Search

The contribution of ecosystem services (ES) to human wellbeing relies on the ecosystem’s ability to supply ES. Managing the pressures affecting ES in protected areas can enhance ES value over time. Our objective was to estimate the change in ES values in a heterogenous Biosphere Reserve (BR) affected by land-cover changes, in Mount Carmel, Israel. The methodology included ES valuation and scenarios analysis that integrated both – the biophysical attributes representing ES stock and the market prices representing ES benefits. The results show that food provisioning services and water quantity regulation make the highest contribution to ES value (17 million and 16 million USD, respectively, per 26,600 hectares). Additionally, land restoration scenarios enhanced ES values by 30–50%, despite wildfires and land cover changes that affected the ecosystems. In severe drought conditions, alternative water resources were able to conserve only the value of the provisioning services, whereas the estimate of the regulating services decreased, mainly due to natural land degradation. In order to enhance ecosystems and ES, croplands and grasslands should be managed to maximize their ES potential. The integration of similar research methods in future studies can support land-management decisions, increase ES stock and the contribution of ES to human wellbeing.

Air-quality regulation was recently judged to be the most important ecosystem service (ES) provided by open landscape in Israel. However, the socioeconomic value of air-quality regulation (AQR) service may vary among the distinct landscape types providing it, especially where several drivers-of-change affect differently the ES flux at distinct ecosystem types. Using a choice experiment, we assessed directly and indirectly the value of AQR as reflected in the choice preferences towards AQR and towards the types of landscape that potentially provide it. We assessed (a) the value of AQR based on national and regional trade-off choices, (b) the interaction of the respondent's characteristics with the value domain, and (c) the effect of drivers of change on choice preferences. We found that both populations valued AQR above all other attributes, willing to pay $23 to $68 to preserve it. Furthermore, no-payment preferences were still aiming to preserve ES. However, the landscape preferences favoring the preservation of maquis shrubland may not sustain the desired AQR service levels and would require further land management decisions. Although estimating the effect of drivers-of-change on human wellbeing is still a challenge, assessing the change in the regulating services' value can support sustainable management practices.

The value estimates and conservation plan of ecosystem services (ES) may have multiple interpretations in a site consisting of a mixture of ecosystems (e.g., maquis, conifer forest, seashore and agroecosystems) and overlapping management practices (e.g., national parks and nature reserves as part of a biosphere reserve). This study examines the relative socioeconomic value of the revealed and stated preferences for distinct seasons, types of ecosystem, and management practices within the Carmel biosphere reserve (BR), Israel. The results show that the highest annual consumer-surplus (CS) per household was measured in springtime at a mixed maquis-forest ecosystem (USD 35.11). The springtime value mainly represented the preferences of local visitors, whereas the lower autumn CS (USD 11.2) value arose mainly from non-local visitors. Analysis of the reasons underlying willingness to pay (WTP) reveals that heritage is a strong positive predictor of WTP in all ecosystem types. The higher predicted WTP to preserve the ecosystems was estimated at the forest and the seashore locations (USD 59.5 and 49.6 respectively). This method highlights the preservation preferences for other areas besides the protected BR core-zone and nature-reserves and is recommended as a support-tool for decision-makers aiming to plan preservation for complex sites while maintaining social welfare.

In the reciprocal relations between fleshy-fruited plants and their seed dispersers, the pulp shape and content may have important consequences for the plant's fitness through their influence on frugivore's fruit choice and thus on seed dispersal success. It is completely unknown to what extent the variation of these fruit traits is affected by the abiotic environment. We tested the hypothesis that abiotic environment governs fruit morphology and chemistry. We studied fruit morphology and analyzed the chemical content of the pulp of the fleshy-fruited desert shrub Ochradenus baccatus in its natural habitat and related these fruit traits to water availability and soil nutrients using Redundancy Analysis (RDA). We found that soil abiotic conditions such as short and long-term water availability and nutrients concentration affected fruit and seed size, pulp:seed ratio and pulp nutritional content (carbohydrates, fat, protein and glucosinolates). These results demonstrated for the first time a linkage between fleshy fruit traits and abiotic conditions in the plants' microhabitat. We suggest that the abiotic environment plays a more important role in shaping fruit traits than has been proposed before. Thus, the abiotic environment may determine plant fitness through its effect on fruit traits and thereby on fruit choice by potential seed dispersers.

The spider mite Eutetranychus palmatus Attiah feeds on various palms. The objectives of this study were: (1) to study the phenology of this little-known species and (2) to determine its status as a pest of date fruit. During a three year study (2001-2003), infestations of E. palmatus on fruit strands began earlier than those of the pestiferous old world date mite, Oligonychus afrasiaticus (McGregor), but peak numbers of the latter were invariably much higher than those of E. palmatus. On fronds E. palmatus was observed from mid-winter throughout summer, its highest numbers being recorded from May to early June. Later, in July and August, E. palmatus populations declined. Oligonychus afrasiaticus was seldom found during winter and spring, but maintained small populations on the fronds in summer, concurrent with very large numbers on the fruit strands. Adult cumulative mite day levels of O. afrasiaticus (on fruit strands) were always considerably higher than those of E. palmatus, but on fronds the opposite ...

Summary Plant secondary metabolites (SMs) acting as defensive chemicals in reproductive organs such as fruit tissues play roles in both mutualistic and antagonistic interactions between plants and seed dispersers/predators [1–5]. The directed-deterrence hypothesis states that SMs in ripe fruits deter seed predators but have little or no effect on seed dispersers [6]. Indeed, studies have demonstrated that birds are able to cope with fruit SMs whereas rodents are deterred by them [1, 7]. However, this mechanism was only demonstrated at the class level, i.e., between birds and mammals, based on differences in the vanilloid receptors [7]. Here we present experimental and behavioral data demonstrating the use of the broad-range, class-independent "mustard oil bomb" mechanism in Ochradenus baccatus fruits to force a behavioral change at an ecological timescale, converting rodents from seed predators to seed dispersers. This is achieved by a unique compartmentalization of the mustard oil bomb, causing activation of the system only upon seed and pulp coconsumption, encouraging seed dispersal via seed spitting by rodents. Our findings demonstrate the power of SMs to shift the animal-plant relationship from predation to mutualism and provide support for the directed-deterrence hypothesis at the intraspecific level, in addition to the interspecific level. Video Abstract