A framework for predicting impacts on ecosystem services from (sub)organismal responses to chemicals.

PubMed

Forbes, Valery E; Salice, Chris J; Birnir, Bjorn; Bruins, Randy J F; Calow, Peter; Ducrot, Virginie; Galic, Nika; Garber, Kristina; Harvey, Bret C; Jager, Henriette; Kanarek, Andrew; Pastorok, Robert; Railsback, Steve F; Rebarber, Richard; Thorbek, Pernille

2017-04-01

Protection of ecosystem services is increasingly emphasized as a risk-assessment goal, but there are wide gaps between current ecological risk-assessment endpoints and potential effects on services provided by ecosystems. The authors present a framework that links common ecotoxicological endpoints to chemical impacts on populations and communities and the ecosystem services that they provide. This framework builds on considerable advances in mechanistic effects models designed to span multiple levels of biological organization and account for various types of biological interactions and feedbacks. For illustration, the authors introduce 2 case studies that employ well-developed and validated mechanistic effects models: the inSTREAM individual-based model for fish populations and the AQUATOX ecosystem model. They also show how dynamic energy budget theory can provide a common currency for interpreting organism-level toxicity. They suggest that a framework based on mechanistic models that predict impacts on ecosystem services resulting from chemical exposure, combined with economic valuation, can provide a useful approach for informing environmental management. The authors highlight the potential benefits of using this framework as well as the challenges that will need to be addressed in future work. Environ Toxicol Chem 2017;36:845-859. © 2017 SETAC. © 2017 SETAC.

Perception, acquisition and use of ecosystem services: human behavior, and ecosystem management and policy implications

Treesearch

Stanley T. Asah; Anne D. Guerry; Dale J. Blahna; Joshua J. Lawler

2014-01-01

Ecosystem services, fundamental to livelihoods and well-being, are reshaping environmental management and policy. However, the behavioral dimensions of ecosystem services and the responses of ordinary people to the management of those services, is less well understood. The ecosystem services framework lends itself to understanding the relationship between ecosystems...

National Ecosystem Services Classification System (NESCS): Framework Design and Policy Application

EPA Science Inventory

Understanding the ways in which ecosystems provide flows of “services” to humans is critical for decision making in many contexts; however, relationships between natural and human systems are complex. A well-defined framework for classifying ecosystem services is essential for sy...

Exploring the Capacity of Water Framework Directive Indices to Assess Ecosystem Services in Fluvial and Riparian Systems: Towards a Second Implementation Phase.

PubMed

Vidal-Abarca, M R; Santos-Martín, F; Martín-López, B; Sánchez-Montoya, M M; Suárez Alonso, M L

2016-06-01

We explored the capacity of the biological and hydromorphological indices used in the Water Framework Directive (WFD) to assess ecosystem services by evaluating the ecological status of Spanish River Basins. This analysis relies on an exhaustive bibliography review which showed scientific evidence of the interlinkages between some ecosystem services and different hydromorphological and biological elements which have been used as indices in the WFD. Our findings indicate that, of a total of 38 ecosystem services analyzed, biological and hydromorphological indices can fully evaluate four ecosystem services. In addition, 18 ecosystem services can be partly evaluated by some of the analyzed indices, while 11 are not related with the indices. While Riparian Forest Quality was the index that was able to assess the largest number of ecosystem services (N = 12), the two indices of macrophytes offered very poor guarantees. Finally, biological indices related to diatoms and aquatic invertebrates and the Fluvial Habitat Index can be related with 7, 6, and 6 ecosystem services, respectively. Because the WFD indices currently used in Spain are not able to assess most of the ecosystem services analyzed, we suggest that there is potential to develop the second phase of the WFD implementation taking this approach into consideration. The incorporation of the ecosystem services approach into the WFD could provide the framework for assess the impacts of human activities on the quality of fluvial ecosystems and could give insights for water and watershed management in order to guarantee the delivery of multiple ecosystem services.

Ecosystem services classification: A systems ecology perspective of the cascade framework.

