The findings underscore a key limitation of using aggregated data across wide geographic areas to predict future climate change said Mark A. Bradford an assistant professor of terrestrial ecosystem ecology at the Yale School of Forestry
We should make measurements at those local scales to capture all of the importance processes that affect ecosystem functioning.
#Ecosystem services: Looking forward to mid-centuryas population grows society needs more--more energy more food more paper more housing more of nearly everything.
Those conversions can in turn diminish the health of natural ecosystems and their ability to provide an array of valuable services such as clean air
In one paper Plantinga a professor at the Bren School of Environmental science & Management and colleagues model the future of land-use change in the United states under various scenarios and possible effects on the provision of some important ecosystem services.
In a related publication the researchers develop incentive structures to best encourage landowners to provide ecosystem services.
Projected land-use changes by 2051 will likely enhance the provision of some ecosystem services and decrease the provision of others he said.
In this application ecosystem services are defined as the goods and services provided by nature that are of value to people.
The point is to identify which types of ecosystem services are provided as land use changes he concluded.
but you may need strong incentives to limit declines in the provision of other ecosystem services.
which identifies the best auction structure for securing ecosystem services particularly those provided by private landowners.
Building on established auction theory the paper breaks new ground in structuring an auction that addresses three key challenges to inducing private landowners to provide optimal levels of ecosystem services.
These include the spatial component of ecosystem services. For example adjoining parcels of land may be more valuable from the perspective of providing habitat than three fragmented parcels adding up to the same size.
what are called often payments for ecosystem services. Because forests clean rivers climate regulation and other ecosystem services are freely available to everyone landowners often receive nothing for actions they take on their own land that contribute to the pool of ecosystem services.
Those services may be underprovided due to a lack of price incentives for private activities taken for the public good.
--and the optimal provision of ecosystem services--in situations defined by asymmetric information and spatially dependent benefits.
In the first study to experimentally demonstrate that competition between plants can result in ecosystem-wide losses of forest carbon scientists working in Panama showed that lianas
Penelope Measham and Nicholas Macnair from the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture at the University of Tasmania along with Audrey Quentin from CSIRO Ecosystems Science published the results of their experiments using two common sweet cherry varieties.
Ash species are important constituents of native forest ecosystems particularly the hardwood forests of the east
The new study led by IIASA Ecosystems Services and Management researcher Oskar Franklin in collaboration with the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences used a theoretical model to explain the new experimental findings by simulating the interaction between individual fungus and plant.
We need to maintain them as healthy functioning ecosystems while extracting the gas. We hope our research will help to determine where thresholds of change occur
Some ecosystem models predict that forests will store more carbon over this century but others say they will release more.
The ultimate goal is to flesh out a deeper history of the effects of climate variability on forests which are essential for the ecosystem models that explore the feedbacks between forest ecosystems
and it's now being done with terrestrial ecosystem models. The new emphasis on large-scale ecosystem research is the next logical step for a university with a long history of studying changes in climate due to human activity
and other causes says Williams. Reid Bryson was one of the first to look seriously at climate change
and can affect ecosystems negatively. That could be given a problem the high biodiversity of tropical rain forests and their important role in the global carbon cycle and the Earth's climate.
It shows that few ecosystems On earth have escaped the impact of human activity. He notes that human impacts on the nitrogen cycle typically are greatest where biological nitrogen fixation is low and human inputs of nitrogen are high-like in many parts of North america including Montana.
and that humans add relatively little nitrogen to tropical ecosystems. In fact by reducing estimates of naturally occurring nitrogen inputs this research shows that human impacts on the nitrogen cycle are even bigger than we thought.
Preserving human and ecosystem health requires immediate steps to solve this growing problem Cleveland said.
because knowledge of the kinds of plants and animals that lived here in the past provide us with a framework for understanding today's ecosystems.
and destabilizes water ecosystems. Damages in Europe alone have been estimated at around 1-4 percent of economic output worth billions of Euro.
and seed from escaping into the ecosystem and crossing with wild plants. Cary Mitchell professor of horticulture said the technique could be particularly useful for growing transgenic crops to produce high-value medicinal products such as antibodies for the budding plant-derived industrial and pharmaceutical compounds industry.
It is an affordable non-chemical means of taking genetically modified crops to harvest maturity without getting any kind of pollen or seed into the ecosystem.
whether plant species composition matters at all to fundamental ecosystem functions such as productivity or carbon storage.
