcity and how we can fund novel financing mechanisms for global conservation\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Joint analysis of stressors and ecosystem services to enhance restoration effectiveness
With increasing pressure placed on natural systems by growing human populations, both scientists and resource managers need a better understanding of the relationships between cumulative stress from human activities and valued ecosystem services. Societies often seek to mitigate threats to these services through large-scale, costly restoration projects, such as the over one billion dollar Great Lakes Restoration Initiative currently underway. To help inform these efforts, we merged high-resolution spatial analyses of environmental stressors with mapping of ecosystem services for all five Great Lakes. Cumulative ecosystem stress is highest in near-shore habitats, but also extends offshore in Lakes Erie, Ontario, and Michigan. Variation in cumulative stress is driven largely by spatial concordance among multiple stressors, indicating the importance of considering all stressors when planning restoration activities. In addition, highly stressed areas reflect numerous different combinations of stressors rather than a single suite of problems, suggesting that a detailed understanding of the stressors needing alleviation could improve restoration planning. We also find that many important areas for fisheries and recreation are subject to high stress, indicating that ecosystem degradation could be threatening key services. Current restoration efforts have targeted high-stress sites almost exclusively, but generally without knowledge of the full range of stressors affecting these locations or differences among sites in service provisioning. Our results demonstrate that joint spatial analysis of stressors and ecosystem services can provide a critical foundation for maximizing social and ecological benefits from restoration investments.
Journal Article
Towards an integrative approach to evaluate the environmental ecosystem services provided by urban forest
As a Nature-Based Solution, urban forests deliver a number of environmental ecosystem services (EESs). To quantify these EESs, well-defined, reliable, quantifiable and stable indicators are needed. With literature analysis and expert knowledge gathered within COST Action FP1204 GreenInUrbs, we proposed a classification of urban forest EESs into three categories: (A) regulation of air, water, soil and climate; (B) provisioning of habitat quality; and (C) provisioning of other goods and services. Each category is divided into EES types: (a) amelioration of air quality; restoration of soil and water; amelioration of the microclimate; removal of CO
2
from the air; (b) provision of habitat for biodiversity; support for resilient urban ecosystems; provision of genetic diversity; and (c) provision of energy and nutrients; provision of grey infrastructure resilience. Each EES type provides one or more benefits. For each of these 12 benefits, we propose a set of indicators to be used when analyzing the impacts on the identified EESs. Around half of the 36 indicators are relevant to more than one single benefit, which highlights complex interrelationships. The indicators of wider applicability are tree and stand characteristics, followed by leaf physical traits and tree species composition. This knowledge is needed for the optimization of the EESs delivered by urban forests, now and in the future.
Journal Article
Trophic Downgrading of Planet Earth
Until recently, large apex consumers were ubiquitous across the globe and had been for millions of years. The loss of these animals may be humankind's most pervasive influence on nature. Although such losses are widely viewed as an ethical and aesthetic problem, recent research reveals extensive cascading effects of their disappearance in marine, terrestrial, and freshwater ecosystems worldwide. This empirical work supports long-standing theory about the role of top-down forcing in ecosystems but also highlights the unanticipated impacts of trophic cascades on processes as diverse as the dynamics of disease, wildfire, carbon sequestration, invasive species, and biogeochemical cycles. These findings emphasize the urgent need for interdisciplinary research to forecast the effects of trophic downgrading on process, function, and resilience in global ecosystems.
Journal Article
Land cover and landscape changes in Shaanxi Province during China’s Grain for Green Program (2000–2010)
This study examines landscape changes in the context of China’s national Grain for Green (GFG) policy, one of the world’s largest “payment for environmental/ecosystem services” (PES) programs. We explored landscape structures and dynamics between 2000 and 2010 in Shaanxi Province, the Chinese province with the greatest amount of cropland conversion and reforestation in recent decades. We used Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM)-derived data and landscape metrics for six land cover classes to determine (1) the major land cover changes during enforcement of the policy, (2) the spatial and temporal variations in these changes, and (3) the effects of land cover changes on landscape structure and dynamics. The results suggested that provincial-level land cover changes modestly reflected the goals of the GFG. Over the 10-year study period, the forest and grassland coverages expanded from 95,737.9 to 97,017.4 km
2
and from 37,235.9 to 40,613.1 km
2
, respectively, while the cropland coverage decreased from 59,222.8 to 54,007.6 km
2
. The conversion direction differed regionally: the targeted croplands in Shanbei, namely, types III and IV, were mainly transformed into grassland while those in Shannan were mainly transformed into forestland. Reforestation was associated with increased inter-landscape aggregation and connection. Despite this large-scale reforestation trend, we found notable and significant differences in the land cover changes at the subprovincial level.
Journal Article
Effects of urban street trees on human thermal comfort and physiological indices: a case study in Changchun city, China
Planting trees along urban streets is one of the most important strategies to improve the urban thermal environment. However, the net impacts of urban street trees on human thermal comfort and physiological parameters are still less clear. On three similar east–west orientated streets with different degrees of tree cover—low (13%), medium (35%), and high (75%), urban microclimatic parameters and human physiological indices for six male students were simultaneously measured on three cloudless days in summer 2018. The results show that the differences in tree cover were predominant in influencing urban thermal environment and comfort. The street with the highest tree cover had significantly lower physiological equivalent temperature (
PET
) and more comfortable than the other two streets. The frequency of strong heat stress (
PET
> 35 °C) was 64%, 11%, and 0%, respectively, for streets with low, medium, and high tree cover. For the six male university students, human physiological indices varied greatly across the three streets with different tree cover. Systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and pulse rate increased with decreasing tree cover. The results also suggest that urban thermal environment and comfort had considerable impact on human physiological parameters. Our study provides reasons for urban planners to plant trees along streets to improve the thermal environment and promote urban sustainability.
Journal Article