Sustainable land use in Mountain Regions under global change synthesis across scales and disciplines

Mountain regions provide essential ecosystem goods and services (EGS) for both mountain dwellers and people living outside these areas. Global change endangers the capacity of mountain ecosystems to provide key services. The Mountland project focused on three case study regions in the Swiss Alps and aimed to propose land-use practices and alternative policy solutions to ensure the provision of key EGS under climate and land-use changes. We summarized and synthesized the results of the project and provide insights into the ecological, socioeconomic, and political processes relevant for analyzing global change impacts on a European mountain region. In Mountland, an integrative approach was applied, combining methods from economics and the political and natural sciences to analyze ecosystem functioning from a holistic human-environment system perspective. In general, surveys, experiments, and model results revealed that climate and socioeconomic changes are likely to increase the vulnerability of the EGS analyzed. We regard the following key characteristics of coupled human-environment systems as central to our case study areas in mountain regions: thresholds, heterogeneity, trade-offs, and feedback. Our results suggest that the institutional framework should be strengthened in a way that better addresses these characteristics, allowing for (1) more integrative approaches, (2) a more network-oriented management and steering of political processes that integrate local stakeholders, and (3) enhanced capacity building to decrease the identified vulnerability as central elements in the policy process. Further, to maintain and support the future provision of EGS in mountain regions, policy making should also focus on project-oriented, cross-sectoral policies and spatial planning as a coordination instrument for land use in general.

[1]  A. Rigling,et al.  Blue‐stain infections in roots, stems and branches of declining Pinus sylvestris trees in a dry inner alpine valley in Switzerland , 2011 .

[2]  A. Buttler,et al.  Effect of dung deposition on small-scale patch structure and seasonal vegetation dynamics in mountain pastures , 2010 .

[3]  J. van Vliet,et al.  Comparison of scale and scaling issues in integrated land-use models for policy support , 2011 .

[4]  A. Buttler,et al.  Short-Term Effects of Cattle Browsing on Tree Sapling Growth in Mountain Wooded Pastures , 2007, Plant Ecology.

[5]  Geoffrey C. Poole,et al.  Ecology and Society , 2006 .

[6]  Garry D. Peterson,et al.  Scenarios for Ecosystem Services: An Overview , 2006 .

[7]  Christof Bigler,et al.  Drought as an Inciting Mortality Factor in Scots Pine Stands of the Valais, Switzerland , 2006, Ecosystems.

[8]  François Gillet,et al.  Modelling vegetation dynamics in heterogeneous pasture-woodland landscapes , 2008 .

[9]  K. Richards,et al.  Environmental Science and Policy , 2015 .

[10]  F. Hagedorn,et al.  Performance of germinating tree seedlings below and above treeline in the Swiss Alps , 2013, Plant Ecology.

[11]  Erich Tasser,et al.  Effects of land-use and land-cover pattern on landscape-scale biodiversity in the European Alps , 2010 .

[12]  Pete Smith,et al.  A coherent set of future land use change scenarios for Europe , 2006 .

[13]  A. Buttler,et al.  Seasonal dynamics of plant species at fine scale in wooded pastures , 2004 .

[14]  A. Duit,et al.  Governance and Complexity—Emerging Issues for Governance Theory , 2008 .

[15]  François Gillet,et al.  Spatial and Seasonal Patterns of Cattle Habitat use in a Mountain Wooded Pasture , 2006, Landscape Ecology.

[16]  F. Müller,et al.  Mapping ecosystem service supply, demand and budgets , 2012 .

[17]  Louis Lebel,et al.  Guest Editorial, part of a Special Feature on Scale and Cross-scale Dynamics Scale and Cross-Scale Dynamics: Governance and Information in a Multilevel World , 2006 .

[18]  F. Müller,et al.  Ecosystem Services at the Landscape Scale: the Need for Integrative Approaches , 2010 .

[19]  Garry D. Peterson,et al.  Ecosystem service bundles for analyzing tradeoffs in diverse landscapes , 2010, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[20]  Christian Ginzler,et al.  Driving factors of a vegetation shift from Scots pine to pubescent oak in dry Alpine forests , 2013, Global change biology.

[21]  Carl Folke,et al.  Navigating the transition to ecosystem-based management of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia , 2008, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[22]  C. Folke RESILIENCE: THE EMERGENCE OF A PERSPECTIVE FOR SOCIAL-ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS ANALYSES , 2006 .

[23]  H. Bugmann,et al.  The relative importance of climatic effects, wildfires and management for future forest landscape dynamics in the Swiss Alps , 2006 .

[24]  Christian Körner,et al.  Species‐specific tree growth responses to 9 years of CO2 enrichment at the alpine treeline , 2010 .

[25]  A. Buttler,et al.  Safe sites for tree regeneration in wooded pastures: A case of associational resistance? , 2005 .

