Ljudet av surrande insekter har blivit mer sällsynt på senare år och det finns en risk att det kommer bli en betydlig minskning av det i framtiden. Det menar i alla fall oroande forskarrapporter. En stor del av insekterna kan var utrotningshotade och det innebär i sin tur en risk för hela ekosystemet. Ekosystemtjänsterna kopplade till det svenska jordbruket från pollinerare är försörjande och reglerande. Kulturella tjänster från pollinerare finns också, i form av friluftsliv och bärplockning bland annat. Några viktiga pollinerare i Sverige är steklar och mer specifikt humlor och bin. Av de 299 vilda biarterna i Sverige är en tredjedel hotade. Jordbruket är i behov av pollinering för de grödor där självpollinering inte kan ske, dessa är till stor del frukt och grönsaker men även raps. Raps är till viss del självpollinerande, forskningen pekar på att skörden mognar jämnare och avkastningen blir bättre vid en högre närvaro av pollinerare. Detta är av stor vikt för att det ska vara lönsamt att bedriva jordbruksverksamhet därför bör dessa värna om denna ekosystemtjänst som pollinerare bidrar till. Denna rapport tar upp situationen för pollinerare i Sverige och hur de bidrar till olika ekosystemtjänster, fokus ligger på rödlistade arter och dess hot och problematik. Hur närvaron av pollinerare påverkar skörden och avkastningen av raps undersöks för att försöka uppskatta det ekonomiska värdet av pollinerare. En mindre fallstudie genomfördes för att vidare se hur förutsättningarna ser ut för pollinerare i ett begränsat område. En litteraturstudie har legat som grund för denna studie och har begränsats till den data som finns. För pollinerare har det funnits information om steklar (humlor och bin), en geografiskbegränsning till Öland och ett område utanför Gårdby gjordes. I fallstudien framkom det att observationerna av pollinerare skedde sporadiskt och att det finns kunskapsluckor i det valda området. Därför är det viktigt att vidare öka intresset och kunskapen om hur människor varje dag påverkar och nyttjar ekosystemtjänster från pollinerare. Hoten och problematiken identifieras ett av dem var förändrad markanvändning, i form av att förutsättningarna för att överleva inte längre är de samma. Det kan ta sig formen av ett intensifierat jordbruk där tillgången på en varierad föda inte längre finns men också att boplatser växer igen. En lösning till den hastiga förändringar i markanvändningen är att odla mer ekologiskt och ta tillvara på de naturliga områden då de bidrar till en hög biodiversitet. Detta motverkar även intensifieringen av jordbruket som idag går mot att bestå av stora monokulturer. Det andra hotet var insektsmedel generellt, då det har visats att det kan ha en negativ påverkan på pollinerare då främst på deras larver och ägg. Därtill är rekommendationerna för produkttester väldigt korta vilket resulterar i att de fullständiga effekterna alltid syns. Problematiken med insektsmedel har två lösning, en där odling i större utsträckning sker ekologiskt och att genomföra längre tester. Övriga potentiella hot är den överhängande klimatförändringen, sker det en snabb förändring förändras förutsättningarna drastiskt. Även inplantering av odlade pollinerare kan potentiellt vara ett hot då de kan konkurrera ut de vilda pollinerarna. / The sound of buzzing insects have become more scarce in the last several years and there is an overhanging risk that There will be a major decrees of them in the future. There is some scientific research that claims so, and that is worrying. A big part of the insects could be endangered and that would mean that the existence of ecosystems is at great risk. Farming in Sweden relies on several ecosystem services from pollinators, mainly provisioning and regulating. There are some cultural services from pollinators as well, that mostly affects outdoor life and the picking of berries among others. Some of the important pollinators are bumblebees and bees. Out of the 299 wild species that live in Sweden a third is threatened. Farmers are in need of pollination of the crops that don't self-pollinate, these crops are mainly fruit and vegetables but also oilseed rape. Oilseed rape is to some extent self-pollinating, but research shows that the yield ripens more evenly and the turnover of the crop is increased by a higher level of presence in the field by