Impacts of land-use management on ecosystem services and biodiversity: an agent-based modelling approach
The science of ecosystem service (ES) mapping has become increasingly sophisticated over the past 20 years, and examples of successfully integrating ES into management decisions at national and sub-national scales have begun to emerge. However, increasing model sophistication and accuracy—and theref...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
PeerJ Inc.
2016-12-01
|
| Series: | PeerJ |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://peerj.com/articles/2814.pdf |
| _version_ | 1797418220242599936 |
|---|---|
| author | Thomas J. Habib Scott Heckbert Jeffrey J. Wilson Andrew J. K. Vandenbroeck Jerome Cranston Daniel R. Farr |
| author_facet | Thomas J. Habib Scott Heckbert Jeffrey J. Wilson Andrew J. K. Vandenbroeck Jerome Cranston Daniel R. Farr |
| author_sort | Thomas J. Habib |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The science of ecosystem service (ES) mapping has become increasingly sophisticated over the past 20 years, and examples of successfully integrating ES into management decisions at national and sub-national scales have begun to emerge. However, increasing model sophistication and accuracy—and therefore complexity—may trade-off with ease of use and applicability to real-world decision-making contexts, so it is vital to incorporate the lessons learned from implementation efforts into new model development. Using successful implementation efforts for guidance, we developed an integrated ES modelling system to quantify several ecosystem services: forest timber production and carbon storage, water purification, pollination, and biodiversity. The system is designed to facilitate uptake of ES information into land-use decisions through three principal considerations: (1) using relatively straightforward models that can be readily deployed and interpreted without specialized expertise; (2) using an agent-based modelling framework to enable the incorporation of human decision-making directly within the model; and (3) integration among all ES models to simultaneously demonstrate the effects of a single land-use decision on multiple ES. We present an implementation of the model for a major watershed in Alberta, Canada, and highlight the system’s capabilities to assess a suite of ES under future management decisions, including forestry activities under two alternative timber harvest strategies, and through a scenario modelling analysis exploring different intensities of hypothetical agricultural expansion. By using a modular approach, the modelling system can be readily expanded to evaluate additional ecosystem services or management questions of interest in order to guide land-use decisions to achieve socioeconomic and environmental objectives. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T06:29:27Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f20b3053249d4794b683670ce5a18c8e |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2167-8359 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T06:29:27Z |
| publishDate | 2016-12-01 |
| publisher | PeerJ Inc. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PeerJ |
| spelling | doaj.art-f20b3053249d4794b683670ce5a18c8e2023-12-03T11:10:50ZengPeerJ Inc.PeerJ2167-83592016-12-014e281410.7717/peerj.2814Impacts of land-use management on ecosystem services and biodiversity: an agent-based modelling approachThomas J. Habib0Scott Heckbert1Jeffrey J. Wilson2Andrew J. K. Vandenbroeck3Jerome Cranston4Daniel R. Farr5Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Instutite, Edmonton, Alberta, CanadaAlberta Innovates Technology Futures, Edmonton, Alberta, CanadaGreen Analytics, Guelph, Ontario, CanadaSilvacom Ltd., Edmonton, Alberta, CanadaAlberta Biodiversity Monitoring Instutite, Edmonton, Alberta, CanadaAlberta Biodiversity Monitoring Instutite, Edmonton, Alberta, CanadaThe science of ecosystem service (ES) mapping has become increasingly sophisticated over the past 20 years, and examples of successfully integrating ES into management decisions at national and sub-national scales have begun to emerge. However, increasing model sophistication and accuracy—and therefore complexity—may trade-off with ease of use and applicability to real-world decision-making contexts, so it is vital to incorporate the lessons learned from implementation efforts into new model development. Using successful implementation efforts for guidance, we developed an integrated ES modelling system to quantify several ecosystem services: forest timber production and carbon storage, water purification, pollination, and biodiversity. The system is designed to facilitate uptake of ES information into land-use decisions through three principal considerations: (1) using relatively straightforward models that can be readily deployed and interpreted without specialized expertise; (2) using an agent-based modelling framework to enable the incorporation of human decision-making directly within the model; and (3) integration among all ES models to simultaneously demonstrate the effects of a single land-use decision on multiple ES. We present an implementation of the model for a major watershed in Alberta, Canada, and highlight the system’s capabilities to assess a suite of ES under future management decisions, including forestry activities under two alternative timber harvest strategies, and through a scenario modelling analysis exploring different intensities of hypothetical agricultural expansion. By using a modular approach, the modelling system can be readily expanded to evaluate additional ecosystem services or management questions of interest in order to guide land-use decisions to achieve socioeconomic and environmental objectives.https://peerj.com/articles/2814.pdfEcological economicsEcosystem servicesLand-use planningAgent-based modellingBiodiversitySimulation modelling |
| spellingShingle | Thomas J. Habib Scott Heckbert Jeffrey J. Wilson Andrew J. K. Vandenbroeck Jerome Cranston Daniel R. Farr Impacts of land-use management on ecosystem services and biodiversity: an agent-based modelling approach PeerJ Ecological economics Ecosystem services Land-use planning Agent-based modelling Biodiversity Simulation modelling |
| title | Impacts of land-use management on ecosystem services and biodiversity: an agent-based modelling approach |
| title_full | Impacts of land-use management on ecosystem services and biodiversity: an agent-based modelling approach |
| title_fullStr | Impacts of land-use management on ecosystem services and biodiversity: an agent-based modelling approach |
| title_full_unstemmed | Impacts of land-use management on ecosystem services and biodiversity: an agent-based modelling approach |
| title_short | Impacts of land-use management on ecosystem services and biodiversity: an agent-based modelling approach |
| title_sort | impacts of land use management on ecosystem services and biodiversity an agent based modelling approach |
| topic | Ecological economics Ecosystem services Land-use planning Agent-based modelling Biodiversity Simulation modelling |
| url | https://peerj.com/articles/2814.pdf |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT thomasjhabib impactsoflandusemanagementonecosystemservicesandbiodiversityanagentbasedmodellingapproach AT scottheckbert impactsoflandusemanagementonecosystemservicesandbiodiversityanagentbasedmodellingapproach AT jeffreyjwilson impactsoflandusemanagementonecosystemservicesandbiodiversityanagentbasedmodellingapproach AT andrewjkvandenbroeck impactsoflandusemanagementonecosystemservicesandbiodiversityanagentbasedmodellingapproach AT jeromecranston impactsoflandusemanagementonecosystemservicesandbiodiversityanagentbasedmodellingapproach AT danielrfarr impactsoflandusemanagementonecosystemservicesandbiodiversityanagentbasedmodellingapproach |