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Land Degradation and Ecosystem Services

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Ecosystem Services and Carbon Sequestration in the Biosphere

Abstract

Destructive land use is driving long-term losses of ecosystem function and productivity. Satellite measurements of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) since 1981 provide a global yardstick, revealing that a quarter of the land surface has been degrading over the last quarter of a century; every continent and biome is affected with Africa south of the equator, southeast (SE) Asia and south (S) China hardest hit. The loss of primary productivity is equivalent to more than a billion Mg C but the associated emissions from loss of biomass and soil organic carbon are much greater. Degradation is not confined to farmland (18 % of the degrading area is cropland; 47 % is classed as forest); neither is it strongly associated with drylands, population pressure or poverty. A case study using more detailed data for China explores the effects of soil resilience and the association between land degradation and land use. NDVI can only be a proxy measure of land degradation; assessment of ecosystem services is a further step removed. Remotely-­sensed data can be used along with climatic and topographic data as an input to models that predict the provision of these services but the processes, drivers and effects beyond NPP are unseen and more importantly, unmeasured. This is an issue for emerging markets in environmental services.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Net primary productivity is the total amount of organic matter created annually (US Department of Energy 2008).

  2. 2.

    1.08 billion tonnes (1 Pg = 1015 g).

  3. 3.

    The figure mapped from MODIS data is 0.5 % (Schneider et al. 2009).

Abbreviations

AVHRR:

Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer

CGIAR-CSI:

The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, Consortium for Spatial Information

CIESIN:

Center for International Earth Science Information Network, Colombia University

CRU TS:

Climate Research Unit, University of East Anglia, Time Series

EUE:

Energy-Use Efficiency

FAO:

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome

GIMMS:

Global Inventory Modelling and Mapping Studies, University of Maryland

GLASOD:

Global Assessment of Human-Induced Soil Degradation

HANTS:

Harmonic Analyses of NDVI Time-Series

JRC:

European Commission Joint Research Centre, Ispra, Italy

MOD17A3:

MODIS 8-Day Net Primary Productivity data set

MODIS:

Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer

NDVI:

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index

NPP:

Net Primary Productivity

RESTREND:

Residual Trends of sum NDVI

RUE:

Rain-Use Efficiency

SOC:

Soil organic carbon

SOTER:

Soil and Terrain database

SRTM:

Shuttle Radar Topography Mission

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. ISRIC – World Soil Information, 353, 6700 AJ, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Zhanguo Bai

  2. Merchants of Light, Chestnut Tree Farm, Forncett End, Norfolk, NR16 1HT, UK

    David Dent

  3. Nanjing Institute of Environment Sciences, Ministry of Environment Protection, Jiangwangmiao Street, Nanjing, 210042, P. R. China

    Yunjin Wu

  4. Remote Sensing Laboratories, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057, Zurich, Switzerland

    Rogier de Jong

Authors
  1. Zhanguo Bai
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  2. David Dent
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  3. Yunjin Wu
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  4. Rogier de Jong
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zhanguo Bai .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. The Ohio State University, Coffey Road Kottman Hall 422B 2021, Columbus, 43210, Ohio, USA

    Rattan Lal

  2. , Global Soil Forum, IASS Inst. for Adv. Sust. Studies, Berliner Str. 130, Potsdam, 14467, Brandenburg, Germany

    Klaus Lorenz

  3. , Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum GFZ, Helmholtz-Zentrum Potsdam, Telegrafenberg, Potsdam, 14473, Germany

    Reinhard F. Hüttl

  4. , Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum GFZ, Helmholtz-Zentrum Potsdam, Telegrafenberg 309G, Potsdam, 14473, Brandenburg, Germany

    Bernd Uwe Schneider

  5. Universität Bonn, Walter-Flex-Str. 3, Bonn, 53113, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

    Joachim von Braun

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Bai, Z., Dent, D., Wu, Y., de Jong, R. (2013). Land Degradation and Ecosystem Services. In: Lal, R., Lorenz, K., Hüttl, R., Schneider, B., von Braun, J. (eds) Ecosystem Services and Carbon Sequestration in the Biosphere. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6455-2_15

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