PubMed

La Notte, Alessandra; D'Amato, Dalia; Mäkinen, Hanna; Paracchini, Maria Luisa; Liquete, Camino; Egoh, Benis; Geneletti, Davide; Crossman, Neville D

2017-03-01

Ecosystem services research faces several challenges stemming from the plurality of interpretations of classifications and terminologies. In this paper we identify two main challenges with current ecosystem services classification systems: i) the inconsistency across concepts, terminology and definitions, and; ii) the mix up of processes and end-state benefits, or flows and assets. Although different ecosystem service definitions and interpretations can be valuable for enriching the research landscape, it is necessary to address the existing ambiguity to improve comparability among ecosystem-service-based approaches. Using the cascade framework as a reference, and Systems Ecology as a theoretical underpinning, we aim to address the ambiguity across typologies. The cascade framework links ecological processes with elements of human well-being following a pattern similar to a production chain. Systems Ecology is a long-established discipline which provides insight into complex relationships between people and the environment. We present a refreshed conceptualization of ecosystem services which can support ecosystem service assessment techniques and measurement. We combine the notions of biomass, information and interaction from system ecology, with the ecosystem services conceptualization to improve definitions and clarify terminology. We argue that ecosystem services should be defined as the interactions (i.e. processes) of the ecosystem that produce a change in human well-being, while ecosystem components or goods, i.e. countable as biomass units, are only proxies in the assessment of such changes. Furthermore, Systems Ecology can support a re-interpretation of the ecosystem services conceptualization and related applied research, where more emphasis is needed on the underpinning complexity of the ecological system.

Environmental Impacts of the Use of Ecosystem Services: Case Study of Birdwatching

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kronenberg, Jakub

2014-09-01

The main reason for promoting the concept of ecosystem services lies in its potential to contribute to environmental conservation. Highlighting the benefits derived from ecosystems fosters an understanding of humans' dependence on nature, as users of ecosystem services. However, the act of using ecosystem services may not be environmentally neutral. As with the use of products and services generated within an economy, the use of ecosystem services may lead to unintended environmental consequences throughout the `ecosystem services supply chain.' This article puts forward a framework for analyzing environmental impacts related to the use of ecosystem services, indicating five categories of impact: (1) direct impacts (directly limiting the service's future availability); and four categories of indirect impacts, i.e., on broader ecosystem structures and processes, which can ultimately also affect the initial service: (2) impacts related to managing ecosystems to maximize the delivery of selected services (affecting ecosystems' capacity to provide other services); (3) impacts associated with accessing ecosystems to use their services (affecting other ecosystem components); (4) additional consumption of products, infrastructure or services required to use a selected ecosystem service, and their life-cycle environmental impacts; and (5) broader impacts on the society as a whole (environmental awareness of ecosystem service users and other stakeholders). To test the usefulness of this framework, the article uses the case study of birdwatching, which demonstrates all of the above categories of impacts. The article justifies the need for a broader consideration of environmental impacts related to the use of ecosystem services.

Comparative review of multifunctionality and ecosystem services in sustainable agriculture.

PubMed

Huang, Jiao; Tichit, Muriel; Poulot, Monique; Darly, Ségolène; Li, Shuangcheng; Petit, Caroline; Aubry, Christine

2015-02-01

Two scientific communities with broad interest in sustainable agriculture independently focus on multifunctional agriculture or ecosystem services. These communities have limited interaction and exchange, and each group faces research challenges according to independently operating paradigms. This paper presents a comparative review of published research in multifunctional agriculture and ecosystem services. The motivation for this work is to improve communication, integrate experimental approaches, and propose areas of consensus and dialog for the two communities. This extensive analysis of publication trends, ideologies, and approaches enables formulation of four main conclusions. First, the two communities are closely related through their use of the term "function." However, multifunctional agriculture considers functions as agricultural activity outputs and prefers farm-centred approaches, whereas ecosystem services considers ecosystem functions in the provision of services and prefers service-centred approaches. Second, research approaches to common questions in these two communities share some similarities, and there would be great value in integrating these approaches. Third, the two communities have potential for dialog regarding the bundle of ecosystem services and the spectrum of multifunctional agriculture, or regarding land sharing and land sparing. Fourth, we propose an integrated conceptual framework that distinguishes six groups of ecosystem services and disservices in the agricultural landscape, and combines the concepts of multifunctional agriculture and ecosystem services. This integrated framework improves applications of multifunctional agriculture and ecosystem services for operational use. Future research should examine if the framework can be readily adapted for modelling specific problems in agricultural management. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

