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Ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation: concepts and a glossary

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Abstract

The RUBICODE project draws on expertise from a range of disciplines to develop and integrate frameworks for assessing the impacts of environmental change on ecosystem service provision, and for rationalising biodiversity conservation in that light. With such diverse expertise and concepts involved, interested parties will not be familiar with all the key terminology. This paper defines the terms as used within the project and, where useful, discusses some reasoning behind the definitions. Terms are grouped by concept rather than being listed alphabetically.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the RUBICODE Coordination Action Project (Rationalising Biodiversity Conservation in Dynamic Ecosystems) funded under the Sixth Framework Programme of the European Commission (Contract No. 036890). RUBICODE is an endorsed project of the Global Land Project of the IGBP. The authors would like to thank all of the RUBICODE partners and associates for their contribution to the discussions necessary to produce this paper, and Professor Dave Raffaelli (University of York) for valuable comments on an earlier draft. The work also forms part of a BBSRC Institute Strategic Programme Grant to the Rothamsted Centre for Bioenergy and Climate Change.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant and Invertebrate Ecology, Rothamsted Research, Centre for Bioenergy and Climate Change, Harpenden, AL5 2JQ, UK

    Richard Harrington

  2. Department of Community Ecology, UFZ – Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Theodor-Lieser Str. 4, 06120, Halle, Germany

    Christian Anton & Josef Settele

  3. School of Geography, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK

    Terence P. Dawson

  4. Department of Applied Zoology/Hydrobiology, University of Duisburg-Essen, 45117, Essen, Germany

    Christian K. Feld

  5. Division of Zoology and Functional Anatomy, Department of Organismal Biology, University of Salzburg, Hellbrunner Strasse 34, 5020, Salzburg, Austria

    John R. Haslett

  6. CETIP – IF SAS, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovak Republic

    Tatiana Kluvánkova-Oravská

  7. Department of Marine Science, University of Aegean, University Hill, 81100, Mytilini, Greece

    Areti Kontogianni

  8. Laboratoire d’Ecologie Alpine, Université Joseph Fourier, UMR CNRS 5553, BP 53, 38041, Grenoble Cedex 9, France

    Francesco de Bello, Sandra Lavorel & Marie Vandewalle

  9. Institute for Land, Water and Society, Charles Sturt University, Albury, 2640, Australia

    Gary W. Luck

  10. Centre for the Study of Environmental Change and Sustainability, School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

    Mark D. A. Rounsevell

  11. Department of Conservation Ecology and Entomology, University of Stellenbosch, 7602, Matieland, South Africa

    Michael J. Samways

  12. Department of Environment, University of Aegean, University Hill, 81100, Mytilini, Greece

    Michalis Skourtos

  13. SERI – Sustainable Europe Research Institute SERI Deutschland e.V, Vorsterstr. 97-99, 51103, Cologne, Germany

    Joachim H. Spangenberg

  14. Department of Earth and Ecosystem Sciences, Lund University, Sölvegatan 12, 22362, Lund, Sweden

    Marie Vandewalle

  15. Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, Lai St. 40, Tartu, 51005, Estonia

    Martin Zobel

  16. Environmental Change Institute, Oxford University Centre for the Environment, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3QY, UK

    Paula A. Harrison

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  1. Richard Harrington
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  2. Christian Anton
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  9. Sandra Lavorel
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  11. Mark D. A. Rounsevell
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  13. Josef Settele
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  15. Joachim H. Spangenberg
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  16. Marie Vandewalle
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  18. Paula A. Harrison
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Correspondence to Richard Harrington.

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Harrington, R., Anton, C., Dawson, T.P. et al. Ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation: concepts and a glossary. Biodivers Conserv 19, 2773–2790 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-010-9834-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-010-9834-9

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