In the future, the world is expected to rely increasingly on renewable biomass resources for food, fodder, fibre and fuel. The sustainability of this transition to bioeconomy for our water systems depends to a large extent on how we manage our land resources. Changes in land use together with climate change will affect water quantity and quality, which again will have implications for the ecosystem services provided by water resources. These are the main topics of this Ambio special issue on “Environmental effects of a green bio-economy”. This paper offers a summary of the eleven papers included in this issue and, at the same time, outlines an approach to quantify and mitigate the impacts of bioeconomy on water resources and their ecosystem services, with indications of useful tools and knowledge needs.

将来，预计世界将越来越依赖可再生生物质资源来获取食品，饲料，纤维和燃料。水系统向生物经济过渡的可持续性在很大程度上取决于我们如何管理土地资源。土地用途的变化以及气候变化将影响水的数量和质量，这将再次对水资源提供的生态系统服务产生影响。这些都是这主要议题Ambio-人类环境杂志特刊“绿色生物经济对环境的影响”。本文提供了本期11篇论文的摘要，同时概述了一种量化和减轻生物经济对水资源及其生态系统服务影响的方法，并指出了有用的工具和知识需求。