HUMAN LAND USE PLACES STRAIN ON ECOSYSTEMS

vergrößern

In-depth studies of how human land use is having an ever greater impact on
ecosystems over a period of three centuries are being carried out for the
first time. This project, funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF,
investigates on a global level how the transition from an agrarian to an
industrial society has affected ecosystems. Knowledge about past processes
will be used to model and assess possible consequences of growing biomass
demand and land use for global sustainability.


The enormous demand for land for human use is leaving our planet's
ecosystems with less and less room to survive. Through their land use,
humans today are already consuming over 20 percent of the Earth's natural
biomass production, thereby robbing ecosystems of their most important
energy source.

The intensity of land use is heavily dependent on population density, as
researchers from the Institute of Social Ecology at the University of
Klagenfurt have already identified in a previous project. Yet other factors
complicate the picture, as shown by the example of industrialised countries.
While a richer diet with a high share of meat in these countries is driving
the extension of land use, technological progress is a counteracting force
and reduces the spatial imprint. The researchers are now looking to resolve
this conundrum in a follow-up project. Studying temporal dynamics will help
them to determine both the socio-economic and natural factors that lead to
human dominance over ecosystems and to identify potential consequences of
this dominance.

HUMAN LAND DOMINANCE
The intensity of human land use and its impact on the biosphere can be
determined using the HANPP indicator. This measures human appropriation of
net primary production. Net primary production is the biomass that primary
producers, mainly plants, produce after deduction of their own cell
respiration and which is therefore available as energy input for ecosystems
each year. As project leader Prof. Haberl explains: "In order to determine
the factors for human land dominance, we create a global HANPP timeline that
extends from the 18th to the 20th centuries. This database will not only
allow us to analyse how the transition from an agrarian to an industrial
society has impacted on ecosystems - i.e. what proportion of the net primary
production of natural ecosystems has been lost through human activity. We
will also be able to examine which changes in natural and socio-economic
systems have resulted in changes to HANPP. At a socio-economic level, for
example, the key parameters include rising prosperity and agricultural
technology. But natural limitations such as soil properties or the climate
are also included in the analysis."

RESTRICTED SERVICE
Beyond creating an understanding of major factors that cause changes in
HANPP, an assessment of the possible consequences for global sustainability
is a major goal of the project. For the first time, this project establishes
a link between the production of biomaterials and the services provided by
nature, as project team member Dr. Karlheinz Erb explains: "We support the
hypothesis that intensive human land use changes ecosystems' productivity
and their resilience and that it restricts their ability to provide other
ecosystem services. It is therefore debatable whether, under changing
conditions, ecosystems are still able to absorb waste and emissions to the
extent they have in the past." The researchers also address changes in the
availability of biomass, in global water, carbon and nitrogen flows, and in
the volume of carbon that plants store worldwide as long-term consequences
and are testing the hypothesis that HANPP is a relevant factor for loss in
biodiversity.

This FWF project shows how important it is to consider humans' land
dominance, an area that has until now been little researched, in the context
of sustainable development strategies. The researchers are urging in
particular that the already high pressure on ecosystems reflected in the
current HANPP value should not be intensified by over-ambitious plans for
replacing fossil energy with biomass energy.


Image and text will be available online from Monday, 21st July 2008, 09.00
a.m. CET onwards:
http://www.fwf.ac.at/en/public_relations/press/pv200807-2en.html


Scientific Contact:
Prof. Helmut Haberl
University of Klagenfurt
Institute of Social Ecology
Schottenfeldgasse 29
1070 Wien
Austria
T +43 / 1 / 522 40 00 - 406
E uni-klu.ac.at" target="_blank">helmut.haberluni-klu.ac.at

Austrian Science Fund FWF:
Mag. Stefan Bernhardt
Haus der Forschung
Sensengasse 1
1090 Wien
Austria
T +43 / 1 / 505 67 40 - 8111
E fwf.ac.at" target="_blank">stefan.bernhardtfwf.ac.at

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Vienna, 21st July 2008

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