#6 ECOSYSTEM SERVICES

#6
ECOSYSTEM SERVICES

What do we do in the Ecosystem Services team?

We study the benefits that ecosystems provide to society.

Ecosystem services are the benefits that nature provides to people, and that contribute, either directly or indirectly, to individual or collective human well-being. They may be classified into three groups: the benefits that involve the supply of materials, such as the honey or mushrooms we pick to eat; the benefits involved in the protection and regulation of ecological processes, such as those that involve microorganisms that supply nutrients to the soil and make the fields fertile to grow crops; finally, there are cultural benefits too, such as the well-being we feel when hiking or enjoying a landscape.

  1. Identify and quantify the benefits that Sierra Nevada offers to society, and which of them are required most by people who live in the area. These include the following: plant biomass, agricultural production, production of pastures, seed dispersal, regulation of the amount of freshwater, erosion control, flood control, regulation of air moisture, recreation, etc. (Collaboration with the Remote Sensing team).
  2. Analyse the evolution of ecosystem services over time to detect trends and understand how they relate to each other, and display synergies (when the increase in several services acts cooperatively) or compensations (when the increase in one service causes a reduction in another one).
  3. Design models for changes in land use that help, for instance, understand what the chances are to maintain a given plot of land as a producing plot, to change the way in which crops are grown in the plot or to abandon it, depending on several variables such as climate change, the training of farmers, accessibility, or water availability, among others. Some of the data used in the training of these models are obtained in participatory workshops with local stakeholders.
  4. Study the relationships between ecosystem services and several dimensions of human welfare, such as food security, health and emotional well-being, fairness and justice, natural and cultural heritage, regional identity and economic development.
  5. Implement less expensive remote methodologies to detect which cultural services (enjoying a landscape, playing sports, gastronomy, etc.) are used and who their users are, using Artificial Intelligence-based automatic interpretation of pictures and comments shared on social networks (Twitter and Flickr). (Collaboration with the Remote Sensing and Artificial Intelligence teams).
  6. Analyse through surveys how researchers, managers and citizens assess ecosystem services, along with their perceptions of the effects of climate change (Collaboration with the Climate team).

  1. Identify and quantify the benefits that Sierra Nevada offers to society, and which of them are required most by people who live in the area. These include the following: plant biomass, agricultural production, production of pastures, seed dispersal, regulation of the amount of freshwater, erosion control, flood control, regulation of air moisture, recreation, etc. (Collaboration with the Remote Sensing team).
  2. Analyse the evolution of ecosystem services over time to detect trends and understand how they relate to each other, and display synergies (when the increase in several services acts cooperatively) or compensations (when the increase in one service causes a reduction in another one).
  3. Design models for changes in land use that help, for instance, understand what the chances are to maintain a given plot of land as a producing plot, to change the way in which crops are grown in the plot or to abandon it, depending on several variables such as climate change, the training of farmers, accessibility, or water availability, among others. Some of the data used in the training of these models are obtained in participatory workshops with local stakeholders.
  4. Study the relationships between ecosystem services and several dimensions of human welfare, such as food security, health and emotional well-being, fairness and justice, natural and cultural heritage, regional identity and economic development.
  5. Implement less expensive remote methodologies to detect which cultural services (enjoying a landscape, playing sports, gastronomy, etc.) are used and who their users are, using Artificial Intelligence-based automatic interpretation of pictures and comments shared on social networks (Twitter and Flickr). (Collaboration with the Remote Sensing and Artificial Intelligence teams).
  6. Analyse through surveys how researchers, managers and citizens assess ecosystem services, along with their perceptions of the effects of climate change (Collaboration with the Climate team).

Ecosystem services in Sierra Nevada

Find out about the ecosystem services and assets provided by mountains!

Servicios ecosistémicos en Sierra Nevada

¡Descubre los bienes y servicios ecosistémicos que nos aportan las montañas!

Descubre como la salud de los ríos empeora debido a la actividad humana.

Desde su nacimiento en la cabecera de los valles glaciares de Sierra Nevada, el estado de los ríos empeora debido a la actividad humana.

Gira tu dispositivo

How does our work benefit society?

We highlight the benefits provided by ecosystems to conserve them.

Knowing, mapping, and quantifying the benefits provided by the different ecosystems allows us to improve their management with a base of scientific knowledge. In this way, we do not only highlight the value of the role that Sierra Nevada plays as a protective space for social welfare, but also provide tools to maintain these benefits and additional arguments for biodiversity conservation.

Data generated by the team

Learn more about the data we are generating
  • Ecosystem services valuation by researchers, managers and citizens.
  • Bayesian Belief Network (land-use scenarios).
  • Pasture production model.
  • Agricultural production.
  • Hydrological model products.