Measuring ecosystem multifunctionality across scales

Multifunctionality refers to the capacity of an area to supplymultiple ecosystemfunctions or services. Whilemany conceptual andmethodological advances have focused on defining and quantifying multifunctionality, the challenge of dealing with cross-scale dynamics ofmultifunctionality remains open.This study proposes a newway ofmeasuringmultifunctionality across spatial scales, illustrated with a European-wide dataset of 18 ecosystemservices.Our assessment captures not only the diversity of ecosystemservices suppliedwithin eachmunicipality (alpha-multifunctionality), but also the unique contribution of eachmunicipality to the regional ecosystemservice diversity (beta-multifunctionality). This cross-scale analysis helps better understanding the spatial distribution of ecosystemservices,which is required to designmanagement and policies at the right scale.Our analysis shows that alphamultifunctionality follows a latitudinal gradient across Europe and strongly decreases towards the city centers ofmetropolitan areas. By relating alpha- and beta-multifunctionality to land use intensity, we showthat low-intensitymanagement systems support higher ecosystemmultifunctionality across Europe.Municipalities of lowalpha-multifunctionality often contribute significantly to regional multifunctionality, by providing ecosystemservices of a specific value to the region.Ourmethod to measure both alpha- and beta-multifunctionality thus provides a newway to informreconciliation of competing land useswhenmaximizing alpha-multifunctionality is not reasonable.

HÖLTING Lisanne;  JACOBS Sander;  FELIPE-LUCIA Maria;  MAES Joachim;  NORSTRÖM Albert;  PLIENINGER Tobias;  CORD Anna; 

2020-01-08

IOP PUBLISHING LTD

JRC117083

1748-9326 (online),   

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab5ccb,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC117083,   

10.1088/1748-9326/ab5ccb (online),