Ecosystem service gradients at protected area borders reveal multiple patterns and prevalent management conflicts.

Abstract

Protected areas cannot halt biodiversity loss in isolation; integrating them with surrounding human-dominated landscapes is critical. However, this integration is challenged by substantial landscape heterogeneity at protected area borders, making it difficult to determine cross-border changes in ecosystem service provision. To address this knowledge gap, we developed a novel framework for characterizing these dynamics by analyzing ecosystem service gradients along protected area borders. For 16 protected areas in the French Alps, we used a mix of established biophysical models and novel connectivity-based models for mobile species to assess 12 ecosystem services. These services were aggregated into three stakeholder-driven domains reflecting rural, cultural, and urban management priorities. Automated polynomial regression analysis classified borders into five gradient types. The most common types were decreasing gradients, representing a decline in ecosystem services outside the protected area, and increasing gradients with the opposite pattern. Our analysis revealed that these patterns are driven by specific landscape configurations and uncovered frequent trade-offs between the three management priorities; for example, landscapes supporting rural priorities often degrade cultural and urban ones. We also identified key opportunities for synergies by identifying areas where ecosystem services for all three priority domains increased simultaneously outside the protected area. This spatially explicit typology provides a powerful diagnostic tool for designing targeted interventions, such as prioritizing habitat restoration where ecosystem services decline or managing agricultural landscapes to mitigate conflicts across management priorities, supporting a more effective integration of protected areas into the wider landscape.