Effects of land use on the trade-off between biodiversity and provisioning ecosystem services

date at sDiv: 20.-24.04.2015

PI:
Ralf Seppelt (UFZ, Germany)

Project summary:
During the last decades, there have been parallel scientific debates regarding the effects of land use on the trade-off between biodiversity conservation and provisioning ecosystem services (ESS). As society strives to achieve food and energy security alongside biodiversity conservation goals, these debates assume global significance. Yet, to date, they have failed to produce a robust and generally applicable framework on how this trade-off can be described outside a set of confined conditions. Moreover, these approaches have often adopted a dichotomous perspective (e.g., land sharing vs. sparing), thereby falling short of yielding results that can be used for environmental management. The use of land has so many facets and dimensions that when trying to answer the question "What are the best strategies to maximize provisioning ESS at the least harm to biodiversity?" we have to move away from an either-or perspective, as this overly simplifies a complex problem.

In this project, we first seek a conceptual synthesis that acknowledges the multidimensional complexity captured in the label ‘land use’ in relation to biodiversity and ESS. Secondly, we seek synthesis of data from studies on biodiversity and/or provisioning ESS that explicitly report on land use conditions. Although studies that addressed the various facets and dimensions of land use are relatively limited, their combination will provide a more comprehensive overall picture and will allow for quantifying the effects of land use on the trade-off between biodiversity and provisioning ESS. Finally, results will be compiled to inform land use practice and policy such as IPBES.

Participants:
Michael Beckmann (Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research - UFZ); Silvia Ceausu (iDiv); Katharina Gerstner (Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ); Jessica Gurevitch (Stony Brook University); Stephan Kambach (Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research - UFZ); Stefan Klotz (Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ); Tim Newbold (UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre); Helen Phillips (Natural History Museum); Oliver Schweiger (Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ); Peter Verburg (VU University Amsterdam); Willem Verhagen (VU University Amsterdam); Matt Walpole (UNEP-WCMC); Marten Winter (iDiv); Laure Zupan (Laboratoire d'Ecologie Alpine CNRS)

Meeting report