The importance of Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES) to human wellbeing is widely recognised. However, quantifying these non-material benefits is challenging and consequently they are often not ...assessed. Mapping approaches are increasingly being used to understand the spatial distribution of different CES and how this relates to landscape characteristics. This study uses an online Public Participation Geographic Information System (PPGIS) to elicit information on outdoor locations important to respondents in Wiltshire, a dynamic lowland landscape in southern England. We analysed these locations in a GIS with spatial datasets representing potential influential factors, including protected areas, land use, landform, and accessibility. We assess these characteristics at different spatial and visual scales for different types of cultural engagement. We find that areas that are accessible, near to urban centres, with larger views, and a high diversity of protected habitats, are important for the delivery of CES. Other characteristics including a larger area of woodland and the presence of sites of historic interest in the surrounding landscape were also influential. These findings have implications for land-use planning and the management of ecosystems, by demonstrating the benefits of high quality ecological sites near to towns. The importance of maintaining and restoring landscape features, such as woodlands, to enhance the delivery of CES were also highlighted.
•PPGIS was used to gather important locations in the Wiltshire landscape•High quality, diverse sites which were near to towns were important for the delivery of CES•Greater views, larger areas of woodland and the presence of historic interest were also important•These have implications for land-use planning and the management of ecosystems
Given the negative environmental impacts of intensive agriculture, there is an urgent need to reduce the impact of food production on biodiversity. Ecological restoration of farmland could ...potentially contribute to this goal. While the positive impacts of ecological restoration on biodiversity are well established, less evidence is available regarding impacts on economic development and employment. Potentially, prospects for economic development could be enhanced by ecological restoration though increased provision of ecosystem services, on which some economic activity depends. Here we examined this issue through the development of contrasting land use scenarios for the county of Dorset, southern England. Two scenarios of future agricultural expansion were compared with two scenarios of landscape-scale ecological restoration and the current situation. Impacts on provision of multiple ecosystem services (ES) were explored using InVEST models and proxy values for different land cover types. Impacts on economic employment were examined using an economic input-output model, which was adjusted for variation in ES flows using empirically determined ES dependency values for different economic sectors. Using the unadjusted input-output model, the scenarios had only a slight economic impact (≤ 0.3% Gross Value Added, GVA). Conversely, when the input-output model was adjusted to take account of ES flows, GVA increased by up to 5.4% in the restoration scenarios, whereas under the scenario with greatest agricultural expansion, GVA was reduced by -4.5%. Similarly, employment increased by up to 6.7% following restoration, compared to declines of up to -5.6% following maximum agricultural expansion. These results show that the economic contribution of rural land is far greater than that attributable to agricultural production alone. Landscape-scale restoration of agricultural land can potentially increase the contribution of farmland to economic development and employment, by increasing flows of multiple ES to the many economic sectors that depend on them.
Abstract
During primary succession, the abundance of different species and their associated plant traits change over time. Understanding how plant traits linked to colonising and competitive ...abilities change through succession is important for determining whether community assembly can be predicted. Examining this across more than one taxon group can reveal if these patterns are generalisable.
Here, we investigated primary succession on bare chalk for a chronosequence spanning 33 years for two different taxa, vascular plants and bryophytes. We examined how abundance changed through succession, and how this related to species' colonising and competitive abilities, using relevant plant traits for each taxa. A zero‐inflated beta regression model was used to investigate the effects of traits on both presence/absence and abundance‐when‐present of vascular plants and bryophytes.
Vascular plants with a larger specific leaf area were more likely to occur later in succession. Vascular plants, which were hemicryptophytes, wind dispersing and had a lower canopy height, were more likely to increase in abundance‐when‐present during succession.
Bryophytes with a larger spore diameter were more likely to occur later in succession. Shorter bryophytes with a greater frequency of sporophyte production had a higher abundance early in succession, representing their high colonising abilities. Whereas later in succession larger bryophytes, with a mat or weft life form and low sporophyte frequency were more abundant, indicating a shift towards greater competitive abilities.
Synthesis
. This study has revealed different patterns for vascular plants and bryophytes regarding colonisation and changes in abundance through succession, and the associated traits linked to colonising and competitive abilities. Although some traits were found to influence abundance through succession for vascular plants, these were often contrary to the expected pattern representing the change from colonising to competitive abilities, whereas for bryophytes, there was more evidence for this shift with successional age. This suggests that general theories on succession‐linked plant traits should not be relied upon in isolation for the prediction of community assembly. Context, particularly successional age in relation to the available species pool is also key.