pollinators. This is of great interest for the farmers to make their business profitable, therefore they should work to preserve the ecosystem services that pollinators contribute with. This report attends the situation of pollinators in Sweden and how they contribute to ecosystem services, it's focused on red-listed species and their threats and problems. Also how the presence of pollinators affects the yield of rapeseed oil is investigated to try to estimate the value of pollinators. A smaller case study was conducted to further see how the conditions for pollinators are in a limited area. A literature study has laid the path for this study and it has been limited to the data available. for pollinators information about bees and bumblebees have been available, and a geographic limitation to Öland and to an area outside Gårdby was made. A small case study was conducted to further show the condition of pollinators in a limited area. It was shown that the observations of pollinators were sporadically conducted and there was a lack of knowledge in the chosen area. Therefore it's important to further increase the interest and knowledge about how humans affects and uses the ecosystem services from pollinators every day. The identified threats was a change in land use, to such an extent that it affects the conditions of surviving. It could be caused by intensified farming were the access to sufficient food is no longer available to pollinators. Increased land use changes the natural habitats where pollinators build their nests, either because they overgrow or they are exploited to uninhabitable ground. A solution to this is ecological farming where natural regions contribute to a greater biodiversity in the landscape are seen as a resource and preserved. The increased intensification of farming land will decrease if a large part of the farming is done ecologically. The second threat was pesticides in general, it has been shown that it could have a negative impact on pollinators, and mostly the larva’s and eggs. In addition to that, the recommendation on how long to test for the effects of a pesticide is very short. These problems with pesticides have two solutions, one was an increase in ecological farming and also to conduct longer test periods for pesticides. Other potential threats that were identifies was the overhanging climate change, conditions would drastically change. A presence of domesticated pollinators could be rival to native pollinators and lead to a decrease of native pollinators.

Global demand of fish for consumption in developing nations is expected to continue to rise in the near future, putting pressure on stocks that are already overexploited. In the territorial waters of Panama there is a constant struggle between commercial vessels with high yield, subsistence fishermen trying to feed a remote village, and ecosystem services struggling to sustain themselves. These services are the direct and indirect benefits received by the population in the form of food, raw materials, nutrient cycling, and disaster regulation. They are being degraded by illegal and unregulated fishing, bottom trawlers raking the benthos and destroying coral reefs, longlines responsible for thousands of sea turtle and bird deaths, and purse seines that decrease species biodiversity in fish stock. While the government has passed laws to reduce the environmental impact the industrial fisheries have, they lack effective enforcement. An alternative approach is to place monetary values on ecosystem services to show the monetary value of previously unrepresented natural capital. Application of this method to fisheries management can educate policy makers on the economic losses to expect if overfishing of the seas continues and provide the economic imperative to lessen impacts on oceanic ecosystems. Through comparative analysis it is shown that the market value of all fish catch in Panamanian waters is less than that which is provided by the ecosystem services in the area. Open ocean and coral reef ecosystem services provide a combined $103 billion per year while the highest grossing fish catch in Panamanian waters managed to net $356 million in 2004. There is an economic and political imperative to protect and promote sustainability of not only the fish stock, but all ecosystem services in the ocean.

