Indicators of Desertification: early warning its first …ecofun.fc.ul.pt/Activities/Desertification2014/docs2...WG3 - Plants, Ecology and Microclimate Manipulation for Enhanced Vegetation

Indicators of Desertification: early warning its first signs

19-23 of May, Lisbon Portugal

Investigador FCTPTDC/AAC-CLI/104913/2008

WelcomeWho are we?

Introduce yourself: name, country, at what level of research you are at present, why indicators of desertification.

© Branquinho C. 2014

The framework of the cost action ES1104


WG3 - Plants, Ecology and Microclimate Manipulation for Enhanced Vegetation Establishment

ESSEM COST Action ES1104Earth System Science and Environmental Management (ESSEM)

Arid Lands Restoration and Combat of Desertification: Setting Up a Drylands and Desert Restoration Hub


The ecosystem and plants point of view


The main objective of the cost

To assemble a multidisciplinary network of European and world experts concentrating on arid lands restoration and combat of desertification through the establishment and management of vegetation.


Restoration in Drylands

Common in dryland environments:• High spatial heterogeneity

• High temporal variability

Common Results• Not every plant grows

• High mortality

• It is slow

• Unpredictability trajectory

Enhance vegetation cover, establishment and optimize management

Increase Ecosystem Goods and Services

Level:•Ecosystem•Habitat•Plant

Objectives


Objectives

• Review the state of the art in Europe and compare it with the one in other continents;

• Interdisciplinary exchange between theoretical knowledge, technical know-how and traditional knowledge.


ObjectivesPhases1. Plant selection (identification of functional groups,

functional traits and phenotypic plasticity)

2. Nursery growing (genetic variability)

3. Planting methods

4. Plants and interactions with other organisms (invertebrates, growth promoting bacteria, N fixing bacteria, mycorrhizalfungi, etc)

5. Seeding methods

6. Plant establishment

Methods

1. Select plants with the right adaptations

2. Microclimate manipulation

3. etc


Strategy to achieve the results1) Raise questions in issues that need more inputs

from filling the gap from science to politics.

2) Promote workshops and conferences very focused and discussions among cost members and other researchers.

3) Promote the writing of review papers or technical papers.

4) The promotion of training schools and of STMS.

5) Disseminate to the society the most important outcomes.


PT-SP Summer school


Location Distance

A Serra da Arrábida

B Herdade da Ribeira Abaixo-Grândola 90 km

C Herdade da Contenda 223 km

D Aranjuez (IMIDRA) 458 km

E Albadalejito, Cuenca (JCCM) 143 km

F Ayora, Valencia (CEAM) 218km

G Albatera, Alicante (CEAM) 128km

Total lenght 1229 km

DISMED project (Desertification Information System for the Mediterranean) Domingues and Fons-Esteve, 2008.

Iberian Training School (2014)From coast to coast

April/May 2014

Proposal from PT and SP delegates


DEGRADATION DRIVER

RATIONALE

(Over)grazing

Agriculture

Wildfires

Climate

Mining

Agro-forestry

Conservation/Biodiversity

C sequestration

↓probability of further

disturbances

…

Plantations

Fencing

Vegetation management

…

RESTORATION GOALS TECHNIQUES/APPROACHES


Ecological restoration and Management tools along a land-use intensity gradient in Mediterranean ecosystems

Part I– Desertification in the Mediterranean: how to avoid and mitigate it?

1) Introduce students to: i) Mediterranean terrestrial vegetation and their adaptations to dry climates and ii) Mediterranean ecosystem functioning and limiting factors; iii) Mediterranean soils their features and threats;

2) Identifying the most important drivers of desertification and soil degradation in Mediterranean areas: overgrazing, agriculture, wildfires, climate, mining, etc.

3) Learn how to avoid the desertification processes by managing plant, soil and human activities in Mediterranean areas;

4) Learn how to select and to develop early-warning indicators of desertification and land degradation based on ecosystem structure and functional diversity;

Part II– Is natural regeneration an option?

