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As fragmented landscapes become increasingly common around the world, managing the spatial arrangement of landscape elements (i.e., landscape configuration) may help to promote the conservation of biodiversity. However, the relative effects of landscape configuration on different dimensions of biodiversity across species assemblages are largely unknown. Thus, a key challenge consists in understanding when it is necessary to focus on landscape configuration, in addition to landscape composition, to achieve multifunctional landscapes. We tested the effects of landscape composition (the percentage of tree cover and built infrastructure) and landscape configuration (degree of fragmentation) on landscape-level species richness and different metrics of functional diversity of urban birds. We collected data on different bird guilds (nectarivores/frugivores, insectivores) from Brisbane, Australia. Using structural equation models, we found that landscape structure (landscape composition and configuration) affected functional diversity via two main pathways: (1) through effects of landscape composition, mediated by landscape configuration (indirect effects), and (2) through direct (“independent”) effects of landscape composition and configuration, filtering species with extreme trait values. Our results show that landscape-level species richness declined with the extent of built infrastructure, but patterns of trait diversity did not necessarily correlate with this variable. Landscape configuration had a stronger mediating effect on some metrics of the functional diversity of insectivores than on the functional diversity of frugivores/nectarivores. In addition, fragmentation increased the effects of built infrastructure for some traits (body size and dispersal capacity), but not for others (habitat plasticity and foraging behavior). These results suggest that differential approaches to managing landscape structure are needed depending on whether the focus is on protecting functional diversity or species richness and what the target guild is. Managing landscape fragmentation in areas with high levels of built infrastructure is important if the objective is to protect insectivore species with uncommon traits, even if it is notpossible to preserve high levels of species richness. However, if the target is to enhance both functional diversity and species richness of multiple guilds, the focus should be on improving composition through the reduction of negative effects of built infrastructure, rather than promoting specific landscape configurations in growing cities.

Context Humans structure landscapes for the production of food, fibre and fuel, commonly resulting in declines of non-provisioning ecosystem services (ESs). Heterogeneous landscapes are capable of providing multiple ESs, and landscape configuration—spatial arrangement of land cover in the landscape—is expected to affect ES capacity. However, the majority of ES mapping studies have not accounted for landscape configuration. Objectives Our objective is to assess and quantify the relevance of configuration for mapping ES capacity. A review of empirical evidence for configuration effects on the capacity of ten ESs reveals that for four ESs configuration is relevant but typically ignored in ES quantification. For four ESs we quantify the relevance of configuration for mapping ESs using Scotland as a case study. Methods Each ES was quantified through modelling, respectively ignoring or accounting for configuration. The difference in ES capacity between the two ES models was determined at multiple spatial scales. Results Configuration affected the capacity of all four ESs mapped, particularly at the cell and watershed scale. At the scale of Scotland most local effects averaged out. Flood control and sediment retention responded strongest to configuration. ESs were affected by different aspects of configuration, thus requiring specific methods for mapping each ES. Conclusions Accounting for configuration is important for the assessment of certain ESs at the cell and watershed scale. Incorporating configuration in landscape management provides opportunities for spatial optimization of ES capacity, but the diverging response of ESs to configuration suggests that accounting for configuration involves trade-offs between ESs.

Around the world, many environmental and social problems often appear together, such as biodiversity loss, soil degradation, and livelihood precarity. Integrated landscape approaches have emerged as a powerful way to tackle these intertwined crises at the scale of whole landscapes, but success depends on a factor often overlooked: the motivation of people to collaborate. The objective of this study is to review and synthesize the available scientific evidence of the reasons why actors choose to collaborate in multifunctional protected landscapes. Building on existing literature, we developed an analytical framework that views collaboration as a dynamic interplay between actor-level motivators (ranging from non-material relations to nature, community or organizational ties, to material benefits) and network-level motivators (shared goals, interdependence, trusted networks, effective interactions, and clear achievements). These drivers are further shaped by broader forces such as agency, legal frameworks, social and political context, the socioeconomic conditions, and biophysical contexts. Our findings reveal a crucial insight: sustainable collaboration cannot rest on a single motivator, such as financial gain, but thrives when a “bundle of motivators” is activated. To help organizations unlock this potential, we identify seven practical levers to strengthen collaboration and maximize the impact of integrated landscape approaches. By understanding and intentionally fostering these layered motivations, landscape management can move from fragmented efforts to transformative, long-term solutions for both people and nature.

