Changes in regulating ecosystem services and their relationship with land use changes in the Argentina Pampas

BRUNO LARA; MARCELO GANDINI; SOFÍA SALESE

REVISTA CHAPINGO SERIE CIENCIAS FORESTALES Y DEL AMBIENTE

UNIV AUTONOMA CHAPINGO

Año: 2023 vol. 29 p. 3 - 16

0186-3231

AbstractIntroduction: Land use changes represent the factor with the greatest impact on terrestrialecosystems. The conceptual framework of ecosystem services allows understanding how changesin ecosystems affect human well-being.Objective: To evaluate changes in five key ecosystem functions and two key ecosystem services in the Argentina Pampas between 2001 and 2018, and to analyze their relationship with land use changes.Materials and methods: Five ecosystem functions (soil organic carbon storage, biomass carbonstorage, erosion control, soil fertility and retention of excess precipitation by vegetation cover) andtwo regulating ecosystem services (flood regulation and climate regulation) were mapped from 2001-2018 using biophysical models. The main land uses were characterized based on remote sensing data.Results and discussion: Ecosystem functions, except for biomass carbon storage, decreased at theregional scale between 2001 and 2018; precipitation retention by cover (40.7 %) and erosion control(35.4 %) decreased the most. Also, the ecosystem services of flood regulation and climate regulation decreased 6.78 % and 6.8 %, respectively. The spatial patterns of decrease in the levels of provision of these services were associated with the replacement of natural grasslands by cropland.Conclusions: The use of biophysical models allowed us to analyze, spatially, the dynamics ofregulating ecosystem services and to evaluate their relationship with land use changes.