5) Understand in which conditions natural regeneration can be an option in dry areas;

6) Learning from long-term ecological studies;

Part III– Ecological restoration: how to do it?

7) Establishing objectives and planning;

8) Soil establishment and improvement;

9) Acquire the knowledge associated with criteria of vegetation diversity and structure to select plant species for restoration of Mediterranean ecosystems;

10) Apply several revegetation techniques for desertified and degraded areas; learning from problem-based case studies; planting and seeding methods applied to Mediterranean areas;

11) Maintenance promoting plant establishment and growth as factors affecting restoration success; avoiding invasive species;

12) Learn evaluating and monitoring the restoration success; adaptive management;


Serra da Arrábida


Herdade da Ribeira Abaixo


Herdade da Contenda


Traditional woody crop management involves surface tillage, which creates bare soil most of the year and degrades the soil surface.

Finca La Chimenea, Aranjuez Agricultural land use is usually associated with land degradation, especially in vineyards and olive groves, that are frequently found on hilly country showing substantial water erosion and with exposed soil surfaces.


Clearing + Planting

Planting

Clearing

Control

Alicante e Valencia


The structure of the Training School

Indicators of Desertification: early warning its first signs19-23 of May, Lisbon Portugal


Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

Days 19 20 21 22 23

9:00-9:45 CB: welcome, Introduction to Indicators of Performance; Ecology of Semiarid

and Ecological Indicators ROOM 8.2.23GB:Aridity indexes ROOM 6.3.39

Field Trip: to the most desertified areas in

Portugal. Visiting Desertfied areas.

Learning Plant sampling methods; Learning Biological soil Crust sampling methods;

Learning epiphytic lichen sampling methods;

visiting revegetation case studies (LR, TAF,CB, AN,

PM)

AN&PM&LC: Resuts from Plant & Lichen Functional diversity ROOM 8.2.23

CB+LR: Trainees: presentation of state

of UNCDD indicator at national level, problems and

limitations ROOM 8.2.23

9:45-10:30

SC: Functional indicators of habitat conservation; TM: Indicators of ecological restoration; ROOM 8.2.23

Break Break Break

10:45-11:30 LR: Introduction to the 11 UNCDD Indicators ROOM 8.2.23

GB: Aridity indexes ROOM 6.3.39

MR: The balance of Restoration for the last 30 years in Semiarid Areas. ROOM 8.2.23

11:30-12:15

MNR: Agriculture in desertifiedareas. ROOM 8.2.23

12:15-14:00 Lunch Lunch Lunch Lunch

14:00-14:45JSU: The Portuguese Forest Inventory in

Semiarid areas; ROOM 8.2.23CG: Meteorological, hydrological and

drought indicators’ ROOM 4.2.07

Field Trip to Serra da Arrábida, revegetation examples (GO, TM)

Departure

14:45-15:30AN&PM&LC: Methods for Measuring Plant, Lichen and Biological Soil Crusts Functional diversity ROOM 8.2.23

TAF: Indicators of desertification based on soil ROOM 4.2.07

15:30-16:00 Break Break

16:00-16:45PP: Measuring Productivity and

Phenology trends in semiarid areas through Remote Sensing ROOM 8.2.23 TAF: Indicators of desertification based

on soil ROOM 4.2.0716:45-17:30

MJP: Quantifying desertification trends using remote sensing data ROOM 8.2.23 © Branquinho C. 2014

TrainersCB=Cristina Branquinho Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon

LR=Lúcio do Rosário Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests

CG=Célia Gouveia Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon

MJP= Maria João Pereira Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon

PP=Pedro Pinho Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon

JSU=José Sousa Uva Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests

GB=Gabriel del Barrio Estacion Experimental de Zonas Aridas (CSIC)