As anthropogenic impacts on the natural world escalate, there is increasing interest in the role of humans in dispersing seeds. But the consequences of this Human-Mediated Dispersal (HMD) on plant ...spatial dynamics are little studied. In this paper, we ask how secondary dispersal by HMD affects the dynamics of a natural plant metapopulation. In addition to dispersal between patches, we suggest within-patch processes can be critical. To address this, we assess how variation in local population dynamics, caused by small-scale disturbances, affects metapopulation size. We created an empirically based model with stochastic population dynamics and dispersal among patches, which represented a real-world, cliff-top metapopulation of wild cabbage Brassica oleracea. We collected demographic data from multiple populations by tagging plants over eight years. We assessed seed survival, and establishment and survival of seedlings in intact vegetation vs. small disturbances. We modeled primary dispersal by wind using field data and used experimental data on secondary HMD by hikers. We monitored occupancy patterns over a 14-yr period in the real metapopulation. Disturbance had large effects on local population growth rates, by increasing seedling establishment and survival. This meant that the modeled metapopulation grew in size only when the area disturbed in each patch was above 35%. In these growing metapopulations, although only 0.2% of seeds underwent HMD, this greatly enhanced metapopulation growth rates. Similarly, HMD allowed more colonizations in declining metapopulations under low disturbance, and this slowed the rate of decline. The real metapopulation showed patterns of varying patch occupancy over the survey years, which were related to habitat quality, but also positively to human activity along the cliffs, hinting at beneficial effects of humans. These findings illustrate that realistic changes to dispersal or demography, specifically by humans, can have fundamental effects on the viability of a species at the landscape scale.
Context
Studies evaluating biodiversity loss and altered ecosystem services have tended to examine changes over the last few decades, despite the fact that land use change and its negative impacts ...have been occurring over a much longer period. Examining past land use change, particularly over the long-term and multiple time periods, is essential for understanding how rates and drivers of change have varied historically.
Objectives
To quantify and assess patterns of change in semi-natural habitats across a rural landscape at five time points between 1930 and 2015.
Methods
We determined the habitat cover at over 3700 sites across the county of Dorset, southern England in 1930, 1950, 1980, 1990 and 2015, using historical vegetation surveys, re-surveys, historical maps and other contemporary spatial data.
Results
Considerable declines in semi-natural habitats occurred across the Dorset landscape between 1930 and 2015. This trend was non-linear for the majority of semi-natural habitats, with the greatest losses occurring between 1950 and 1980. This period coincides with the largest gains to arable and improved grassland, reflecting agricultural expansion after the Second World War. Although the loss of semi-natural habitats declined after this period, largely because there were very few sites left to convert, there were still a number of habitats lost within the last 25 years.
Conclusions
The findings illustrate a long history of habitat loss in the UK, and are important for planning landscape management and ameliorative actions, such as restoration. Our analysis also highlights the role of statutory protection in retaining semi-natural habitats, suggesting the need for continued protection of important habitats.
•A national CES map predicting recreation demand was developed for the UK.•Recreation demand was greatest in areas surrounding high population centres.•This was higher compared with more attractive ...remote areas even when visited annually.•Paths were found to be present in most, but not all, areas with high recreation demand.•These outputs are useful for land managers for improving recreation provision.
Cultural ecosystem services (CES) are often underrepresented in ecosystem service assessments, despite the importance of these benefits. Recreation is often used to represent CES, however identifying, quantifying, and mapping these services continues to be a challenge. In this study, we develop a national CES map predicting recreation demand (e.g. walking, hiking, cycling) for the United Kingdom (UK). Recreation demand is calculated as the number of projected visits for local recreation, estimated using the universal law of human mobility which accounts for the attractiveness of an area. Recreation demand was found to be the greatest in areas surrounding high population centres, compared with protected sites which were deemed more attractive but were in more remote areas. This pattern was most pronounced when evaluating weekly visits, but was still evident where the visit frequency was reduced to annual. In this study, we also evaluate whether this demand is met for recreation by assessing the presence of paths. The mean for met demand (paths present) was 4.5 times greater than unmet demand (paths absent) for yearly visits across the UK. Generally, in the areas of highest demand close to populated centres, paths were present, making 84% of all yearly recreational demand met by path infrastructure. However, paths are lacking from 42% of the UK, with some of these areas coinciding with higher recreation demand, for example in the northeast and parts of Wales. Our study therefore highlights not only where the recreation demand is highest and access should be maintained, but also where demand for recreation exists but the infrastructure including paths are not present, and therefore has the potential to be improved. This information is useful for policy makers and land managers, as it allows areas to be prioritised for the maintenance and improvement of recreation provision under new land management policy.
