Sorice Michael G, Kreuter Urs P, Wilcox Bradford P, Fox William E
Department of Forest Resources & Environmental Conservation, 310A Cheatham Hall (0324), Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA.
Department of Ecosystem Science & Management, Texas A&M University, 2138 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843, USA.
J Environ Manage. 2014 Jan 15;133:144-52. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2013.11.029. Epub 2013 Dec 26.
Motivations for owning rural land are shifting from an agricultural-production orientation to a preference for natural and cultural amenities. Resultant changes in land management have significant implications for the type and distribution of landscape-level disturbances that affect the delivery of ecosystem services. We examined the relationship between motivations for owning land and the implementation of conservation land management practices by landowners in the Southern Great Plains of the United States. Using a mail survey, we classified landowners into three groups: agricultural production, multiple-objective, and lifestyle-oriented. Cross tabulations of landowner group with past, current, and future use of 12 different land management practices (related to prescribed grazing, vegetation management, restoration, and water management) found that lifestyle-oriented landowners were overall less likely to adopt these practices. To the degree that the cultural landscape of rural lands transitions from production-oriented to lifestyle-oriented landowners, the ecological landscape and the associated flow of ecosystem services will likely change. This poses new challenges to natural resource managers regarding education, outreach, and policy; however, a better understanding about the net ecological consequences of lower rates of adoption of conservation management practices requires consideration of the ecological tradeoffs associated with the changing resource dependency of rural landowners.
拥有农村土地的动机正从以农业生产为导向转向对自然和文化便利设施的偏好。土地管理方面由此产生的变化对影响生态系统服务供给的景观层面干扰的类型和分布具有重大影响。我们研究了美国大平原南部土地所有者拥有土地的动机与实施保护性土地管理措施之间的关系。通过邮件调查，我们将土地所有者分为三类：农业生产型、多目标型和生活方式导向型。对土地所有者类别与12种不同土地管理措施（与规定放牧、植被管理、恢复和水资源管理相关）的过去、当前和未来使用情况进行交叉列表分析发现，生活方式导向型土地所有者总体上采用这些措施的可能性较小。随着农村土地的文化景观从以生产为导向的土地所有者向以生活方式为导向的土地所有者转变，生态景观以及相关的生态系统服务流动可能会发生变化。这给自然资源管理者在教育、宣传和政策方面带来了新挑战；然而，要更好地理解保护性管理措施采用率较低所带来的净生态后果，需要考虑与农村土地所有者不断变化的资源依赖相关的生态权衡。