Greater numbers of people are moving into wildland-urban interface (WUI) areas, increasing the number of people at risk to large wildfires. To mitigate the hazard, emphasis is often placed on fuel treatments used to reduce fuel loads and subsequent fire behavior. This approach overlooks the additional benefits provided by vegetation, including carbon storage and sequestration along with air pollutant removal. This study aimed to calculate and compare differences in representative values by examining a study site in the Klamath Mountains of Northern California. Fire behavior simulations were done under various weather scenarios to illustrate both the impact of weather on fire intensity as well as the limitations of various fuel treatments. Ecosystem services were modeled using the I-tree Eco software (formerly the Urban Forest Effects model). Results showed a reduction in surface and an increase in canopy base height from the treatments and subsequent reductions in fire intensity under moderate and high conditions with the largest difference occurring in the Thin + Fire treatment. Under extreme weather conditions, the effectiveness of all fuel treatments was reduced. Ecosystem services showed a reduction of carbon sequestration in the fuel treatments corresponding to the reduction of smaller diameter trees from the fuel treatments. The greatest difference occurred in the Thin + Fire treatment. These results and the methods used to acquire them show the impacts from fuel treatments can be characterized and compared. This information will allow land managers to make decisions that account for a variety of considerations, while also providing them with tools that can facilitate the cooperation and collaboration of multiple stakeholders.

Sensory pollutants such as anthropogenic noise and night lighting now expose much of the world to evolutionarily novel sound and night lighting conditions, which can have detrimental effects on humans and wildlife. In my first chapter, we exposed wild Western Bluebird (Sialia mexicana) nestlings to noise, light, and combination (i.e., noise and light) treatments. Nests exposed to noise and light together experienced less predation than control and light-exposed nests, and noise-exposed nests experienced less predation than control nests, yet overall nest success was only higher in noise-exposed nests compared to light-exposed nests. Although exposure to light decreased nestling body condition and evidence was mixed for the singular effects of noise or light on nestling size, those exposed to noise and light together were smaller across several metrics than nestlings in control nests. Our results support previous research on the singular effects of either stimuli, including potential benefits, such as reduced nest predation with noise exposure. However, our results also suggest that noise and light together can negatively affect some aspects of reproduction more strongly than either sensory pollutant alone. This finding is especially important given that these stimuli tend to covary and are projected to increase dramatically in the next several decades. In my second chapter, we used a field-based manipulation to explore the role of audition in biodiversity perception and self-reported well-being of hikers. We used a “phantom chorus” consisting of hidden speakers playing bird vocalizations to experimentally increase audible birdsong biodiversity during “on” and “off” blocks on two hiking trails and surveyed hikers to record their self-reported perceptions of avian biodiversity and concepts reflective of attention restoration. We found that hikers exposed to the phantom chorus reported higher levels of restorative effects compared to those that experienced ambient conditions on both trails, although the causal relationships differed for each trail. Specifically, increased restorative effects were directly linked to the phantom chorus on one trail and indirectly linked to the phantom chorus on the other trail through perceptions of avian biodiversity. Our findings add to a growing body of evidence linking mental health improvements to nature experiences and, via our field-based manipulation, we identified audition as an important modality by which natural environments confer well-being. Finally, our results suggest that maintaining or improving natural soundscapes within protected areas may be an important component to maximizing human experiences, especially as tourism and noise pollution in protected areas grow.

Declines in pollinators around the globe, notably the loss of honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) to Colony Collapse Disorder, coupled with a dearth of quantitative data on non-Apis bee pollinators, led to this dissertation research, which documents the role of non-Apis bees in crop pollination in southwest Virginia. Major findings of this first study of its kind in the region were that non-Apis bees provided the majority of pollination—measured by visitation—for several economically important entomophilous crops (apple, blueberry, caneberry, and cucurbits); diverse bee populations may be helping to stabilize pollination service (105 species on crop flowers); landscape factors were better predictors of non-Apis crop pollination service than farm management factors or overall bee diversity; and non-Apis bees in the genera Andrena, Bombus, and Osmia were as constant as honey bees when foraging on apple. Non-Apis, primarily native, bees made up between 68% (in caneberries) and 83% (in cucurbits) of bees observed visiting crop flowers. While 37–59 species visited crop flowers, there was low correspondence between bee communities across or within crop systems ("within crop" Jaccard similarity indices for richness ranged from 0.12–0.28). Bee community diversity on crop flowers may help stabilize pollination service if one or more species declines temporally or spatially. A few species were especially important in each crop: Andrena barbara in apple; Andrena carlini and A. vicina in blueberry; Lasioglossum leucozonium in caneberry; and Peponapis pruinosa and Bombus impatiens in cucurbits. Eight species collected were Virginia state records. In models testing effects of farm management and landscape on non-Apis crop pollination service, percent deciduous forest was positively correlated in apple, blueberry, and squash, but at different scales. For apple and blueberry, pollination service declined with an increase in utilized alternative forage but was positively related to habitat heterogeneity. For squash, percent native plants also related positively, possibly due to increased presence of bumble bees in late summer. Species collected from both bowl traps and flowers was as low as 22% and overall site bee diversity had no effect on crop pollination service, highlighting the value in pollination research of monitoring bees on flowers. / Ph. D.

