Historical trajectories in land use pattern and grassland ecosystem services in two European alpine landscapes.

ABSTRACT: Land use and spatial patterns which reflect social-ecological legacies control ecosystem service (ES) supply. Yet, temporal changes in ES bundles associated with land use change are little studied. We developed original metrics to quantify synchronous historical variations in spatial patterns of land use and ES supply capacity, and demonstrated their use for two mountain grassland landscapes. Consistent with other European mountains, land use dynamics from the nineteenth century until the mid-twentieth century resulted in increased landscape heterogeneity, followed by homogenisation. In the persistently grassy landscape of Lautaret in France, landscape multifunctionality-the provision of multiple ES-coincided with greatest landscape heterogeneity and within-patch diversity in ecosystem ser

SUBMITTER: Lavorel S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6699994 | biostudies-literature | 2019 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature