IMBIV   05474
INSTITUTO MULTIDISCIPLINARIO DE BIOLOGIA VEGETAL
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
artículos
Título:
Can ecosystem properties be fully translated into service values? An economic valuation of aquatic plants services.
Autor/es:
GARCIA- LLORENTE, MARINA; MARTIN- LOPEZ, BERTA; DÍAZ S. ; MONTES, C.
Revista:
ECOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS
Editorial:
ECOLOGICAL SOC AMER
Referencias:
Año: 2011 vol. 21 p. 3083 - 3103
ISSN:
1051-0761
Resumen:
Abstract. We carried out an integrated analysis of ecosystem services in the Do?nanasocial-ecological system (southwestern Spain), from the providers (different aquatic plantfunctional groups) to the beneficiaries (different stakeholders living in or visiting the area). Weexplored the ecosystem services supplied by aquatic plants by linking these services to differentplant functional traits, identifying relevant ecosystem services and then working our waybackward to ecosystem properties and the functional traits underpinning them. We startedfrom 15 ecosystem services associated with aquatic systems (freshwater marshes, salt marshes,ponds on aeolian sheets, temporal coastal ponds, and estuaries) and related them to planttraits (directly or indirectly through intermediate ecosystem properties). We gatheredinformation from the literature on the functional traits of 144 plants occurring in the aquaticecosystems of Do?nana. We analyzed the species3trait matrix with multivariate classificationand ordination techniques and obtained seven functional groups with different potentials fordelivering ecosystem services. A survey was then administered to 477 stakeholders to analyze,through the use of a contingent valuation exercise, how the ecosystem services provided by thedifferent functional groups were valued. We identified connections between individual planttraits, ecosystem processes, and ecosystem services, but a mismatch appeared between thefunctional groups and the economic values placed on them by the beneficiaries. We found thatcontingent valuation applied to ecosystem services tended to ignore the ecosystem propertiesand biodiversity underpinning them. Our results cast doubts over the suitability of theeconomic valuation framework of ecosystem services to capture the full value of biodiversityand ecosystems to people.