[26]  K. Ingold,et al.  Climate change in mountain regions: how local communities adapt to extreme events , 2010 .

[27]  Andreas Rigling,et al.  Species-specific stomatal response of trees to drought - a link to vegetation dynamics? , 2009 .

[28]  Does the strength of facilitation by nurse shrubs depend on grazing resistance of tree saplings , 2009 .

[29]  Christian Rixen,et al.  Snow avalanche disturbances in forest ecosystems—State of research and implications for management , 2009 .

[30]  Christian Hirschi,et al.  Research, part of a Special Feature on Sustainable Land-Use Practices in Mountain Regions: Integrative Analysis of Ecosystem Dynamics Under Global Change, Social-Economic Impacts, and Policy Implications Modeling Social-Ecological Feedback Effects in the Implementation of Payments for Environmental , 2013 .

[31]  B. Jones,et al.  The Politics of Attention: How Government Prioritizes Problems , 2006 .

[32]  A. Rigling,et al.  Land-use and climate change effects in forest compositional trajectories in a dry Central-Alpine valley , 2010, Annals of Forest Science.

[33]  Canran Liu,et al.  Global Warming and Extinctions of Endemic Species from Biodiversity Hotspots , 2006, Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology.

[34]  Michaela Teich,et al.  Evaluating the benefit of avalanche protection forest with GIS-based risk analyses—A case study in Switzerland , 2009 .

[35]  François Gillet,et al.  Past and future landscape dynamics in pasture-woodlands of the Swiss Jura Mountains under climate change , 2013 .

[36]  Adrienne Grêt-Regamey,et al.  Mountain Ecosystem Services: Who Cares? , 2012 .

[37]  A. Buttler,et al.  The influence of competition from herbaceous vegetation and shade on simulated browsing tolerance of coniferous and deciduous saplings , 2008 .

[38]  K. Overmars,et al.  Combining top-down and bottom-up dynamics in land use modeling: exploring the future of abandoned farmlands in Europe with the Dyna-CLUE model , 2009, Landscape Ecology.

[39]  Anders Branth Pedersen,et al.  Climate policy integration, coherence and governance , 2009 .

[40]  F. Hagedorn,et al.  Evidence of enhanced freezing damage in treeline plants during six years of CO2 enrichment and soil warming , 2012 .

[41]  A. Kääb,et al.  Modeling the Biophysical Impacts of Global Change in Mountain Biosphere Reserves , 2007 .

[42]  A. Rigling,et al.  Tree-growth analyses to estimate tree species' drought tolerance. , 2012, Tree physiology.

[43]  François Gillet,et al.  A Contextual Analysis of Land-Use and Vegetation Changes in Two Wooded Pastures in the Swiss Jura Mountains , 2013 .

[44]  E. Ostrom A General Framework for Analyzing Sustainability of Social-Ecological Systems , 2009, Science.

[45]  N. Hanley,et al.  Farm-scale ecological and economic impacts of agricultural change in the uplands , 2012 .

[46]  Roland W. Scholz,et al.  Constructing consistent multiscale scenarios by transdisciplinary processes : the case of mountain regions facing global change , 2013 .

[47]  Garry D. Peterson,et al.  Trade-offs across Space, Time, and Ecosystem Services , 2006 .

[48]  A. Rigling,et al.  Assessing the role of bark‐ and wood‐boring insects in the decline of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) in the Swiss Rhone valley , 2008 .

[49]  W. Adger,et al.  Adapting to Climate Change , 2011 .

[50]  Kasper Kok,et al.  Methods for Developing Multiscale Participatory Scenarios: Insights from Southern Africa and Europe , 2007 .

[51]  J. Roy,et al.  Short-term responses of ecosystem carbon fluxes to experimental soil warming at the Swiss alpine treeline , 2010 .

[52]  P. Rieder,et al.  Site-specific and regionally optimal direct payments for mountain agriculture , 2005 .

[53]  A. Buttler,et al.  Plant species richness and environmental heterogeneity in a mountain landscape: effects of variability and spatial configuration , 2006 .

[54]  P. Bartelt,et al.  POTENTIAL IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON SNOW AVALANCHES STARTING IN FORESTED TERRAIN , 2012 .

[55]  François Gillet,et al.  Dynamics of Forage Production in Pasture-woodlands of the Swiss Jura Mountains under Projected Clima , 2013 .

[56]  A. Agrawal,et al.  Climate Adaptation , Local Institutions , and Rural Livelihoods , 2008 .

[57]  D. Statham The future of the uplands. , 1976 .

[58]  Adrienne Grêt-Regamey,et al.  Participatory scenario analysis for integrated regional modelling , 2007 .

[59]  Kasper Kok,et al.  Scale and Governance: Conceptual Considerations and Practical Implications , 2011 .

