TY - JOUR
T1 - Land-use choices
T2 - Balancing human needs and ecosystem function
AU - DeFries, Ruth S.
AU - Foley, Jonathan A.
AU - Asner, Gregory P.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Ecological Society of America.
PY - 2004/6/1
Y1 - 2004/6/1
N2 - Conversion of land to grow crops, raise animals, obtain timber, and build cities is one of the foundations of human civilization. While land use provides these essential ecosystem goods, it alters a range of other ecosystem functions, such as the provisioning of freshwater, regulation of climate and biogeochemical cycles, and maintenance of soil fertility. It also alters habitat for biological diversity. Balancing the inherent trade-offs between satisfying immediate human needs and maintaining other ecosystem functions requires quantitative knowledge about ecosystem responses to land use. These responses vary according to the type of land-use change and the ecological setting, and have local, short-term as well as global, longterm effects. Land-use decisions ultimately weigh the need to satisfy human demands and the unintended ecosystem responses based on societal values, but ecological knowledge can provide a basis for assessing the trade-offs.
AB - Conversion of land to grow crops, raise animals, obtain timber, and build cities is one of the foundations of human civilization. While land use provides these essential ecosystem goods, it alters a range of other ecosystem functions, such as the provisioning of freshwater, regulation of climate and biogeochemical cycles, and maintenance of soil fertility. It also alters habitat for biological diversity. Balancing the inherent trade-offs between satisfying immediate human needs and maintaining other ecosystem functions requires quantitative knowledge about ecosystem responses to land use. These responses vary according to the type of land-use change and the ecological setting, and have local, short-term as well as global, longterm effects. Land-use decisions ultimately weigh the need to satisfy human demands and the unintended ecosystem responses based on societal values, but ecological knowledge can provide a basis for assessing the trade-offs.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84957636591&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84957636591&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1890/1540-9295(2004)002[0249:LCBHNA]2.0.CO;2
DO - 10.1890/1540-9295(2004)002[0249:LCBHNA]2.0.CO;2
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:84957636591
SN - 1540-9295
VL - 2
SP - 249
EP - 257
JO - Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment
JF - Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment
IS - 5
ER -