TY - JOUR

T1 - Assessment of ecosystem integrity and service gradients across Europe using the LTER Europe network

AU - Stoll, Stefan

AU - Frenzel, Mark

AU - Burkhard, Benjamin

AU - Adamescu, Mihai

AU - Augustaitis, Algirdas

AU - Baeßler, Cornelia

AU - Bonet, Francisco J.

AU - Carranza, Maria Laura

AU - Cazacu, Constantin

AU - Cosor, Georgia L.

AU - Díaz-Delgado, Ricardo

AU - Grandin, Ulf

AU - Haase, Peter

AU - Hämäläinen, Heikki

AU - Loke, Rob

AU - Müller, Jörg

AU - Stanisci, Angela

AU - Staszewski, Tomasz

AU - Müller, Felix

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2014 Elsevier B.V. Copyright: Copyright 2014 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

PY - 2015/1/1

Y1 - 2015/1/1

N2 - Better integration of knowledge from ecological, social and economic science is necessary to advance the understanding and modelling of socio-ecological systems. To model ecosystem integrity (EI) and ecosystem services (ES) at the landscape scale, assessment matrices are commonly used. These matrices assign capacities to provide different services to different land cover types. We revised such an existing matrix and examined the regional heterogeneity in EI and ES provision in Europe and searched for spatial gradients in their provision to elucidate their suitability for large-scale EI and ES mapping in Europe. Overall, 28 sites belonging to the Long-Term Ecological Research network in Europe participated in this study, covering a longitudinal gradient from Spain to Bulgaria and a latitudinal gradient from Italy to Sweden. As a primary outcome, an improved and consolidated EI and ES matrix was achieved with 17.5% of all matrix fields updated. For the first time, this new matrix also contains measures of uncertainty for each entry. EI and ES provision assessments were more variable for natural and semi-natural than for more anthropogenically dominated land cover classes. Among the main types of EI and ES, cultural service provision was rated most heterogeneously in Europe, while abiotic provisioning services were more constant. Longitudinal and latitudinal EI and ES gradients were mostly detected in natural and semi-natural land cover types where temperature and precipitation are major drivers. In anthropogenically determined systems in which cultural services play a dominant role, temperature and precipitation gradients were less important. Our results suggest that this matrix approach to assess EI and ES provision principally works on broad spatial scales; however, local assessments for natural systems seem to be less generalizable than assessments from anthropogenically determined systems. Provisioning and regulating services are more generalizable than cultural services. Particularly in natural and semi-natural systems, spatial gradients need to be considered. We discuss uncertainties associated with this matrix-based EI and ES assessment approach and suggest that future large-scale studies should include additional land cover information and ecosystem disservices and may determine ES fluxes by differentiating between ES provision and consumption.

AB - Better integration of knowledge from ecological, social and economic science is necessary to advance the understanding and modelling of socio-ecological systems. To model ecosystem integrity (EI) and ecosystem services (ES) at the landscape scale, assessment matrices are commonly used. These matrices assign capacities to provide different services to different land cover types. We revised such an existing matrix and examined the regional heterogeneity in EI and ES provision in Europe and searched for spatial gradients in their provision to elucidate their suitability for large-scale EI and ES mapping in Europe. Overall, 28 sites belonging to the Long-Term Ecological Research network in Europe participated in this study, covering a longitudinal gradient from Spain to Bulgaria and a latitudinal gradient from Italy to Sweden. As a primary outcome, an improved and consolidated EI and ES matrix was achieved with 17.5% of all matrix fields updated. For the first time, this new matrix also contains measures of uncertainty for each entry. EI and ES provision assessments were more variable for natural and semi-natural than for more anthropogenically dominated land cover classes. Among the main types of EI and ES, cultural service provision was rated most heterogeneously in Europe, while abiotic provisioning services were more constant. Longitudinal and latitudinal EI and ES gradients were mostly detected in natural and semi-natural land cover types where temperature and precipitation are major drivers. In anthropogenically determined systems in which cultural services play a dominant role, temperature and precipitation gradients were less important. Our results suggest that this matrix approach to assess EI and ES provision principally works on broad spatial scales; however, local assessments for natural systems seem to be less generalizable than assessments from anthropogenically determined systems. Provisioning and regulating services are more generalizable than cultural services. Particularly in natural and semi-natural systems, spatial gradients need to be considered. We discuss uncertainties associated with this matrix-based EI and ES assessment approach and suggest that future large-scale studies should include additional land cover information and ecosystem disservices and may determine ES fluxes by differentiating between ES provision and consumption.

KW - Assessment matrix

KW - CORINE land cover

KW - Ecosystem integrity

KW - Ecosystem service

KW - Long-term ecological monitoring (LTER)

KW - Spatial gradient

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84910056341&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2014.06.019

DO - 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2014.06.019

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:84910056341

VL - 295

SP - 75

EP - 87

JO - Ecological Modelling

JF - Ecological Modelling

SN - 0304-3800

ER -