Landscapes that provide a lot of one services, such as pig production, can be costly because they have fewer of the hidden services, such as the regulation of nutrient pollution, which are also important to people. Photo: M. Edman/Azote
Seeing the hidden services of nature
Researchers develop new approach for managing ecological trade-offs.
References
C. Raudsepp-Hearnea, G. D. Peterson, E. M. Bennettc. 2010. Ecosystem service bundles for analyzing tradeoffs in diverse landscapes. In Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. Published online before print March 1, 2010, doi: 10.1073/pnas.0907284107
Contact
William Raillant-Clark
Media Relations
McGill University
514-398-2189
william.raillant-clark@mcgill.ca Ellika Hermansson Török
Media Relations
Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University
+46 73 707 85 47
ellika@stockholmresilience.su.se
Media Relations
McGill University
514-398-2189
william.raillant-clark@mcgill.ca Ellika Hermansson Török
Media Relations
Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University
+46 73 707 85 47
ellika@stockholmresilience.su.se
Environmental management typically focuses on nature´s resources like food, wildlife and timber, but can miss hidden ecosystem services such as water purification, climate moderation and the regulation of nutrient cycling.
The researchers show that ecosystems that maximized agriculture offer fewer hidden ecosystems services than more diverse agricultural landscapes. The findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science on March 1, 2010.
- Landscapes that provide a lot of one services, such as pig production, can be costly because they have fewer of the hidden services, such as the regulation of nutrient pollution, which are also important to people, Ciara Raudsepp-Hearne says.
They also show that in some areas high amounts of agricultural production can go hand in hand with the production of other ecosystem services. The researchers framework can be used to help identify “best-practice areas" and contribute to developing effective resource policies.
Trade-offs and costs must be recognized
Bennett believes Quebec manages its environment fairly well, but that there are still trade-offs
Allotment gardens have been around since 1904 in Stockholm. The Swedish Federation of Leisure Gardening was founded in 1921 and represents today more than 26000 allotment and leisure gardeners. Photo: J. Lokrantz/Azote
Urban gardens key in times of crisis
In-depth analysis of management of ecosystem services in cities.
References
Barthel S, Folke C, and Colding J. In press. Social-ecological memory in urban gardens — Retaining the capacity for management of ecosystem services. Global Environmental Change.
About the authors
Stephan Barthel is employed by centre-partner Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics. His research revolves around the social-ecological features that influence management practices.
Carl Folke is Science Director at the centre and as extensive experience with ecosystem dynamics and services as well as the social and economic dimension of ecosystem management.
Johan Colding serves as a theme leader of the Urban social-ecological systems and globalization theme. His research areas include ecosystem management, institutional analyses and social-ecological system interactions.
Allotment gardens have often been sources of local resilience during periods of crisis. During World War I the number of allotment gardens surged from 600,000 to 1,500,000 in Britain, supplying city people with food and other ecosystem services.The gardens were planted in parks and sports fields, and even Buckingham Palace turned up the earth to grow vegetables. After declining abruptly in the 1920s and 1930s, World War II saw a new explosion in the numbers of allotment gardens in cities of Britain and other parts of Europe.
Analysis of social-ecological memory
The story above is told in a new seminal article by centre researchers Stephan Barthel, Carl Folke and Johan Colding.
The article, which is in press in an upcoming issue of Global Environmental Change, investigates where and how ecological practices, knowledge and experience are retained and transmitted in allotment gardens in the urban area of Stockholm. It is the first study ever to really analyse in-depth the concept of “social-ecological memory" as the carrier of ecological knowledge and practices that enable sustainable stewardship of nature.
Linking back to the story of allotment gardens during the World Wars, the specific aim of the new study has been to explore how management practices, which are linked to ecosystem services, are retained and stored among people, and modified and transmitted through time.
- In the case of Stockholm, social-ecological memory in urban gardening is maintained and transmitted through imitation of practices, oral communication and collective rituals. It also resides in physical gardens, artefacts, metaphors and rules-in-use, Stephan Barthel explains.
Time to include citizens in stewardship
Barthel and his colleagues performed surveys and interviews with several hundreds of gardeners in the Stockholm urban area over a four-year period.
They found that the self-organised groups of allotment gardeners support critical ecosystem services that both underpin the production of crops and flowers and spill over to a much larger portion of the metropolitan landscape.
- This calls for policy makers to appreciate and actively include citizens that engage in the actual stewardship of urban ecosystem services, whether it is about sustaining urban green areas or designing new ones, Barthel says.
Pockets of social-ecological memory
Today the city of Stockholm contains about 10,000 individual allotment garden plots, occupying 210 ha of land and involving about 24,000 people.
As concluded in the study by Barthel, Folke and Colding, these allotment gardens serve as “pockets of social— ecological memory" in the urban landscape and constitute a source of resilience for generation of ecosystem services while counteracting ecological illiteracy.
Without such physical sites experiences of stewardship of ecosystem services, or “social-ecological memory" could easily dissolve. Now when we are entering the so-called urban millennium, with more than 50 % of the global population living in cities, planning for sustainability needs to take these green spaces — and the social-ecological memory they maintain — seriously into account.
Source: Barthel S, Folke C, and Colding J. In press. Social-ecological memory in urban gardens — Retaining the capacity for management of ecosystem services. Global Environmental Change.
Analysis of social-ecological memory
The story above is told in a new seminal article by centre researchers Stephan Barthel, Carl Folke and Johan Colding.
The article, which is in press in an upcoming issue of Global Environmental Change, investigates where and how ecological practices, knowledge and experience are retained and transmitted in allotment gardens in the urban area of Stockholm. It is the first study ever to really analyse in-depth the concept of “social-ecological memory" as the carrier of ecological knowledge and practices that enable sustainable stewardship of nature.
Linking back to the story of allotment gardens during the World Wars, the specific aim of the new study has been to explore how management practices, which are linked to ecosystem services, are retained and stored among people, and modified and transmitted through time.
- In the case of Stockholm, social-ecological memory in urban gardening is maintained and transmitted through imitation of practices, oral communication and collective rituals. It also resides in physical gardens, artefacts, metaphors and rules-in-use, Stephan Barthel explains.
Time to include citizens in stewardship
Barthel and his colleagues performed surveys and interviews with several hundreds of gardeners in the Stockholm urban area over a four-year period.
They found that the self-organised groups of allotment gardeners support critical ecosystem services that both underpin the production of crops and flowers and spill over to a much larger portion of the metropolitan landscape.
- This calls for policy makers to appreciate and actively include citizens that engage in the actual stewardship of urban ecosystem services, whether it is about sustaining urban green areas or designing new ones, Barthel says.
Pockets of social-ecological memory
Today the city of Stockholm contains about 10,000 individual allotment garden plots, occupying 210 ha of land and involving about 24,000 people.
As concluded in the study by Barthel, Folke and Colding, these allotment gardens serve as “pockets of social— ecological memory" in the urban landscape and constitute a source of resilience for generation of ecosystem services while counteracting ecological illiteracy.
Without such physical sites experiences of stewardship of ecosystem services, or “social-ecological memory" could easily dissolve. Now when we are entering the so-called urban millennium, with more than 50 % of the global population living in cities, planning for sustainability needs to take these green spaces — and the social-ecological memory they maintain — seriously into account.
Source: Barthel S, Folke C, and Colding J. In press. Social-ecological memory in urban gardens — Retaining the capacity for management of ecosystem services. Global Environmental Change.