Urban trees provide a wide array of benefits and values for urban dwellers as a foundational part of the biodiversity, the generation of ecosystem services and mitigation of negative impacts of climate change. However, management in cities often fail to acknowledge the diversity of ecosystem services in urban landscapes needed for improving resilience. Through interviews with actors managing tree communities within the city of Stockholm, along with a review of municipal policy documents, this study explores the qualities, values and benefits, focusing on biodiversity, ecosystem services and climate change adaptation, that are considered when making decisions about tree management. The interview results and policy documents were analyzed using an analytical framework for three different phases of management: (i) goals, (ii) strategies and measures and (iii) monitoring and evaluation. Most of the actors to some extent consider biodiversity, ecosystem services and climate change adaptation through ecosystem services in management. The strategies of including a more diverse set of values and benefits are still in its early stages, which is reflected in a low degree of strategical work, lack of clearly defined goals and limited operationalization of the concepts, and few actors work with monitoring and evaluation. However, more aspects of biodiversity and ecosystem services are gaining attention within management, and there is an ambition to incorporate such values to a greater extent.

The oceans are a key element in our society, economy and environmental system.They cover over 70% of the worlds surface and contribute substantially to ecosystemservices such as climate management as well as to economic sectors such as foodproduction and tourism. While the importance of the oceans for climate changeand the society is generally acknowledged in science and literature, it is often notreflected in policy. Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) which are used to advicepolicy on carbon prices often systematically omit process and damages related tothe ocean such as ocean acidification, loss of biodiversity and changes in oceancurrents.The aim of this study is to give a more detailed perspective on ocean related processesand their role and importance for the economy under climate change and to testassumptions made in the development of IAMs - and more precisely the DynamicIntegrated Climate-Economy model also referred to as the DICE model. The initialresults of the DICE model resulted in a optimal temperature trajectory with amaximum of 4 ◦C contradicting the goals set with the Paris Agreement.This thesis is the first of its kind attempt in reviewing the most recentbiophysical evidence on climate change impacts with a focus on marine systemsand incorporating these damages to market and non-market sectors into the DICEmodel. The impacts from climate change are implemented into the DICE modelthrough economic valuation of the damages and an update of the damage function.The analysis is based on the damage function used in the original DICE2016R2model as well as the suggested update presented by Hänsel et al. (2020)The results show, that incorporating marine damages into the model yields in amajor increase in economic damages particularly in the temperature range up to 2◦C.These increased damages influence the results of the optimal temperature trajectoryand give a clear indication for a more stringent climate policy, drastically limitingthe maximum temperature increase compared to the original DICE model. / Haven är en viktig del av vårt samhälle, vår ekonomi och vårt miljösystem. De täcker över 70 % av jordens yta och bidrar väsentligt till ekosystemtjänster ekosystemtjänster som klimatstyrning samt till ekonomiska sektorer som livsmedels livsmedelsproduktion och turism. Havens betydelse för klimatförändringarna och samhället och samhället är allmänt erkänd inom vetenskap och litteratur, återspeglas den ofta inteåterspeglas ofta inte i politiken. Integrerade utvärderingsmodeller (IAM) som används för att geom koldioxidpriser utelämnar ofta systematiskt processer och skador relaterade tillhavet, t.ex. havsförsurning, förlust av biologisk mångfald och förändringar ihavsströmmar.Syftet med denna studie är att ge ett mer detaljerat perspektiv på havsrelaterade processeroch deras roll och betydelse för ekonomin under klimatförändringen samt att testaantaganden som gjorts i utvecklingen av IAM - och mer exakt den dynamiskaintegrerade klimat-ekonomimodellen, även kallad DICE-modellen. De förstaresultaten av DICE-modellen resulterade i en optimal temperaturbana med ettmaximalt 4 ◦C, vilket