ContextAfforestation is one of the major drivers of land cover change in the world. In spite of its multiple applications, forest generation has been fostered during the last century to achieve few specific objectives such as timber production or catchment erosion protection. However, new afforestation programs are required to meet multiple objectives such as carbon sequestration, reducing environmental risks and enhance biodiversity conservation to reach sustainability.ObjectivesAssessing the general efficiency of past large-scale afforestation programs on the provision of ecosystem services (ES) and other socio-ecological attributes. We also determined whether this efficiency depended on the type of ecosystem used for comparison.MethodsWe carried out a semi-quantitative meta-analysis from 75 studies analyzing the effects of 128 afforestation actions developed in one of the EU countries with larger areas of afforested land during the twentieth century.ResultsSpanish afforestation policy improved timber provision and carbon sequestration. However, our results show that afforestation programs did not enhance regulating ES when compared to natural land plots, but only when compared to highly degraded areas prior to restoration actions.ConclusionsLarge-scale afforestations have difficulties in assuring the provisioning of regulating ES and the conservation of biodiversity when only productivity criteria are prioritized. Our results suggest the need for an afforestation agenda that embraces more comprehensive landscape management approaches that allow reducing undesired ES trade-offs while getting multiple objectives from different ecosystems.

Landscape ecology is in a position to become the scientific basis for sustainable landscape development. When spatial planning policy is decentralised, local actors need to collaborate to decide on the changes that have to be made in the landscape to better accommodate their perceptions of value. This paper addresses two prerequisites that landscape ecological science has to meet for it to be effective in producing appropriate knowledge for such bottom-up landscape-development processes--it must include a valuation component, and it must be suitable for use in collaborative decision-making on a local scale. We argue that landscape ecological research needs to focus more on these issues and propose the concept of landscape services as a unifying common ground where scientists from various disciplines are encouraged to cooperate in producing a common knowledge base that can be integrated into multifunctional, actor-led landscape development. We elaborate this concept into a knowledge framework, the structure-function-value chain, and expand the current pattern-process paradigm in landscape ecology with value in this way. Subsequently, we analyse how the framework could be applied and facilitate interdisciplinary research that is applicable in transdisciplinary landscape-development processes.

Context Implementing heterogeneous rural landscapes with high agricultural diversity and a substantial proportion of natural habitats has been proposed to ensure food production while reducing negative impacts on ecosystem services. However, evidence of an increased supply of ecosystem services (ES) in more heterogeneous landscapes remains limited, with no consensus. Objectives To evaluate the effect of the spatial cropland system’s diversity and landscape configuration on indicators of the supply of ES in agricultural landscapes of the Rio de la Plata Grasslands region. Methods We analyzed the relationship between indicators of ES supply and the heterogeneity of 1121 microwatersheds. We assessed the Ecosystem Services Supply Index (ESSI), the Hydrological Yield (HY), and the Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (APAR) in agricultural areas. We calculated the average grassland patch area, the structural and functional cropland diversity, the cropland percentage, and the grasslands’ juxtaposition to assess landscape heterogeneity. Results Microwatersheds with higher cropland functional diversity showed higher values for indicators of ES supply. They were positively related to the ESSI and APAR, and negatively with HY, indicating positive effects on Carbon gains and water regulation processes. In contrast, grasslands’ juxtaposition had opposite effects to those of cropland functional diversity, so the spatial segregation of grasslands favored the ES supply. Conclusions Functional cropland diversification and the segregation of natural grasslands improved proxies of ES and counteracted the negative effects of cropland amount. These findings contribute to the design of multifunctional landscapes and suggest that cropland functional diversity and grassland configuration should be considered in food production systems aimed at preserving ES supply.

ContextCounter-urbanization, or the reverse migration from the city to the countryside, is a well-known demographic trend associated with rural restructuring since the 1980s. Counter-urbanization is particularly relevant in social-ecological systems with a long history of human land use, such as the Mediterranean ones. However, the extent and impacts of this phenomenon are largely unknown, particularly in this region. ObjectivesWe aim to review the state of the issue of counter-urbanization in the Mediterranean region. We focus on the particular determinants and outcomes of this phenomenon in Mediterranean landscapes.MethodsWe conducted a bibliographic review using the Web of Science. We summarized and classified the main findings in different categories according to the socio-economic drivers of this process and its impacts on the landscape along the land sharing-sparing gradient.ResultsWe found 31 studies that met the criteria to be reviewed and classified them as follows: a first group of studies focused on counter-urbanization as an urban sprawl driver; a second group linked counter-urbanization to rural gentrification. These two groups point to a twofold trend of land intensification or abandonment resulting in land-sparing landscapes. A third group of studies explored the urban–rural migration motivated by economic crisis and rural areas’ role as refugees that support land-sharing landscapes. A fourth group focused on multi-functional, land-sharing landscapes enhanced by rural newcomers.ConclusionsAlthough counter-urbanization can follow the usual path of urbanization and gentrification, it may also constitute an alternative way to reverse the current trends of rural abandonment and land-use intensification in Mediterranean landscapes. Public policies play a major role to drive this movement toward the maintenance or recovery of multifunctional landscapes, and to minimize their undesirable impacts.