AN=Alice Nunes Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon

PM=Paula Matos Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon

TAF=Tomás de Aquino Figueiredo Escola Superior Agrária de Bragança

MNR=Maria Nazaré Roca New University of Lisbon

MR=Manuel Rebelo Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests

GO=Graça Oliveira Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon

TM=Teresa Mexia Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon

LC=Laura Concostrina Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon


Centro de Biologia AmbientalThe main goal of the CBA is to develop cutting-edge research aiming to understand biological systems, from cells to landscapes, encompassing the organism, population, community and ecosystem levels. Our research covers both terrestrial and inland aquatic systems and a wide diversity of organisms, including bacteria, fungi, lichens, plants, invertebrates and all classes of vertebrates, as well as model organisms. We aim to bridge the gap between general patterns and their mechanistic basis, which is why we favor an interdisciplinary research approach. This broad range of expertise is instrumental to our ultimate goals of developing efficient conservation programmes to preserve biodiversity and environmental quality, to define measures of sustainability and to understand the evolutionary and ecological dynamics of populations and communities.

With these objectives in mind, CBA research has been targeting the study of:• Biodiversity patterns and processes at different temporal and spatial scales in Macaronesian, Mediterranean and Tropical ecosystems;• Phylogeography of different taxa in multiple regions;• Adaptation of a variety of organisms to environmental factors (natural and anthropogenic);• Ecosystem functioning, ecological restoration and evaluation of ecosystem services;• Evolutionary mechanisms shaping genetic diversity, combining experimental evolution, population genetics and functional genomic approaches;• Physiological, ecological and evolutionary aspects of animal behaviour;• Developmental processes in model organisms and how they change with evolution; and• Theoretical ecology and evolution, including software development for biodiversity and evolution studies.


Centro de Biologia Ambiental


Indicators of Desertification: early warning its first signs

19-23 of May, Lisbon Portugal


Environmental Indicators


What are indicators?

Indicators and indices are used to simplify information about complex phenomena in order to improve communication . When you select or build an index what is gained in clarity and operability can be lost in the detail information .

An indicator is a simple and very practical signal however it has behind a very complex message, potentially a result of the influence of different factors.


Original Data

Data treated

Indicators

Indexes

Amount of data

Dat

a A

ggre

gati

on

Information Pyramid



For what they are for?1. Is framed within the concept of sustainable development.2. Aims to inform people, including government, industry, non-governmental

organizations and the public about the success of sustainable development .3. Initially the demand for environmental information was closely related to the

definition and implementation of environmental policies and their effects on the state of the environment.

4. Over the years, policy priorities evolved, as did demands for reliable, harmonised and easily understandable information, not only from the environmental community but also from other public authorities, businesses, the general public, environmental NGOs and other stakeholders.

5. This has stimulated a number of countries to produce environmental information that is more responsive to policy needs and public information requirements.

6. The aim is to further strengthen countries’ capacity to monitor and assess environmental conditions and trends so as to increase their accountability and to evaluate how well they are satisfying their domestic objectives and international commitments. In this context, environmental indicators are cost-effective and valuable tools.


Purpose and Scope of Indicators

Indicators can be used at what scale?• International• National• Subnational• Ecosystem

Environmental indicators are designed to:• Measure environmental progress and performance,• Monitor policy integration, and• Allow effective international comparisons;









UNCDD-DPSI


Towards Environmental pressure Indicators for the EU - First Edition 1998.

Driving forces, such as industry and transport, produce Pressures on the environment, such as polluting emissions, which then degrade the State of the environment, which thenImpacts on human health and ecosystems, causing society toRespond with various policy measures, such as regulations, information and taxes, which can be directed at any other part of the system.



The proposed DPSheIR draws on the DPSIR-MA conceptual framework.

As DPSIR-MA, it combines the exploratory and diagnostic capacity of MA (Millennium Assessment) to deal with complex multi-driven systems, with the sharp orientation of DPSIR to deal with policy evaluation.

This option would be a major improvement to the DPSIR-MA for M&E, since it explicitly includes human–environment interactions.



Most countries affected by DLD are also undeveloped or poor:

1)Variability of conditions, capacities and local data availability risks hampering the participation of all affected countries in the delineation of affected areas.

2) The lack of data that are spatially explicit to affected areas is the main constraint.

3) Be cautious against too ambitious approaches in terms of data requirements and sophistication.

