Abstract
The ties between a society and its local ecosystem can decouple as societies develop and replace ecosystem services such as food or water regulation via trade and technology. River deltas have developed into important, yet threatened, urban, agricultural and industrial centres. Here, we use global spatial datasets to explore how 49 ecosystem services respond to four human modification indicators, e.g. population density, across 235 large deltas. We formed bundles of statistically correlated ecosystem services and examined if their relationship with modification changed. Decoupling of all robust ecosystem service bundles from at least one modification indicator was indicated in 34% of deltas, while 53% displayed decoupling for at least one bundle. Food-related ecosystem services increased with modification, while the other bundles declined. Our findings suggest two developmental pathways for deltas: as coupled agricultural systems risking irreversible local biodiversity loss; and as decoupled urban centres externalising the impact of their growing demands.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 102 |
| Pages (from-to) | 1-13 |
| Journal | Communications Earth and Environment |
| Volume | 3 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 28 Apr 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This study was supported/funded by the University Research Priority Program on Global Change and Biodiversity of the University of Zurich. Thanks to Maartje Oostdijk for information on fisheries datasets, and Hanneke van ‘t Veen for assistance with code. Thanks to Amy Austin, Patricia Reader and the Earth System Science group for comments and discussion. Finally, thank you to all our reviewers for helping to improve our work.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).
Funding
This study was supported/funded by the University Research Priority Program on Global Change and Biodiversity of the University of Zurich. Thanks to Maartje Oostdijk for information on fisheries datasets, and Hanneke van ‘t Veen for assistance with code. Thanks to Amy Austin, Patricia Reader and the Earth System Science group for comments and discussion. Finally, thank you to all our reviewers for helping to improve our work.