Agricultural landscapes provide the essential ecosystem service of food to growing human populations; at the same time, agricultural expansion to increase crop production results in forest fragmentation, degrading many other forest‐dependent ecosystem services. However, surprisingly little is known about the role that forest fragments play in the provision of ecosystem services and how fragmentation affects landscape multifunctionality at scales relevant to land management decisions. We measured the provision of six ecosystem services (crop production, pest regulation, decomposition, carbon storage, soil fertility and water quality regulation) in soya bean fields at different distances from adjacent forest fragments that differed in isolation and size across an agricultural landscape in Quebec, Canada. We observed significant effects of distance‐from‐forest, fragment isolation and fragment size on crop production, insect pest regulation, and decomposition. Distance‐from‐forest and fragment isolation had unique influences on service provision for each of the ecosystem services we measured. For example, pest regulation was maximized adjacent to forest fragments, while crop production was maximized at intermediate distances‐from‐forest. As a consequence, landscape multifunctionality depended on landscape heterogeneity: the range of field and forest fragment types present. We also observed strong negative and positive relationships between ecosystem services that were more prevalent at greater distances‐from‐forest. Synthesis and applications. Our study is one of the first to empirically measure and model the effects of forest fragments on the simultaneous provision of multiple ecosystem services in an agro‐ecosystem at the landscape and field scales relevant to landowners and managers. Our results demonstrate that forest fragments, irrespective of their size, can affect the provision of multiple ecosystem services in surrounding fields, but that this effect is mediated by fragment isolation across the landscape. Our results also suggest that managing habitat fragmentation and landscape structure will improve our ability to optimize ecosystem service provision and create multifunctional agricultural landscapes.

Context Expanding tree crops in West Africa is changing landscape structure and the availability of landscape services, yet little research addresses how users cope with these changes. Objectives This study examines how users manage trade-offs in landscape services and what factors influence their strategies, focusing on changes in the availability, use, and source of landscape services and the impact of sociodemographic factors, production systems, and perceptions of substitutability. Methods A survey among 245 farmers (93%) and other residents (7%) in a transitioning mosaic landscape dominated by cocoa and oil palm in Ghana’s Eastern Region was conducted, supplemented by field observations. Descriptive statistics and Chi-square tests based on contingency tables were used to analyze changes in landscape service use and sources over 20 years. Results Over the past 20 years, people’s use of commercial crops and agricultural water has increased by 8–11%, while the use of mushrooms (56%), bushmeat (68%), snails (53%) and timber (23%) declined. Users increasingly turned to alternative land-cover types and markets or substituted landscape services with domesticated, technological, or synthetic alternatives. The dominant tree crop and respondents’ age, occupation, and substitutability perceptions influence responses to dwindling landscape services. Conclusions To prevent further decline in landscape services, all sources, both natural and human-modified ones, should be considered. Efforts must balance production and nature conservation, raise awareness of landscape dynamics, and enhance the resilience of vulnerable people. Awareness is crucial, as the availability of alternatives may reduce rural people’s sense of urgency and willingness to act for conservation.

ContextDespite the importance of understanding the historical dynamics of ecosystem services (ES), little research has focused on a historical, spatially explicit, assessment of ES supply.ObjectivesThis research is aimed at understanding the spatial patterns and potential drivers of temporal variations of ES supply. It has assessed associations of ES temporal variations, delineated ES bundles from changes in ES supply over time, and identified potential drivers of ES bundles. Finally, we discuss the potential implications for spatial planning.MethodsWe reconstructed the spatio-temporal patterns of 11 ES supply in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland, between 1979 and 2014. We used Spearman’s rank coefficient, k-means clustering and redundancy analysis to understand the spatial patterns and potential drivers of temporal variations of ES supply.ResultsMunicipalities were grouped into four clusters based on ES supply changes over four decades. Food production showed the most negative associations with other ES. Regulating ES were not always synergetic and were less related to increases in population density than cultural ES, which were found in low population density municipalities. In general, synergetic ES may not respond to the same potential drivers. Municipalities were able to supply ES at different levels but none showed an increase in all ES.ConclusionsES can be synergetic in one bundle, but antagonistic in another. Different processes can cause a change in the same ES depending on their supply location. It seems unrealistic to require each municipality to have a multifunctional territory in the current political context.