Ecosystem Services in Agricultural and Urban Landscapes

2013-01-14

Author: Stephen Wratten

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

ISBN: 9781118506240

Category: Science

Page: 224

View: 693

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Ecosystem services are the resources and processes supplied by natural ecosystems which benefit humankind (for example, pollination of crops by insects, or water filtration by wetlands). They underpin life on earth, provide major inputs to many economic sectors and support our lifestyles. Agricultural and urban areas are by far the largest users of ecosystems and their services and (for the first time) this book explores the role that ecosystem services play in these managed environments. The book also explores methods of evaluating ecosystem services, and discusses how these services can be maintained and enhanced in our farmlands and cities. This book will be useful to students and researchers from a variety of fields, including applied ecology, environmental economics, agriculture and forestry, and also to local and regional planners and policy makers.

Ecosystem Services from Forest Landscapes

2018-03-22

Author: Ajith H. Perera

Publisher: Springer

ISBN: 9783319745152

Category: Science

Page: 265

View: 350

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Over the last two decades, the topic of forest ecosystem services has attracted the attention of researchers, land managers, and policy makers around the globe. The services rendered by forest ecosystems range from intrinsic to anthropocentric benefits that are typically grouped as provisioning, regulating, supporting, and cultural. The research efforts, assessments, and attempts to manage forest ecosystems for their sustained services are now widely published in scientific literature. This volume focuses on broad-scale aspects of forest ecosystem services, beyond individual stands to large landscapes. In doing so, it illustrates the conceptual and practical opportunities as well as challenges involved with planning for forest ecosystem services across landscapes, regions, and nations. The goal here is to broaden the scope of land use planning through the adoption of a landscape-scale approach. Even though this approach is complex and involves multiple ecological, social, cultural, economic, and political dimensions, the landscape perspective appears to offer the best opportunity for a sustained provision of forest ecosystem services.

Urbanization, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services: Challenges and Opportunities

2013-09-21

Author: Thomas Elmqvist

Publisher: Springer

ISBN: 9789400770881

Category: Science

Page: 755

View: 255

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Urbanization is a global phenomenon and the book emphasizes that this is not just a social-technological process. It is also a social-ecological process where cities are places for nature, and where cities also are dependent on, and have impacts on, the biosphere at different scales from local to global. The book is a global assessment and delivers four main conclusions: Urban areas are expanding faster than urban populations. Half the increase in urban land across the world over the next 20 years will occur in Asia, with the most extensive change expected to take place in India and China Urban areas modify their local and regional climate through the urban heat island effect and by altering precipitation patterns, which together will have significant impacts on net primary production, ecosystem health, and biodiversity Urban expansion will heavily draw on natural resources, including water, on a global scale, and will often consume prime agricultural land, with knock-on effects on biodiversity and ecosystem services elsewhere Future urban expansion will often occur in areas where the capacity for formal governance is restricted, which will constrain the protection of biodiversity and management of ecosystem services

Optimizing the Delivery of Multiple Ecosystem Goods and Services in Agricultural Systems

2017-10-18

Author: Maria A. Tsiafouli

Publisher: Frontiers Media SA

ISBN: 9782889452965

Category: Electronic book

Page: 201

View: 326

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Agricultural land is subjected to a variety of societal pressures, as demands for food, animal feed, and biomass production increase, with an added requirement to simultaneously maintain natural areas and mitigate climatic and environmental impacts. The biotic elements of agricultural systems interact with the abiotic environment to generate a number of ecosystem functions that offer services benefiting humans across many scales of time and space. The intensification of agriculture generally reduces biodiversity including that within soil, and impacts negatively upon a number of regulating and supporting ecosystem services. There is a global need toward achieving sustainable agricultural systems, as also highlighted in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. There is hence a need for management regimes that enhance both agricultural production and the associated provision of multiple ecosystem services. The articles of this Research Topic enhance our knowledge of how management practices applied to agricultural systems affect the delivery of multiple ecosystem services and how trade-offs between provisioning, regulating, and supporting services can be handled both above- and below-ground. They also show the diversity of topics that need to be considered within the framework of ecosystem services delivered by agricultural systems, from knowledge on basic concepts and newly-proposed frameworks, to a focus on specific ecosystem types such as grasslands and high nature-value farmlands, pollinator habitats, and soil habitats. This diversity of topics indicates the need for broader-scope research, integrated with targeted scientific research to promote sustainable agricultural practices and to ensure food security.