strider mot de mål som satts upp i Parisavtalet.Denna avhandling är den första i sitt slag som granskar de senastebiofysiska bevis på klimatförändringens effekter med fokus på marina systemoch införliva dessa skador på marknads- och icke-marknadssektorer i DICEmodellen. Effekterna av klimatförändringarna implementeras i DICE-modellengenom ekonomisk värdering av skadorna och en uppdatering av skadefunktionen.Analysen baseras på den skadefunktion som används i den ursprungliga DICE2016R2modellen samt den föreslagna uppdateringen som presenteras av Hänsel et al. (2020)Resultaten visar att införandet av marina skador i modellen leder till enstor ökning av de ekonomiska skadorna, särskilt i temperaturintervallet upp till 2◦C.Dessa ökade skador påverkar resultaten av den optimala temperaturbananoch ger en tydlig indikation på en mer stringent klimatpolitik, som drastiskt begränsarden maximala temperaturökningen jämfört med den ursprungliga DICE-modellen.

Over recent decades, forest land cover is dramatically changing in European mountains and in the Alps in particular. Since the 1950s the progressive urbanization of the valleys and the abandonment of mountain and rural dwellers has intensified. More than 60% of the Trentino land, is covered by forest and mainly by high forest. This human migration have brought to a progressive shrinking of meadows and pastures due to the natural forest expansion causing a dramatic change in the landscape, the consequences of which affect biodiversity, social and cultural dynamics and landscape perception as well as ecosystem services. The objective of this research focused on the application and experimentation of advanced GIS and modeling techniques to compare aerial imagery, historical maps and data and remote sensed images to understand the past landscape changes and their dynamics in Trentino and to build future scenarios based on long-term set ofobservations. The research produced a fine scale dataset representing past forest landscape for the Trentino territory. The analysis of these output data revealed a progressive afforestation process which interested homogeneously all the Trentino territory. A future forest landscape scenarios at a detailed scale (10 m) was as well produced, to simulate the future of the forest in a protected area of Trentino, to outline if the afforestation process will continue. Along with these main output of the research, new tools for image processing and evaluation of forest changes were developed.

Urban landscapes are complex social-ecological systems comprising human and natural elements and their interactions. A key priority for research in these landscapes is understanding how humans affect the presence and abundance of wild organisms and how those organisms, in turn, provide ecosystem services that affect humans. In this dissertation, I use two field studies to understand the ecosystem services provided by urban animals in green spaces across Philadelphia and in a third study I investigate geographic bias in where urban animals have been studied in the United States. For the first study, I use a functional trait approach to examine how urban bird communities respond to landscape- and local-scale habitat and how community composition corresponds to potential ecosystem services. I show that the landscape-scale context of a green space has a stronger influence on species’ abundances than local-scale habitat. As a result, the effect traits associated with cultural and regulating ecosystem services varied strongly along the landscape-scale gradient of urbanization. Local-scale variation in habitat had little effect. The importance of landscape-scale habitat in driving the supply of bird-mediated ecosystem services underscores the importance of regional urban planning for green spaces.In the second study, I use a field experiment to determine the drivers of an understudied ecosystem service – the removal of littered food waste by birds and squirrels. I recorded food removal activity by animals in green spaces across Philadelphia and found that Eastern gray squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) are the main driver of this service. With increased squirrel abundance, removal level is higher and is both initiated and completed more quickly. This service is also context dependent, such that more food is removed in urban parks and picnic areas, where animals are presumably accustomed to consuming anthropogenic foods. These results highlight the importance of animal behavior, and factors that affect it, for the supply of ecosystem services. In my third study, I take a geographic approach to identifying