Regulating/ maintenance services

This section of FES seems to be poorly covered by available indicators (Table 6) and many of these are coded in red. This is the case for “Filtration, sequestration, storage, accumulation by ecosystems” where only two indicators were included, one red and one yellow. It is worth mentioning that in this case the area of forest has been suggested as one indicator, in red, for this service. This is because in this case the area of forest is a qualitative indicator from the perspective that it is able to indicate forested areas, but is unable to account for quantitative information about the supply of the service. Consequently the area of forest is considered to be a coarse indicator unable to convey relevant information to end-users and policy-makers. Therefore, further refined and/or local level assessments should be used for verifying the information provided by this type of indicator. This is applicable to other FES indicators coded in red in the summary table.

Regarding the Division “Mediation of flows” green indicators are those derived from modelling exercises. In this case, more robust information can be provided. However, there is a need for the implementation of specific modelling approaches integrating different spatial datasets usually in a GIS environment or coupled with hydrological models, in particular for erosion protection, water supply and water flow maintenance.

There is wide variability in the indicators identified in the Division “Maintenance of physical, chemical, biological conditions”. Four indicators are coded in green representing the most reliable sources of information for assessment and mapping. A closer look shows that for instance “abundance of pollinators” is an indicator that should be streamlined with the agriculture pilot of MAES considering the strong links of these two ecosystems regarding pollinators. It is also noticeable that for a number of indicators included in the red category more accurate local-level assessments could provide more reliable information to end-users and policy makers. One of the important services provided by forests regarding “global climate regulation” is carbon storage (and carbon sequestration). Indicators for this service could be computed from available proxy datasets derived from remote sensing imagery. Indicators for this service are coded in green and there is good availability of data at European and at country level.

Table 6. Indicators for regulating services delivered by forests

Division Group Class Indicators

Mediation of waste, toxics and other nuisances

Mediation by biota Bio-remediation by micro- organisms, algae, plants, and animals

Filtration/sequestration/storage/a ccumulation by micro-organisms, algae, plants, and animals Mediation by

ecosystems

Filtration/sequestration/storage/a ccumulation by ecosystems

● Area of forest ● Sulphur (S) and Nitrogen (N) retention and

removal Dilution by atmosphere,

freshwater and marine ecosystems

Mediation of smell/noise/visual impacts

Mediation of flows

Mass flows Mass stabilisation and control of erosion rates

● Erosion protection (modelling) ● Area of forest ● Area of

forest designated to the prevention of soil erosion ● Area eroded by wind and water

● Forest cover in high slope areas (GIS analysis) ● Sediments removed from dams, lakes, rivers

Division Group Class Indicators

mass flows Erosion risk mitigation ● Flood risk mitigation Liquid flows Hydrological cycle and water flow

maintenance

● Forest area (designated to preserve water resources) ● Number of floods

●Water retention in forest ● Snow cover ● Infiltration

● Capacity for maintaining baseline flow (modelling) ● Water storage/delivery capacity of soil

● Water supply and discharge (hydrological modelling) ●

Important areas for water infiltration and headwater surroundings covered by forest

● Drought and water scarcity

Flood protection ● Special protection areas for preventing mass flows linked to the River Basin Management Plans

●Reforestation of forest territories against floods ●Number of floods

Gaseous / air flows Storm protection ● Area of forest designated to protect infrastructure and managed nat. resources

●Frequency of storms ● Area of forest Ventilation and transpiration None

Maintenan ce of physical, chemical, biological conditions Lifecycle maintenance, habitat and gene pool protection

Pollination and seed dispersal ● Number of pollinator species ● Number of bee hives

● Abundance of pollinators (maps) ● Areas managed for gene conservation ● Pollination potential (maps)

● Surface area of dependent crops ● Honey production (modelling) ● Honey consumption Maintaining nursery populations

and habitats

● Tree species distribution ● Conservation investments ● Protected Areas for nursery populations

● Forest area designated for habitat-landscape protection: Natura2000, etc.

Pest and disease control

Pest control ● Host-species (trees) abundance

●Surface of healthy Forests (quality parameter of forest health) ●Number of pests and diseases

●Surface affected by pests and diseases ●Number of IAS ●Surface occupied by IAS ●Damage costs

Disease control None Soil formation and

composition

Weathering processes ● Area of forest ● Restoration costs ● Forest soil condition: chemical soil properties Decomposition and fixing

processes

● Soil organic matter ● Amount of dead wood ● Thickness of the organic layer

Water conditions Chemical condition of freshwaters

● Area of forest ● Water quality

● Forest area designated to preserve waters resources ●Cost

of water purification Chemical condition of salt waters

Atmospheric composition and climate regulation

Global climate regulation by reduction of greenhouse gas concentrations

● C storage in forest

● C sequestration by forest (NPP; NEP)

● Forest growth, growing stock ●Number of CO2 emissions permits Micro and regional climate

regulation

● Area of forest ● Albedo maps ●Foliar surface index ● Ozone & particle pollution