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Research needs for incorporating the ecosystem service approach into EU biodiversity conservation policy

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Abstract

Using a range of different methods including extensive reviews, workshops and an electronic conference, 70 key research recommendations and 12 priority research needs to integrate the ecosystem services approach into biodiversity conservation policy and funding were identified by a cross-disciplinary group of over 100 scientists and 50 stakeholders, including research funders and policy-makers. These recommendations focus on the ecological underpinning of ecosystem services, drivers that affect ecosystems and their services, biological traits and ecosystem services, the valuation of ecosystem services, spatial and temporal scales in ecosystem service assessment, indicators of ecosystem services, and habitat management, conservation policy and ecosystem services. The recommendations in this paper help steer the research agenda on ecosystem services into policy-relevant areas, agreed upon by funders, researchers and policy-makers. This research agenda will only succeed with increased collaboration between researchers across disciplines, thereby providing a challenge to the research community and research funders to work in new, interdisciplinary ways.

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Acknowledgements

We thank all RUBICODE members for fruitful discussions and all stakeholders who participated in the RUBICODE workshops and kindly offered their valuable input. This work was funded by RUBICODE (Rationalising biodiversity in dynamic ecosystems) under the Sixth Framework Programme of the European Commission (Contract no. 036890). RUBICODE is an endorsed project of the Global Land Project of the IGBP. We thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful input on an earlier draft of this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Community Ecology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, Theodor-Lieser-Str. 4, 06120, Halle (Saale), Germany

    Christian Anton, Martin Musche & Josef Settele

  2. Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Bush Estate, Penicuik, Edinburgh, Midlothian, EH26 0QB, UK

    Juliette Young & Allan Watt

  3. Environmental Change Institute, Oxford University Centre for the Environment, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3QY, UK

    Paula A. Harrison

  4. Department of Applied Zoology/Hydrobiology, University of Duisburg-Essen, 45117, Essen, Germany

    Christian K. Feld

  5. Department of Plant and Invertebrate Ecology, Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, AL5 2JQ, UK

    Richard Harrington

  6. Department of Organismal Biology, University of Salzburg, Hellbrunner Strasse 34, 5020, Salzburg, Austria

    John R. Haslett

  7. Environmental Social Science Research Group, Szent István University, Páter Károly u.1, 2100, Gödöllö, Hungary

    Györgyi Bela & György Pataki

  8. Centre for the study of Environmental Change and Sustainability (CECS), School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh, Drummond Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9XP, UK

    Mark D. A. Rounsevell

  9. Department of Environment, University of Aegean, University Hill, 81100, Mytilini, Greece

    Michalis Skourtos

  10. IMAR-CMA, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, 3004-517, Coimbra, Portugal

    J. Paulo Sousa

  11. Department of Earth and Ecosystem Sciences, Lund University, Sölvegatan 12, 223 62, Lund, Sweden

    Martin T. Sykes & Marie Vandewalle

  12. Median SCP, Passeig Pintor Romero 8, 08197, Valldoreix (Barcelona), Spain

    Rob Tinch

  13. Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften Leopoldina, Halle, Germany

    Christian Anton

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  1. Christian Anton
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  2. Juliette Young
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  3. Paula A. Harrison
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  4. Martin Musche
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  9. György Pataki
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  10. Mark D. A. Rounsevell
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  15. Marie Vandewalle
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  17. Josef Settele
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Correspondence to Christian Anton.

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First two authors contributed equally to this work.

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Anton, C., Young, J., Harrison, P.A. et al. Research needs for incorporating the ecosystem service approach into EU biodiversity conservation policy. Biodivers Conserv 19, 2979–2994 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-010-9853-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-010-9853-6

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