Compositional diversity of rehabilitated tropical lands supports multiple ecosystem services and buffers uncertainties.
High landscape diversity is assumed to increase the number and level of ecosystem services. However, the interactions between ecosystem service provision, disturbance and landscape composition are poorly understood. Here we present a novel approach to include uncertainty in the optimization of land allocation for improving the provision of multiple ecosystem services. We refer to the rehabilitation of abandoned agricultural lands in Ecuador including two types of both afforestation and pasture rehabilitation, together with a succession option. Our results show that high compositional landscape diversity supports multiple ecosystem services (multifunction effect). This implicitly provides a buffer against uncertainty. Our work shows that active integration of uncertainty is only important when optimizing single or highly correlated ecosystem services and that the multifunction effect on landscape diversity is stronger than the uncertainty effect. This is an important insight to support a land-use planning based on ecosystem services.
Institute of Forest Management, Department of Ecology and Ecosystem Management, TUM School of Life Sciences Weihenstephan, Technische Universität München, 85354 Freising, Germany.
Thomas
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0535-5946
T
Knoke
Institute of Forest Management, Department of Ecology and Ecosystem Management, TUM School of Life Sciences Weihenstephan, Technische Universität München, 85354 Freising, Germany.
Carola
C
Paul
Institute of Silviculture, Department of Ecology and Ecosystem Management, TUM School of Life Sciences Weihenstephan, Technische Universität München, 85354 Freising, Germany.
Patrick
P
Hildebrandt
Institute of Forest Management, Department of Ecology and Ecosystem Management, TUM School of Life Sciences Weihenstephan, Technische Universität München, 85354 Freising, Germany.|Institute of Silviculture, Department of Ecology and Ecosystem Management, TUM School of Life Sciences Weihenstephan, Technische Universität München, 85354 Freising, Germany.
Baltazar
B
Calvas
Institute of Forest Management, Department of Ecology and Ecosystem Management, TUM School of Life Sciences Weihenstephan, Technische Universität München, 85354 Freising, Germany.|Departamento de Economía, Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja, 1101608 Loja, Ecuador.
Luz Maria
LM
Castro
Institute of Forest Management, Department of Ecology and Ecosystem Management, TUM School of Life Sciences Weihenstephan, Technische Universität München, 85354 Freising, Germany.
Fabian
F
Härtl
Institute of Forest Management, Department of Ecology and Ecosystem Management, TUM School of Life Sciences Weihenstephan, Technische Universität München, 85354 Freising, Germany.
Martin
M
Döllerer
Institute of Landscape Ecology, University of Muenster, 48149 Münster, Germany.
Ute
U
Hamer
Institute for Landscape Ecology and Resources Management, Justus Liebig University Giessen, 35392 Giessen, Germany.
David
D
Windhorst
Department of Biology, Memorial University, St John's, NL, Canada A1B 3X9.
Yolanda F
YF
Wiersma
Laboratory for Climatology and Remote Sensing (LCRS), Faculty of Geography, University of Marburg, 35032 Marburg, Germany.
Giulia F
GF
Curatola Fernández
Laboratory for Climatology and Remote Sensing (LCRS), Faculty of Geography, University of Marburg, 35032 Marburg, Germany.
Wolfgang A
WA
Obermeier
Department of Plant Physiology and Bayreuth Centre of Ecology and Environmental Research, University of Bayreuth, 95440 Bayreuth, Germany.
Julia
J
Adams
Institute for Landscape Ecology and Resources Management, Justus Liebig University Giessen, 35392 Giessen, Germany.
Lutz
L
Breuer
Institute of Silviculture, Department of Ecology and Ecosystem Management, TUM School of Life Sciences Weihenstephan, Technische Universität München, 85354 Freising, Germany.
Reinhard
R
Mosandl
Department of Plant Physiology and Bayreuth Centre of Ecology and Environmental Research, University of Bayreuth, 95440 Bayreuth, Germany.
Erwin
E
Beck
Institute of Silviculture, Department of Ecology and Ecosystem Management, TUM School of Life Sciences Weihenstephan, Technische Universität München, 85354 Freising, Germany.
Michael
M
Weber
Institute of Silviculture, Department of Ecology and Ecosystem Management, TUM School of Life Sciences Weihenstephan, Technische Universität München, 85354 Freising, Germany.
Bernd
B
Stimm
Chair of Terrestrial Ecology, Department of Ecology and Ecosystem Management, TUM School of Life Sciences Weihenstephan, Technische Universität München, 85354 Freising, Germany.
Wolfgang
W
Haber
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research-Atmospheric Environmental Research (IMK-IFU), Campus Alpin, 82467 Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.
Christine
C
Fürst
Laboratory for Climatology and Remote Sensing (LCRS), Faculty of Geography, University of Marburg, 35032 Marburg, Germany.
Jörg
J
Bendix