Indicators of Desertification

Indicators of Desertification: early warning its first signs 19-23 of May, Lisbon Portugal

Investigador FCT PTDC/AAC-CLI/104913/2008

Welcome Who 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


ESSEM COST Action ES1104 Earth System Science and Environmental Management (ESSEM)

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

WG3 - Plants, Ecology and Microclimate Manipulation for Enhanced Vegetation Establishment © Branquinho C. 2014

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

Objectives

Enhance vegetation cover, establishment and optimize management Increase Ecosystem Goods and Services Level: •Ecosystem •Habitat •Plant


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.


Objectives Phases 1. 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, mycorrhizal fungi, etc) 5. Seeding methods 6. Plant establishment Methods 1. Select plants with the right adaptations 2. Microclimate manipulation 3. etc © Branquinho C. 2014

Strategy to achieve the results 1) 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. © Branquinho C. 2014

PT-SP Summer school


Iberian Training School (2014) From coast to coast April/May 2014 Proposal from PT and SP delegates

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

Location


Distance

A

Serra da Arrábida

B

Herdade da Ribeira Abaixo-Grândola

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

90 km

1229 km

RATIONALE DEGRADATION DRIVER

(Over)grazing

Agriculture Wildfires Climate Mining

RESTORATION GOALS

Agro-forestry Conservation/Biodiversity C sequestration ↓probability of further

TECHNIQUES/APPROACHES

Plantations

Fencing Vegetation management …

disturbances … © Branquinho C. 2014

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 problembased 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


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.

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


Alicante e Valencia

Control

Planting Clearing + Planting

Clearing


The structure of the Training School Indicators of Desertification: early warning its first signs 19-23 of May, Lisbon Portugal


Monday Days

9:00-9:45

Tuesday 19

CB: welcome, Introduction to Indicators of Performance; Ecology of Semiarid and Ecological Indicators ROOM 8.2.23

9:45-10:30 Break

10:45-11:30

LR: Introduction to the 11 UNCDD Indicators ROOM 8.2.23

11:30-12:15 12:15-14:00

Lunch

14:00-14:45

JSU: The Portuguese Forest Inventory in Semiarid areas; ROOM 8.2.23

14:45-15:30

AN&PM&LC: Methods for Measuring Plant, Lichen and Biological Soil Crusts Functional diversity ROOM 8.2.23

15:30-16:00 16:00-16:45 16:45-17:30

Break

Wednesday 20

Thursday 21

Friday 22

23

AN&PM&LC: Resuts from Plant & Lichen Functional diversity ROOM 8.2.23 GB:Aridity indexes ROOM 6.3.39 SC: Functional indicators of habitat conservation; TM: Indicators of CB+LR: Trainees: ecological restoration; ROOM presentation of state 8.2.23 of UNCDD indicator at national level, Break Break problems and limitations ROOM Field Trip: to the most MR: The balance of Restoration 8.2.23 desertified areas in for the last 30 years in Semiarid Portugal. Visiting Areas. ROOM 8.2.23 GB: Aridity indexes ROOM 6.3.39 Desertfied areas. MNR: Agriculture in desertified Learning Plant sampling areas. ROOM 8.2.23 methods; Learning Biological soil Crust Lunch Lunch Lunch sampling methods; Learning epiphytic lichen sampling methods; CG: Meteorological, hydrological and visiting revegetation case drought indicators’ ROOM 4.2.07 studies (LR, TAF,CB, AN, TAF: Indicators of desertification based PM) on soil ROOM 4.2.07 Break

PP: Measuring Productivity and Phenology trends in semiarid areas through Remote Sensing ROOM 8.2.23 TAF: Indicators of desertification based on soil ROOM 4.2.07 MJP: Quantifying desertification trends using remote sensing data ROOM 8.2.23

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

Departure


Trainers CB=Cristina Branquinho

Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon

LR=Lúcio do Rosário

Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests

CG=Célia Gouveia


MJP= Maria João Pereira

Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon

PP=Pedro Pinho

Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon

JSU=José Sousa Uva GB=Gabriel del Barrio

Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests Estacion Experimental de Zonas Aridas (CSIC)

AN=Alice Nunes


PM=Paula Matos


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


TM=Teresa Mexia


LC=Laura Concostrina



Centro de Biologia Ambiental The 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.


Information Pyramid Data Aggregation

Indexes Indicators Data treated

Original Data Amount of data © Branquinho C. 2014


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 costeffective 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; © Branquinho C. 2014








UNCDD-DPSI


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 then Impacts on human health and ecosystems, causing society to Respond with various policy measures, such as regulations, information and taxes, which can be directed at any other part of the system.

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



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. © Branquinho C. 2014


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. © Branquinho C. 2014


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. © Branquinho C. 2014

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 LUS classifications 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. Small Pressure

Tipping points also have at least 1 of the following characteristics: ✤ The change becomes self perpetuating (deforestation reduces regional rainfall, which increases fire-risk, which causes forest dieback and further drying). ✤ There is a threshold beyond which an abrupt shift of ecological states occurs.

early warning

✤ The changes are longlasting and hard to reverse. ✤ There is a significant time lag between the pressures and the appearance of impacts.

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


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.


Ecological Indicators

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 (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. © Branquinho C. 2014



Ecological Indicators: Level of Biological Organization




SST – Mean Annual sea surface temperature


Causes of biodiversity loss? global change drivers

Nitrogen cycle

Climate change Chemical Pollution

Biodiversity loss

?

Rockstrom J, et al (2009) A safe operating space for humanity. Nature 461:472-475.

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment : http://www.millenniumassessment.org/en/GraphicResources.aspx© Branquinho C. 2014

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

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.

Alerta precoce

✤ As mudanças são de longa duração e difícil de reverter. ✤ Há um lapso de tempo significativo entre as pressões e o aparecimento de impactos.

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


Linking biodiversity and ecosystem services

Biodiveristy: Leguminous plants;

Function: Nitrogen fixation through symbiosis with cianobacteria; Service: Nutrient Cycling; Human well-being: food; © Branquinho C. 2014

Proença, 2009


Ecosystem Processes

Does all species have the same value?

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


Functional Diversity – Potentially Universal 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. Díaz, S. & Cabido, M. (2001) Trends in Ecology & Evolution 16, 646-655. Lavorel, S. et al. (2007) Plant Functional Types: Are We Getting Any Closer to the Holy Grail? Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg. pp. © Branquinho 149-160.

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. © Branquinho C. 2014

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


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. © Branquinho C. 2014

Desertification A. Deserts B. Drylands: What life cares about. Effective Moisture: the ratio of precipitation (PPT) to potential evapo-transpiration (PET). Hyperarid: PPT/PET 1 © Branquinho C. 2014

Desertification Susceptibility


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.© Branquinho C. 2014

The Sahel case -study

During the 70s and 80s the Sahel semi-arid savannah between 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, rainfall and vegetation has largely recovered. The driving forces of the climate variations and the droughts are not fully understood. © Branquinho C. 2014



Portugal: High spatial diversity of climates

Average Temperature (°C)

Average Precipitation (mm)


Portugal: from climate to vegetation Climate


Vegetation

Dominating oaks in the South of Portugal

Mediterranean

Ceratonia siliqua

Montado

Q. ilex Q. suber

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. © Branquinho C. 2014


Montado Holm oak

Cork oak

Altitude gradient

Forest gradient

Aridity gradient


Sites Companhia das Lezírias Machuqueira do Grou

Herdade da Coitadinha Herdade da Ribeira Abaixo

Mata de Sines

Herdade da Contenda


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

Dimension (mm)

9

10

km

106

m

STATES

Spatial scale 13

W

dd oo

1. Site-specific approach

C 13

SO

103

M

mm

d

(e.g. biodiversity patterns of change under different land use regimes)

C

2. Cross-sites approach 13

0

10

L

fd ea

(e.g.

vulnerability to dryness, grazing intensity)

C

3. Regional approach

-3

10

-6

10

(e.g. transdisciplinary analysis of values and uses of montado)

PROCESSES Ho ur Week Year Ce ntury

10-6

10-3

100

103

Time (s)

106

109

Temporal scale


Research Themes & Questions 

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



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



Socio-economical drivers of change and participatory social processes How do the socio-economic context and institutional setting affect the long-term sustainability 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

Indicators of Desertification

Indicators of Desertification

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