Drought and increased warming foster wildfires and increased competition for scarce water resources for people and ecosystems.
Rapidly receding summer sea ice shrinking glaciers and thawing permafrost cause damage to infrastructure and major changes to ecosystems.
Increasingly constrained freshwater supplies coupled with increased temperatures stress both people and ecosystems and decrease food and water security.
Agriculture) â#¢Ecosystems: Ecosystems and the benefits they provide to society are being affected by climate change.
The capacity of ecosystems to buffer the impacts of extreme events like fires floods and severe storms is being overwhelmed.
Climate change impacts on biodiversity are already being observed in alteration of the timing of critical biological events such as spring bud burst and substantial range shifts of many species. In the longer term there is an increased risk
Events such as droughts floods wildfires and pest outbreaks associated with climate change (for example bark beetles in the West) are already disrupting ecosystems.
These changes limit the capacity of ecosystems such as forests barrier beaches and wetlands to continue to play important roles in reducing the impacts of extreme events on infrastructure human communities
Ecosystems) â#¢Oceans: Ocean waters are becoming warmer and more acidic broadly affecting ocean circulation chemistry ecosystems and marine life.
More acidic waters inhibit the formation of shells skeletons and coral reefs. Warmer waters harm coral reefs and alter the distribution abundance
since the 1980s with the largest increases occurring in the western United states affecting ecosystems and agriculture.
and are becoming more acidic as a result leading to concerns about intensifying impacts on marine ecosystems.
or flooding declining crop yields or ecosystem damages create hotspots of risk in specific parts of Africa.
While climate change certainly is a global challenge as greenhouses-gases from the use of fossil fuels disturb ecosystems worldwide the impacts vary widely over space and time.
These fossil studies have been considered tremendously important for understanding how ecosystems have responded and will respond to climate change and disturbance.
Researchers from leading universities including the University of Sheffield carried out a survey of carbon stocks biodiversity and economic values from one of the world's most threatened ecosystems the western Andes of Colombia.
and human changes to those ecosystems--a timely topic as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change prepares to examine land use impacts on greenhouse gas emissions says Prof.
and creating these kinds of high methane-producing ecosystems. Most methane studies focus on measurements at a single site said co-author Narasinha Shurpali University of Eastern Finland.
She and her students examine how ecosystems regulate climate in field sites in Canada and Alaska.
There are still experiments the team would like to do to further understand the ecosystem dynamics that lead to the marsh die off
The observed effects of climate change have an impact on people's health land and marine ecosystems water supplies and people's livelihoods from the polar regions to the tropics and from small islands to continents.
As marine and coastal ecosystems change their diversity and the products and services derived from them will weaken.
Ultimately he warns agricultural productivity depends on the conservation of native ecosystems and the climate stability they provide.
and they or their genes might move to the human ecosystem. Is this a route for movement of these genes from the barn to the table?
AR genes can enter the human ecosystem by two routes--either the bacteria that contain them colonize humans
and significantly higher in the island ecosystem and species abundances were compared increasingly uneven to the countryside ecosystem the study found.
and slow extinction rates compared to true island ecosystems. Especially in the tropics island biogeographic theory's application is distorting our understanding and conservation strategies in agriculture the enterprise on
A theory of countryside biogeography is pivotal to conservation strategy in the agricultural ecosystems that comprise roughly half of the global land surface
Honeybees are pollinators of untold numbers of plants in every ecosystem on the African continent Patch said.
and ecosystem services including water quality and wildlife. So this sector has some opportunities to help improve the quality of land resources as well as mitigating climate change.
It's easy to assume that a 3-year drought is an inconsequential blip on the radar for ecosystems that develop over centuries to millennia.
but severe climatic events can trigger cascades of ecosystem change that last for centuries. Some of the most compelling evidence of how ecosystems respond to drought
and other challenges can be found in the trunks of our oldest trees. Results from an analysis of tree rings spanning more than 300000 square miles
and bats and provide ecosystem services such as filtering water and air stabilizing soil during heavy rains storing carbon and replenishing soil nutrients.
