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Despite being a natural soil-forming process, soil acidification is a major agronomic challenge under humid climate conditions, as soil acidity influences several yield-relevant soil properties. It can be counterbalanced by the regular application of agricultural lime to maintain or re-establish soil fertility and to optimize plant growth and yield. To avoid underdose as well as overdose, lime rates need to be calculated carefully. The lime rate should be determined by the optimum soil pH (target pH) and the response of the soil to lime, which is described by the base neutralizing capacity (BNC). Several methods exist to determine the lime requirement (LR) to raise the soil pH to its optimum. They range from extremely time-consuming equilibration methods, which mimic the natural processes in the soil, to quick tests, which rely on some approximations and are designed to provide farmers with timely and cost-efficient data. Due to the higher analytical efforts, only limited information is available on the real BNC of particular soils. In the present paper, we report the BNC of 420 topsoil samples from Central Europe (north-east Germany), developed on sediments from the last ice age 10,000 years ago under Holocene conditions. These soils are predominantly sandy and low in humus, but they exhibit a huge spatial variability in soil properties on a small scale. The BNC was determined by adding various concentrations of Ca(OH)2 and fitting an exponential model to derive a titration curve for each sample. The coefficients of the BNC titration curve were well correlated with soil properties affecting soil acidity and pH buffer capacity, i.e., pH, soil texture and soil organic matter (SOM). From the BNC model, the LRs (LRBNC) were derived and compared with LRVDLUFA based on the standard protocol in Germany as established by the Association of German Agricultural Analytic and Research Institutes (VDLUFA). The LRBNC and LRVDLUFA correlated well but the LRVDLUFA were generally by approximately one order of magnitude higher. This is partly due to the VDLUFA concept to recommend a maintenance or conservation liming, even though the pH value is in the optimum range, to keep it there until the next lime application during the following rotation. Furthermore, the VDLUFA method was primarily developed from field experiments where natural soil acidification and management practices depressed the effect of lime treatment. The BNC method, on the other hand, is solely based on laboratory analysis with standardized soil samples. This indicates the demand for further research to develop a sound scientific algorithm that complements LRBNC with realistic values of annual Ca2+ removal and acidification by natural processes and N fertilization.
Evaluating Soil-Borne Causes of Biomass Variability in Grassland by Remote and Proximal Sensing
(2019)
On a grassland field with sandy soils in Northeast Germany (Brandenburg), vegetation indices from multi-spectral UAV-based remote sensing were used to predict grassland biomass productivity. These data were combined with soil pH value and apparent electrical conductivity (ECa) from on-the-go proximal sensing serving as indicators for soil-borne causes of grassland biomass variation. The field internal magnitude of spatial variability and hidden correlations between the variables of investigation were analyzed by means of geostatistics and boundary-line analysis to elucidate the influence of soil pH and ECa on the spatial distribution of biomass. Biomass and pH showed high spatial variability, which necessitates high resolution data acquisition of soil and plant properties. Moreover, boundary-line analysis showed grassland biomass maxima at pH values between 5.3 and 7.2 and ECa values between 3.5 and 17.5 mS m−1. After calibrating ECa to soil moisture, the ECa optimum was translated to a range of optimum soil moisture from 7% to 13%. This matches well with to the plant-available water content of the predominantly sandy soil as derived from its water retention curve. These results can be used in site-specific management decisions to improve grassland biomass productivity in low-yield regions of the field due to soil acidity or texture-related water scarcity.
Dominant agricultural and food systems lead to continuous resource depletion and unacceptable environmental and social impacts. While current calls for changing agrifood systems are increasingly framed in the context of sustainability transitions, they rarely make an explicit link to transition studies to address these systemic challenges, nor do transition scholars sufficiently address agri-food systems, despite their global pertinence. From this viewpoint, we illustrate several gaps in the agri-food systems debate that sustainability transition studies could engage in. We propose four avenues for research in the next decade of transition research on agri-food systems: 1) Crossscale dynamics between coupled systems; 2) Social justice, equity and inclusion; 3) Sustainability transitions in low- and middle-income countries; 4) Cross-sectoral governance and system integration. We call for a decade of new transition research that moves beyond single-scale and sector perspectives toward more inclusive and integrated analyses of food system dynamics.
