DOI: 10.5061/dryad.18931zcv3
title: Data from: Widespread and major losses in multiple ecosystem services as a result of agricultural expansion in the Argentine Chaco

description:   Where agriculture expands into tropical and subtropical
 forests, social-ecological impacts are typically strong. However, where
 and how frontier development impacts on ecosystem functioning and services
 is often unclear, including which services trade off against agricultural
 production. This constitutes a major barrier towards planning for more
 sustainable outcomes in deforestation frontiers. Here, we assessed
 spatiotemporal change in multiple ecosystem services in the Argentine
 Chaco, a global deforestation hotspot. We modelled and mapped five
 ecosystem functions (i.e., carbon storage in biomass, carbon storage in
 soil, erosion control, excess rainfall retention by vegetation, and soil
 fertility) which together provide three ecosystem services (i.e.,
 agricultural suitability, climate regulation, and flood regulation) for
 1985, 2000, and 2013. We then employed this information to identify and
 map: (i) main trade-offs between ecosystem services and agricultural
 production, and (ii) bundles of changes in ecosystem services through the
 use of Self-Organizing Maps. Our results highlight that land-use changes
 since 1985 have led to widespread and drastic declines in ecosystem
 functions and services across the Argentine Chaco. Mean losses of
 ecosystem services ranged between 6% and 10% for flood regulation, climate
 regulation and agricultural suitability. The largest losses occurred in
 the Dry Chaco sub-region between 2000 and 201 We find two main types of
 trade-offs between regulating ecosystem services and agricultural
 production. Increases in crop and pasture production occurred along with
 large and moderate losses, respectively, in flood regulation and climate
 regulation over 20% of the region. Our mapping of bundles identified five
 common patterns of change in ecosystem services, delineating areas of
 stable or degrading ecosystem service supply. This provides a powerful
 template for adaptive spatial planning. Synthesis and applications. Using
 the Argentinean Chaco as an example, we demonstrate how combining
 fine-scale land-use maps with biophysical models provides deep insights
 into the spatiotemporal patterns of changes in ecosystem services, and
 their trade-offs with agricultural production. The periodic updating of
 maps of trade-offs and bundles of change in ecosystem services provides
 key inputs for the adaptive management of highly dynamic and threatened
 landscapes, such as those in tropical and subtropical deforestation
 frontiers.
description: <strong>Database-relative_differences</strong> To assess regional changes in ecosystem functions and services between 1985 and 2013, we calculated the relative differences in each ecosystem function and service for three time periods (2000-1985, 2013-2000 and 2013-1985) and averaged the relative differences at the regional and sub-regional levels. <strong>Database-trade_off</strong> To evaluate trade-offs between ecosystem services and agricultural production in the region, we classified gridcells according to (i) the magnitude of ecosystem service losses, and (ii) the type of land-use conversion as an indicator of the magnitude of changes in agricultural production. For (i), we classified gridcells according to the magnitude of losses from 1985 to 2013 in each ecosystem service into: small losses, moderate losses, and large losses, defined as the lower, middle, and upper third of the distribution of values. For (ii), we classified gridcells according to the land use change from 1985 to 2013 into three categories (no conversion, conversion to crop, conversion to pasture). To assess relationships between ecosystem service losses and land-use conversions, we ran a correspondence analysis.