1,720,963 research outputs found
Review of indicators for mountain ecosystem services: Are the most frequently used also the best?
Get PDFEcosystem services (ES) assessment is crucial in ecology, with numerous studies seeking to evaluate them.
Despite the abundance of methods and indicators, standardization is lacking, hindering comparability and
progress in ES understanding and monitoring. This paper reviews indicators used in scientific literature to
evaluate mountain ES and then examined whether the most used indicators are also the best. Using ISI Web of
Knowledge we searched papers published between 2015 and 2020 containing “ecosystem services” AND
“mountains” and we selected 400 papers effectively applying at least one indicator to evaluate ES. For each
article, we extracted the following information: type of ES evaluated; indicator(s) used; input data used; type of
value-domain (ecological, economic or social); scale of analysis; country; mapping; and management sugges-
tions. From the literature, we extracted a list of 130 most frequently used indicators. The results indicated that
regulating services were the most frequently assessed ES, followed by provisioning, cultural, and lastly sup-
porting. The scale of analysis was mainly regional (51%) and local (40%), while studies at national scale were
less frequent (9%) and only 2 studies were at global scale. Mountain areas most studied were in Europe (50%)
and Asia (31%). Ecological value-domain was the most frequent used (55%), followed by social (26%) and
economic (18%). 84% of studies considered only one dimension of the value and few studies combined multiple
value-domains (15%). Almost half of studies mapped ES and around one third provided management sugges-
tions. We examined the quality of indicators based on six criteria evaluated by experts in the field: significance,
simplicity, cost, replicability, ease of interpretation and policy relevance. Indicators used exhibit significant
diversity, and there is no clarity in nomenclature. There are cases where the indicators used represent inade-
quately the ecological parameters to be measured. Although many indicators score high in some of the properties
evaluated, only 13 indicators perform well in all properties. These indicators have a universal value both in terms
of semantics, but also in terms of properties and should be promoted for standardization among ES assessments.
We envisage the necessity to condense the array of indicators commonly used down to a small set of standardized
high-quality metrics
Urban expansion depletes cultural ecosystem services: an insight into a Mediterranean coastline
No full textIn the Mediterranean sandy coasts, urban expansion mainly occurs to support seaside tourism, causing a drastic loss of natural coastal dune habitats and the associated ecosystem services. We investigated on a representative tract of the Mediterranean coast to which extent land conversion into urban areas affected natural dune ecosystems and the related recreational Ecosystem Service over 50 years. Using empirical data derived from 591 questionnaires of beach users, we quantified the recreational ecosystem service (ESR) provided by the main dune habitat types of the Adriatic coast (Beach with Pioneer annual Vegetation, Herbaceous Dune Vegetation and Mediterranean macchia). On the basis of detailed multi-temporal land cover maps (years 1954, 1986 and 2006), we quantified the conversion of natural dune habitats into urban areas over time, by means of transition matrices. By combining the results of the assessment of ESR with the transition matrices, we measured how the natural dune habitats’ loss reduced the related ESR supply. Results show that although natural dune habitats have an important role as ESR suppliers, urban expansion eroded them with specific rates, causing a total percent loss of 12% in the ESR. Our work underlines the fragility of natural coastal dunes, which during the last decades have become a privileged destination for touristic and recreational activities and, thus, have been progressively replaced by urban areas, with an unwanted direct impact on their ESR supply. By combining multi-temporal mapping techniques with ecosystem services measurements, we enhanced our understanding of transformation processes on coastal dunes, offering as well new insights for dune management. According to our results, an effective dune management shall favor natural dune zonation, by welcoming sustainable sea-side recreational activities as the only acceptable form of coastal tourism
Not just a sandy beach. The multi-service value of Mediterranean coastal dunes
Get PDFCoastal sand dunes are complex transitional systems hosting high levels of biodiversity and providing important benefits to society. In this paper we aimed to evaluate the multi-service nature of ecosystem services (ES) supply in the dunes of the Italian Adriatic coast within Natura 2000 (N2K) sites. We i) identified ES indicators and assessed the supply capacity (Climate regulation, Protection from wind and aerosol, Erosion regulation, Recreation and Tourism and Existence value of biodiversity) of natural dune ecosystems of European conservation concern; ii) upscaled this data to create an inventory of ES supply for all dune N2K sites in the study area; iii) explored the trade-offs among ES; and iv) summarized and spatially compared the overall multi-service value of the N2K sites.
The study provides a method for quantifying the role of N2K sites in supplying benefits for our society. We found that the multi-service capacity of coastal dunes is uneven within sites and within administrative regions. This variability is related to both ecological (e.g. distribution, ecological integrity, extent and conservation status of dune habitats) and administrative (e.g. local implementation of the Habitats Directive) characteristics of the analysed area. ES are not coupled as several sites with high values for one ES show very low values for others.
The results suggest that conservation actions should favour restoration of the natural dune zonation, since this underpins multi-service ES supply. The approach can distinguish regions with high ES values and regions where the paucity of protected areas represents a gap in ES supply, fact that offers an incentive to enhance the protection strategy but also suggests an urgent need to improve the N2K network by enlarging existent sites and including new ones
Assessing land take and its effects on dune carbon pools. An insight into the Mediterranean coastline
No full textIn the Mediterranean sandy coasts urban growth largely occurs to sustain sea-side tourism, causing a severe loss of natural coastal dune habitats and the related ecosystem services. During the last half-century coastal dunes integrity has been widely altered by land use change; however, procedures and study cases assessing how in particular their carbon storage and sequestration capacity are affected by land take over this period are still scarse. To fill such knowledge gap, we investigated to which extent urban growth has altered soil carbon sink in a representative sector of the Mediterranean dune system, from 1954 to 2006. Specifically, we propose a procedure that combining experimental data of soil carbon stocks and multi-temporal cover maps allows assessing C stock variation over time. Based on field data we quantified soil carbon storage provided by the main dune habitat types of the Adriatic coast (Beach with Pioneer annual Vegetation, Herbaceous Dune Vegetation and Mediterranean Macchia). Using detailed multi-temporal land cover maps (1954, 1986 and 2006) we quantified the fraction of natural dune habitats replaced by urban areas over time, by means of transition matrices. Then, by combining carbon stocks values with the results of transition matrices, we estimated the C stock loss for natural dunes due to land take. Results show that natural dune habitats have an important role as soil carbon sinks and land take has depleted them with different rates, causing a total net loss of 117 t of soil C in the first time step and a total net loss of 70 t of soil C in the second time step (â1⁄440% of soil C stock in the last 53 years). Our work underlines the fragility of natural coastal dunes, which during the last decades have become a privileged destination for touristic and recreational activities, thus been progressively replaced by artificial areas, with a direct impact on their carbon storage capacity and the other precious services they provide. By combining ecosystem services measurements with multi-temporal mapping techniques, we enhanced our understanding of transformation processes on coastal dunes, offering as well new insights for dune management
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Storytelling in STEM Disciplines: At the Crossroads of Science and Humanities
No full textThe collected papers in this Special Issue make significant contributions to educational research by demonstrating the multifaceted benefits of integrating storytelling and narrative techniques into teaching practices across various disciplines. Each paper highlights a unique aspect of narrative’s impact on learning, providing a comprehensive overview of its potential to transform education
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Boundary-based analysis for the assessment of coastal dune landscape integrity over time
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