4) Methodologies for identifying and delineating affected areas should be as simple and requiring as little data as possible.

5) Applications within and between countries can be linked, and reporting on global DLDD is enabled.



Dryland boundaries - use an integrative, simple and widely accepted index, such as the aridity index (AI) (i.e. annual rainfall over potential evapotranspiration (PET)), be used (UNEP, 1992). Its values should be within the UNCCD accepted limits (0.05 < AI < 0.65), which include arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid classes.

Spatial and temporal resolution Time series – 30 years for the climatic series.Spatial and temporal resolution options:(a) AI annual averages or normal values;(b) Or using raw climatic data series from weather stations and interpolating spatial layers

for each component of AI, each month of the 30 years. (c) Resolution is often around 0.5º (around 50 km), (d) Or the most advanced option requires geographical information systems management

capacity and allows resolution (often around 8 km) and errors to be controlled through spatial interpolation.


The Importance of Remote Sensing and Land-use

(where capacity is available) using remote sensing facilities to assess trends of vegetation density once rainfall variability effects have been removed.

Field survey is an essential step and requires a small team of thematic experts led by a generalist able to extract diagnoses and syndromes using descriptions and narrative indicators, which are intended to be included in Parties’ reports.

The work strongly relies on land use system (LUS) changes, which means that LUSclassifications used by Parties should be harmonized.

Proposes assessing vegetation density trends after removing the effect of rainfall inter-annual variability.







Mechanisms of transitions between ecosystems states and tipping points

An ecosystem can experience a shift to a new state, with significant changes to biodiversity and the services they provide.

Tipping points also have atleast 1 of the followingcharacteristics:

✤ The change becomes selfperpetuating (deforestationreduces regional rainfall,which increases fire-risk,which causes forest diebackand further drying).

✤ There is a threshold beyondwhich an abrupt shift ofecological states occurs.

✤ The changes are long-lasting and hard to reverse.

✤ There is a significant timelag between the pressuresand the appearance ofimpacts.

Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (2010) Global Biodiversity Outlook 3.

early warning

Small Pressure


Which type of Indicators should we use?


Ecosystem functioning is extremely complex and thus monitoring the effects of environmental change factors in ecosystems in an integrative perspective can make use of ecological indicators.

Common ecological Indicators are based on biodiversity measures since they integrate the ecosystem functioning. © Branquinho C. 2014

Ecological Indicators

• Ecological indicators (IE) are used to convey information about ecosystems and the impact of human activity on ecosystems to the public and policy makers.

• The Ecosystems are complex and Ecological indicators can help describe them in simpler terms that can be understood and used by non-scientists to make management decisions.

• EI reflect different aspects of ecosystems, including biological, chemical and physical. Development and selection of IE is a complex process.

• The terms of EI and environmental indicators are often used with the same meaning. EI are actually a sub-set of environmental indicators. Generally, the environmental indicators provide information on pressures on the environment, environmental conditions and social responses. Ecological indicators refer only to ecological processes.

Ecological indicators are: measurable characteristics of the structure (e.g., genetic, population, habitat, and landscape pattern),

composition (e.g., genes, species, populations, communities, and landscape types), or function (e.g., genetic, demographic/life history,

ecosystem, and landscape disturbance processes) of ecological systems (US EPA (2002b) and Noss (1990)).




Ecological Indicators: Level of Biological Organization




SST – MeanAnnual seasurfacetemperature


Millennium Ecosystem Assessment : http://www.millenniumassessment.org/en/GraphicResources.aspx

Nitrogen cycle

Biodiversityloss

Climate change

global change drivers

Chemical Pollution

?

Rockstrom J, et al (2009) A safe operating space

for humanity. Nature 461:472-475.

Causes of biodiversity loss?


http://www.millenniumassessment.org/en/GraphicResources.aspx

Um ecossistema pode experimentar uma mudança para um novo estado, com mudanças significativas para a biodiversidade e os serviços que prestam

Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (2010) Global Biodiversity Outlook 3.