An Integrated Modeling Framework Forecasting Ecosystem Services: Application to the Albemarle Pamlico Basins, NC and VA (USA)

EPA Science Inventory

We demonstrate an Integrated Modeling Framework that predicts the state of freshwater ecosystem services within the Albemarle-Pamlico Basins. The Framework consists of three facilitating technologies: Data for Environmental Modeling (D4EM) that automates the collection and standa...

An Integrated Modeling Framework Forcasting Ecosystem Services--Application to the Albemarle Pamlico Basins, NC and VA (USA) and Beyond

EPA Science Inventory

We demonstrate an Integrated Modeling Framework that predicts the state of freshwater ecosystem services within the Albemarle-Pamlico Basins. The Framework consists of three facilitating technologies: Data for Environmental Modeling (D4EM) that automates the collection and standa...

An operational structured decision making framework for assessing changes in final ecosystem goods and services and consequences to human well-being

EPA Science Inventory

Pressure to develop an operational framework for decision makers to employ the concepts of ecosystem goods and services for assessing changes to human well-being has been increasing since these concepts gained widespread notoriety after the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Report....

A process-based framework for soil ecosystem services study and management.

PubMed

Su, Changhong; Liu, Huifang; Wang, Shuai

2018-06-15

Soil provides various indispensable ecosystem services for human society. Soil's complex structure and property makes the soil ecological processes complicated and brings about tough challenges for soil ecosystem services study. Most of the current frameworks on soil services focus exclusively on services per se, neglecting the links and underlying ecological mechanisms. This article put forward a framework on soil services by stressing the underlying soil mechanisms and processes, which includes: 1) analyzing soil natural capital stock based on soil structure and property, 2) disentangling the underlying complex links and soil processes, 3) soil services valuation based on field investigation and spatial explicit models, and 4) enacting soil management strategy based on soil services and their driving factors. By application of this framework, we assessed the soil services of sediment retention, water yield, and grain production in the Upper-reach Fenhe Watershed. Based on the ecosystem services and human driving factors, the whole watershed was clustered into five groups: 1) municipal area, 2) typical coal mining area, 3) traditional farming area, 4) unsustainable urbanizing area, and 5) ecological conservation area. Management strategies on soils were made according to the clustering based soil services and human activities. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Conservation Planning for Ecosystem Services

PubMed Central

Chan, Kai M. A; Shaw, M. Rebecca; Cameron, David R; Underwood, Emma C; Daily, Gretchen C

2006-01-01

Despite increasing attention to the human dimension of conservation projects, a rigorous, systematic methodology for planning for ecosystem services has not been developed. This is in part because flows of ecosystem services remain poorly characterized at local-to-regional scales, and their protection has not generally been made a priority. We used a spatially explicit conservation planning framework to explore the trade-offs and opportunities for aligning conservation goals for biodiversity with six ecosystem services (carbon storage, flood control, forage production, outdoor recreation, crop pollination, and water provision) in the Central Coast ecoregion of California, United States. We found weak positive and some weak negative associations between the priority areas for biodiversity conservation and the flows of the six ecosystem services across the ecoregion. Excluding the two agriculture-focused services—crop pollination and forage production—eliminates all negative correlations. We compared the degree to which four contrasting conservation network designs protect biodiversity and the flow of the six services. We found that biodiversity conservation protects substantial collateral flows of services. Targeting ecosystem services directly can meet the multiple ecosystem services and biodiversity goals more efficiently but cannot substitute for targeted biodiversity protection (biodiversity losses of 44% relative to targeting biodiversity alone). Strategically targeting only biodiversity plus the four positively associated services offers much promise (relative biodiversity losses of 7%). Here we present an initial analytical framework for integrating biodiversity and ecosystem services in conservation planning and illustrate its application. We found that although there are important potential trade-offs between conservation for biodiversity and for ecosystem services, a systematic planning framework offers scope for identifying valuable synergies. PMID:17076586

