Uncertainties in Ecosystem Service Maps: A Comparison on the European Scale

Safeguarding the benefits that ecosystems provide to society is increasingly included as a target in international policies. To support such policies, ecosystem service maps are made. However, there is little attention for the accuracy of these maps. We made a systematic review and quantitative comparison of ecosystem service maps on the European scale to generate insights in the uncertainty of ecosystem service maps and discuss the possibilities for quantitative validation. Maps of climate regulation and recreation were reasonably similar while large uncertainties among maps of erosion protection and flood regulation were observed. Pollination maps had a moderate similarity. Differences among the maps were caused by differences in indicator definition, level of process understanding, mapping aim, data sources and methodology. Absence of suitable observed data on ecosystem services provisioning hampers independent validation of the maps. Consequently, there are, so far, no accurate measures for ecosystem service map quality. Policy makers and other users need to be cautious when applying ecosystem service maps for decision-making. The results illustrate the need for better process understanding and data acquisition to advance ecosystem service mapping, modelling and validation.

[1]  Peter H. Verburg,et al.  Sensitising rural policy: Assessing spatial variation in rural development options for Europe , 2011 .

[2]  B Burkhard,et al.  Uncertainties in landscape analysis and ecosystem service assessment. , 2013, Journal of environmental management.

[3]  F. Müller,et al.  Ecosystem service potentials, flows and demands-concepts for spatial localisation, indication and quantification , 2014 .

[4]  E. Bennett,et al.  Capacity, pressure, demand, and flow: A conceptual framework for analyzing ecosystem service provision and delivery , 2013 .

[5]  A. McMichael,et al.  Ecosystems and Human well-being , 2003 .

[6]  Athanasios S. Kallimanis,et al.  Disentangling the effects of land‐use change, climate and CO2 on projected future European habitat types , 2015 .

[7]  Garry D. Peterson,et al.  Understanding relationships among multiple ecosystem services. , 2009, Ecology letters.

[8]  Hiroyuki Matsuda,et al.  Biodiversity and ecosystem services science for a sustainable planet: the DIVERSITAS vision for 2012-20. , 2012, Current opinion in environmental sustainability.

[9]  Peter H. Verburg,et al.  Mapping ecosystem services: The supply and demand of flood regulation services in Europe , 2014 .

[10]  Benjamin Burkhard,et al.  Flood regulating ecosystem services—Mapping supply and demand, in the Etropole municipality, Bulgaria , 2012 .

[11]  U. Walz,et al.  Spatial indicators for the assessment of ecosystem services: Providing, benefiting and connecting areas and landscape metrics , 2012 .

[12]  B. Grizzetti,et al.  Mapping ecosystem services for policy support and decision making in the European Union , 2012 .

[13]  Christopher L. Lant,et al.  The geography of ecosystem service value: The case of the Des Plaines and Cache River wetlands, Illinois , 2011 .

[14]  Gary W. Johnson,et al.  Spatial dynamics of ecosystem service flows: A comprehensive approach to quantifying actual services , 2013 .

[15]  James E. M. Watson,et al.  Biodiversity targets after 2010 , 2010 .

[16]  Paracchini Maria-Luisa,et al.  A European assessment of the provision of ecosystem services - Towards an atlas of ecosystem services , 2011 .

[17]  M. Pérez-Soba,et al.  Mapping cultural ecosystem services: a framework to assess the potential for outdoor recreation across the EU , 2014 .

[18]  Grazia Zulian,et al.  Linking Land Cover Data and Crop Yields for Mapping and Assessment of Pollination Services in Europe , 2013 .

[19]  P. Verburg,et al.  Quantifying and mapping ecosystem services: Demand and supply of pollination in the European Union , 2014 .

[20]  D. Horst,et al.  Mapping hotspots of multiple landscape functions: a case study on farmland afforestation in Scotland , 2007, Landscape Ecology.

[21]  R. K. Neumann,et al.  EU agricultural reform fails on biodiversity , 2014, Science.

[22]  Peter H. Verburg,et al.  Future carbon sequestration in Europe—Effects of land use change , 2008 .

[23]  J. Settele,et al.  Landscape context and habitat type as drivers of bee diversity in European annual crops , 2009 .

[24]  James W. Jones,et al.  Assessing agricultural risks of climate change in the 21st century in a global gridded crop model intercomparison , 2013, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[25]  M. Schaepman,et al.  Global assessment of land degradation and improvement: 1. Identification by remote sensing , 2008 .

[26]  J. Aronson,et al.  The economics of valuing ecosystem services and biodiversity , 2010 .

[27]  Wilfried Thuiller,et al.  Climate change impacts on tree ranges: model intercomparison facilitates understanding and quantification of uncertainty. , 2012, Ecology letters.

[28]  Louise Willemen,et al.  A blueprint for mapping and modelling ecosystem services , 2013 .

[29]  D. Richardson,et al.  Mapping ecosystem services for planning and management , 2008 .

[30]  Ralf Seppelt,et al.  Analysis of historic changes in regional ecosystem service provisioning using land use data , 2011 .

[31]  Kevin J. Gaston,et al.  The impact of proxy‐based methods on mapping the distribution of ecosystem services , 2010 .

[32]  P. Ciais,et al.  The carbon budget of terrestrial ecosystems at country-scale – a European case study , 2004 .

[33]  José I. Barredo,et al.  Mapping and assessment of ecosystems and their services - An analytical framework for ecosystem assessments under action 5 of the EU biodiversity strategy to 2020 , 2013 .

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

[35]  Iris Heller,et al.  Assessing Landscape Functions with Broad-Scale Environmental Data: Insights Gained from a Prototype Development for Europe , 2009, Environmental management.

[36]  R. Costanza.  Ecosystem services: Multiple classification systems are needed , 2008 .

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

[38]  T. Plieninger,et al.  An empirical review of cultural ecosystem service indicators , 2013 .

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

[40]  Fergus L. Sinclair,et al.  Development and use of a typology of mapping tools to assess their fitness for supporting management of ecosystem service provision , 2014, Landscape Ecology.

[41]  Willem Bouten,et al.  A quantitative framework for assessing spatial flows of ecosystem services , 2014 .

[42]  Catharina J.E. Schulp,et al.  Mapping ecosystem functions and services in Eastern Europe using global-scale data sets , 2012 .

[43]  M. Pérez-Soba,et al.  Mainstreaming ecosystem services into EU policy , 2013 .

[44]  Roger Bivand,et al.  Bindings for the Geospatial Data Abstraction Library , 2015 .

[45]  F. Müller,et al.  Mapping provisioning ecosystem services at the local scale using data of varying spatial and temporal resolution , 2013 .

[46]  Berta Martín-López,et al.  Mapping forest ecosystem services: from providing units to beneficiaries. , 2013 .