[60]  C. Körner,et al.  Reduced early growing season freezing resistance in alpine treeline plants under elevated atmospheric CO2 , 2010 .

[61]  Arnim Wiek,et al.  From complex systems analysis to transformational change: a comparative appraisal of sustainability science projects , 2012, Sustainability Science.

[62]  A. Rigling,et al.  Morphological and physiological responses of Scots pine fine roots to water supply in a dry climatic region in Switzerland. , 2009, Tree physiology.

[63]  Ché Elkin,et al.  A 2 °C warmer world is not safe for ecosystem services in the European Alps , 2013, Global change biology.

[64]  Marten Scheffer,et al.  Resilience thinking: integrating resilience, adaptability and transformability , 2010 .

[65]  J. Schoorl,et al.  Modelling interactions and feedback mechanisms between land use change and landscape processes , 2009 .

[66]  J. Anderies,et al.  Governance and the Capacity to Manage Resilience in Regional Social-Ecological Systems , 2006 .

[67]  A. Buttler,et al.  The Swiss Mountain Wooded Pastures: Patterns and Processes , 2009 .

[68]  R. Scholz Environmental Literacy in Science and Society: From Knowledge to Decisions , 2011 .

[69]  Andreas Rigling,et al.  Effect of irrigation on needle morphology, shoot and stem growth in a drought-exposed Pinus sylvestris forest. , 2010, Tree physiology.

[70]  Christian Hirschi Research, part of a Special Feature on Social Network Analysis in Natural Resource Governance Strengthening Regional Cohesion: Collaborative Networks and Sustainable Development in Swiss Rural Areas , 2010 .

[71]  Elinor Ostrom,et al.  Coupled Human and Natural Systems , 2007, Ambio.

[72]  Monica G. Turner,et al.  Consequences of spatial heterogeneity for ecosystem services in changing forest landscapes: priorities for future research , 2012, Landscape Ecology.

[73]  A. Buttler,et al.  Influence of tree cover on the diversity of herbaceous communities in subalpine wooded pastures , 1999 .

[74]  Robert Huber,et al.  Sustainable land-use practices in European mountain regions under global change: an integrated research approach , 2013 .

[75]  A. Rigling,et al.  Fast response of Scots pine to improved water availability reflected in tree-ring width and delta 13C. , 2010, Plant, cell & environment.

[76]  N. McDowell,et al.  A global overview of drought and heat-induced tree mortality reveals emerging climate change risks for forests , 2010 .

[77]  W. Adger,et al.  Social Capital, Collective Action, and Adaptation to Climate Change , 2003 .

[78]  A. Rigling,et al.  Waldausdehnung in zwei Regionen des Schweizer Berggebiets: eine integrative Analyse , 2012 .

[79]  S. Carpenter,et al.  Resilience: Accounting for the Noncomputable , 2009 .

[80]  C. Bigler,et al.  Do small-grain processes matter for landscape scale questions? Sensitivity of a forest landscape model to the formulation of tree growth rate , 2012, Landscape Ecology.

[81]  J. Holden,et al.  The future of the uplands , 2009 .

[82]  Adrienne Grêt-Regamey,et al.  Facing uncertainty in ecosystem services-based resource management. , 2013, Journal of environmental management.

[83]  J. Ghazoul,et al.  Phenotypic plasticity facilitates resistance to climate change in a highly variable environment , 2011, Oecologia.

[84]  A. Rigling,et al.  Treeline shifts in the Ural mountains affect soil organic matter dynamics , 2009 .

[85]  C. Körner,et al.  Elevational species shifts in a warmer climate are overestimated when based on weather station data , 2011, International journal of biometeorology.

[86]  T. D. Mitchell,et al.  Ecosystem Service Supply and Vulnerability to Global Change in Europe , 2005, Science.

[87]  Adrienne Grêt-Regamey,et al.  Assessing the impacts of economic and climate changes on land-use in mountain regions: A spatial dynamic modeling approach , 2012 .

[88]  M. Rounsevell,et al.  The vulnerability of ecosystem services to land use change , 2006 .

[89]  A. Kinzig,et al.  Resilience and Regime Shifts: Assessing Cascading Effects , 2006 .

[90]  Elinor Ostrom,et al.  Complexity of Coupled Human and Natural Systems , 2007, Science.

[91]  A. Walz,et al.  Linking Models of Land Use, Resources, and Economy to Simulate the Development of Mountain Regions (ALPSCAPE) , 2007, Environmental management.

[92]  José M. V. Fragoso,et al.  Research on Coupled Human and Natural Systems (CHANS): Approach, Challenges, and Strategies , 2011 .

[93]  W. Kurz,et al.  Mountain pine beetle and forest carbon feedback to climate change , 2008, Nature.

[94]  Robert K. Colwell,et al.  Assessing the threat to montane biodiversity from discordant shifts in temperature and precipitation in a changing climate. , 2011, Ecology letters.