This paper produces the first evidence that to really understand the carbon cycle you have to look into issues of nutrient cycling within the soil says IIASA Ecosystems Services
Furthermore the study showed that nutrient-rich ecosystems also generally have more stable ground organic material
More than 30 scientists and forest managers contributed to Michigan Forest Ecosystem Vulnerability Assessment and Synthesis. The study is part of the Northwoods Climate Change Response Framework a collaboration of federal state academic and private partners led by the Forest Service's Northern Institute of Applied Climate
This report is designed to give forest managers in Michigan the best possible science on effects of climate change for our particular forest ecosystems
The assessment evaluates the vulnerability of forest ecosystems within a 16.6-million-acre area in Michigan's eastern Upper Peninsula and northern Lower Peninsula about 70 percent of the state's forested land cover.
#Farming for improved ecosystem services seen as economically feasibleby changing row-crop management practices in economically and environmentally stable ways US farms could contribute to improved water quality biological diversity pest suppression
The article based on research conducted over 25 years at the Kellogg Biological Station in southwest Michigan further reports that Midwest farmers especially those with large farms appear willing to change their farming practices to provide these ecosystem services in exchange for payments.
Now is the time to guide this intensification in a way that enhances the delivery of ecosystems services that are marketed not currently they conclude.
Forests provide essential ecosystem services for people including timber food and water. For those struggling with the after-effects of deforestation the main hope lies in rebuilding forest resources through ecological restoration.
Researchers at BU have shown that placing a monetary value on ecosystem services provides a mechanism for evaluating the costs and benefits of reforestation activity.
and fellow BU researchers analysed 89 different types of restored ecosystem sites across the world.
although restored land was not as productive as land that had not been degraded restoration efforts increased biodiversity by 44%and provision of ecosystem services by 25%.
The methodology assigns financial value to ecosystem services such as the provision of clean water carbon storage
We examined whether ecological restoration can be cost effective based on the value of ecosystem services provided by restoration actions he explained.
This was undertaken by analysing the value of the increased provision of ecosystem services that could potentially be provided as a result of ecological restoration actions.
and specifically'Target 15'of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets to restore 15%of the world's degraded ecosystems by 2020.
and enhance ecosystem service provision for those living within them. The Forest Landscape Restoration method has been heralded as the solution to restoring 150 million acres of degraded
He conclude Ecosystems are a rich source of biodiversity and the services they provide are relied upon by local people.
But fencing profoundly alters ecosystems and can cause some species to disappear. We're asking that conservationists as well as other sectoral interests carefully weigh up the biodiversity costs
In addition to their ecosystem-wide impact fences do not always achieve their specific aims Construction of fences to reduce human-wildlife conflict has been successful in some places
The sagebrush ecosystem is adapted not to frequent fires like some forests in California and the central Rockies and fires have increased in frequency and in size over the last half century.
and it's not very good at dispersing seeds long distance said author Robert Arkle a supervisory ecologist for the USGS Forest & Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center at the Snake river Field Station in Idaho.
But the factors that ultimately determine the survival of the sagebrush ecosystem may be out of managers'control.
processes and ecosystem services of the Amazon river wetlands. Scientists from Virginia Tech the Woods Hole Research center and the University of California Santa barbara funded by NASA are collaborating with Brazilian scientists to explore the ecosystem consequences of the extreme droughts of 2005 and 2010 and the extreme flood
of 2009. The research fills an important gap in our understanding of the vulnerability of tropical river-forest systems to changes in climate
and ecosystem services such as fisheries are affected so that we can devise mitigation strategies. Amazonian grasses sometimes called macrophytes convert atmospheric carbon to plant biomass which is processed then by aquatic microorganisms upon decomposition.
#Deforestation of sandy soils a greater climate threatdeforestation may have far greater consequences for climate change in some soils than in others according to new research led by Yale university scientists--a finding that could provide critical insights into which ecosystems
which ecosystems are more resilient to widespread tree removal. In a comprehensive analysis of soil collected from 11 distinct U s. regions from Hawaii to northern Alaska researchers found that the extent to which deforestation disturbs underground microbial communities that regulate the loss of carbon into the atmosphere depends almost exclusively on the texture of the soil.
Using previously documented information about soil distribution the researchers were able to map potential areas where belowground ecosystems are more likely to be vulnerable to deforestation.
and densities in non-reserved forests--in addition to keeping some global forests in reserves--would help preserve biodiversity in ecosystems worldwide Oliver said.
and Menno Schilthuizen is to teach the students about how the rich tapestry of the tropical lowland rainforest's ecosystem is woven.
