Integration matters: Combining socio-cultural and biophysical methods for mapping ecosystem service bundles

Abstract

Ecosystem services (ESs) play an important role in sustainable landscape management. People value ESs in diverse ways encompassing social and ecological domains and we need to bring these different values together. We used social-cultural and biophysical methods to map a diverse set of ESs at two spatial scales in a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in Norway. The ESs bundled into three distinct social–ecological system archetypes which were similar in their distribution and relative ES values at both spatial scales. The bundles were also well matched to relative ESs values of the Biosphere Reserve zones (core, buffer, and transition) indicating that the bundles capture the social–ecological systems of the zones. We argue that it is important to consider the social–ecological context of the zones to provide sufficient knowledge to inform management. Our work has the capacity to contribute to sustainable land management that takes biocultural values into consideration.

Interdisciplinary insights into navigating the maze of landscape multifunctionality

“…There is an obvious interest in measuring and quantifying multifunctionality, as we often wish to compare areas, assess whether an area is improving or deteriorating or analyse the relationship between multifunctionality and other quantitative variable(s) that may be considered important (e.g. Cusens et al., 2023).…”

“…ES multifunctionality is measured by comparing the demand for ES (the level of service provision desired by people and estimated through stated or revealed preference methods) and their supply (the capacity of an ecosystem to provide a given ES) or by making maps showing different ES supplied as different layers to assess trade‐offs and synergies between them and to find hotspots of multiple ES that can be prioritised for conservation (Manning et al., 2018). ES may also be combined into an index of ES multifunctionality using similar methods to those outlined above to create indices of EF multifunctionality (Cusens et al., 2023). Methods for assessing ES and landscape services are partly similar or identical, but while landscape ecology provides methods for assessing the supply side of landscape services, methods for assessing the demand side or the combination of supply and demand of landscape services are lacking (Bastian et al., 2014).…”

Prescribed burning can promote recovery of Atlantic coastal heathlands suffering dieback after extreme drought events

“…Managed heathlands are typically burnt on a decadal scale to improve fodder quality, resulting in a cyclical successional pattern, where the keystone species Calluna vulgaris (L.) Hill (hereafter Calluna ) passes through characteristic morphological phases (pioneer, building, mature, degenerative) before a new fire is set and the cycle starts again (Gimingham, 1992). These semi‐natural cultural landscapes support characteristic biodiversity, provide habitat for pollinators, areas for grazing, fodder, food production, and carbon sequestration along with contributions to the local economy, recreational values, landscape appreciation, and tourism (Walmsley et al., 2021; Cusens et al., 2023). Traditional management practices are crucial to maintain these open landscapes and their biodiversity, benefits, and services.…”