The marine environment provides essential ecosystem services that are critical to the functioning of the earth’s life support system and the maintenance of human well-being. Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are recognised as being the mechanism though which marine natural capital may be conserved. This thesis focuses on the value associated with marine conservation in a case study area, Lyme Bay, England where a ‘closed area’ was created in 2008. A review of literature spanning 20 years shows that despite sound ecological knowledge of a marine area, the reliance on traditional neo-classical economic valuations for marine spatial planning can obscure other issues pertinent to the ecosystem approach. A further valuation of the marine leisure and recreation industry shows that the industry is of economic significance and that the MPA enables the protection of the most valuable sites but has limited benefits for protecting the full resource base. In terms of ecological value, a ‘service orientated framework’ was developed to enable decision makers to understand the links between benthic species, ecological function and indirect ecosystem services. Results spatially identify which ecosystem services occur and demonstrate the value of the MPA in ensuring delivery of these ecosystem services. In relation to the social value of the MPA the research reveals that support for the MPA is strong amongst the majority of stakeholder groups. Values are expressed as the economic, environmental and social benefits of the MPA. However, there have been clear social costs of the MPA policy and these have been borne by mobile and static gear fishermen and charter boat operators. Each valuation methodology can inform decision making. Though, if ecosystem service valuation is to become a deliberative tool for marine conservation and planning, then there is a need for a larger societal discussion on what activities and trade-offs society considers acceptable.

Previous pulse-chase experiments have revealed a wide diversity of benthic response patterns to organic matter (OM) input depending on environmental setting, benthic community structure and experimental conditions i.e. quantity and quality of the added OM.  However, the mechanisms and interaction of environmental and biological factors that produce an observed response pattern are poorly understood. The present thesis set out to improve our current understanding on the set of parameters that determine benthic response patterns.  The core of this study was based on two pulse-chase experiments in two bathyal settings: the Faroe-Shetland Channel (FSC) and the SW Cretan slope in the E. Mediterranean (E. Med).  The sub-zero temperatures in the FSC enabled the observation of the benthic response in “slow-motion” and showed that the response is not static but instead might go through various “phases”.  In the warm E. Med, C processing rates were considerably lower compared to previous measurements in adjacent regions.  The discrepancy was attributed to the particularly refractory sedimentary OM at the sampling station with apparent consequences for the physiological state of the bacterial community.  Both experiments showed that bacterial metabolism and its regulation is a key factor determining the reaction of the benthic community to OM inputs.  This thesis provided further understanding on the short-term fate of organic C in deep-sea sediments but also raised certain issues that could be addressed in future studies.

1. Realigning rivers is becoming common as a solution to conflicting needs of land development and ecosystem preservation. Although an increasing number of projects are monitored, exactly how these channels develop as functional stream ecosystems is still poorly understood. Mining in the upper catchment of the River Nith (Scotland) required the realignment of 3km (approx.) of river. The engineered channel was designed around sound geomorphological principles of sediment transport and supply with a sinuous planform and pool-riffle sequences along the installed gravel-bed. 2. A comprehensive survey covering biotic and abiotic development was devised and implemented to test models and hypotheses relating to the development riverine habitats over the first three years. 2. Physical habitat development at the reach scale was investigated using fixed-point photography and differential GPS surveys of the thalweg and of cross-sectional form every 100m. This revealed the development of a relatively diverse streambed habitat in response to both the channel slope and planform. However, other than at meander bends where asymmetry developed over several years, little change was observed to the form of the engineered riverbanks. 3. Kick-net surveys of benthic invertebrate communities at 10 sites showed a negative relationship between specific measures of diversity and downstream distance during the early stages of development. (e.g. Richness with chainage at the 6 month stage) but the relationship degrades rapidly and is likely in part to appear as a result of low population densities. 4. Survey of transects through the riparian zone perpendicular to the river indicated that colonisation by vegetation is also related to distance along the realignment but physical habitat and geographical factors play a more dominant role over development (Canonical correspondence analysis of vegetation data in 2007) 5. Many of the indices of diversity for both biotic and abiotic elements of the ecosystem proved ineffective at detecting development at the reach scale. This may be because significant changes occur at a smaller scale than was detected by the surveys. It is likely that greater resolution is required to detect more ecologically meaningful relationships and patterns. 6. Overall study shows constructed realignments can rapidly develop a diverse streambed community within 24 months. Riparian communities are slower to develop because of the slow development of riverbank habitat diversity. Other ecosystem properties such as resilience and connectivity may take much longer.

Limitations from reduced light and increasing water depth on Nelumbo lutea seedlings were determined in tank experiments. Survival was high in all tested light levels. Total biomass increased significantly with increasing light. Biomass allocation shifted significantly to root production between 3 and 6 weeks in the 10 and 24% levels. Survival decreased with increasing planting depth, and biomass of survivors reduced significantly between 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 m depths. Nelumbo lutea and Myriophyllum spicatum populations were monitored for one season in a 0.7 ha pond to track changes in species dominance. Myriophyllum spicatum dominated early, and N. lutea dominated from July through October, suppressing M. spicatum at all depths. Competitive interactions between N. lutea and M. spicatum were investigated for two seasons in a container experiment situated within a pond. Where established, N. lutea dominated in the presence of M. spicatum. However, N. lutea could not be established in depths greater than 1 meter.

The Lewisville Lake Environmental Learning Area (LLELA) is a wildlife management area with tallgrass prairie, an endangered ecosystem. Essential ecosystem processes, especially fire, are part of restoration. To support fire management efforts at LLELA and surrounding areas, this project evaluated and developed tools for fire restoration. The four primary prairie grasses respond favorably to burning. Fuel loads and fuel models vary by scale and survey method. One- and 10-hour fuel moisture can be predicted using a statistical model; 100- and 1,000-hour fuel moisture cannot. Historic weather data suggests that burning can occur when it is most effective. The production of ozone precursors produced by burning is comparable to those emitted every six minutes by regional automobiles.