Besides charismatic species such as the orangutans that the students encounter every day in the forest the tropical ecosystem consists of scores of unseen organisms
A study conducted by the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) in the Gabayan watershed in eastern Bohol Philippines has shown that agroforestry systems create a more sustainably managed watershed that allows people living there to benefit from the ecosystem.
and the ecosystem services provided by the Gabayan watershed. The tool predicts the environmental impact of land use land management practices and climate change.
#Forests crucial to green growththe value of forests and tree-based ecosystems extends far beyond carbon sequestration;
while at the same time enhancing the conservation of forests and ecosystem services. Each year the International Day of Forests highlights the unique role of forests in the environment
This study notes that some of today's benthic shellfish aquaculture practices have been shown to undermine near shore ecosystem resilience.
Similar links maybe found in other ecosystems between disrupted fauna and declining diversity of flora.
and Climate Research Centre and the University of Halle-Wittenberg demonstrates the importance of this hitherto neglected ecosystem function for the restoration of montane rain forests.
and tested whether this ecosystem function may contribute to the restoration of deforested areas. The red lipid-rich aril a fleshy pulp surrounding the seeds of Clusia is highly attractive to many animals.
but very little is known about its impact in degraded forest ecosystems. The study reveals that ants reduce seed predation by rodents and increase germination success
--which confirms the importance of this ecosystem function for forest regeneration. The study has been carried out in two 3000 ha islands of natural mountain rain forest
Due to the ecosystem service provided by ants in the degraded areas a faster and sustainable establishment of tree seedlings like Clusia may be expected.
and plant species and accelerate the regeneration of the mountain rain forest ecosystem. Schleuning concludes: Drought frequencies in the Andes are likely to increase in the future.
This introduction--viewed until now as an introduction of an alien species into a previously unoccupied ecosystem--was aimed at fostering a large breeding population at a safe site that could be used in restocking the mainland where historic land use decimated native bighorn sheep populations.
and fungi that decompose plant matter in healthy ecosystems are hindered by radioactive contamination. They showed a smaller effect for small invertebrates such as termites that also contribute to decomposition of plant biomass.
It's another facet of the impacts of low-dose-rate radioactive contaminants on the broader ecosystem Mousseau says.
As society places increasing demands on agricultural land beyond food production to include ecosystem services we needed a new way to evaluate'success'in agriculture said Jason Kaye professor of biogeochemistry.
This research presents a framework for considering a suite of ecosystem services that could be derived from agricultural land
Our analysis shows how the effort to improve water quality with cover crops will affect other ecosystem services that we expect from agricultural land.
The research published in the March issue of Agricultural Systems quantified the benefits offered by cover crops across more than 10 ecosystem services.
Lead researcher Meagan Schipanski explained that commonly used measurements of ecosystem services can be misleading due to the episodic nature of some services and the time sensitivity of management windows.
By integrating a suite of ecosystem services into a unified analytical framework we highlighted the potential for cover crops to influence a wide array of ecosystem services.
We estimated that cover crops increased eight of 11 ecosystem services. In addition we demonstrated the importance of
considering temporal dynamics when assessing management system effects on ecosystem services. Trade-offs occurred between economic metrics
#Reindeer grazing may counteract effects of climate warming on tundra carbon sinklocal reindeer grazing history is an important determinant in the response of an ecosystem's carbon sink to climate warming say researchers at the Arctic
The consequences of global climate warming on ecosystem carbon sink in tundra are of great interest
Increased carbon fixation in heavily grazed tundra compensated the warming-induced increase in the carbon dioxide release from the ecosystem.
Grazing alters several ecosystem properties such as plant species composition and soil nutrient availability which in turn alter ecosystem responses to climate warming says Academy Research Fellow Sari Stark from the Arctic Centre.
The significance of reindeer grazing history to tundra carbon balances has not been studied previously. The present results may modify climate models that predict the effects of global warming on global carbon cycles.
#Tropical grassy ecosystems under threat, scientists warnscientists at the University of Liverpool have found that tropical grassy areas which play a critical role in the world's ecology are under threat as a result of ineffective management.
Whilst it is assumed generally that'more trees are better'in tropical rainforest this is not necessarily the case for tropical grassy ecosystems and so the outcomes of global carbon and conservation initiatives
Any changes to the balance between human livelihoods and ecosystem function would have an impact on the use of land the availability of resources
Tropical grassy ecosystems are associated with savannas and upland grasslands in Africa and savanna-type grasslands in India Australia
Energy flows from the bottom of an ecosystem up the ladder to human society. Even today many people in Mongolia live just like their ancestors did.