Urban Services to Ecosystems

2021-09-15

Author: Chiara Catalano

Publisher: Springer Nature

ISBN: 9783030759292

Category: Science

Page: 533

View: 327

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The aim of this book is to bring together multidisciplinary research in the field of green infrastructure design, construction and ecology. The main core of the volume is constituted by contributions dealing with green infrastructure, vegetation science, nature-based solutions and sustainable urban development. The green infrastructure and its ecosystem services, indeed, are gaining space in both political agendas and academic research. However, the attention is focused on the services that nature is giving for free to and for human health and survival. What if we start to see things from another perspective? Our actions shall converge for instance to turn man-made environment like cities from heterotrophic to autotrophic ecosystems. From landscape ecology to urban and building design, like bricks of a wall, from the small scale to the bigger landscape scale via ecological networks and corridors, we should start answering these questions: what are the services that are we offering to Nature? What are we improving? How to implement our actions? This book contains three Open Access chapters, which are licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

Ecosystem Service Supply in an Urban Landscape

2018

Author: Carly Ziter

Publisher:

ISBN: OCLC:1037099716

Category:

Page: 153

View: 983

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Unprecedented urban growth has markedly changed ecosystem structure, function, and biodiversity, and consequently the ecosystem services our health and wellbeing depend on. To improve urban sustainability, it is important to identify opportunities to manage cities for increased ecosystem service provision. This requires understanding urban areas as spatially heterogeneous and temporally dynamic ecosystems. This dissertation combines synthesis, observational, and experimental approaches to ask how landscape structure, historical land-use, and biodiversity impact multiple ecosystem services in urban landscapes. In chapter 1, I conducted a global meta-analysis focused explicitly on the underlying ecology of urban ecosystem services, centered on the role of biodiversity in service provision. The remaining chapters focus on Madison, WI, and consider how landscape context (Chapter 2, 4) and biological invasion (Chapter 3) may influence ecosystem services in a temperate, mid-size city. Through meta-analysis, I showed that urban biodiversity-ecosystem service research would benefit from increasing the number and types of services assessed, broadening its geographical scope, and expanding types of biodiversity measured - including consideration of non-native species. Using empirical data, I assessed the effect of spatial and temporal context on ecosystem services in Madison, a historically agricultural urban landscape. By measuring biophysical indicators of three services (carbon storage, water quality regulation, runoff regulation), I showed that considering the full mosaic of urban greenspace and its history is needed to estimate the kinds and magnitude of ecosystem services in cities, and to augment regional assessments that may underestimate urban ecosystem service supply. Using a bicycle- mounted temperature sensor, I showed that impervious surfaces and canopy cover interact to affect summer air temperature, and that urban forest management provides a powerful lever to increase temperature regulation services. Understanding invasion-ecosystem service linkages is also important in urban ecosystems - where non-native species are common. I conducted reciprocal field experiments to test whether an incipient urban invader, the Asian jumping worm, might interact with an established invasive, common buckthorn, with consequences for ecosystem services. Contrary to the "invasional meltdown" hypothesis, I found no evidence of co-facilitation, with positive conservation implications. Overall, this research has implications for using urban landscape management to enhance ecosystem service provision.

Agroecology

2022-09-30

Author: Stephen R. Gliessman

Publisher: CRC Press

ISBN: 9781000613629

Category: Technology & Engineering

Page: 471

View: 606

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Agroecology is at the forefront of transforming our food systems. This bestselling textbook provides the essential foundation for understanding this transformation in all its components: agricultural, ecological, economic, social, cultural, and political. It presents a case for food system change, explains the principles and practices underlying the ecological approach to food production, and lays out a vision for a food system based on equity and greater compatibility with the planet’s life support systems. New to the fourth edition: A chapter on Alternatives to Industrial Agriculture, covering the similarities and distinctions among different approaches to sustainable agriculture A chapter on Ecological Pest, Weed, and Disease Management A chapter on Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture A chapter on Agriculture and the Climate Crisis A revised analysis and critique of the food system’s embeddedness in the extractive capitalist world economy that reflects ideas in the emerging field of political agroecology. Streamlined treatment of agroecology’s foundations in ecological science, making the text more compatible with typical course curricula. A Companion Website at https://routledgetextbooks.com/textbooks/9781032187105/ incorporates the entire contents of the updated practical manual Field and Laboratory Investigations in Agroecology, split into student and lecturer resources. These 24 sample investigations facilitate hands-on learning that involves close observation, creative interpretation, and constant questioning of findings. Groundbreaking in its first edition and established as the definitive text in its second and third, the fourth edition of Agroecology captures recent developments in the field and forcefully applies the idea that agroecology is a science, a movement, and a practice. Written by a team of experts, this book will encourage students and practitioners to consider the critical importance of transitioning to a new paradigm for food and agriculture.

