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Systematic literature syntheses are a key element in the scientific realm, considering the steadily growing amount of available knowledge. Involving stakeholders in the research process brings a wide range of advantages, like broadening the perspectives on the problem in question, increasing the relevance of results for policy- and decision-making, the public and other end-users and thus enhancing the impact and acceptance of research. While participatory approaches are on the rise, reflections on stakeholder involvement in systematic syntheses on environmental management are scarce. We reflect on the process of involving stakeholders with expertise also from outside academia during three literature syntheses with different foci of marine and coastal ecosystem services in the Baltic Sea. Our analysis is based on notes, e-mails, minutes and recordings of internal project meetings, interviews and workshops involving both researchers and stakeholders. We discuss the challenges the participatory approach introduced and develop lessons learned to support the planning of stakeholder engagement for future literature syntheses. We conclude that stakeholder identification, communication, collaboration and knowledge translation are highly time- and resource-intensive processes. Furthermore, appropriate training and experience are necessary for the design, execution and evaluation of participatory methods tailored to each project stage. Therefore, we underline the importance of adequate consideration of the required resources during project planning and implementation. To encourage and support valuable stakeholder engagement and knowledge exchange between the research community and actors of policy and practice, more appreciation of such efforts by funding institutions and within the wider scientific community is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current environmental resource management policies acknowledge the need to manage and conserve biodiversity. Sustaining good ecosystem conditions and ecosystem services (ES) is imperative at and across multiple spatial scales. The ES concept is a valuable tool to communicate the benefits that nature provides to people. In the Guiana Shield, neighbouring countries share landscapes and ecosystems, and therefore also the services they supply. This study presents the first spatial ES assessments at territorial level for Suriname and French Guiana. Expert-based ES supply matrices were used and analysed in combination with Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) data to compile ES capacity maps for the two territories. In comparison, both ES supply matrices showed a high degree of similarity – forest ecosystems scored the highest ES capacities, followed by aquatic and marine ecosystems. Agricultural and urban land cover showed weak to moderate capacities for ES supply. A statistical analysis revealed a 30% difference of the two matrix assessments. Expert scores given for ES in Suriname exceeded those in French Guiana, especially for urban LULC and planted forests. Sociodemographic factors such as age, gender and institutional environment were analysed to explain this difference. The diverging scores can also be attributed to the distribution and the degree of similarity of the different LULC types and, hence, ES capacities and different governance and institutional contexts of the assessments. Comparative evaluations are essential to understand the differences in perception of ES supply capacities and to underpin future knowledge-based bilateral conservation policies and funding decisions by governments and managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the nutrient regulation ecosystem service (ES) demand was quantified and mapped in an agriculturally-dominated landscape in the federal German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The demand was assessed in a case study area on an individual field scale. As an indicator for the nutrient regulation ecosystem service demand, nitrogen budgets were calculated. The assessment includes a comparison of an agriculturally calculated nitrogen budget to an ecologically calculated nitrogen budget. The agricultural calculation is based on legal regulations and considers volatile nitrogen losses from fertilizers, whereas the ecological calculation incorporates the total amount of nitrogen and includes also the atmospheric nitrogen deposition. Furthermore, the positive effects of additional agricultural practices on the nutrient regulation ES demand were identified. The spatial distribution of the nutrient regulation ES demand was compared to the distribution of the nitrate leaching and denitrification potential in order to analyse the relative vulnerability of individual fields to nutrient oversupply. The findings of this study, which highlight in particular the suitability of enlarged crop rotation systems, can be used to support sustainable agricultural practices and land management strategies on the local sale. EDITED BY Christine Fürst [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent scientific developments are advancing to link land use and land cover (LULC) change with ecosystem service (ES) potentials. Such links within peri-urban ecosystems are scanty due to methodological and expertise challenge, and data limitation. The study applies the 'ES matrix approach' to spatially display potentials for regulating ES in mainly overlooked datascarce peri-urban areas, whereby LULC classes and qualitative ES values are the main data inputs. The LULC maps are based on LANDSAT satellite images from the years 1990, 2000 and 2010. ES potentials were assessed qualitatively on a relative scale ranging between 0 and 5 by use of interview data from local people. Results show that with exception of settlements, the area for all LULC classes decreased between 1990 and 2010. The 'matrix approach' successfully generated ES potential maps