1,720,971 research outputs found
Analysis and management of multiple ecosystem services within a social-ecological context
Full text linkThe assessment of ecosystem services (ESS) requires approaches that are capable to deal with the complexity of social-ecological systems (SES). A new viewpoint is proposed, in which the social-ecological perspective of Ostrom’s SES framework is used to describe the flow of ESS, through the identification of the social and ecological elements involved. Two types of ESS flow emerge from this analysis, depending on the way in which the elements of ESS supply (resource system and resource units) and demand (actors) interact: (i) a “direct flow type” in which the resource units deliver the ESS through some specific ecological functions (e.g. wetlands providing carbon sequestration), and (ii) a “mediated flow type” in which the resource units become themselves the ESS when “used” by means of human activities (e.g. fish harvested through fishing activities). The identification of activities is crucial to understand the interactions between ESS, because of the feedbacks they produce on the ecosystem functioning and thus on the provision of the same or other ESS. In addition, these feedbacks can depend on temporal aspects of ESS provision. On these regards, a hypothesis is proposed according to which a time lag can exist between the ESS supply-side and flow in human-modified SES. Altogether, this social-ecological analysis of ESS can contribute to focus the management strategies on the control of impacting activities and on the maintenance of those processes which underpin ESS’ provision, thus contributing to the implementation of an ecosystem-based management of SES. These aspects are discussed in the light of the Venice lagoon example.The assessment of ecosystem services (ESS) requires approaches that are capable to deal with the complexity of social-ecological systems (SES). A new viewpoint is proposed, in which the social-ecological perspective of Ostrom's SES framework is used to describe the flow of ESS, through the identification of the social and ecological elements involved. Two types of ESS flow emerge from this analysis, depending on the way in which the elements of ESS supply (resource system and resource units) and demand (actors) interact: (i) a "direct flow type" in which the resource units deliver the ESS through some specific ecological functions (e.g. wetlands providing carbon sequestration), and (ii) a "mediated flow type" in which the resource units become themselves the ESS when "used" by means of human activities (e.g. fish harvested through fishing activities). The identification of activities is crucial to understand the interactions between ESS, because of the feedbacks they produce on the ecosystem functioning and thus on the provision of the same or other ESS. In addition, these feedbacks can depend on temporal aspects of ESS provision. On these regards, a hypothesis is proposed according to which a time lag can exist between the ESS supply-side and flow in human-modified SES. Altogether, this social-ecological analysis of ESS can contribute to focus the management strategies on the control of impacting activities and on the maintenance of those processes which underpin ESS' provision, thus contributing to the implementation of an ecosystem-based management of SES. These aspects are discussed in the light of the Venice lagoon example. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved
Analysis and management of multiple ecosystem services in social-ecological systems under a changing climate
No full textThis thesis aims to develop new methods for the analysis and management of multiple ecosystem services (ES) in the context of climate change. Taking the Venice lagoon (Italy) as case study, it focuses on two major research challenges in the ES field of study, that are, understanding how multiple ES are co-produced and interact, and how they can be managed sustainably. These challenges are addressed first through a conceptual viewpoint based on the social-ecological systems framework, which distinguishes between ES with “direct” and “mediated” flow type: the first occur directly through some ecological functions, whereas the second require the involvement of human activities, which can generate feedbacks on the same and/or other ES. This viewpoint is then translated into a dynamic ES model, which represents multiple ES together as a single network, accounting for their interactions and for the effects of drivers of change. This represents a significant step forward with respect to current ES models, which provide static snapshots of single ES. The modeling results highlight the importance of including the ES interactions, the absence of which remarkably affects the results. Finally, the modeling application is merged with a quantitative mapping of the multiple ES delivered by the Venice lagoon, aiming at analyzing the sustainability of the ES patterns. This analysis allows to delineate management trajectories for correcting the unsustainable ES patterns and preserving the ES delivery in the face of climate change. The joint analysis of multiple ES and their interactions, along with a sustainability-driven interpretation, seems crucial for the application of ES to management challenges in the context of climate change
Ecosystem services’ capacity and flow in the Venice Lagoon and the relationship with ecological status
Full text linkEcosystem services (ES) are theoretically linked to healthy ecological conditions, but this relationship seems to be rather challenging to demonstrate in the real world. Therefore, shedding light on these aspects can be crucial for implementing effective ecosystem management strategies, for instance within the context of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) implementation. This work aims to present a spatially-explicit assessment of the ecological potential (capacity) and actual use (flow) of 12 ES in the Venice lagoon and to explore the relationships with the ecological status. Quantitative indicators of capacity and flow for each ES have been assessed and mapped and the results summarised with a set of aggregated indicators. The outcomes reveal a positive relationship between the overall capacity and flow of ES, suggesting that where the first is degraded, an overall loss of ES delivery occurs. A complex picture emerges when exploring the links with the ecological conditions, as the relationship changes with the ES and ecological status indicators considered. Structural indicators of ecological status, such as the Biological Quality Elements adopted by the WFD (assessed by MAQI and M-AMBI metrics), seem to be weakly linked with ES, while functional indicators (Kempton Q-90 diversity and secondary production) showed stronger links, especially when aggregated ES indicators are considered. Concerning different ES, it appears that the flow of the ES that are mediated by human uses (provisioning and cultural ES) is negatively related with some of the ecological status indicators. Finally, our results suggest possible limitations of the zonation adopted under the WFD, when it comes to the analysis of ES. We argue that ES could play a role in the management of the Lagoon ecosystem, as their analysis could be used to preserve the ecological functioning by managing the ‘uses’ we make of the ecosystem
Provision of ecosystem services in the lagoon of Venice (Italy): an initial spatial assessment
No full textThe lagoon of Venice is a complex human–environmental system where several environmental, economic and social issues call for new integrated management perspectives. The ecosystem services approach can provide a new framework for the management of this area, and one of the first steps towards its application is ecosystem services mapping. In this work, the spatial distribution of ecosystem services in the lagoon of Venice was assessed in a qualitative way. Seven ecosystem services were chosen for the assessment: four provisioning services (aquaculture, fish and seafood, wild food and crops), two cultural services (recreation and tourism and knowledge systems) and one regulating service (erosion regulation). The services were mapped by integrating biophysical and socio-economic information, resulting in an easily understandable representation of the services provided. The ecosystem services maps were used to perform a zonal analysis, referred to the water bodies adopted in compliance with the Water Framework Directive, which allowed to identify the patterns of ecosystem services provision that characterize each water body
Like Little Lagoons: The Contribution of Valli da Pesca to the Ecosystem Services Supply of the Venice Lagoon
No full textThe Venice Lagoon social-ecological system is characterized by a strong relationship between the natural environment and human activities. This is especially noticeable in the aquaculture and hunting reserves of the lagoon, locally known as valli da pesca. Previous works about ecosystem services (ESs) in the Venice Lagoon focused on the so-called “open lagoon,” overlooking the role of the valli da pesca. Nonetheless, despite being completely managed ecosystems, the valli da pesca have conserved typical elements of transitional water environments that the other parts of the lagoon have lost. By evaluat-ing nine ESs using a spatially explicit approach, we found that the valli da pesca, despite covering 17% of the surface, are contributing for 38% of the ESs total capacity, and for 24% of the ESs total flow, in comparison with the open part of the lagoon. Moreover, the management that aims to maximize in a perspective of sustainability of some provisioning ESs, such as extensive aquaculture, can positively influence the presence of factors on which other ESs capacity is also based. As a result, the open lagoon benefits from a sort of spill-over effect for lifecycle support, hunting, and cultural ESs such as tourism, information for cognitive development, and birdwatching. Such significant contributions could be endangered in the context of a lagoon subjected to increasing pressures from anthropic activities whereeven adaptations to impacts, as well as to climate change and sea-level rise effects, in the long run, will modify the lagoon hydrodynamics and the sea-lagoon connectivity, threatening the valli da pesca and so their ESs supply
Sustainability perspectives and spatial patterns of multiple ecosystem services in the Venice lagoon: Possible roles in the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive
Full text linkThe multiple ecosystem services (ES) co-produced by social-ecological systems include ES directly resulting from ecosystem functioning, and ES mediated by human activities, which can have negative effects on the system and on the ES provided. As a result, different patterns of multiple ES delivery can be characterized by sustainable or unsustainable trends over time, depending on the interactions occurring among ES. In this paper, a sustainability perspective was used for the identification of desirable and undesirable ES delivery patterns in the water bodies of the Venice lagoon (Italy). A set of 13 ES was quantitatively mapped for the lagoon's water bodies, and the trends of the ES provided by each water body have been explored through a modeling application. Two aggregated indicators, MED/DIR and PRESS/DIR, calculated based on the mapping outcomes, were found to be strongly associated with the modeled trends, and thus provide a synthetic indication of the potential (un)sustainability of the current ES provision. This sustainability-driven analysis paves the way for an operationalization of the ES concept in the context of the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC). Based on the analysis of the relationships between multiple ES and ecological status, we suggest that ES could play a role in the selection of the biological quality elements, by prioritizing the metrics that are positively associated with the sustainable ES patterns. Adopting a perspective focused on sustainability, the ES concept can be used to define management trajectories that aim to reach the WFD targets through the management of unsustainable ES patterns, in the context of climate change
Sustainability threshold for multiple ecosystem services in the Venice lagoon, Italy