Ecohydrological processes and ecosystem services in the Anthropocene: a review

Treesearch

Ge Sun; Dennis Hallema; Heidi Asbjornsen

2017-01-01

The framework for ecosystem services has been increasingly used in integrated watershed ecosystem management practices that involve scientists, engineers, managers, and policy makers. The objective of this review is to explore the intimate connections between ecohydrological processes and water-related ecosystem services in human-dominated ecosystems in the...

Realizing the potential of ecosystem services: a framework for relating ecological changes to economic benefits.

PubMed

Wainger, Lisa; Mazzotta, Marisa

2011-10-01

Increasingly government agencies are seeking to quantify the outcomes of proposed policy options in terms of ecosystem service benefits, yet conflicting definitions and ad hoc approaches to measuring ecosystem services have created confusion regarding how to rigorously link ecological change to changes in human well-being. Here, we describe a step-by-step framework for producing ecological models and metrics that can effectively serve an economic-benefits assessment of a proposed change in policy or management. A focus of the framework is developing comparable units of ecosystem goods and services to support decision-making, even if outcomes cannot be monetized. Because the challenges to translating ecological changes to outcomes appropriate for economic analyses are many, we discuss examples that demonstrate practical methods and approaches to overcoming data limitations. The numerous difficult decisions that government agencies must make to fairly use and allocate natural resources provides ample opportunity for interdisciplinary teams of natural and social scientists to improve methods for quantifying changes in ecosystem services and their effects on human well-being. This framework is offered with the intent of promoting the success of such teams as they support managers in evaluating the equivalency of ecosystem service offsets and trades, establishing restoration and preservation priorities, and more generally, in developing environmental policy that effectively balances multiple perspectives.

Ecosystem Services Flows: Why Stakeholders' Power Relationships Matter.

PubMed

Felipe-Lucia, María R; Martín-López, Berta; Lavorel, Sandra; Berraquero-Díaz, Luis; Escalera-Reyes, Javier; Comín, Francisco A

2015-01-01

The ecosystem services framework has enabled the broader public to acknowledge the benefits nature provides to different stakeholders. However, not all stakeholders benefit equally from these services. Rather, power relationships are a key factor influencing the access of individuals or groups to ecosystem services. In this paper, we propose an adaptation of the "cascade" framework for ecosystem services to integrate the analysis of ecological interactions among ecosystem services and stakeholders' interactions, reflecting power relationships that mediate ecosystem services flows. We illustrate its application using the floodplain of the River Piedra (Spain) as a case study. First, we used structural equation modelling (SEM) to model the dependence relationships among ecosystem services. Second, we performed semi-structured interviews to identify formal power relationships among stakeholders. Third, we depicted ecosystem services according to stakeholders' ability to use, manage or impair ecosystem services in order to expose how power relationships mediate access to ecosystem services. Our results revealed that the strongest power was held by those stakeholders who managed (although did not use) those keystone ecosystem properties and services that determine the provision of other services (i.e., intermediate regulating and final services). In contrast, non-empowered stakeholders were only able to access the remaining non-excludable and non-rival ecosystem services (i.e., some of the cultural services, freshwater supply, water quality, and biological control). In addition, land stewardship, access rights, and governance appeared as critical factors determining the status of ecosystem services. Finally, we stress the need to analyse the role of stakeholders and their relationships to foster equal access to ecosystem services.

Ecosystem Services Flows: Why Stakeholders’ Power Relationships Matter

PubMed Central

Felipe-Lucia, María R.; Martín-López, Berta; Lavorel, Sandra; Berraquero-Díaz, Luis; Escalera-Reyes, Javier; Comín, Francisco A.

