Aryal, Kishor and Maraseni, Tek N. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9361-1983 and Apan, Armando
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5412-8881
(2022)
How much do we know about trade-offs in ecosystem services? A systematic review of empirical research observations.
Science of the Total Environment, 806:151229.
pp. 1-13.
ISSN 0048-9697
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Text (Accepted Version)
Accepted version ESTradeoff.pdf Restricted - Available after 27 October 2023. |
Abstract
As an important domain of sustainability science, trade-offs in ecosystem services (ES) is crucial for spatial planning to sustainably manage natural resources while satisfying the needs of local and non-local beneficiaries. However, there is still a growing debate in understanding, characterization, and visualization of the trade-off relationships. This paper systematically reviews a total of 473 articles, published in the last 16 years (2005-2020) through 135 academic journals, based on empirical studies conducted in over 80 countries, and led by the researcher from over 50 countries. Trade-off relationships are often visualized as spatial associations of ES, but very few articles have characterized trade-offs as the causal interaction among ES. More than two-thirds of the studies were carried out in temperate and sub-tropical regions, but we depicted an under-representation of the critical ecosystems in tropics. About 90% of the articles were based on funded research but the involvement of government institutions was very low (<10%). Trade-off analysis was based only on biophysical constraints of the ecosystem, as observed in more than 80% of the selected articles, without due regards of the divergence in utility functions of different stakeholders and ecosystem beneficiaries. This study identifies a total of 198 pairs of conflicting ES, of which the trade-off between crop production and carbon/climate services has the highest records of observation (i.e., as identified by 20% of the total studies). Further, this study identifies the major drivers (i.e., ecological and social) and stakeholders (i.e., land users and government agencies) of trade-off in ES, and major gaps in the analytical approach to understand the trade-off relationships. Based on our findings, we have discussed and recommended a number of research trajectories, including trans-disciplinary research considering both biophysical constraints and utility functions, in order to guide the future direction of sustainability science through the creation of win-win scenarios.
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Item Type: | Article (Commonwealth Reporting Category C) |
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Refereed: | Yes |
Item Status: | Live Archive |
Additional Information: | Files associated with this item cannot be displayed due to copyright restrictions. |
Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Current - Institute for Life Sciences and the Environment - Centre for Sustainable Agricultural Systems (1 Aug 2018 -) |
Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Current – Faculty of Health, Engineering and Sciences - School of Surveying and Built Environment (1 Jan 2022 -) |
Date Deposited: | 02 Nov 2021 05:22 |
Last Modified: | 14 Jun 2022 03:58 |
Uncontrolled Keywords: | Ecosystem services; trade-offs; sustainability framework; production possibility frontiers; utility functions |
Fields of Research (2008): | 07 Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences > 0705 Forestry Sciences > 070504 Forestry Management and Environment |
Fields of Research (2020): | 41 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES > 4104 Environmental management > 410402 Environmental assessment and monitoring |
Socio-Economic Objectives (2008): | D Environment > 96 Environment > 9605 Ecosystem Assessment and Management > 960505 Ecosystem Assessment and Management of Forest and Woodlands Environments |
Socio-Economic Objectives (2020): | 18 ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT > 1806 Terrestrial systems and management > 180601 Assessment and management of terrestrial ecosystems |
Identification Number or DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.151229 |
URI: | http://eprints.usq.edu.au/id/eprint/44002 |
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