Analysis of the relationship between ecosystem services: biomass production and biodiversity in herbaceous communities of seminatural grasslands and urban green spaces.

Abstract

The strategic planning of Green Infrastructure (GI) is pivotal for the achievement of the goals set by sustainable development policies on urban and rural areas. Since GI are built to simultaneously provide a wide range of ecosystem services (ESs), it is crucial to understand the relationships between ESs and the implication of external factors (e.g., landscape configuration) to maximise the supply of all the ESs. However, substantial knowledge gaps persist in the literature, and useful insights on GI planning are still missing. In this study, we investigated the relationship between two ESs: biomass production and biodiversity of herbaceous communities of seminatural grasslands and urban green spaces in Cartigliano (VI). The analysis aims at i) defining the relationship between the two ESs and ii) identifying the main spatial configuration attributes involved in this relationship. First, the correlation analysis showed a trade-off between biomass production and biodiversity for herbaceous communities. Second, linear regression analysis revealed that the patch configuration attributes (namely the area, the perimeter and the contrast with artificial areas) affected the trade-off. Therefore, our study highlighted that both intrinsic and extrinsic features of seminatural and urban herbaceous patches need to be accounted in GI planning, to maximise the simultaneous supply of ESs.