Pedosphere Research, vol. 3, 2023, no. 2: 65 – 82
Original Paper
POSSIBILITIES FOR ASSESSING ECOSYSTEM SERVICES IN AN AGRARIAN LANDSCAPE
Jarmila Makovníková1, Stanislav Kološta2, Boris Pálka1
1National Agricultural and Food Centre – Soil Science and Conservation Research Institute Bratislava, Mládežnícka 36, Regional Station, 974 04 Banská Bystrica, Slovak Republic
2Matej Bel University, Faculty of Economics, Tajovského 10, 974 01 Banská Bystrica,
Slovak Republic
Corresponding author: RNDr. Jarmila Makovníková, PhD., National Agricultural and Food Centre – Soil Science and Conservation Research Institute Bratislava, Slovakia,
e-mail: jarmila.makovnikova@nppc.sk, ORCID ID: 0000-0002-3328-405X
Citation: Makovníková, J., Kološta, S., Pálka, B. (2023). Possibilities for assessing ecosystem services in an agrarian landscape. Pedosphere Research, vol. 3, 2023, no. 2, pp. 65–82. NPPC – VÚPOP 2023. ISSN 2729-8728.
https://doi.org/10.64122/j.pedosres.2023.03.05
Abstract
The quantification and assessment of ecosystem services (ES) is also one of the driving forces of the sustainable development of human activities in the context of natural capital. The aim of the article is to apply and compare three different approaches to the assessment of regulatory ecosystem services on the example of the agrarian landscape (model region Krupina) in Slovakia: 1) using a matrix system, 2) assessment based on soil functions and 3) assessment of ecosystem services through the multiplicative soil health index. The matrix system only allows for the overall assessment of individual ecosystems, the quantification of ES using soil functions, as well as the assessment of ES through the Soil Health Index, with good data availability, pro-vide more accurate results at the regional and local level. Our results showed that the use of the composite index in the assessment of regulatory services is comparable to the assessment of water regime regulation and cleaning potential. Individual models for two regulatory services, climate regulation potential and erosion regulation potential, with dominance of only one category, are incomparable to the composite soil health index in evaluating regulating services. The results of the assessment of ES using the healthy soil index belong to robust models de-scribing the relationship between the potential of regulating ES and explanatory variables.
Keywords: ecosystem services, matrix approach, soil indicators, soil health, Krupina region