These differing strategies create a diverse grassland ecosystem. In the human-altered world where nutrients are always plentiful plants that put their effort into growing tall to capture sunlight have an advantage.
As religious icons in Southeast asia and a key species of the forest ecosystem their decline is of serious cultural and ecological concern.
and for taking a wider ecosystem perspective rather than focusing on single issues or species said Teresa Berezowska-Cnota co-author of the study.
Despite ruminant livestock's poor image as major greenhouse gas emitters sustainably managed grazing can increase biodiversity maintain ecosystem services
and the Missouri Ozarks according to a new report by the U s. Forest Service and partners that assesses the vulnerability of the region's forest ecosystems
Central Hardwoods Ecosystem Vulnerability Assessment and Synthesis: A Report from the Central Hardwoods Climate Change Response Framework Project was published by the U s. Forest Service's Northern Research Station
and care about the ecosystems in the Central Hardwoods Region. In the Central Hardwoods the effects of a changing climate are expected to include rising temperatures due to a rise in greenhouse gas concentrations leading to longer growing seasons.
which shows that temperate ecosystems consisted not just of dense forest as often assumed but rather a mosaic of forest and parkland says postdoctoral fellow Chris Sandom.
Bring back the large animals to Europeif people want to restore self-managing varied landscapes they can draw on the knowledge provided by the new study about the composition of natural ecosystems in the past.
An important way to create more self-managing ecosystems with a high level of biodiversity is to make room for large herbivores in the European landscape--and possibly reintroduce animals such as wild cattle bison and even elephants.
and maintain a varied vegetation in temperate ecosystems and thereby ensure the basis for a high level of biodiversity says senior scientist Rasmus Ejrnã s. The study received financial support from the 15 june Foundation and a grant from the European Research Council.
They are already threatening whole patches in a kaleidoscopic quilt of chemical diversity that underpins these ecosystems.
#Spanish forest ecosystems: Carbon emission will be higher in second half of centuryspanish forest ecosystems will quite probably emit high quantities of carbon dioxide in the second half of the 21st century.
This is the conclusion of a report that reviews the results obtained from the implementation of the forest simulation model GOTILWA+a tool to simulate forest growth processes under several environmental conditions
The model enables to explore the effects of climate change on forestry ecosystems under changed environmental conditions
it will have a negative impact on other ecosystems for example on rivers. The most sensitive areasthe most sensitive areas to climate change effects are Mediterranean forests of evergreen oak Alepo pine
Particularly it is essential to consider that Mediterranean forest ecosystems'growth is limited already by water availability.
and are an important element of many ecosystems throughout the world. Not only do fires discourage nonnative and invasive species from becoming established
For plants that are adapted to ecosystems where fire is a regular occurrence--such as savannas grasslands
For instance it may be advantageous to use species from the specific ecosystem under study when creating the solutions.
#Less snowpack will harm ecosystem, study showsa new Boston University study shows that the consequences of milder winters--a smaller snowpack leaving the ground to freeze harder and longer--can have a negative impact on trees and water quality of nearby aquatic
ecosystems far into the warmer growing season. In a paper in the journal Global Change Biology BU biology Prof.
and therefore monopolize key resources needed to maintain Earth's fragile ecosystems. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Michigan State university.
but also take into account the animals inhabiting the ecosystem and human livelihoods. They also noted that such efforts could benefit from more targeting of areas most favored by pandas.
The emphasis on genetic diversity is a relatively new concern in ecosystem restoration projects where there has been an understandable urgency to move plants and animals back into an area as quickly as possible.
--either intentionally or unintentionally as a side effect of global farming and industry--is having a destabilizing effect on global grassland ecosystems.
The researchers found that plant diversity in natural ecosystems creates more stable ecosystems over time because of less synchronized growth of plants.
They used this information to quantify species diversity and ecosystem stability. Says Hautier: It was really striking to see the relationship between diversity
The results of our study emphasize that we need to consider not just how productive ecosystems are
and how biodiversity is related to both aspects of ecosystem functioning says Andy Hector. The researchers also found that grassland diversity
and we have less stable ecosystems when we have more nutrients coming into that system says Borer.
The group ultimately wants to continue experiments for at least ten years to gather information about long-term trends in plant species diversity and ecosystem stability extinctions species invasions and many other important changes in the world
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