[95]  A. Buttler,et al.  Effect of cattle activities on gap colonization in mountain pastures , 2006, Folia Geobotanica.

[96]  L. Lebel,et al.  The governance of ecosystem services from tropical upland watersheds , 2009 .

[97]  C. Dormann,et al.  A quantitative review of ecosystem service studies: approaches, shortcomings and the road ahead , 2011 .

[98]  A. Agrawal,et al.  Climate Adaptation , Local Institutions , and Rural Livelihoods , 2008 .

[99]  A. Gibon,et al.  Agricultural abandonment in mountain areas of Europe: Environmental consequences and policy response , 2000 .

[100]  C. Rixen,et al.  Factors driving mortality and growth at treeline: a 30-year experiment of 92 000 conifers. , 2012, Ecology.

[101]  M. Teich,et al.  Veränderung von Wald und Waldleistungen in der Landschaft Davos im Zuge des Klimawandels , 2012 .

[102]  S. Briner Provision of ecosystem goods and services by agriculture and forestry in mountainous regions of Switzerland , 2012 .

[103]  C. Körner,et al.  Higher plant diversity enhances soil stability in disturbed alpine ecosystems , 2009, Plant and Soil.

[104]  Carlo Giupponi,et al.  Socio-economic scenario development for the assessment of climate change impacts on agricultural land use : a pairwise comparison approach , 2006 .

[105]  Adrienne Grêt-Regamey,et al.  Integrating Expert Knowledge into Mapping Ecosystem Services Trade-offs for Sustainable Forest Management , 2013 .

[106]  S. Carpenter,et al.  Science for managing ecosystem services: Beyond the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment , 2009, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[107]  A. Buttler,et al.  Competitive effects of herbaceous vegetation on tree seedling emergence, growth and survival: Does gap size matter? , 2006 .

[108]  Christian Rixen,et al.  The interacting effects of land use change, climate change and suppression of natural disturbances on landscape forest structure in the Swiss Alps , 2011 .

[109]  L. Marini,et al.  Mitigating the impacts of the decline of traditional farming on mountain landscapes and biodiversity: a case study in the , 2011 .

[110]  E. Ostrom,et al.  Connectivity and the Governance of Multilevel Social-Ecological Systems: The Role of Social Capital , 2009 .

[111]  Robert Huber,et al.  Future of Mountain Agriculture in the Alps , 2013 .

[112]  M. Araújo,et al.  Exposure of global mountain systems to climate warming during the 21st Century , 2007 .

[113]  G. Schneiter,et al.  Potential shift in tree species composition after interaction of fire and drought in the Central Alps , 2010, European Journal of Forest Research.

[114]  Pascale Weber,et al.  Using a retrospective dynamic competition index to reconstruct forest succession , 2008 .

[115]  A. Grêt-Regamey,et al.  Snow and weather conditions associated with avalanche releases in forests: Rare situations with decreasing trends during the last 41 years , 2012 .

[116]  Alain Peeters,et al.  An international terminology for grazing lands and grazing animals , 2011 .

[117]  Jean-Louis Weber,et al.  Implementation of land and ecosystem accounts at the European Environment Agency , 2007 .

[118]  Gerard Hazeu,et al.  Europe's ecological backbone: recognising the true value of our mountains , 2010 .

[119]  A. Rigling,et al.  Drought alters timing, quantity, and quality of wood formation in Scots pine. , 2011, Journal of experimental botany.

[120]  P. Bartelt,et al.  Snow Avalanches in Forested Terrain: Influence of Forest Parameters, Topography, and Avalanche Characteristics on Runout Distance , 2012 .

[121]  Sonja Wipf,et al.  Winter climate change in alpine tundra: plant responses to changes in snow depth and snowmelt timing , 2009 .

[122]  W. Adger Social and ecological resilience: are they related? , 2000 .

[123]  A. Buttler,et al.  Seasonal vegetation changes in mountain pastures due to simulated effects of cattle grazing , 2004 .

[124]  T. Heckelei,et al.  Global Environmental Change , 2018, The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology.

[125]  A. Rigling,et al.  Sensitivity of stand dynamics to grazing in mixed Pinus sylvestris and Quercus pubescens forests: A modelling study , 2008 .

[126]  Claire A. Montgomery,et al.  Where to put things? Spatial land management to sustain biodiversity and economic returns , 2008 .

[127]  J. Norberg,et al.  ADAPTIVE GOVERNANCE OF SOCIAL-ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS , 2005 .

[128]  R. D. Groot,et al.  Challenges in integrating the concept of ecosystem services and values in landscape planning, management and decision making , 2010 .

[129]  A. Rigling,et al.  Mistletoe-induced crown degradation in Scots pine in a xeric environment. , 2010, Tree physiology.