Renewable Resources: Forest Ecosystems

1. Renewable Resources: Forest Ecosystems Original Frontier Today

2. D Choices B A Which seems the poorest choice? C http://www.cwbiodiesel.com/biodiesel/palm_oil.html

3. Time Appropriate Questions • What do forest ecosystems provide? • What is important or valuable? • How do we conserve what is valuable? • What approaches are available for defining what is important? • What approaches are available for conserving? • Are we kidding ourselves?

4. ForestEcosystems Provide • Fiber - paper and products • Fuel - cooking & heating • Water - quantity and quality (impervious surface) • Nutrient cycling • Ecosystem energetics (food chain) • Air - CO2 uptake, O2 release, pollutant removal • Climate stability (Biotic pumps, Running paper) • Biodiversity/habitat: plant and animal (wildlife) • Medicine and food products • Recreation/mental & social health Reference: Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods (2006)

5. Ecosystem: A Human Construct • Definition: An ecological system composed of living organisms (plants, animals, & microbes) and their nonliving environment. • Ecosystems are characterized by: • Structure & function • Complexity • Interaction of the components • Change over time (e.g., disturbances, succession), “young, mature, old.” • Today, these functions must be spatially and temporally coordinated (legacy of land surveys and ownership).

6. Ecosystem threats • Loss of habitat: Land-use change and irreversible conversion (fragmentation) (State of Washington land ownership map) • Disruption of biogeochemical cycles (N,C,P) (elg., carbon cycle, fire, Running) • Invasive or introduced exotic organisms • Toxins, pollutants, human wastes • Climate change (Lectures Bauman, Battisti)

7. Preserving or Conserving Ecosystems: Approaches Examine three different approaches • First, we identify specific species we want in our ecosystem (e.g., wolves, spotted owl, whitebark pine, etc.). • Second, we identify a process we want to maintain (e.g., carbon fixation). • Third: A more comprehensive or systems approach (examine 3 ideas).

8. Whitebark Pine Approach 1. Save a species!

9. Distribution & Importance of Whitebark Pine Pinus albicaulis • High elevation pine • Large seed • Special relationship with a bird • Important for other animals • Keystone species in the Rockies • Impacted by climate change & invasive disease

10. Decline of Whitebark Pine • White pine blister rust: Cronartium ribicola, is a rust fungus with two hosts. • All North American 5- needled pines • Ribes spp. is its alternate host. • Mountain pine beetle • Fire suppression • Climate change

11. Situation • Whitebark pine is likely to disappear. • What are our choices? • Do nothing (its “natural”) • Remove the Ribes • Breed for resistance • Introduce resistant European/Russian species • Selection and genetic engineering of the endophyte. 2. Ensure a function!

12. Monitor Experiment Manage for Carbon Dioxide Uptake • Goal: Use forest systems to take up CO2 • Get credit for this carbon uptake • Techniques Used • Kyoto Protocol: Canada • Unable to meet

13. Methods of Study Difficulties • Issues of scale (quality of info vs. extent of info) • Monitoring • Unknowns (soil carbon)

14. Lessons from first 2 approaches • Hard: Managing single species or process • Hard: What to measure, at what scale, how often, etc. • Expensive: Techniques to measure (e.g., what is there now & how is it changing) • Expensive, boring: Monitoring • Knowledge: Understanding of interactions • Policies: Options defined by • Nature changes: forest fire, competition, succession.

15. Third Approach Work on maintaining “properly” functioning ecosystems Valuing ecosystems Key: Remember all the functions?

16. Three examples National Commission on Science for Sustainable Forestry (NCSSF) Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Program (MEA) The Natural Capital Project

17. 1- • Early warning assessment system that is • Rapid & cost effective And that is based on • ‘Stand’ level sustainability (condition): • Evaluated using indicators of ecosystem services & • Matched against benchmarks • Science based Does it work? • Indicators, benchmarks, scale, ok http://www.ncseonline.org/NCSSF/page.cfm?FID=1426

18. Ecosystem Goods and Services Cont. • Definition of Ecosystem Goods and Services • (2) Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Program • (3) The Natural Capital Project

19. Older definition of Ecosystem goods and services Ecosystem goods: Biophysical elements that are directly, or indirectly, consumed by humans Ecosystem services: processes that produce, or support the production of, ecosystem goods (most involve some biogeochemical cycle).

