Rule-based Quantification and Mapping of Ecosystem Services Across Three Spatial Scales by Example of Germany

The state of ecosystems influences their services for humans. Therefore, the European Union aims to assess and map ecosystem conditions and ecosystem services at the level of the Union and the Member States, in order to implement maintenance or protection measures, if necessary. This paper aims at creating a methodology allowing to quantify and map the potential supply of selected forest ecosystem services over time, considering the influence of climate change and atmospheric nitrogen deposition which is, in contrast to previous approaches, reproducible. Therefore, the methodology was operationalised in a rule-based manner enabling to quantify and map ecosystem services at the local, regional and national level using Germany as an example. To this end, in a first step 125 near natural forest ecosystem types covering Germany were grouped into 78 classes according to the degree of similarity of their ecological characteristics that influence the provision of ecosystem services. Thereby, ecoclimatic, soil, hydrological, nutrient balance characteristics and 12 potential ecosystem service capacities were taken into account. Three potential ecosystem services (habitat, carbon storage, primary production) were quantified for selected representatives of the ecosystem type classes according to complex, but fully transparent rules, and mapped at the local, regional and national level.