Reviews on Impact Assessments of Land-Use Change on Key Ecosystem Services

Abstract

It is commonly acknowledged that land-use change (LUC) and climate change have exerted significant effects on ecosystem services which are essential and vital to human well-being. This chapter conducted a revisit to relevant researches on the impacts of LUC on human well-being via specifically altering the ecosystem provisioning services and climate regulation services. As to the issues related to ecosystem provisioning services, first, the explorations on the influences of LUC on ecosystem provisioning services were reviewed, including the researches on the influences of LUC on agro-ecosystem services and forest and/or grassland ecosystem services. Then, the quantitative identification of the impacts of LUC on ecosystem provisioning services was commented on. In light of enhanced observation and valuation methods, several approaches to ecosystem 2 X. Deng et al.services and improved models for assessing those ecosystem services were analyzed. The major indicators used to uncover the influences of LUC on human well-being were summarized including the increase of inputs and the reduction of outputs in production and the augmented health risk induced by the irrational land uses. Finally, the research gaps were uncovered and several research directions to address these gaps were proposed. As to climate regulation services, the research efforts in the drivers of and their corresponding effects on climate regulation services are briefly identified. Then, we explicitly reviewed the researches on the effects of LUC and climate change on climate regulation services, especially focused on the certain methods and models used to quantify the effects on the major drivers of climate regulation services. After that, the effects of LUC and climate change on human well-being via climate regulation services were revisited and commented accordingly. Finally, we discussed the current research gaps and proposed some research prospects in future studies.

Spatio-temporal variations of conservation hotspots based on ecosystem services in Xishuangbanna, Southwest China

“…In contrast, approximately two-thirds of the total water yield was produced by grasslands and forest ecosystems. Referring to some previous studies [ 24 , 47 ], the results of our study also showed that abundant shrub or grass planting in the catchment can increase water yield and have positive quantified effects on the hydrological cycle. Besides these habitat types, the tropical rain forest also enhances the landscape resilience to hydrological change, and plays a significant role in water conservation [ 48 , 49 ].…”

“…The composition and configuration of different ecosystems within a changing landscape are so influential to the alteration of biochemical and biophysical conditions, that the provision of ecosystem service from these conservation hotspots may be affected [ 24 , 25 ]. In this unique tropical region in China, conservation priorities are rarely related to the management of ecosystem services [ 26 ], and the interaction between landscape patterns and ecosystem services is still unclear.…”

Future Scenarios for Land Use in Chile: Identifying Drivers of Change and Impacts over Protected Area System

“…Humans have satisfied the need to obtain resources for their survival, such as water, wood, food, and fibre, by transforming natural ecosystems [1,2]. Approximately half of the Earth has been directly transformed by human activities [3][4][5][6].…”

“…There is a clear relationship between anthropogenic activities, climate change, and their impact on ecosystems [2,55,56]. Climate change is an essential driver of the distribution of biomes on Earth, and several predictions indicate that in the future, climate change could alter the environmental conditions of different ecosystems in response to human activities [26].…”

“…Climate change is an essential driver of the distribution of biomes on Earth, and several predictions indicate that in the future, climate change could alter the environmental conditions of different ecosystems in response to human activities [26]. This effect could have indirect consequences on LULC change, and at the same time, this phenomenon could cause human activities to accelerate the impact of climate change on a global scale [2,30]. LULC change could influence ecosystem processes by altering the land surface's physical properties, such as albedo, roughness, and evapotranspiration [55].…”