20. The release of the MEA assessment was not big news, even though 60% of the 24 ecosystem services studied are degrading. Which of the following two factors below did the article suggest were responsible for the lack of a strong media reception? • That the authors felt their reporting method was fine • That no fixes or solutions were provided • That human involvement was not evaluated. • That the MEA authors left the decision-making up to the decision-makers • That there were so many thick technical reports

21. Newer definition of Ecosystem goodsand services • Provisional services (e.g., food, fiber, fuelwood, biochemicals, genetic resources, and water) • Cultural services (e.g., recreational, ecotourism, educational, sense of place, cultural heritage, spiritual, religious and other nonmaterial benefits). • Supporting services (e.g., primary production, soil formation & nutrient cycling) • Regulating services (e.g., water regulation [floods, irrigation], water purification, climate regulation, land degradation, and disease regulation)

22. Example of an Ecosystem Service • Soil provides the following ecosystem services • Significant regulator of the hydrological cycle • Shelters seeds, provides medium for plant growth, provides physical support • Retains, delivers & derives nutrients • Significant role in decomposition • Contributes to cycling, retention & regulation of major element cycles (N, P, C, S) • Carbon storage & cycle • Role as a purifier (water, nutrients, etc.)

23. Global Regional Local Indirect Drivers of Change • Demographic • Economic • Sociopolitical • Science & technology • Cultural & religious Human well-being & poverty reduction Direct Drivers of Change • Changes in land use & land cover • Species removal or introductions • Technology • Climate change • Natural physical & biological drivers • External inputs Ecosystem Services Life on Earth: Biodiversity 2 - MEA Conceptual Framework

24. 2 - MEA: Assessments & Publications December 2005

25. 2 - Pressures on Goals of MEA • Population Growth (P) • Economy, consumption (A) • Combined demand on natural resources • Land degradation & conversion • Invasive organisms • Climate change • Public Health (e.g., HIV, malaria, nutrition) • Template for evaluation • Political acceptance & will (and consistency)

26. Earth, we have a problem 3 - Natural Capital ProjectJoint project of • Nature Conservancy • World Wildlife Fund • The Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University • Launched 31 October 2006 http://www.naturalcapitalproject.org/about.html

27. 3 - Natural Capital ProjectStatement • The Problem: Destroy nature and you lose human-life support systems • Their Solution: Ecosystems valued as precious natural assets • A world of economic realism! • Requires new • Scientific methods • Financial instruments • Government policies

28. 3 - Natural Capital ProjectDetails: • InVEST: Integrated valuation of ecosystem services and tradeoffs • Problem definition approach • Scale • Economic • Biophysical

29. 3 - Natural Capital ProjectCritique: • Natural capital ≠ human capital (back to the lecture on ethics) • Just a fancy cost - benefit analysis • Implementation (e.g., REDD [reducing emissions for deforestation and degradation]) • Placing a value on nature • Alternative: Nature = 0. http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2008/04/the_market_force_of_nature.php

30. Conclusion: Difficulties • Setting limits and distributing responsibility • Scale & variable (s) • Measurement • Monitoring • Assessment • Regulation • Outcomes and Feedback • Choices • Political will = f (human will)

31. Orphaned Slides • Perhaps some of the slides have additional info that might be valuable.

32. Whitebark Pine: Ecological Importance • Hardy subalpine conifer, tolerates poor soils, steep slopes, windy exposures. • Often the tree line species • Keystone species (Rocky Mountain Region) • Food source - birds, small mammals & bears • Often colonizes a site, facilitates succession & promotes diversity • Regulates runoff, reduces soil erosion Picture: C.J. Earle

33. Mission: to advance the science and practice of biodiversity conservation and forest sustainability • Critical Question: How does an owner or manager of forest land tell whether biodiversity and sustainability are being positively, negatively or neutrally affected by management practices and decisions? • Or: Is your land ‘good’, changing, & changing in what direction? http://www.ncseonline.org/NCSSF/page.cfm?FID=1426

34. Does it works in practice • Functions, variables and benchmark levels can be defined • A sampling scheme has been designed & tested • Evaluation is then a comparison of values and changes in values. • Subsequent decisions are then based on goals and objectives set by land owner.

35. Does it work? • Perhaps (actually data from urban to rural land • Weakness: • Assumes that the indicators are correct and respond in a measurable & timely way • Assumes that we can react fast enough. • Does not link objectives over large areas of land. • Clearly better than nothing

36. MEA Goals • Identify options that can better achieve core human development and sustainability goals. • Recognize & meet growing demands for food, clean water, health, and employment. • Balance economic growth and social development with environmental conservation. • Better understand trade-offs involved—across stakeholders—in decisions concerning the environment. • Rather than issue by issue, use a multi-sectoral approach • Match response options with appropriate level of governance

37. Well-Being Defined (MEA) • Security: Ability to • a. live in an environmentally clean and safe shelter • b. reduce vulnerability to ecological shocks & stress. • Basic material for a good life: Ability to access resources to earn income and gain a livelihood • Health: Clean water, air, adequate nourishment, adequate energy for temperature regulation, good health • Good social relations • Freedom & Choice

38. Yangjuan Village • Apparently intensive use of the land • Is the use sustainable? And how does land use reflect and affect the inhabitants? • Idea of eco-political tsunamis

39. Yangjuan Land use Firewood Traditional Buckwheat Livestock Conversion from local land race of corn to new hybrid corn