Ecosystem services and biodiversity values in grasslands and shrublands in Santa Cruz province (Argentina)

Abstract

Effective land use planning must consider both instrumental (monetary) and intrinsic (nonmonetary) values derived from nature to ensure that the significance of natural assets is adequately integrated into our perspectives, planning processes and resource management strategies. As an initial step toward this broader objective, we characterize ecosystem services (cultural, supporting, regulating and provisioning) and potential biodiversity (indicator species of plants, insects, lizards, birds and mammals) within the predominant vegetation types (wetlands, shrublands and grasslands) located in Santa Cruz province, Argentina. Our findings reveal that vegetation types support distinct potential biodiversity and offer unique bundles of ecosystem services. The findings of this study provide valuable insights for land use planning in Santa Cruz (Argentina), integrating considerations of ecosystem services and biodiversity values. For cultural ecosystem services, wetlands exhibited the highest aesthetic and recreational values, while dwarf-shrublands scored highest for existence values. Wetlands were also important for regulating ecosystem services, whereas steppe grasslands ranked the lowest in this regard.Although steppe grasslands possess the highest potential biodiversity values, these values are notdistributed homogeneously, with hotspots located: (i) on the southern border of Santa Cruz(4 million ha), (ii) 2.75 million ha in the north, and (iii) one smaller area of 1.25-million ha in thecentral-east.