Alerta precoce

Small Pressure

Climate Change

Limiares de transição também têm pelo menos uma das seguintes características:

✤ A mudança torna-se permanente.

✤ Há um limite além do qual ocorre uma mudança de ecossistema.

✤ As mudanças são de longa duração e difícil de reverter.

✤ Há um lapso de tempo significativo entre as pressões e o aparecimento de impactos.


Linking biodiversity and ecosystem services

Biodiveristy: Leguminous plants;

Function: Nitrogen fixation throughsymbiosis with cianobacteria;

Service: Nutrient Cycling;

Human well-being: food;


Proença, 2009 © Branquinho C. 2014

M. Scherer-Lorenzen, (2005), BIODIVERSITY AND ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONING: BASIC PRINCIPLES, in Biodiversity: Structure and Function, [Eds. WilhelmBarthlott, K. Eduard Linsenmair, and Stefan Porembski], in Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS),, Oxford ,UK

Biodiversity

Eco

syst

em P

roce

sse

s

Does all species have the same value?


Functional Diversity – Potentially Universal

Díaz, S. & Cabido, M. (2001) Trends in Ecology & Evolution 16, 646-655.

Diversidade funcional: a diversidade de caracteres;

Grupos de diversidade funcional: grupos de espécies que responde da mesma forma a um factor ambiental ou que têm funções semelhantes nos ecossistemas;

Diversidade funcional está associada ao funcionamento do ecossistema logo também está associada aos serviços prestados por este.

Lavorel, S. et al. (2007) Plant Functional Types: Are We Getting Any Closer to the Holy Grail? Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg. pp.149-160. © Branquinho C. 2014

Ecology of Drylands


Drylands

• Drylands

Scarcity of water causes low primary production and low nutrient cycling.

• Natural moisture inputs (that is, precipitation) are counterbalanced by moisture losses through evaporation from surfaces and transpiration by plants (evapotranspiration).

• This potential water deficit affects both natural and managed ecosystems, which constrains the production of crops, forage, and other plants and has great impacts on livestock and humans.


What are drylands?

Drylands cover about 41% of Earth’s land surface and are inhabited by more than 2 billion people (about one third of world population).

Drylands are limited by soil moisture, the result of low rainfall and high evaporation, and show a gradient of increasing primary productivity, ranging from hyper-arid, arid, and semiarid to dry subhumid areas.

Deserts, grasslands, and woodlands are the natural expression of this gradient.



The limits of productivity

Running, et al, Bioscience , 2004

Desertification© Branquinho C. 2014

DLD – Desertification & Land Degradation

‘‘Desertification’’ means land degradation in arid, semiarid, and dry subhumid areas resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities.

Land degradation means reduction of or loss in the biological or economic productivity and complexity of rain-fed cropland, irrigated cropland, range, pasture, forest, or woodlands resulting from land uses or from processes arising from human activities and habitation patterns (UNCCD 1992).


Four areas affected by desertification

• To better understand how climatic changes and human activities contribute to the process of desertification, the consequences listed above can be grouped into four broad areas:

• Irrigated croplands, whose soils are often degraded by the accumulation of salts.

• Rain-fed croplands, which experience unreliable rainfall and wind-driven soil erosion.

• Grazing lands, which are harmed by overgrazing, soil compaction, and erosion.

• Dry woodlands, which are plagued by the overconsumption of fuelwood.


Desertification

A. Deserts

B. Drylands: What life cares about.

Effective Moisture: the ratio of precipitation

(PPT) to potential evapo-transpiration (PET).

Hyperarid: PPT/PET <0.05

Arid: PPT/PET 0.05 to 0.20

Semi-arid: PPT/PET 0.20 to 0.5

Dry sub-humid: 0.5 to 0.65

Humid: PPT/PET >1© Branquinho C. 2014

Desertification Susceptibility


//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/Desertification_map.png

//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/Desertification_map.png

Vulnerable Drylands• Among dryland subtypes, ecosystems and populations of

semiarid areas are the most vulnerable to loss of ecosystem services.