Full text linkOne of the biggest challenges for ecosystem services (ES) science is to make the concept operational for decision-making purposes. The capacity to understand the long-term sustainability of multiple ES is still limited, while being highly needed to improve the management of natural resources. This work aims to use ES, and particularly the assessment of their capacity and flow, to explore the sustainability of the ES provision in the coastal social-ecological system of the Venice lagoon, Italy, by adopting a spatially explicit approach. By applying multivariate analysis on the ES maps, a zonation is derived which reflects the different bundles of ES in the lagoon. A new approach to analyze the ES bundles is presented, which determines their degree of sustainability. Building on the rationale that not all combinations of ES are desirable for the long-term maintenance of ES capacity, a ‘sustainability threshold’ for multiple ES is proposed. This threshold corresponds to a balance between ES capacity and flow, and to a balance between the flow of regulating ES and the flow of ES mediated by human activities. The results show that about 53% of the lagoon’s surface is exploited to a level that falls beyond the ‘sustainability threshold’ and thus should be considered in an unsustainable condition. This reveals the need to intervene to change the patterns of ES uses in some areas of the lagoon, to enjoy the benefits offered by the ecosystem without impairing its capacity to provide them. Some potential directions for change are discussed, moving towards a more sustainable management of the lagoon social-ecological system
Il contributo della modellistica alla gestione lagunare
No full textA dispetto degli elevati impatti antropici subiti, l’ecosistema lagunare Veneziano mostra ancora elevata resilienza, provvedendo a fornire un ampio range di servizi ecosistemici (Rova et al., 2015, 2019). Nel quadro dell’implementazione della Direttiva Quadro sulle Acque (Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC, European Community, 2000), la laguna di Venezia è stata suddivisa in 14 unità operative, definite corpi idrici (ISPRA-ARPAV, 2018). Il percorso di implementazione della Direttiva è giunto al secondo ciclo di valutazione, nel quale si è considerata la qualità dei diversi corpi idrici, sulla base di singoli Elementi di Qualità Biologica (BQEs). La sfida attuale, che accomuna la laguna di Venezia a molti altri corpi idrici di transizione a livello EU, è quella di individuare misure adeguate volte a migliorare lo stato ecologico di un determinato corpo idrico (a riguardo vedi Anelli Monti et al., 2021). In questo contesto, il presente contributo si propone di descrivere i tratti principali di due assi di ricerca attualmente in corso, volti ad indagare come diversi contributi della modellistica ecologica possano concorrere all’individuazione di misure gestionali per il sistema lagunare. A ciascuno di questi ambiti viene qui di seguito dedicato uno breve paragrafo
Ecosystem services' mapping in data-poor coastal areas: Which are the monitoring priorities?
No full textA crucial goal of ecosystem-based management is to maintain the delivery of ecosystem services (ESS) over time. This requires ESS to be assessed repeatedly over time, a task that becomes extremely challenging in data-poor coastal areas, where the lack of data and resources sums up with the intrinsic difficulties of assessing marine and coastal ESS. This implies the need to develop simple ESS assessment methods and to optimize the monitoring effort required to implement them. The aim of this work is to identify which are the key monitoring priorities for ESS mapping in data-poor coastal areas, in the perspective of ecosystem-based management implementation. In order to do so, the ESS provided by Posidonia oceanica meadows in the northern African Mediterranean coastal area have been chosen as a case study, and assessed by mapping the service providing, benefiting and connecting areas. Different input data and methods have been tested to explore how the mapping approach can be kept as simple as possible to ensure a broad applicability, and which are the crucial data required, in order to optimize the monitoring effort. The spatial distribution of the habitat providing the ESS resulted to be the data to which the mapping outcomes are more sensitive, and should be thus considered a key monitoring priority. The other input data can be kept as simple as (1) an expert-driven estimate of the service connecting area, to be understood as an ecologically meaningful range of influence of the focal habitat, and (2) globally available datasets for mapping the service benefiting areas. Overall, this results in an aggregated mapping of the multiple ESS provided by a marine habitat, which, according to our results, seems to be an advisable strategy for a first ESS assessment suitable for application in a data-poor context
Disturbance affects the contribution of coastal dune vegetation to carbon storage and carbon sequestration rate
Full text linkCoastal dune vegetation has been proved to contribute to several crucial ecosystem services, as coastal protection, water purification, recreation; conversely, its capacity to regulate the concentration of greenhouse gases received less attention. To fill this gap, the present work focalized on the assessment of the contribution of coastal dune herbaceous vegetation to carbon storage and carbon sequestration rate, also in relation to possible effects of disturbance. To this aim, we measured the dry biomass and carbon sequestration rate in three different vegetation types (foredune, dry grasslands, humid grasslands), and habitat patch attributes as proxies of the disturbance regime. Relationships between disturbance, and carbon storage and sequestration rate have been analysed by GLMMs. The target vegetation types did not equally contribute to the medium-long term sequestration of carbon with a gradient that increased from the seashore inlands and related to both the growth form and the strategy of resource acquisition of dominant species, and plant community attributes. Disturbance in the form of trampling negatively affected carbon sequestration rate. Results suggest that, when different plant communities are spatially interconnected, the landscape scale results in a better understanding of ecosystem dynamics, functioning and resistance to perturbations and allows to plan coherent management strategies
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