With increasing road encroachment, habitat fragmentation by transport infrastructures has been a serious threat for European biodiversity. Areas with no roads or little traffic (“roadless and low-traffic areas”) represent relatively undisturbed natural habitats and functioning ecosystems. They provide many benefits for biodiversity and human societies (e.g., landscape connectivity, barrier against pests and invasions, ecosystem services). Roadless and low-traffic areas, with a lower level of anthropogenic disturbances, are of special relevance in Europe because of their rarity and, in the context of climate change, because of their contribution to higher resilience and buffering capacity within landscape ecosystems. An analysis of European legal instruments illustrates that, although most laws aimed at protecting targets which are inherent to fragmentation, like connectivity, ecosystem processes or integrity, roadless areas are widely neglected as a legal target. A case study in Germany underlines this finding. Although the Natura 2000 network covers a significant proportion of the country (16%), Natura 2000 sites are highly fragmented and most low-traffic areas (75%) lie unprotected outside this network. This proportion is even higher for the old Federal States (western Germany), where only 20% of the low-traffic areas are protected. We propose that the few remaining roadless and low-traffic areas in Europe should be an important focus of conservation efforts; they should be urgently inventoried, included more explicitly in the law and accounted for in transport and urban planning. Considering them as complementary conservation targets would represent a concrete step towards the strengthening and adaptation of the Natura 2000 network to climate change.
Remotely sensed effectiveness assessments of protected areas lack a common framework: A review
(2022)
Effective protected areas reflect socio-ecological values, such as biodiversity and habitat maintenance, as well as human well-being. These values, which safeguard ecosystem services in protected areas, are treated as models for the sustainable preservation and use of resources. While there is much research on the effectiveness of protected areas in a variety of disciplines, the question is whether there is a common framework that uses remote sensing methods. We conducted a qualitative and a quantitative analysis of 44 peer-reviewed scientific papers utilizing remote sensing data in order to examine the effectiveness of protected areas. Very few studies to date have a wide or even a global geographical focus; instead, most quantify the effectiveness of protected areas by focusing on local-scale case studies and single indicators such as forest cover change. Methods that help integrate spatial selection approaches, to compare a protected area's characteristics with its surroundings, are increasingly being used. Based on this review, we argue for a multi-indicator-based framework on protected area effectiveness, including the development of a consistent set of socio-ecological indicators for a global analysis. In turn, this will allow for globally applicable use, including a concrete evaluation that considers the diversity of regional parameters, biome-specific variables, and political frameworks. Ideally, such a framework will enhance the monitoring and evaluation of global strategies and conventions.
Expectations of what forests and woodlands should provide vary among locations, stakeholder groups, and over time. Developing multifunctional forests requires understanding of the dynamic roles of traditions and cultural legacies in social-ecological systems at multiple levels and scales. Implementing policies about multifunctional forests requires a landscape and social-ecological perspective, and recognition of both spatial and temporal features at multiple scales. This study explores the dissemination of even-aged silviculture in central, eastern and northern Europe, and the consequences of choosing different vantage points in social-ecological systems for mapping of barriers, and to identify levers, towards multifunctional forest landscapes. Using a narrative approach, we first summarise the development of even-aged silviculture in four European regions. Next, we focus on Sweden as a keen adopter of even-aged silviculture, and identify levers at three groups of vantage points. They were (1) biosphere with biodiversity as short-hand for composition, structure and function of ecosystems, which support human well-being at multiple scales; (2) society in terms of different levels of stakeholder interactions from local to global, and (3) economy represented by value chain hierarchies and currencies. The emergence of even-aged silviculture >200 years ago formed an expanding frontier from central to northern Europe. Sustained yield wood production and biodiversity conservation encompass different portfolios of ecosystem aspects and spatio-temporal scales. Ignorance and lack of knowledge about these differences enforce their mutual rivalry. An exploratory review of six groups of stakeholders at multiple levels in the traditional industrial forest value chain highlights inequalities in terms of distribution of income and power across different levels of governance. This effectively marginalises other than powerful industrial actors. The distribution of financial results along the value chain is dynamic in space and time, and not all benefits of forest ecosystems can be measured using monetary valuation. There are also other currencies and incentives. A discussion of cultural trajectories in central and eastern European, Russian and Swedish forest management illustrates that forest history patterns repeat themselves. Longitudinal case studies of countries and regions can help foster holistic multi-dimensional and multi-level systems thinking. Application of deep levers of change is likely to require external drivers. A key challenge is to handle the manufacturing of doubt and decay of truth, i.e., the appearance of alternative facts, and the diminishing role of evidence and systems analyses in political and civic discourses. This transition is fuelled by new and rapidly evolving digital arenas.