• Population density within drylands decreases with increasing aridity from 10 persons per square kilometer in the hyper-arid drylands to 71 persons in dry subhumid drylands.

• Conversely, the sensitivity of dryland ecosystems to human impacts that contribute to land degradation increases with increasing aridity.

• Therefore, the risk of land degradation is greatest in the median section

• of the aridity gradient (mostly the semiarid drylands), where both sensitivity to degradation and population pressure (expressed by population density) are of intermediate values.


During the 70s and 80s the Sahel semi-arid savannahbetween the Sahara Desert and the Guinea moist savannah, experienced severe droughts.

The droughts had devastating consequences for this ecologically vulnerable transition region. Since the mid 1980s, however, rainfalland vegetation has largely recovered.

The driving forces of the climate variations and the droughts are not fully understood.

The Sahel case -study




Average Temperature (°C) Average Precipitation (mm)

Portugal: High spatial diversity of climates


Portugal: from climate to vegetationClimate Vegetation

Mediterranean

Ceratonia siliqua

Dominating oaks in the South of Portugal

Q. ilex

Q. suber

Montado


Hypothesis/Assumptions

• We want to find early warning indicators of tipping points using ecological indicators which reflect in an integrated response of the ecosystem.

• Without time we can use gradients in space (transitions between ecosystems) to give us a clue about possible good indicators.

• We hypothesize that functional diversity is more important than total diversity as an ecological indicator because it is connected to ecosystem functioning and can be universal.

• We will test plant and lichen functional diversity along a precipitation /desertification gradient in Alentejo, Portugal and we will upscale to regional area using remote sensing.


Cork oak

Holm oak

Montado


Aridity gradientForest gradientAltitude gradient


SitesCompanhia das Lezírias

Machuqueira do Grou

Herdade da Coitadinha

Herdade da ContendaMata de Sines

Herdade daRibeira Abaixo


Sites Contrasts

Site Dominant

Oak Species

Orography Main Land

Use

Land Use

Pressure

Vulnerability

to dryness

Ribeira Abaixo Cork Oak Coastal

Mountain

Cork and

Research- ++

Mata de Sines Cork Oak Coastal

Mountain

Cork and

Industry+++ +

Contenda Holm Oak Inland

Mountain

Game and

Acorns++ +++

Coitadinha Holm Oak Inland

Mountain

Eco-tourism+ +++

Machuqueira Cork Oak Alluvial

Plain

Cork+ +

Comp. Lezírias Cork Oak Alluvial

Plain

Cork, Cattle and

Eco-tourism++ ++


Research Themes & Questions

1. Site-specific approach (e.g.

biodiversity patterns of change underdifferent land use regimes)

2. Cross-sites approach (e.g.

vulnerability to dryness, grazing intensity)

3. Regional approach (e.g.

transdisciplinary analysis of values and uses of montado)10

-6

10-3

100

103

106

109 km

m

mm

Dim

ensio

n (

m)

m

10-6 10-3 100 103 106 109

PROCESSES

Ho ur Week Year Century

STA

TE

S

Time (s)

Leaf C13

d

Wood

Cd13

SOM

C

d13

Spatial scale

Temporal scale © Branquinho C. 2014

Research Themes & Questions

Response to local-scale pressuresWhich causal mechanisms alter the function of the montado and its ability tomaintain the provision of ecosystem services under site-specific management regimes?

Monitoring of large-scale key drivers of changeWhich are the key climatic and environmental factors of the montado vulnerability?

Socio-economical drivers of change and participatory social processesHow do the socio-economic context and institutional setting affect the long-termsustainability of the montado?How montado stakeholders use and value ecosystems services?

Multivariate statistics of time series of meteorological and biophysical parameters obtained from weather stations, atmospheric circulation models, climate scenarios , remote-sensed imagery and biodiversity surveys. © Branquinho C. 2014

Documents

Indicators of Desertification: early warning its first …ecofun.fc.ul.pt/Activities/Desertification2014/docs2...WG3 - Plants, Ecology and Microclimate Manipulation for Enhanced Vegetation