Identification of changes to ecosystem services in the Subcarpathians of Buzău County in Romania

Autor(en)

Ziga Malek, Dagmar Schröter, Anthony Patt

Abstrakt

Human activities are diverse, with complex consequences that are sometimes hard to be explained. Applying the ecosystem services concept to describe the interactions in the human–environment system, helps us to identify human dependence on ecosystems, and also the role humans play in altering the environment. We depend on ecosystems for their services: benefits we obtain from them; like food, fuel and materials, but also a choice of other not so obvious services, such as formation of soils and water supply (Millenium Ecosystem Assessment 2005). The ecosystem services concept offers clear language to describe human-environment interactions in the case study of the Carpathians of Buzău County in Romania. The most important local ecosystem services in this mountain area are slope stabilisation and regulation of hydro-meteorological hazards, provided by forest cover (Swift et al. 2004; Körner et al. 2005). The interplay between constraining physical geographic characteristics and complex socio-economic development however resulted in complex land use changes that affected these ecosystem services. These have been manipulated to maximise one particular service, which can lead to unsustainable management and risks reducing other services (Schröter 2009). It can reduce their value for other uses and leads to conflicts between different stakeholders and degradation of multi-function landscapes (De Groot 2006).

Organisation(en)

Institut für Geographie und Regionalforschung

Externe Organisation(en)

Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich

Seiten

15-19

Anzahl der Seiten

4

Publikationsdatum

2012

Peer-reviewed

Ja

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 8 – Menschenwürdige Arbeit und Wirtschaftswachstum, SDG 15 – Leben an Land

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/66ad1708-0263-442c-92a8-bdf233dd8ed3