By Nina Nordh
BECC, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in a Changing Climate, is one of Lund University’s strategic research areas, in which social sciences, economics and natural science combine research on issues related to ecosystem services and biodiversity in a changing climate. Research within this area shows how human beings depend on nature, and how our exploitation of nature can become more sustainable.
“Many believe it’s necessary to attach an economic value to all ecosystem services to be able to apply the concept but, primarily, it’s about weighing different values against one another and making sustainable priorities”, says Cecilia Akselsson, leader of BECC’s ecosystem services theme.
BECC’s research is unique in its approach of linking knowledge about ecosystem services and biodiversity not only to basic natural science research but also to political and economic instruments. The researchers’ collaboration with representatives from, for example, agriculture and forestry, increases the chances of being better equipped for a future with a changed climate.
“Climate adaptation is an important issue within forestry, and many forest owners are considering different tree species and other measures to minimise the risk of forest damage. As BECC researchers, we play a significant role in providing them with material”, says Cecilia Akselsson.
Johan Ekroos, leader of the biodiversity theme within BECC, stresses that without biodiversity there are no ecosystems. Diversity is a prerequisite for the optimal function of nature’s machinery. This is also something that can benefit our modern agriculture and forestry industries which, at the same time, are under enormous pressure to ensure a good profit.
If we continue with today’s methods, we will eventually use up all the nutritional capital found in soil.
“There are a number of measures to increase biodiversity in agriculture and forestry. One example is planting flower strips next to fields. When insects more easily find habitat and food near the field, the pollination of crops is improved. When the number of predatory insects increases, the risk of major attacks by pests decreases”, says Johan Ekroos.
Knowledge of nature’s cycles is an important part of the work to mitigate climate change. Researchers are increasingly seeing that land use has a major impact on the amount of carbon that is either stored in soils or released into the air. Carbon is an element found in all life, and in fossil fuels. It plays a key role as climate change is driven by an increased amount of carbon in the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide and methane.
“An important climate policy goal is to recycle the carbon back into nature’s ecosystems where it can be stored securely over a long period of time. Soil can be a source of carbon emissions or carbon sequestration, depending on how we use it, but there is still a major knowledge gap in terms of how carbon is exchanged into different ecosystems”, says Edith Hammer, leader of the BECC theme on nature’s carbon cycle and climate change.
“In order to determine whether a forest is a carbon sink or a carbon source, it is especially important that we learn more about the processes that take place below the surface”, continues Cecilia Akselsson.
The perhaps most surprising research developed in recent years in this area concerns the significance of life underground.
“Previously, we thought that the organic carbon in soil was largely made up of semi-degraded plants and large humus substances, but now we know that’s only a small part. A significant component of the organic material appears to consist of dead microorganisms and small organic molecules stabilised on mineral particles or hidden in the soil’s porous system. The microorganisms use the organic carbon compounds as a source of nutrition, and recycle nutrients if they can access them”, says Edith Hammer.
Another important aspect of land use studied by researchers at BECC is how soil nutrients are affected by today’s high-intensity agriculture. Do we need to find new ways of using the soil to ensure long-term sustainable agriculture and forestry?
“If we continue with today’s methods, we will eventually use up all the nutritional capital found in soil. An example of previous research from BECC concerns the way in which ploughing and mineral fertilisers deplete the soil through reduced mull content, among other things. However, we still don’t know that much about the impact of land use and climate change on biodiversity in soil. This is something we recently started to investigate more closely. The largest collection of species on Earth can in fact be found in soil, in the form of bacteria and other microorganisms”, says Edith Hammer.
In order to better understand life underground, Edith Hammer has been involved in developing a whole new way of studying the microorganisms that live in soil. With the help of microchips and transparent soil models, the researchers can monitor the events that take place underground in real-time. (Read more in the article: Life under the surface in live broadcast.)
“Within BECC, we integrate research from many different fields and it has been crucial for developing new innovative projects that otherwise might never have been launched”, says Johan Ekroos.
