Spatio-temporal dynamics of critical ecosystem services in response to agricultural expansion in Rwanda, East Africa

Rukundo, Emmanuel; Liu, Shiliang; Dong, Yuan; Rutebuka, Evariste; Asamoah, Ernest Frimpong; Xu, Junfeng; Wu, Xue

doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2018.02.032

Cited by 79 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…it excludes forest carbon storage in protected areas, which we estimated at 79.5 MT); future work could better harmonize these results with ours. Our results are also generally comparable to those of Rukundo et al (), who modelled multiple ES in Rwanda from 1990 to 2010 using InVEST. However, our study expands on theirs by (a) extending the analysis to 2015, (b) using a calibrated water model, (c) using the seasonal water yield model to quantify quick flow and local recharge, (d) using more up‐to‐date data, including Tier II land‐cover data from RCMRD, (e) accounting for changes over time in fertilizer application rates and the extent and effectiveness of terracing on soil erosion, and (f) modelling ES flows to water users and their changes over time.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

“…While the 2015 maps were produced as part of a separate effort than the 1990, 2000 and 2010 maps, the developers of the 2015 data used similar methods and performed accuracy assessments and comparisons with the earlier data to ensure its compatibility. Rukundo et al’s () trends for ES modeled based on Level I land‐cover data for 1990 to 2010 were quite similar to ours, which gives us further confidence that ES trends are robust to the choice of the chosen thematic resolution for land‐cover maps. We lacked the data to uniquely parameterize open versus closed grasslands and shrublands in the carbon, RUSLE C factor (SDR model), and Kc and root depth (annual water yield model) lookup tables, and different forest, grassland/shrubland, and cropland types in the NDR model lookup table (Supporting Information Appendix A).…”

supporting

confidence: 84%

“…In this paper, we modelled ES in Rwanda using the latest data, a calibrated annual water yield model, terracing data to inform a soil erosion model (Supporting Information Appendix A–C), and applied a seasonal water yield model to better quantify hydrologic ES. Relative to past ES modelling efforts in Africa that rely on older, coarser resolution, or global data or lack calibration (Gourevitch et al, ; Leh, Matlock, Cummings, & Nalley, ; Rukundo et al, ), results of this study are relatively robust. Still, several important caveats apply.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 47%

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Towards ecosystem accounts for Rwanda: Tracking 25 years of change in flows and potential supply of ecosystem services

et al. 2019

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Rwanda, a small but rapidly developing central African nation, has undertaken development of natural capital accounts to better inform its economic development through the World Bank's Wealth Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services (WAVES) Partnership. In this paper, we develop ecosystem service (ES) models to quantify ecosystem condition and physical supply components of ecosystem accounts in Rwanda from 1990 to 2015. We applied the InVEST carbon storage, sediment delivery ratio, nutrient delivery ratio, and annual and seasonal water yield models to map changes in potential ES supply nationwide. We also quantified flows of sediment, water and nutrients to 96 hydroelectric dam, irrigation dam and water treatment plant sites. Over a 25‐year period, we found declines in all ES, which were most strongly driven by conversion of forests to cropland. Declines were most pronounced from 1990 to 2000 and 2010 to 2015; ES were relatively stable from 2000 to 2010 (with the exception of nutrient exports to water bodies, which jumped most sharply from 2000 to 2010). From 2010 to 2015, over 42% of Rwanda's water‐use sites (representing 9% of the nation's hydroelectric generation capacity and 59% of its water treatment capacity) had upstream increases in sediment export and quick flow greater than the national average. Half of Rwanda's water treatment plants had upstream phosphorus exports greater than the national average. Our results quantify nation‐wide ES trends, their implications for key water‐dependent industries, and the importance of protected areas in safeguarding ES flows and potential supply in Rwanda. They also provide data that can be integrated with existing land, water and economic accounts for Rwanda, as well as a baseline to inform development strategies that better link economic and environmental goals. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

supporting

confidence: 84%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 47%

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Towards ecosystem accounts for Rwanda: Tracking 25 years of change in flows and potential supply of ecosystem services

et al. 2019

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“…Providing plenty of services and goods to humans, natural ecosystems play an important role in human survival and socioeconomic development [1][2][3][4]. Balance between exploitation of natural ecosystems for socioeconomic development and conserving natural landscape is the key to achieve sustainability [5,6]. Compared with any comparable period in human history, human beings have changed natural ecosystems more swiftly and extensively in the last fifty years [7,8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecosystem Service Loss in Response to Agricultural Expansion in the Small Sanjiang Plain, Northeast China: Process, Driver and Management

Chen

Yan

et al. 2020

Sustainability

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Converting natural ecosystems to cultivated land, driven by human activities, has been considered a significant driver of limiting the delivery of ecosystem services (ES). The ES loss in the past was mainly caused by agricultural activities that have been taken to meet people’s needs in Northeast China. Quantifying historical declining ecosystem service values is essential to facilitate sustainable development. In this study, remote sensing images were used to investigate the history of cultivated land expansion over the last five decades. Additionally, ES variations caused by agricultural expansion since 1965 were quantified in the Small Sanjiang Plain (SSP), Northeast China. From the results, cultivated land expanded from 3.97% of the total SSP area to 66.40% from 1965 to 2015 (approximately 898.23 million ha), of which paddy field expanded drastically from 0% to 55.93%. Variations in cultivated land resulted in a loss of ecosystem service values by 11,893.85 million dollars, of which 62.98 million dollars were caused by the internal conversion between cultivation during 1965–2015. Agricultural expansion accelerated the export of agricultural products function, while it decreased almost all other functions, especially hydrological regulation and freshwater supply function. For future sustainability of the SSP, some suggestions, such as restoring natural ecosystems, planting trees between cultivated land, coculture systems, and winter-flooding of paddy rice were provided in our study.

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“…These urges a sustainable way of management to balance the potential of forest ecosystem services with human needs. The balance between forest resource exploitation for human wellbeing and ecosystem conservation is a key to bring sustainable development (Rukundo et al 2018). As a result, scientists and policy maker started to work together.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of forest ecosystem service research trends and methodological approaches at global level: a meta-analysis

Mengist

Soromessa

2019

Environ Syst Res

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Ecosystem service (ES) is a growing field of research characterized by an increase in publication number. The review was conducted to provide an overview of trends of forest ecosystem services (FES) research and methodological approach to studied FES. Currently, the number of publications on ES was more than 18,000, but small publications were linked with FES. Based on the selection criteria, 41 peer-reviewed publications were screened to analyze the type of FES studied and the method used to quantify ES. The result showed that most of the research articles, to date, had focused largely on provisioning, regulating and cultural ecosystem services, which were timber production, water supply, carbon sequestration, and recreation. FES like a pollination, genetic resources, pest regulation, and aesthetic values have not been studied in any literature reviews. The review result showed that different studies used diverse methodological approaches and had inconsistent and scattered conclusions. From the selected studies, the majority of them were conducted in Europe and Asia. Particularly, the publication number from Ethiopia was very low and needs to conduct studies before the forest resources are further degraded. which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

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Spatio-temporal dynamics of critical ecosystem services in response to agricultural expansion in Rwanda, East Africa

Cited by 79 publications

References 32 publications

Towards ecosystem accounts for Rwanda: Tracking 25 years of change in flows and potential supply of ecosystem services

Towards ecosystem accounts for Rwanda: Tracking 25 years of change in flows and potential supply of ecosystem services

Ecosystem Service Loss in Response to Agricultural Expansion in the Small Sanjiang Plain, Northeast China: Process, Driver and Management

Assessment of forest ecosystem service research trends and methodological approaches at global level: a meta-analysis

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