Project summary

The conservation and restoration of ecosystem services (ES) is one of the main objectives of the EU Biodiversity Strategies up to 2020 and 2030. Despite this, determining how multiple services can be managed sustainably at the same time remains a major challenge. The primary aim of the project is to generate new knowledge on the relationships and spatial patterns of ecosystem services and ecosystem condition, in the context of anthropogenic pressures and climate change.

In the first part of the project, we examine how service and condition indicators can be best integrated in order to delineate areas with similar structural characteristics. We hypothesize that the spatial patterns emerging from this delineation can be used to identify priority areas for conservation and restoration. We then use projections to assess the sensitivity of these areas to climate change and to explore how this may influence future conservation and restoration efforts.

  In the second main part, we analyse the spatial patterns of indicators describing past and present anthropogenic pressures and their relationships with current ecosystem condition and services. Past anthropogenic pressure is described based on the deviation of actual vegetation from potential natural vegetation. While the work primarily focuses on spatial patterns, we also explore how the assessment could be extended towards a more temporally dynamic approach. The analyses are based on detailed maps and datasets produced in a previous project, which provide a unique opportunity to examine the patterns and relationships of ecosystem services and condition across the entire country. The results are expected to be applicable in decision-making at both national and EU levels.

Short description and main research questions

Ecosystem services (ES) are defined as the benefits that ecosystems provide to society. Ecosystem condition (EC) refers to the integrity and health of ecosystems and is often described using indicators of biodiversity (e.g. the number or abundance of certain species or species groups). When such indicators are not available, proxy data are used, such as indicators related to human pressures characteristic of a given area, which indirectly reflect ecosystem condition.

  Although numerous studies analyse relationships among ecosystem services (including trade-offs, synergies, and service bundles), as well as the links between ecosystem condition and services, recent review papers indicate that our knowledge in this field is still very limited. Our project aims to contribute to filling these knowledge gaps by using national-scale databases and maps developed within a previous EU-funded project (MAES-HU).

  The project consists of two main parts:

The first part (Work Package 1, WP1) analyses the spatial patterns of ecosystem services and ecosystem condition indicators in Hungary. We identify areas where services and condition exhibit similar structures, and we use the observed patterns to designate potential focus areas for conservation, restoration, and conflict management. The main questions addressed are:

  1.1 How can ecosystem service and ecosystem condition data be integrated to delineate focus areas that support spatial decision-making?

1.2 How might climate change influence the identified patterns of ecosystem services and ecosystem condition?

The second part (Work Package 2, WP2) examines the spatial patterns of past and present anthropogenic pressures and their relationships with ecosystem condition and services. The main questions are:

  2.1 How are the current ecosystem condition and services related to past anthropogenic pressures (described using the deviation between actual and potential natural vegetation)?

2.2 What is the relationship between current ecosystem condition (as described by the pressure-based ecosystem condition maps of MAES-HU) and biodiversity?

The structure of the project is illustrated in the figure below: