Environmental impact assessment and monetary ecosystem service valuation of an ecosystem under different future environmental change and management scenarios; a case study of a Scots pine forest

JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

卷:173

Article

Schaubroeck, Thomas¹  Deckmyn, Gaby²  Giot, Olivier^2,3  Campioli, Matteo²  Vanpoucke, Charlotte⁴  Verheyen, Kris⁵  Rugani, Benedetto⁶  Achten, Wouter⁷  Verbeeck, Hans⁸  Dewulf, Jo¹  Muys, Bart⁹ 

[1] Univ Ghent, Res Grp EnVOC, Coupure Links 653, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium

[2] Univ Antwerp, Dept Biol, Ctr Excellence PLECO Plant & Vegetat Ecol, Univ Pl 1, B-2610 Antwerp, Belgium

[3] Royal Meteorol Inst KMI, Ringlaan 3, B-1180 Brussels, Belgium

[4] Belgian Interreg Environm Agcy, Kunstlaan 10-11, B-1210 Brussels, Belgium

[5] Univ Ghent, Forest & Nat Lab, Geraardsbergsesteenweg 267, B-9090 Ghent, Belgium

[6] Luxembourg Inst Sci & Technol, Dept Environm Res & Innovat ERIN, Rue Brill 41, L-4422 Luxembourg, Luxembourg

[7] Univ Libre Bruxelles, Inst Environm Management & Land Use Planning IGEA, GESTe, Ave Franklin D,Roosevelt 50 CP 130-02, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium

[8] Univ Ghent, Fac Biosci Engn, Dept Appl Ecol & Environm Biol, Plant Ecol Lab, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium

[9] Univ Leuven, Div Forest Nat & Landscape, Dept Earth & Environm Sci, Celestijnenlaan 200E-2411, BE-3001 Leuven, Belgium

关键词: Forest management;    Ecosystem services;    Forest;    Environmental impact assessment;    Particulate matter;    Climate change;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.jenvman.2016.03.005

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

For a sustainable future, we must sustainably manage not only the human/industrial system but also ecosystems. To achieve the latter goal, we need to predict the responses of ecosystems and their provided services to management practices under changing environmental conditions via ecosystem models and use tools to compare the estimated provided services between the different scenarios. However, scientific articles have covered a limited amount of estimated ecosystem services and have used tools to aggregate services that contain a significant amount of subjective aspects and that represent the final result in a non-tangible unit such as 'points'. To resolve these matters, this study quantifies the environmental impact (on human health, natural systems and natural resources) in physical units and uses an ecosystem service valuation based on monetary values (including ecosystem disservices with associated negative monetary values). More specifically, the paper also focuses on the assessment of ecosystem services related to pollutant removal/generation flows, accounting for the inflow of eutrophying nitrogen (N) when assessing the effect of N leached to groundwater. Regarding water use/provisioning, evapotranspiration is alternatively considered a disservice because it implies a loss of (potential) groundwater. These approaches and improvements, relevant to all ecosystems, are demonstrated using a Scots pine stand from 2010 to 2089 for a combination of three environmental change and three management scenarios. The environmental change scenarios considered interannual climate variability trends and included alterations in temperature, precipitation, nitrogen deposition, wind speed, Particulate matter (PM) concentration and CO2 concentration. The addressed flows/ecosystem services, including disservices, are as follows: particulate matter removal, freshwater loss, CO2 sequestration, wood production, NOx emissions, NH3 uptake and nitrogen pollution/removal. The monetary ecosystem service valuation yields a total average estimate of 361-1242 euro ha(-1) yr(-1). PM2.5 (<2.5 mu mu m) removal is the key service, with a projected value of 622-1172 euro ha(-1) yr(-1). Concerning environmental impact assessment, with net CO2 uptake being the most relevant contributing flow, a loss prevention of 0.014-0.029 healthy life years ha(-1) yr(-1) is calculated for the respective flows. Both assessment methods favor the use of the least intensive management scenario due to its resulting higher CO2 sequestration and PM removal, which are the most important services of the considered ones. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

【 授权许可】

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