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Renewable Resources: Forest Ecosystems Original Today Frontier Choices B Which seems the poorest D choice? A C http://www.cwbiodiesel.com/biodiesel/palm_oil.html Time Appropriate Questions • • • • What do forest ecosystems provide? What is important or valuable? How do we conserve what is valuable? What approaches are available for defining what is important? • What approaches are available for conserving? • Are we kidding ourselves? Forest ecosystems: Goods & Services • • • • • • • • • • Fiber - paper and products Fuel - cooking & heating Water - quantity and quality Nutrient cycling Ecosystem energetics (food chain) Air - CO2 uptake, O2 release, pollutant removal Climate stability Biodiversity/habitat: plant and animal (wildlife) Medicine and food products Recreation/mental & social health Reference: Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods (2006) Ecosystem: A Human Construct • Definition: An ecological system composed of living organisms (plants, animals, & microbes) and their nonliving environment. • Ecosystems are characterized by: – – – – Structure & function Complexity Interaction of the components Change over time (e.g., disturbances), “young, mature, old.” • Today, these functions must be spatially and temporally coordinated. Ecosystem threats? • Loss of habitat: Land-use change and irreversible conversion (fragmentation) • Disruption of biogeochemical cycles (N,C,P) • Invasive or introduced exotic organisms • Toxins, pollutants, human wastes • Climate change Ensuring Ecosystem Goods & Services: Approaches • Examine three different approaches – First, we identify specific species we want in our ecosystem (e.g., wolves, spotted owl, whitebark pine, etc.). – Second, we identify a process we want to maintain (e.g., carbon fixation). – Third: A more comprehensive or systems approach. • Two examples that use this third approach – NCSSF - small scale, small perspective – MEA - small to large scale, many perspectives Whitebark Pine Approach 1. Save a species! Distribution & Importance of Whitebark Pine Pinus albicaulis • High elevation pine • Large seed • Special relationship with a bird • Important for other animals • Keystone species in the Rockies Whitebark Pine: Ecological Importance • Hardy subalpine conifer, tolerates poor soils, steep slopes, windy exposures. • Often the tree line species • Keystone species (Rocky Mountain Region) – Food source - birds, small mammals & bears – Often colonizes a site, facilitates succession & promotes diversity – Regulates runoff, reduces soil erosion Picture: C.J. Earle Decline of Whitebark Pine • White pine blister rust: Cronartium ribicola, is a rust fungus with two hosts. – All North American 5needled pines – In addition, it infects all species of the genus Ribes spp., its alternate host. – European & Russian species resistant • Problems today – Fire suppression – Global climate change – Mountain pine beetle Situation • Whitebark pine is likely to disappear. • What are our choices? – Do nothing (its “natural”) – Remove the Ribes – Breed for resistance – Introduce resistant European/Russian species – Selection and genetic engineering of the endophyte. 2. Ensure a function! Manage for Carbon Dioxide Uptake Monitor Two goals: • Understand where the hidden sink for carbon dioxide is? • Use forest systems to take up CO2. Approach taken by Canada - Kyoto Protocol Experiment Methods of Study Difficulties • Issues of scale (quality of info vs. extent of info) • Monitoring • Unknowns (soil carbon) • Searchinger, T. et al. 2008. Science Express • Fargione, J. et al. 2008. Sci. Express Lessons from first 2 approaches • Managing single components or processes: Hard • Determination of what to measure, at what scale, how often, etc. • Techniques to measure (e.g., what is there now & how is it changing) are expensive • Monitoring - expensive, takes time • Understanding of interactions (e.g., cascading effects) • Regulatory environment may define • Nature changes (e.g., forest fire, bard owl) Third Approach Work on maintaining “properly” functioning ecosystems Key: Remember all the functions? Two examples • National Commission on Science for Sustainable Forestry (NCSSF) • Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Program (MEA) • Mission: to advance the science and practice of biodiversity conservation and forest sustainability • Critical Question: How does an owner or manager of forest land tell whether biodiversity and sustainability are being positively, negatively or neutrally affected by management practices and decisions? • Or: Is your land ‘good’, changing, & changing in what