Temporal Changes in Socio-Ecological Systems and Their Impact on Ecosystem Services at Different Governance Scales: A Case Study of Heathlands

Morán-Ordóñez, Alejandra; Bugter, Rob; Suárez‐Seoane, Susana; Luís, E.

doi:10.1007/s10021-013-9649-0

Cited by 55 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…These habitats offer new ecosystem services, such as sequestering carbon from the atmosphere, protecting upstream watersheds and soil formation, providing habitat for species and meeting increased demands for landscape beauty (FAO ; Morán‐Ordóñez et al . ). In contrast, other areas remain open because of residual human land use, higher elevation, slope or poor soil conditions, preventing woody species from growing or reducing their spread rates.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Influence of land use and climate on recent forest expansion: a case study in the Eurosiberian–Mediterranean limit of north‐west Spain

et al. 2014

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Summary In Mediterranean mountainous areas, forests have expanded in recent decades because traditional management practices have been abandoned or reduced. However, understanding the ecological mechanisms behind landscape change is a complex undertaking because the influence of land use may be reinforced or constrained by abiotic factors such as climate. In this work, we evaluated their combined effects on recent forest expansion across climatic, topographic and management gradients. We used orthorectified aerial photographs from the second half of the twentieth century (1956, 1974, 1983, 1990 and 2004) to monitor changes in forest distribution in a set of 20 head‐water basins in the Cantabrian Mountains of north‐west Spain, at the Eurosiberian–Mediterranean limit. In particular, we evaluated the role of land‐use history (comparing natural vs. anthropic basins) and microclimate (comparing shaded vs. sunny aspects) of forest gain/loss rates and spatial distribution shifts. Finally, we applied Species Distribution Modelling techniques (MaxEnt and BIOMOD) in the stated scenarios of land‐use history and microclimate, to assess habitat suitability for forest expansion on the basis of topography, soil properties and mesoclimatic variables. Forest cover increased from 10.72% in 1956 to 27.67% in 2004 in the area. The rate of expansion was significantly higher in natural basins and, particularly, on shaded slopes. In all cases, the mean elevation of new forest patches increased during the study period, which was particularly evident on natural sunny slopes. The performance of the models and the magnitude of the effects varied across land‐use histories and microclimatic conditions. Soil properties and temperature and precipitation in late spring and early summer were the main drivers of forest expansion in modelling exercises, although expansion rates and upward altitudinal shifts were primarily controlled by land‐use history and the biogeographic origin of the forests. Synthesis. The combination of monitoring and modelling techniques used in this work contributed to the understanding of forest expansion in cultural systems, indicating that ecological succession is not a homogeneous process, but varies spatially due to human and abiotic constraints since historical times.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Influence of land use and climate on recent forest expansion: a case study in the Eurosiberian–Mediterranean limit of north‐west Spain

et al. 2014

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“…Moreover, as CES may be linked to historical activities (e.g. meadow mowing or nature-related story telling), the delivery of CES may have ceased (Morán-Ordóñez et al, 2013). Similarly, future developments may cause some CES to disappear and others to appear.…”

Section: Conceptual Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…Morán-Ordóñez et al, 2013); thus, any assessment of CES should not only consider changes over time in ecosystem structures, functions and processes but also in society's appreciation of CES, in potential beneficiaries and their perceptions of the benefits delivered and their values. It has been noted that the latter means the importance of particular CES may differ depending on the nature and degree of cultural and social changes affecting different generations (e.g.…”

Section: Conceptual Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Individual studies that addressed the temporal dimension focused on historical analysis of the (potential) provision of CES from a particular landscape type (Morán-Ordóñez et al, 2013;Bürgi et al, 2015) or a particular site (Nahuelhual et al, 2014;Szücs et al, 2015) and acknowledged, for example, that some particular CES were "increasingly demanded" or were "a disused legacy" (Vidal-Abarcea Gutierrez and Alonso, 2013). Some studies also looked into the impact of potential land-use changes on CES (e.g.…”

Section: Specifying a Time Scalementioning

confidence: 99%

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Shades of grey challenge practical application of the cultural ecosystem services concept

et al. 2017

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“…Lautenbach et al 2011;Nahuelhual et al 2014), there are also examples that cover longer time spans. For example, a largescale study of Carreño et al (2012) analyzed 50 years of ecosystem service trade-offs in Argentina; a smallscale study for both Stockholm and Melbourne had a time frame of roughly 80 years (Wilkinson et al 2013); Morán-Ordóñez et al (2013) studied changes in ES provided by heathlands in northwestern Spain since the 1950s; and Jiang et al (2013) examined 70 years of ES changes in relation to biodiversity in southern England. However, all these studies start with the currently important ES and evaluate how they changed over time.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Linking ecosystem services with landscape history

Bürgi

Silbernagel

et al. 2014

Landscape Ecol

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The concept of ecosystem services (ES) has become widely used because it bridges ecology and economics and links nature to society. ES may evolve over time in dynamic landscapes driven by myriad processes. However, the consequences of changes in key ES has not been considered adequately in current ES research. Here we propose a framework for linking ES with landscape history, which can help us better understand the evolution of ES over time. We illustrate the framework by a case study from Switzerland. Both the capacity of landscapes to supply ES and the realization and recognition of key ES are likely to change over time. This insight should have important implications for landscape sustainability and related scenario studies.

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Temporal Changes in Socio-Ecological Systems and Their Impact on Ecosystem Services at Different Governance Scales: A Case Study of Heathlands

Cited by 55 publications

References 40 publications

Influence of land use and climate on recent forest expansion: a case study in the Eurosiberian–Mediterranean limit of north‐west Spain

Influence of land use and climate on recent forest expansion: a case study in the Eurosiberian–Mediterranean limit of north‐west Spain

Shades of grey challenge practical application of the cultural ecosystem services concept

Linking ecosystem services with landscape history

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