Cross-scale analysis of ecosystem services identified and assessed at local and European level

In particular, the challenges and limitations involved in attempting holistic assessments of ecosystem services at the level of a management unit in the UK were investigated using two sets of ecosystem service indicators: (i) identified by local land managers and (ii) derived from EU-based spatially explicit data coupled with process-based models. The difference in the ecosystem services estimated for 11 sites of the Environmental Change Network (ECN) by the two methodologies was compared using (i) total ecosystem service index (TESI), (ii) regression analysis of comparable ecosystem service indicators, and (iii) multivariate techniques to determine site comparability. The comparative analysis revealed robust grouping of sites by both methods coupled with weak correlation between the different ecosystem service indicators assessed. This study indicated that both methods characterised the general landscapes in a similar way, but total ecosystem service index was critically dependent on indicators selected.