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Ecosystem Services: Pest Control and Pollination

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Book cover Economic Evaluation of Climate Change Impacts

Part of the book series: Springer Climate ((SPCL))

Abstract

Among the several ecosystem services delivered by biodiversity, natural pest control and pollination are comparatively well understood and highly relevant for ensuring food provision. We describe the potential impacts of climate change, in particular the effects of increasing temperatures, on pest antagonists and pollinators, and evaluate the relevance for Austria’s agricultural ecosystems. Temperature changes lead to species range shifts, causing a reshuffling of assemblages and a decoupling of community interactions, followed by an impairment of pest control and pollination services. The effects are strongly modulated by socio-economic factors, particularly the development of semi-natural elements in agricultural landscapes. An enlargement of semi-natural area might mitigate the effects of climate change; a reduction in semi-natural area might exacerbate the climatic effects by impeding migration to track temperature changes even further. We calculated the value of pest control in Austria to be approximately 255 million euros or 8.5 % of the total agricultural plant product value in 2008. Pollination in Austria is worth 298 million euros, corresponding to 9.9 % of the total agricultural plant product value. We distinguish and discuss four possible climate impact scenarios; a scenario describing a moderate reduction of these values emerged as the most likely one.

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Acknowledgements

We appreciate feedback by Paul Watkiss, Reimund Schwarze and Martin König on a first manuscript draft, the comments of three anonymous reviewers and Birgit Bednar-Friedl on a second draft; linguistic corrections by Brigitte Read, inspiring discussions with Wolfgang Rabitsch and the encouragement of Maria Stejskal-Tiefenbach.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biodiversity and Nature Conservation, Environment Agency Austria, Vienna, Austria

    Klaus Peter Zulka & Martin Götzl

Authors
  1. Klaus Peter Zulka
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  2. Martin Götzl
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Klaus Peter Zulka .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Graz, Graz, Austria

    Karl W. Steininger

  2. Environment Agency Austria, Vienna, Austria

    Martin König

  3. University of Graz, Graz, Austria

    Birgit Bednar-Friedl

  4. Vienna Institute of Technology, Vienna, Austria

    Lukas Kranzl

  5. Austrian Institute of Technology, Vienna, Austria

    Wolfgang Loibl

  6. Institute for Economic and Innovation Research, Graz, Austria

    Franz Prettenthaler

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Zulka, K.P., Götzl, M. (2015). Ecosystem Services: Pest Control and Pollination. In: Steininger, K., König, M., Bednar-Friedl, B., Kranzl, L., Loibl, W., Prettenthaler, F. (eds) Economic Evaluation of Climate Change Impacts. Springer Climate. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12457-5_10

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