Applying the Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production framework to map provisioning ecosystem services and their relation to ecosystem functioning across the European Union

Andreas Mayer; Lisa Kaufmann; Gerald Kalt; Sarah Matej; Michaela C Theurl; Tiago G Morais; Adrian Leip; Karl-Heinz Erb

doi:10.1016/j.ecoser.2021.101344

Applying the Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production framework to map provisioning ecosystem services and their relation to ecosystem functioning across the European Union

Ecosyst Serv. 2021 Oct:51:101344. doi: 10.1016/j.ecoser.2021.101344.

Authors

Andreas Mayer¹, Lisa Kaufmann¹, Gerald Kalt¹, Sarah Matej¹, Michaela C Theurl¹, Tiago G Morais², Adrian Leip³, Karl-Heinz Erb¹

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Social Ecology, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (Boku), Vienna, Schottenfeldgasse 29, A-1070 Vienna, Austria.
² MARETEC - Marine, Environment and Technology Centre, Instituto Superior Técnico, LARSyS, Universidade de Lisboa, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal.
³ European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Ispra, VA, Italy.

Abstract

Human intervention on land enhances the supply of provisioning ecosystem services, but also exerts pressures on ecosystem functioning. We utilize the Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production (HANPP) framework to assess these relations in European agriculture, for 220 NUTS2 regions. We put a particular focus on individual land system components, i.e. croplands, grasslands, and livestock husbandry and relate associated biomass flows to the potential net primary productivity NPP. For the reference year 2012, we find that 469 g dm/m²/yr (38% of NPP_pot) of used biomass were harvested on total agricultural land, and that one tonne of annually harvested biomass is associated with 1.67 tonnes dry matter (dm) of HANPP, ranging from 0.8 to 8.1 tonnes dry matter (dm) across all regions. EU livestock systems are a large consumer of these provisioning ecosystem services, and invoking higher HANPP flows than current HANPP on cropland and grassland within the EU, even exceeding the potential NPP in one fifth of all NUTS2 regions. NPP remaining in ecosystems after provisioning society with biomass is essential for the functioning of ecosystems and is 563 g dm/m²/yr or 46% of NPP_pot on all agricultural land. We conclude from our analysis that the HANPP framework provides useful indicators that should be integrated in future ecosystem service assessments.

Keywords: Ecosystem functioning; European Union; HANPP; NUTS2; Provisioning ecosystem services; eHANPP.