for the different LULC classes. Grasslands, forests and wetlands have comparatively high potentials for regulating ES, whereas settlements and 'otherlands' showed lower potentials. The main uncertainties of the study relate to study area selection, data accuracy and reliability, and 'matrix approach' adaptability. Results indicate that the potential of the area to provide regulating ES is declining over time. To realize suitable and reliable results, it is necessary to conduct data accuracy-check during and after the fieldwork exercise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecosystem condition is the overall quality of an ecosystem unit, in terms of its biological, physical and chemical characteristics underpinning its capacity to generate ecosystem services. Changes in ecosystem condition affect the delivery of services and therefore human well-being. Despite increasing research in this field, the relations between biodiversity, ecosystem condition and services are still not well understood. This study examined scientific articles and reports to analyse the development of ecosystem condition mapping and assessments in Europe since the year 2000. The aim was to provide an overview of the current state of research and to highlight some challenges for ecosystem condition and ecosystem services research. The review analysed the ecosystems under study, scales, methods, indicators, and the ecosystem services assessed. Based on this review, some gaps were identified, especially in the methods used for condition assessment, the coverage of ecosystems, and the applicability of indicators in policy. It is necessary to develop integrative methods to determine ecosystems condition and its influence on the ecosystem service provision, in order to produce robust information. The results of this review can be harnessed by people who need an overview about existing ecosystem condition studies, such as scientists, land managers or decision makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editors discuss the theme of the issue which is the role of ecosystem services support landscape-related policies and planning, the operationalization of the ES approach, and ES concept and approach in New Zealand.

An introduction to articles published in this issue is presented including an article on the supply of multiple ecosystem services, another on land-cover/land use data-based assessments and an article on single ecosystem service of water quality.

It has been widely accepted that ecosystem services (ESs) should be taken into account in natural resource management decisions. Hence, there is an increasing need for innovative quantification methods and tools to evaluate ESs on different landscape scales, and under varying land-use forms. Integrating biodiversity protection with the provision of ESs is a key element for sustainable land-use planning. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and spatial analysis, together with various environmental data, provide a suitable foundation for ESs evaluations. Recent advances in earth observation technologies have supported land-cover-based ESs mapping on global, regional and local scales. Global and regional land-cover maps can help in coarse assessments of some biophysical characteristics of the environment, but they cannot provide exact information about local biodiversity and biotope types that form the base of ESs supply. Therefore, more detailed tools such as aerial photographs and field surveys are needed. High-quality biotope data are usually fragmentary or absent for private land in Finland, but are available for most state-owned commercial forests and protection areas. We tested the use of biotope data derived from aerial photographs and an extensive field inventory to map ESs in natural protection areas in northern Finland. We argue that protection areas, where large and long-term databases have been collected, offer excellent study sites to develop further the methodology for integrating coarse-scale remote-sensing data, such as CORINE, with more detailed ecological and structural data collected from aerial photographs and ground surveys. In addition, the use of detailed biotope data supports the linkage of biodiversity information with landscapes' capacities to provide ESs. Different data sources will improve the management of protection areas, thereby optimizing multiple land-use objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the concept of ecosystem services has drawn a prolific amount of recent research, little work has been done on the links between marine ecosystem services and coastal human well-being at a regional scale. Key questions in this context are that of appropriate categories for assessing human well-being and how to link different determinants of human well-being to specific ecosystem services supplied in adjacent marine areas. This paper presents the results of a case study that links tangible and intangible ecosystem benefits to a range of material and immaterial factors constituting human well-being. Determinants of human well-being were defined and indicators selected to make these linkages traceable. Ecosystem services were assessed for the offshore environment along the west coast of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, based on the assumption of strong future development of offshore wind farming and considering the environmental and socio-economic impacts of such developments on the coastal region. This paper illustrates some conceptual problems in linking ecosystem benefits to human well-being. Based on an economic analysis and a questionnaire survey, two examples are presented where an evidence-based link could be demonstrated between an ecosystem service impacted by offshore wind farming and change in human well-being. The results presented should be understood as an analytic framework and precondition for gathering empirical data. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]