OPERAs is providing the scientific knowledge to advance the development of instruments that apply and promote the ecosystem services concepts in practice.
The main challenges for mainstreaming the ecosystem services concepts in practical usage relate to the various trade-offs that arise from:
- the multiple functioning and uses of ecosystems at a given location
- the time period over which functioning and use are being considered
- the effects of local decision making elsewhere, and
- the different ways in which social/cultural and market/non-market values are assigned to ecosystem services
OPERAs addressese these challenges by creating innovative methods to applying Ecosystem services.
Through Knowledge, we are producing a range of outputs including:
- direct outputs aimed at the scientific community through publications in peer-reviewed open-access journals and conference presentations
- the development of Instruments, the operational potential of which are being tested in the demonstration cases in Practice
- specific outputs from Knowledge are being added to the Resource Hub in making the knowledge available to the wider community of scientists and practitioners.
Some of our recent publications:
Collier, M.J. (2015) Novel ecosystems and the emergence of cultural ecosystem services. Ecosystem Services, 9, 166-169
Felipe-Lucia, M., Martín-López, B., Lavorel, S., Berraquero-Díaz, L., Escalera-Reyes, J. & Comín, F.A. (2015) Ecosystem services flows: why stakeholders’ power relationships matter. PLosOne,
Marbà M, Arias-Ortiz A, Masqué P, Kendrick GA, Mazarrasa I, Bastyan GR, Garcia-Orellana J and Duarte CM. (2015) Impact of seagrass loss and subsequent revegetation on carbon sequestration and stocks. Journal of Ecology, 103 (2): 296–302.