Little is known about the emergence and development of novel governance approaches for forest ecosystem services provision, what drives them, and how they can be fostered. Existing frameworks often deal with single aspects of resource management and thus fail to assess processes, multi-level influences, and interacting dimensions and factors in a system-based understanding. In this article, we introduce the conceptual foundation and an empirical application of an adapted Social-Ecological System framework with additional elements that builds on the idea of complex and interlinked social-ecological-technical-forestry-innovation systems that allows for the identification of key factors for revealing forest ecosystem services dynamics to understand the emergence and development of such governance innovations. The development and testing of the framework was based on six case studies for knowledge co-creation. To showcase its application, two governance innovations were examined: a voluntary carbon market payment scheme in Germany and a network approach for forest-pasture management in Italy. The application of the framework reveals required adaptations to improve innovation by systematically unpacking the system dimensions and identifying fostering and hindering factors and their interdependencies. We highlight the output of a sound system-based information basis that allows for purposeful innovation conditioning by policy makers, practitioners, and other related actors.
Forests are key components of European multifunctional landscapes and supply numerous forest ecosystem services (FES) fundamental to human well-being. The sustainable provision of FES has the potential to provide responses to major societal challenges, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, or rural development. To identify suitable strategies for the future sustenance of FES, we performed a solution scanning exercise with a group of transdisciplinary forest and FES experts from different European regions. We identified and prioritized fifteen major challenges hindering the balanced provision of multiple FES and identified a series of potential solutions to tackle each of them. The most prominent challenges referred to the increased frequency and impacts of extreme weather events and the normative mindset regarding forest management. The respective solutions pointed to the promotion of forest resilience via climate-smart forestry and mainstreaming FES-oriented management through a threefold strategy focusing on education, awareness raising, and networking. In a subsequent survey, most solutions were assessed as highly effective, transferable, monitorable, and with potential for being economically efficient. The implementation of the solutions could have synergistic effects when applying the notion of leverage points. Seven emerging pathways towards the sustainable supply of FES have been identified. These pathways build on each other and are organized based on their potential for transformation: (1) shifting forest management paradigms towards pluralistic ecosystem valuation; (2) using integrated landscape approaches; (3) increasing forest resilience; (4) coordinating actions between forest-related actors; (5) increasing participation in forest planning and management; (6) continuous, open, and transparent knowledge integration; and (7) using incentive-based instruments to support regulating and cultural FES. These pathways can contribute to the implementation of the new EU Forestry Strategy to support the balanced supply of multiple FES.
Governance Innovations for forest ecosystem service provision – Insights from an EU-wide survey
(2022)
This paper analyses the occurrence of governance innovations for forest ecosystem service (FES) provision in the forestry sector in Europe and the factors that influence innovation development. Based on a European-wide online survey, public and private forest owners and managers representing different property sizes indicate what type of governance innovation activities they engage in, and why. To investigate forestry innovations as systems, the analysis focuses on biophysical, social and technical factors influencing innovation development. The results of our exploratory quantitative analysis show that most innovation activities identified are largely oriented towards biomass production. Accordingly, most forest owners implement efficiency-driven optimisation strategies for forest management and technological improvement for provisioning service supply, to generate income. In contrast, the provision of regulating and cultural services is not yet a prominent part of forestry innovation activities.Reasons are rooted in a market-oriented economic rationale focusing on timber production, a lack of financial resources to compensate for other FES provisions or institutions to provide backup and security to forest owners and managers for engaging in innovation development. Given that the provision of a wide range of FES is a politically well-established objective for forest management in Europe, a strategy is needed that helps to align actors and sectors for supporting and co-financing related forest management approaches and business models. The current revision of the forest related policy framework on EU level under the EU Green deal poses a window of opportunity for better fostering novel governance approaches for more sustainable FES provision.
Enduring sustainability challenges requires a new model of collective leadership that embraces critical reflection, inclusivity and care. Leadership collectives can support a move in academia from metrics to merits, from a focus on career to care, and enact a shift from disciplinary to inter- and trans-disciplinary research. Academic organisations need to reorient their training programs, work ethics and reward systems to encourage collective excellence and to allow space for future leaders to develop and enact a radically re-imagined vision of how to lead as a collective with care for people and the planet.