How much do we know about trade-offs in ecosystem services? A systematic review of empirical research observations
Article
Article Title | How much do we know about trade-offs in ecosystem services? A systematic review of empirical research observations |
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ERA Journal ID | 3551 |
Article Category | Article |
Authors | Aryal, Kishor (Author), Maraseni, Tek N. (Author) and Apan, Armando (Author) |
Journal Title | Science of the Total Environment |
Journal Citation | 806, pp. 1-13 |
Article Number | 151229 |
Number of Pages | 13 |
Year | 2022 |
Publisher | Elsevier |
Place of Publication | Netherlands |
ISSN | 0048-9697 |
1879-1026 | |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.151229 |
Web Address (URL) | https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969721063075 |
Abstract | As an important domain of sustainability science, trade-offs in ecosystem services (ES) is crucial for spatial planning to sustainably manage natural resources while satisfying the needs of local and non-local beneficiaries. However, there is still a growing debate in understanding, characterization, and visualization of the trade-off relationships. This paper systematically reviews a total of 473 articles, published in the last 16 years (2005-2020) through 135 academic journals, based on empirical studies conducted in over 80 countries, and led by the researcher from over 50 countries. Trade-off relationships are often visualized as spatial associations of ES, but very few articles have characterized trade-offs as the causal interaction among ES. More than two-thirds of the studies were carried out in temperate and sub-tropical regions, but we depicted an under-representation of the critical ecosystems in tropics. About 90% of the articles were based on funded research but the involvement of government institutions was very low (<10%). Trade-off analysis was based only on biophysical constraints of the ecosystem, as observed in more than 80% of the selected articles, without due regards of the divergence in utility functions of different stakeholders and ecosystem beneficiaries. This study identifies a total of 198 pairs of conflicting ES, of which the trade-off between crop production and carbon/climate services has the highest records of observation (i.e., as identified by 20% of the total studies). Further, this study identifies the major drivers (i.e., ecological and social) and stakeholders (i.e., land users and government agencies) of trade-off in ES, and major gaps in the analytical approach to understand the trade-off relationships. Based on our findings, we have discussed and recommended a number of research trajectories, including trans-disciplinary research considering both biophysical constraints and utility functions, in order to guide the future direction of sustainability science through the creation of win-win scenarios. |
Keywords | Ecosystem services; trade-offs; sustainability framework; production possibility frontiers; utility functions |
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020 | 410402. Environmental assessment and monitoring |
Public Notes | File reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher/author. |
Institution of Origin | University of Southern Queensland |
Byline Affiliations | University of Southern Queensland |
Ministry of Industry, Tourism, Forests and Environment, Nepal | |
University of Southern Queensland |
https://research.usq.edu.au/item/q6v8v/how-much-do-we-know-about-trade-offs-in-ecosystem-services-a-systematic-review-of-empirical-research-observations
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