bias in the study of animals in urban landscapes. Our knowledge of urban ecosystems in the United States is based on hundreds of field studies and thousands of individual field sites, but the distribution of these sites has never been examined. I reviewed the literature and mapped field sites to assess geographic bias in the location of urban ecology field sites. At a national scale, I find that urban ecologists tend to work in larger cities, especially those that are less socioeconomically vulnerable (more affluent). I also find that the social-ecological attributes of the neighborhoods in which ecologists work depends on the framing of their study as well as the focal taxa and functional groups studied. Overall, the neighborhoods where marginalized people live are an underexplored segment of the urban landscape. This is the first study to identify geographic biases in urban ecology field sites and provides a basis for future urban ecology research that produces knowledge applicable to all cities and neighborhoods. / Biology

Agroecosystem sustainability as a framework for agriculture production systems requires attention to detail to multiple facets of the underlying production system. Production systems must achieve optimal cash crop yields while remaining profitable. Likewise, production practices must be tailored to reduce its environmental footprint. Identifying practices that encourage improved soil physical and chemical properties while maintaining yields have largely been challenging. Cover crops have been an integral part of the conversation regarding practices that can generally improve those properties of soil responsible for overall soil health. Use of winter cereal cover crops (WCCC’s) have shown promise as a tool for reducing soil and nutrient run-off, thereby reducing nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) nonpoint source pollution in the Upper Mississippi River Basin (UMRB). However, corn-cash crop yield penalties are often incurred following the use of WCCC’s such as winter cereal rye (Secale cereal) (WCR), as N is immobilized by cover crop residues in the decomposition processes. Additionally, traditional planting methods of cover crops have resulted in reductions of harvestable populations of corn and soybeans. These problems indicate a necessity for novel cover crop planting methods that reduce the consequential outcomes of implementing traditional cover crop practices. Using a method called “Skipping the corn row” (STCR), otherwise identified as “precision planted” cover crops, we aimed to reduce the cash crop yield-limiting interactions of cover crop residues within the cash crop row. We hypothesized that removing cover crop biomass from the subsequently planted cash crop row (chapter 1) could minimize N immobilization by residues, thereby increasing our subsequent yield potential and economic optimum return to N (EORN). In novel cover crop planting methods preceding soybeans (chapter 3), our hypothesis indicated that mixtures of WCR and crimson clover (Trifolium incarnatum) would impact biomass accumulation of weed communities, while novel measures that allowed for reduced seeding rates would permit competitive soybean yields while reducing input costs for cover crop seed. Chapter 2 focused on interseeding mixtures of WCR and crimson clover, where we hypothesized that residual rates would marginally impact percent cover of WCR and crimson clover mixtures. Our results indicated, in chapter one, that reducing seeding rate by using STCR planting method did indeed drive seed cost savings while improving yield and EORN in comparison to a traditionally planted cover crop. Our results in chapter 3 also indicated reduced seeding rates found in novel planting methods improved the on-farm economics of using cover crops while maintaining healthy soybean yields. Lower-than-average rainfall accumulations later in the growing season coupled with cover crop residues likely influenced soil moisture retention, benefiting the cash crop during the dry spell, helping maintain yields. Interseeding methods, as studied in chapter 2, did not show any significant impact on corn grain yield or yield components. Subsequently, half- and full-rate residual herbicides did not impact percent cover of cover crops. However, use of residual herbicides should be consistent with all herbicide labels and laws, and producers should use label-recommended amounts to maintain maximum efficacy of herbicides and to prevent resistant weed populations. Also, interseeded cover crops failed to successfully establish, resulting in minimal cover crop biomass in later sampling dates.