Ecosystem services and economic development in Austrian agricultural landscapes - The impact of policy and climate change scenarios on trade-offs and synergies

We have developed an integrated modeling framework (IMF) to quantify indicators for ecosystem services (ES) and economic development (ED) in agricultural landscapes. Austria serves as a case study in which impacts, trade-offs, and synergies of ES and ED are assessed for different agricultural policy pathways and regional climate change scenarios. Agricultural intensification and incentivized use of provisioning ES (e.g. biomass production) lead to higher macro-economic output (e.g. GDP) but usually reduce ES related to regulation and maintenance (e.g. ecological integrity, climate regulation), as well as cultural services (landscape diversity). We revealed both synergies for certain ES (e.g. biomass production and soil organic carbon stocks) as well as large spatial deviations from the national mean across the heterogeneous agricultural landscapes in Austria. Climate change scenarios (i) lead to substantial variation in ES and ED indicators and (ii) usually amplify trade-offs by stimulating land use intensification. Our findings depict the complex relationship between different ES and ED indicators as well as the importance of considering spatial heterogeneity and regional climate change. This assessment can help to improve targeting of agri-environmental schemes in order to provide a more balanced and efficient supply of ES and to foster rural development. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.