Ecosystem Services Supplied by Mediterranean Basin Ecosystems

Martín‐López, Berta; Oteros‐Rozas, Elisa; Cohen-Shacham, Emmanuelle; Santos-Martín, Fernando; Nieto-Romero, Marta; Carvalho-Santos, Cláudia; González, José A.; García‐Llorente, Marina; Klass, Keren; Geijzendorffer, Ilse R.; Montes, Carlos; Crämer, Wolfgang

doi:10.4324/9781315775302-35

Cited by 27 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 1 publication

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…They may also compromise the numerous benefits and services Mediterranean ecosystems provide, including renewable natural resources (e.g., food, medicines, timber), environmental services (e.g., maintenance of biodiversity, soils and water, regulation of air quality and climate, carbon storage), and social services (e.g., opportunities for recreational, educational and leisure uses, traditional cultural values). 65,66 Food production and security in the Mediterranean region are changing, due to social, economic and environmental changes. 67,68 While human population growth and increased affluence in some regions, along with changing diets will lead to higher demand for food products, plant, fish and livestock yields are projected to decline in many areas due to climatic and other stress factors.…”

Section: About Here>mentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate change and interconnected risks to sustainable development in the Mediterranean

et al. 2018

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In the Mediterranean Basin, recent accelerated changes in the environment (climate, land use, pollution, biodiversity loss) have caused loss of life and damages to infrastructure and ecosystems. The future presents unprecedented risks for human well-being, socioeconomic development, ecosystems and biodiversity. Policies for sustainable development need to aim for the mitigation of these risks but lack adequate information about the rates of environmental change and the combined risk they present to human society. For five interconnected impact domains (water, ecosystems, food, health and security), trends and scenarios point to significant risks during coming decades. More observations and better impact models exist for the Northern Mediterranean shores than for the South. This important bias is exacerbated by the large difference in financial resources available for adaptation and the development of resilience between north and south. A dedicated effort to synthesize existing scientific knowledge from all relevant disciplines is now underway to provide better understanding of the risks posed. In the Mediterranean Basin, human society and the natural environment have co-evolved over several millennia with significant climatic variations, laying the ground for diverse and culturally rich communities. The region lies in a transition zone between mid-latitude and subtropical circulation regimes. It is characterized by a complex morphology of mountain chains and strong land-sea contrasts, dense and growing human population and various environmental pressures. Observed rates of climate change in the Mediterranean Basin exceed global trends for most variables. Annual mean temperatures are now 1.4 °C above late nineteenth century levels (Figure 1), notably during the summer months. Heat waves occur more frequently, and the frequency and intensity of droughts have increased since 1950. 1,2,3 For each of the most recent decades, the surface of the Mediterranean Sea has warmed by around 0.4 °C. 4 During the period 1945-2000, sea-level has risen at a rate of 0.7±0.2 mm yr-1 , 5 accelerating to 1.1 mm yr-1 for the period 1970-2006. 6 During the last two decades, sea-level has been estimated to rise by about 3 cm decade-1 , 7 in part due to

show abstract

Section: About Here>mentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate change and interconnected risks to sustainable development in the Mediterranean

et al. 2018

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Ecosystems in the Mediterranean basin provide numerous ecosystem services to society and host high levels of biodiversity (Pretty, 2008;Martín-López et al, 2016;Malek and Verburg, 2017). Yet, they are threatened by both climate change and socio-economic factors (Giorgi, 2006;Hill et al, 2008;Bajocco et al, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of conservation farming practices on Mediterranean agro-ecosystem services provisioning—a meta-analysis

et al. 2019

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In the Mediterranean region, the long-term provision of agro-ecosystem services is threatened by accelerating climate change, unsustainable farming practices and other pressures. Alternative management practices such as conservation agriculture could be expected to ensure sustainability of ecosystem services from Mediterranean agro-ecosystems. Conservation agriculture is characterized by minimal soil disturbance, permanent soil cover, and diversification of crop species. We analyzed the impacts of several forms of alternative agricultural management practices (conservation tillage, cover cropping, mulching, manual weed management, organic fertilizer use, no-irrigation system) on multiple ecosystem services based on 155 published case studies (1994-2015). The effect size of various management options on four provisioning and four regulating ecosystem services were quantified. Impacts of conservation management options are not uniform. All regulating services were positively affected by the conservation management options except for the system without irrigation. In contrast, the provisioning services were inconsistently influenced by the conservation management options. For crop yield, environmentally sustainable soil management was beneficial, but organic fertilization (effect size =-0.17), manual weed management (effect size =-0.35) and no-irrigation system (effect size =-0.5) led to lower crop yields. The impact on crop biomass was mainly negative but not significant. Water availability was especially important to enhance both provisioning and regulating services. Overall, alternative agriculture management practices led to more positive than negative effects on ecosystem services in the study region. Stimulating the application of conservation management practices is therefore an important policy option for decision makers given the vulnerability of ecosystem services in the Mediterranean basin.

show abstract

“…Landscapes within the Mediterranean region have been shaped through natural processes and a long history of human activities, which gave rise to mosaic landscapes characterised by a high diversity of ecosystems (Blondel et al, 2010;Naveh, 1994). These multifunctional landscapes result from a coevolution of social and ecological systems, and are associated with a high endemicity and species richness but are also of socio-cultural significance (Blondel et al, 2010;Martín-López et al, 2016). In these cultural landscapes, high biodiversity and resilience are particularly linked to the cultural values and to social behaviour and perceptions (Oteros-Rozas et al, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the capacity and flow of ecosystem services in multifunctional landscapes: Evidence of a rural-urban gradient in a Mediterranean small island state

2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Distinguishing between the capacity of ecosystems to generate ecosystem services (ES) and the actual use of these service (ES flow) in ES assessment and mapping is important to develop an understanding of the sustainability of ES use. This study assesses the spatial variation in ES capacity and flow in the Mediterranean small island state of Malta. The services included in this study were crop provisioning, beekeeping and honey production, fodder and livestock production, crop pollination, air quality regulation, and aesthetic ES. This assessment develops different spatial models, which make use of available datasets, causal relationships between datasets, including a generated land use land cover (LULC) map, and statistical models and indicators based on direct measurements. Individual ES indicators were mapped to visualise and compare their spatial patterns across the case study area. Subsequently, an analysis of ES associations and bundles was carried out using Pearson parametric correlation test, for both ES capacity and flow indicators generated from this study, and through Principal Component Analysis. Results demonstrate several significant synergistic interactions between ES capacity and flow in rural landscapes characterised with agricultural and semi-natural LULC categories, indicating high landscape multifunctionality. In contrast, predominantly urban areas tend to be characterised with a low ecosystem capacity and ES flow, suggesting that ES delivery in the landscapes of the study area is determined by land use intensity. These findings support the notion that multifunctional rural landscapes provide multiple ES, making an important contribution to human well-being, and that land use planning that develops green infrastructure in urban areas can significantly contribute to support biodiversity and ES delivery.

show abstract

Ecosystem Services Supplied by Mediterranean Basin Ecosystems

Cited by 27 publications

References 1 publication

Climate change and interconnected risks to sustainable development in the Mediterranean

Climate change and interconnected risks to sustainable development in the Mediterranean

The impact of conservation farming practices on Mediterranean agro-ecosystem services provisioning—a meta-analysis

Assessing the capacity and flow of ecosystem services in multifunctional landscapes: Evidence of a rural-urban gradient in a Mediterranean small island state

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About