Assessing habitat loss effects on biodiversity is a major focus of ecological research. The relationship between habitat amount and biodiversity, postulated in the habitat amount hypothesis, is ...usually assessed at one point in time, which does not account for habitat loss as a temporal process. We examined habitat amount effects at two time periods, 1930s and 2010s, using plant data from three semi‐natural habitats: calcareous grassland, heathland and broadleaved woodland, across Dorset, southern England. Woodlands, which changed little in area over the time period, showed minimal effects of habitat amount on species occurrence in both time periods. For grassland and heathland, which had undergone severe losses over the study period, we found the expected positive relationship in the 2010s, but the relationship was negative for these habitats in the 1930s. We explored possible reasons for this result. Total perimeter‐to‐area ratio (TPAR) showed positive effects in the 1930s for grassland and heathland, suggesting effects of habitat configuration, specifically edge. However, TPAR was highly correlated with habitat amount so this finding is speculative. One possible explanation for the relationships with habitat amount, and the change between the two periods could be the quality of the surrounding matrix. In the 1930s, the landscape was less intensified and was dominated by semi‐natural habitats, whereas by the 2010s much had been converted to arable and intensive grasslands. We speculate that species could likely utilise the matrix to a greater degree in the 1930s compared with the 2010s when the matrix was more hostile, thereby decreasing the importance of habitat amount in the 1930s compared with the 2010s. These findings have important implications for conservation, as they show the importance of context (i.e. matrix quality) in determining the relationship between habitat amount and biodiversity.
Context
Agricultural intensification is being widely pursued as a policy option to improve food security and human development. Yet, there is a need to understand the impact of agricultural ...intensification on the provision of multiple ecosystem services, and to evaluate the possible occurrence of tipping points.
Objectives
To quantify and assess the long-term spatial dynamics of ecosystem service (ES) provision in a landscape undergoing agricultural intensification at four time points 1930, 1950, 1980 and 2015.
Determine if thresholds or tipping points in ES provision may have occurred and if there are any detectable impacts on economic development and employment.
Methods
We used the InVEST suite of software models together with a time series of historical land cover maps and an Input–Output model to evaluate these dynamics over an 85-year period in the county of Dorset, southern England.
Results
Results indicated that trends in ES were often non-linear, highlighting the potential for abrupt changes in ES provision to occur in response to slight changes in underlying drivers. Despite the fluctuations in provision of different ES, overall economic activity increased almost linearly during the study interval, in line with the increase in agricultural productivity.
Conclusions
Such non-linear thresholds in ES will need to be avoided in the future by approaches aiming to deliver sustainable agricultural intensification. A number of positive feedback mechanisms are identified that suggest these thresholds could be considered as tipping points. However, further research into these feedbacks is required to fully determine the occurrence of tipping points in agricultural systems.
The extinction debt, delayed species extinctions following landscape degradation, is a widely discussed concept. But a consensus about the prevalence of extinctions debts is hindered by a ...multiplicity of methods and a lack of comparisons among habitats. We applied three contrasting species–area relationship methods to test for plant community extinction debts in three habitats which had different degradation histories over the last century: calcareous grassland, heathland and woodland. These methods differ in their data requirements, with the first two using information on past and current habitat area alongside current species richness, whilst the last method also requires data on past species richness. The most data‐intensive, and hence arguably most reliable method, identified extinction debts across all habitats for specialist species, whilst the other methods did not. All methods detected an extinction debt in calcareous grassland, which had undergone the most severe degradation. We conclude that some methods failed to detect an extinction debt, particularly in habitats that have undergone moderate degradation. Data on past species numbers are required for the most reliable method; as such data are rare, extinction debts may be under‐reported.
Analysis of long-term vegetation change is limited. Furthermore most studies evaluating change only examine two snapshots in time, which makes it difficult to define rates of change and accurately ...assess potential drivers. To assess long-term change in calcareous grassland over multiple time periods, we re-surveyed a transect study undertaken at Parsonage Down National Nature Reserve, Wiltshire, southern England in 1970 and 1990 by T. Wells. We examined differences in soil properties and species traits in each of the survey years to understand potential drivers of vegetation change, including nitrogen deposition and grazing management. There was a clear shift in species composition, combined with significant declines in species richness and diversity between 1970 and 2016, with the greater rate of change occurring between 1990 and 2016. A significant increase in soil total nitrogen was found, which was significantly associated with the decline in species diversity between 1970 and 1990. Significant changes in community-weighted mean traits were identified for plant height (increasing), specific leaf area (decreasing), grazing tolerance (decreasing) and Ellenberg N (decreasing) between 1970 and 2016. By using survey data from multiple time periods, we suggest that N deposition may have contributed towards community changes between 1970 and 1990, as indicated by the change in soil properties and the associated decline in species diversity. Vegetation change between 1990 and 2016 is likely to be largely attributable to a decline in grazing pressure, indicated by the increase in taller species and a decrease in grazing tolerance.
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