Tropes

Nature 02482.txt

UK ecosystem services declining: Nature Newsmany UK ecosystem services, including fish catches and soil quality, are declining or have already become degraded as a result of over exploitation, poor management and habitat change, according to the first national assessment of the United kingdom's ecosystems, released today. Over the past 60 years, there have been declines in around 30%of ecosystem services the benefits that humanity receives from the natural environment. Only 20%of services got better, says The UK National Ecosystem Assessment, despite environment-improving measures such as the clean air act in the 1950s. Crop production and species diversity in woodlands were among the few services that improved. Wheat yields doubled between the 1960s and 2010 reaching around 8 tonnes per hectare, owing to the use of more productive crop varieties and fertilizers. But the biodiversity of farmland birds declined by 43%between 1970 and 1998. Continued population growth and climate change in the country will probably put more pressure on ecosystems in the future, further reducing benefits and services. Aquatic ecosystems are among those most degraded, for example from pollution from fertilisers running off of agricultural land, says Bob Watson, chief scientist for the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural affairs, and co-chair of the assessment. The water systems in general are still in bad shape. They are better than they were but the direction of travel is still not where we want it to be, he told Nature. As drivers of change in ecosystem services, climate change and invasive species will become more and more important over the next 50 years, he adds. The study assesses the services provided by eight habitat types across Britain including woodlands, urban environments and farmlands by assigning them a financial value. That value takes into account a range of non-market goods provided by ecosystems, including flood and erosion control, recreational enjoyment and spiritual inspiration, as well as market goods, such as energy and food. In doing so, it builds on previous studies, such as The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB), a European effort to assess the global economic benefits of biodiversity, which began in 2007. The UK National Ecosystem Assessment is advanced the most interdisciplinary assessment of ecosystems and services yet anywhere in the world, says Ian Bateman, an environmental economist at the University of East Anglia, UK, and one of the study's authors. Ecosystem services are ignored typically and given a value of zero in political decision-making, the assessment says. You could make'UK plc'much better off if you are prepared to look at these wider values, says Bateman. For example, the study included a value analysis of the placement of woodlands in Wales. The factors considered included income from timber carbon storage in the trees and soil, and recreational value. Woodlands are clustered around the Cambrian Mountains in central Wales. The analysis shows that this location provides the greatest market value, for example, in the value of the timber. But when non-market factors such as carbon storage are taken into account, the Cambrian Mountains are almost perfectly the wrong place to plant trees, says Bateman. The area is made up of peat land, which stores high levels of carbon in the soil. Planting trees here would disrupt the peat carbon sink and result in more carbon being emitted than is locked up in the trees. The report's authors call on the government to use their findings and value analyses to guide future policy-making. Steve Albon, an ecologist at the James Hutton Institute in Aberdeen, UK, and co-chair of the study, says, The assessment would make big changes to the way we manage the natural environment. Those changes might already be in progress: in a statement, Caroline Spelman, the UK Environment Secretary, said that the assessment has played a big part in shaping a white paper on the natural environment that is set to be published this month. Albon says that the assessment sets the standard for environmental valuations for other nations. He adds that other European countries, including Germany, have expressed interest in carrying out similar studies.

< Back - Next >