Package Price Agroecology

2021-02-25

Author: Stephen R. Gliessman

Publisher: CRC Press

ISBN: 9781482282283

Category: Nature

Page: 642

View: 610

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Stephen Gliessman's complementary volumes, Agroecology: The Ecology of Sustainable Food Systems, Third Edition and Field and Laboratory Investigations in Agroecology, Third Edition are now available together for one low price. Completely revised, updated, and reworked, the third edition of Agroecology presents new data, material, case studies, and options, as well as more emphasis on topics such as the values, beliefs, and ethics of sustainable food systems. The new edition of Field and Laboratory Investigations in Agroecology facilitates hands-on, experimental learning that involves close observation, creative interpretation, and constant questioning of findings.

Ecosystem Functions and Management

2017-03-21

Author: Harpinder Sandhu

Publisher: Springer

ISBN: 9783319539676

Category: Technology & Engineering

Page: 220

View: 385

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This is the first book to provide vital information on key local ecosystems, their functions, state of health, and their role in development in an Asian context, particularly on the Indian subcontinent. It addresses six major ecosystems on the Indian subcontinent – mountain, rural, desert, forest, urban, and freshwater – and discusses their functions, how they support livelihoods and the economy, the impacts on ecosystem services, and management issues. Asia is home to nearly one third of the global population. With massive industrialization occurring at an increasing pace to support the lifestyles of a growing population, impacts on natural ecosystems are inevitable in this region. The book also explores the concepts, theory and practice regarding these key ecosystems by linking them with the livelihoods of a large population base and subsequently illustrating their importance for sustainable development in the region. Further, by suggesting policies and ways in which these systems can be maintained and enhanced, it facilitates better management of natural resources within the ecological constraints to achieve socio-economic objectives and move towards a green economy for sustainable and equitable development in the region.

Sustainable Built Environment and Urban Growth Management

2020-02-21

Author: Wann-Ming Wey

Publisher: MDPI

ISBN: 9783039281862

Category: Technology & Engineering

Page: 242

View: 910

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Nowadays, the sustainable built environment planning in most cities has come to a turning point as the growth in traffic and population has become a serious concern and put tremendous pressure on both the environment and people in these cities. It is therefore important to find new ways or lifestyles—such as compact city, transit-oriented development (TOD) formulations—that are more flexible, inclusive, and sustainable. Furthermore, for the sustainable built environment and urban growth management, not only should the growth management principles—which include smart growth, sustainable growth, and inclusive growth—be taken into account but innovative/smart planning strategies—such as mixed use design, green transport, and new urbanism—are also utilized in planning sustainable built environments in order to prevent the urban sprawl development that has occurred.

Making Green Cities

2020-02-22

Author: Jürgen Breuste

Publisher: Springer Nature

ISBN: 9783030377168

Category: Science

Page: 532

View: 733

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This book shows what role nature can play in a city and how this can make it a better place for people to live. People, planners, designers and politicians are working towards the development of green cities. Some cities are already promoted as green cities, while others are on their way to become one. But their goals are often unclear and can include different facets. Presenting contributions from world leading researchers in the field of urban ecology, the editors provide an interdisciplinary overview of best practices and challenges in creating green cities. They show examples of how to build up these cities from bits and pieces to districts and urban extensions. Each example concludes with a summary of the collected knowledge, the learning points and how this can be used in other places. The best practices are collected from around the world – Europe, Australia, America and Asia. The new dynamic urban development of Asia is illustrated by case studies from China and the Indian subcontinent. The reader will learn which role nature can play in green cities and what the basic requirements are in terms of culture, pre-existing nature conditions, existing urban surroundings, history, design and planning.

Landscape Analysis and Planning

2015-03-20

Author: M. Luc

Publisher: Springer

ISBN: 9783319135274

Category: Political Science

Page: 295

View: 998

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This book presents recent advances in landscape analysis and landscape planning based on selected studies conducted in different parts of Europe. Included are methodological problems and case studies presented and discussed during scientific sessions organized by the Commission of Landscape Analysis and Landscape Planning of the International Geographical Union (IGU) within the framework of the IGU Regional Conference in Kraków, Poland, August 18-22, 2014. The subject of landscape analysis and landscape planning has been of interest to geographers since the beginning of the twentieth century. This relatively new area of study, which focuses on the landscape resource patches and spatial interconnections, was first introduced as landscape ecology (Landschaftsoekologie) by Carl Troll, one of the twentieth century’s most influential physical geographers. Today, landscape studies involve adopting a holistic view of geographic environments and are closely connected to rapidly developing ecosystem, sustainable landscape and ecosystem services approaches. Modern techniques employing Geographical Information Systems are used to support spatial landscape analyses.

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