För att belysa värdeförlusten som utarmandet av ekosystem leder till och poängtera vårt beroende av naturen har begreppet ekosystemtjänster tagits i bruk. Ekosystemtjänster är samlingsnamnet på allt det vi får från naturen, så som syre, fibrer, rent vatten och naturupplevelser. I de nya kurspla-nerna i biologi (Skolverket, 2011a) tas ekosystemtjänster upp som centralt innehåll. Denna studie har till syfte att belysa hur lärare i årskurs 4-6 tolkar begreppet ekosystemtjänster i relation till sin undervisning, samt att undersöka vilka kunskapsemfaser lärarna ger uttryck för. Med kunskapsemfaser menas uppfattningar om varför vi undervisar om något. Data samlades in via semistrukturerade intervjuer med fyra lärare som undervisar i biologi i årskurs 4-6 på olika skolor. Resultatet av analysen visar att lärarna är mycket engagerade i under-visningen för hållbar utveckling. De lyfter fram förståelsen av naturens kretslopp och hänsynstagande till miljön som mycket viktigt. Lärarna tenderar att tolka begreppet ekosystemtjänster som ett nytt samlingsbegrepp för något de redan undervisar om, snarare än som ett nytt perspektiv. Under intervjuernas framskridande visar lärarna dock tecken på att fördjupa sitt resonemang kring ekosystemtjänster, vilket kan tyda på att en djupare och mer komplex förståelse kan komma att infinna sig när begreppet är väl implementerat. Kommentarmaterialet till kursplanen bidrar sannolikt till en snäv syn på ekosystemtjänster. Lärarna ger i huvudsak uttryck för de två kunskapsemfaserna som Östman (1992) benämner vardagsemfasen och naturvetenskap, normer och beslut, där syftet med kunskap är att eleverna bättre ska kunna agera i och förstå sin vardag.

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Human societies are reliant on the functioning of the hydrologic cycle. The atmospheric branch of this cycle, often referred to as moisture recycling in the context of land-to-land exchange, refers to water evaporating, traveling through the atmosphere, and falling out as precipitation. Similar to the surface water cycle that uses the watershed as the unit of analysis, it is also possible to consider a ‘watershed of the sky’ for the atmospheric water cycle. Thus, I explore the precipitationshed - defined as the upwind surface of the Earth that provides evaporation that later falls as precipitation in a specific place. The primary contributions of this dissertation are to (a) introduce the precipitationshed concept, (b) provide a quantitative basis for the study of the precipitationshed, and (c) demonstrate its use in the fields of hydrometeorology, land-use change, social-ecological systems, ecosystem services, and environmental governance. In Paper I, the concept of the precipitationshed is introduced and explored for the first time. The quantification of precipitationshed variability is described in Paper II, and the key finding is that the precipitationsheds for multiple regions are persistent in time and space. Moisture recycling is further described as an ecosystem service in Paper III, to integrate the concept into the existing language of environmental sustainability and management. That is, I identify regions where vegetation more strongly regulates the provision of atmospheric water, as well as the regions that more strongly benefit from this regulation. In Paper IV, the precipitationshed is further explored through the lens of urban reliance on moisture recycling. Using a novel method, I quantify the vulnerability of urban areas to social-ecological changes within their precipitationsheds. In Paper V, I argue that successful moisture recycling governance will require flexible, transboundary institutions that are capable of operating within complex social-ecological systems. I conclude that, in the future, the precipitationshed can be a key tool in addressing the complexity of social-ecological systems. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 4: Manuscript. Paper 5: Manuscript.</p><p> </p>

The growth in global population and the unsustainable business as usual model adopted by private companies in managing land, are causing huge pressures on Indonesian natural ecosystems. The widespread peatland deforestation and degradation affecting Indonesia has been the leading cause of biodiversity loss, decrease of vital ecosystem services, land subsidence, fires and increased impoverishment of local communities. In response to this issue, the Indonesian government, supported by civil society and scientists, issued in 2004 the Ecosystem Restoration Concession license, a new approach of managing logged out production forests in order to reverse and restore deforested, degraded and damaged ecosystems. In 2013, the Indonesian second largest pulp and paper company, APRIL acquired this licence and launched one of the biggest and most ambitious restoration projects in the country, called RER. This project was implemented in the Kampar Peninsula, Riau province, Sumatra, a vast peatland area unique for its ecosystem services and its flora and fauna species. The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the sustainability of the project’s management, conservation and development model. Field observations and qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted on various groups of stakeholders. The study showed that, although the project has generated various benefits, thus having the potential of exceeding the environmental, social and economic costs in the future, several challenges, such as managing land, providing alternative livelihoods and including the participation of local communities were reported. If these problems are not successfully addressed, they risk jeopardising the success of the project and therefore its opportunity of becoming sustainable and widespread.

This thesis utilizes a theoretical framework which links biophysical and social domains of ecosystems via ecosystem services (ES), in order to conduct a socio-ecological assessment of urban watersheds in three communities in Chilean and Argentine regions of southern Patagonia. Results from this study show that expanding urban areas may be undermining the ability of local watersheds to provide for high quality ES posing potential risks to community wellbeing. Secondly, researchers and decision makers influencing regional natural resource management share similar values to general community members but do not capture the diversity of values that exist within the broader community, and dialogue between these groups on management issues is poor. A community-based management structure is recommended for the creation of adaptive and locally relevant management strategies.