direction? http://www.ncseonline.org/NCSSF/page.cfm?FID=1426 What’s needed? • Early warning assessment system that is – Rapid & cost effective And that is based on • Stand level sustainability (condition): – Development of functional indicators (of ecosystem services) & – associated benchmarks • These indicators/benchmarks should represent best available information/science. Does it works in practice • Functions, variables and benchmark levels can be defined • A sampling scheme has been designed & tested • Evaluation is then a comparison of values and changes in values. • Subsequent decisions are then based on goals and objectives set by land owner. Does it work? • Perhaps (actually data from urban to rural land • Weakness: – Assumes that the indicators are correct and respond in a measurable & timely way – Assumes that we can react fast enough. – Does not link objectives over large areas of land. • Clearly better than nothing Yangjuan Village • Apparently intensive use of the land • Is the use sustainable? And how does land use reflect and affect the inhabitants? • Idea of eco-political tsunamis Yangjuan Land use Traditional Buckwheat Firewood Livestock Conversion from local land race of corn to new hybrid corn Ecosystem Goods and Services: Example 2 Definition of Ecosystem Goods and Services Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Program Example Older definition of Ecosystem goods and services Ecosystem goods: Biophysical elements that are directly, or indirectly, consumed by humans Ecosystem services: processes that produce, or support the production of, ecosystem goods (most involve some biogeochemical cycle). Which is not an ecosystem service? 11% 5% 47% 36% 1% 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Provisioning Regulating Cultural Interventions Supporting Newer definition of Ecosystem goods and services • Provisional services (e.g., food, fiber, fuelwood, biochemicals, genetic resources, and water) • Cultural services (e.g., recreational, ecotourism, educational, sense of place, cultural heritage, spiritual, religious and other nonmaterial benefits). • Supporting services (e.g., primary production, soil formation & nutrient cycling) • Regulating services (e.g., water regulation [floods, irrigation], water purification, climate regulation, land degradation, and disease regulation) Example of an Ecosystem Service • Soil provides the following ecosystem services – Significant regulator of the hydrological cycle – Shelters seeds, provides medium for plant growth, provides physical support – Retains, delivers & derives nutrients – Significant role in decomposition – Contributes to cycling, retention & regulation of major element cycles (N, P, C, S) – Carbon storage & cycle – Role as a purifier (water, nutrients, etc.) MEA Conceptual Framework Global Regional Local Human wellbeing & poverty reduction Indirect Drivers of Change • Demographic • Economic • Sociopolitical • Science & technology • Cultural & religious Direct Drivers of Change Ecosystem Services Life on Earth: Biodiversity • Changes in land use & land cover • Species removal or introductions • Technology • Climate change • Natural physical & biological drivers • External inputs MEA Goals • Identify options that can better achieve core human development and sustainability goals. – Recognize & meet growing demands for food, clean water, health, and employment. – Balance economic growth and social development with environmental conservation. • Better understand trade-offs involved—across stakeholders—in decisions concerning the environment. • Rather than issue by issue, use a multi-sectoral approach • Match response options with appropriate level of governance Well-Being Defined (MEA) •Security: Ability to – a. live in an environmentally clean and safe shelter – b. reduce vulnerability to ecological shocks & stress. •Basic material for a good life: Ability to access resources to earn income and gain a livelihood •Health: Clean water, air, adequate nourishment, adequate energy for temperature regulation, good health •Good social relations •Freedom & Choice MEA: Assessments & Publications December 2005 Pressures on Goals of MEA • • • • • • • • • Population Growth Economy, consumption Combined demand on natural resources Land degradation & conversion Invasive organisms Climate change Public Health (e.g., HIV, malaria, nutrition) Template for evaluation Political acceptance & will (and consistency) Conclusion: Difficulties • • • • • • • • • Setting limits and distributing responsibility Scale & variable (s) Measurement Monitoring Assessment Regulation Outcomes and Feedback Choices Political will = f (human will)