Aims: Despite the current interest in services provided by ecosystems and the role of biodiversity, the relationship among human attitudes, biodiversity and ecosystem services has hardly been investigated. Moreover, few studies have examined attitudes toward nature in cross-cultural comparisons. This study investigates the attitudes of Chinese and Swiss people, both environmental experts and la...

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Regional-scale forest ecosystem models can provide insight into how forest hydrology and productivity differ in response to variations in climate and soil conditions. However, the databases necessary to define and validate these models are difficult to compile and utilize. The use of a Geographic Information System (GIS) can greatly simplify problems in database management. As an example of reg...

A warming climate influences boreal forest productivity, dynamics, and disturbance regimes. We used ecosystem models and 250 m satellite Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data averaged over the growing season (GSN) to model current, and estimate future, ecosystem performance. We modeled Expected Ecosystem Performance (EEP), or anticipated productivity, in undisturbed stands over the...

This paper presents a dynamic systems model that shows how different land use patterns degrade the value of ecosystem services provided by the Brazilian Amazonia. The model consists of four sectors: (1) deforestation drivers; (2) land use/cover; (3) ecosystem services; and (4) ecosystem valuation. The deforestation drivers sector models the economic and social incentives that small farmers and ...

When assessing net ecosystem exchange (NEE) and net ecosystem carbon balance (NECB), respiration is generally assumed to be the only significant loss of carbon to the atmosphere. However, carbon is also emitted from ecosystems in the form of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs). Here we consider the magnitude of systematic difference caused by omitting this additional carbon loss from th...

Kline, Jeffrey D.; Mazzotta, Marisa J. 2012. Evaluating tradeoffs among ecosystem services in the management of public lands. Gen. Tech. Rep. PNWGTR-865. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. 48 p. The U.S. Forest Service has adopted the concept and language of ecosystem services to describe the beneficial outcomes of national forest m...

[1] Ephemeral disturbances, such as non-lethal insect defoliations and crown damage from meteorological events, can significantly affect the delivery of ecosystem services by helping maintain nitrogen (N) limitation in temperate forest ecosystems. However, the impacts of these disturbances are difficult to observe across the broad-scales at which they affect ecosystem function. Using remotely s...

Background: Mangrove forest restoration and rehabilitation programs are increasingly undertaken to re-establish ecosystem services in the context of community-based biodiversity conservation. Restoration is returning a habitat to the most natural condition, whereas rehabilitation often focuses on optimising ecosystem services alongside biodiversity. With many different restoration and rehabilit...