2015-01-01

The ecosystem services framework has enabled the broader public to acknowledge the benefits nature provides to different stakeholders. However, not all stakeholders benefit equally from these services. Rather, power relationships are a key factor influencing the access of individuals or groups to ecosystem services. In this paper, we propose an adaptation of the “cascade” framework for ecosystem services to integrate the analysis of ecological interactions among ecosystem services and stakeholders’ interactions, reflecting power relationships that mediate ecosystem services flows. We illustrate its application using the floodplain of the River Piedra (Spain) as a case study. First, we used structural equation modelling (SEM) to model the dependence relationships among ecosystem services. Second, we performed semi-structured interviews to identify formal power relationships among stakeholders. Third, we depicted ecosystem services according to stakeholders’ ability to use, manage or impair ecosystem services in order to expose how power relationships mediate access to ecosystem services. Our results revealed that the strongest power was held by those stakeholders who managed (although did not use) those keystone ecosystem properties and services that determine the provision of other services (i.e., intermediate regulating and final services). In contrast, non-empowered stakeholders were only able to access the remaining non-excludable and non-rival ecosystem services (i.e., some of the cultural services, freshwater supply, water quality, and biological control). In addition, land stewardship, access rights, and governance appeared as critical factors determining the status of ecosystem services. Finally, we stress the need to analyse the role of stakeholders and their relationships to foster equal access to ecosystem services. PMID:26201000

Is an ecosystem services-based approach developed for setting specific protection goals for plant protection products applicable to other chemicals?

PubMed

Maltby, Lorraine; Jackson, Mathew; Whale, Graham; Brown, A Ross; Hamer, Mick; Solga, Andreas; Kabouw, Patrick; Woods, Richard; Marshall, Stuart

2017-02-15

Clearly defined protection goals specifying what to protect, where and when, are required for designing scientifically sound risk assessments and effective risk management of chemicals. Environmental protection goals specified in EU legislation are defined in general terms, resulting in uncertainty in how to achieve them. In 2010, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) published a framework to identify more specific protection goals based on ecosystem services potentially affected by plant protection products. But how applicable is this framework to chemicals with different emission scenarios and receptor ecosystems? Four case studies used to address this question were: (i) oil refinery waste water exposure in estuarine environments; (ii) oil dispersant exposure in aquatic environments; (iii) down the drain chemicals exposure in a wide range of ecosystems (terrestrial and aquatic); (iv) persistent organic pollutant exposure in remote (pristine) Arctic environments. A four-step process was followed to identify ecosystems and services potentially impacted by chemical emissions and to define specific protection goals. Case studies demonstrated that, in principle, the ecosystem services concept and the EFSA framework can be applied to derive specific protection goals for a broad range of chemical exposure scenarios. By identifying key habitats and ecosystem services of concern, the approach offers the potential for greater spatial and temporal resolution, together with increased environmental relevance, in chemical risk assessments. With modifications including improved clarity on terminology/definitions and further development/refinement of the key concepts, we believe the principles of the EFSA framework could provide a methodical approach to the identification and prioritization of ecosystems, ecosystem services and the service providing units that are most at risk from chemical exposure. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Embedding ecosystem services into the Marine Strategy Framework Directive: Illustrated by eutrophication in the North Sea

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

O'Higgins, T. G.; Gilbert, A. J.

2014-03-01

The introduction of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) with its focus on an Ecosystem Approach places an emphasis on the human dimensions of environmental problems. Human activities may be the source of marine degradation, but may also be adversely affected should degradation compromise the provision of ecosystem services. The MSFD marks a shift away from management aiming to restore past, undegraded states toward management for Good Environmental Status (GEnS) based on delivery of marine goods and services. An example relating ecosystem services to criteria for Good Environmental Status is presented for eutrophication, a long recognised problem in many parts of Europe's seas and specifically targeted by descriptors for GEnS. Taking the North Sea as a case study the relationships between the eutrophication criteria of the MSFD and final and intermediate marine ecosystem services are examined. Ecosystem services are valued, where possible in monetary terms, in order to illustrate how eutrophication affects human welfare (economic externalities) through its multiple effects on ecosystem services.

Valuing trade-offs of river ecosystem services in large hydropower development in Tibet, China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, B.; Xu, L.

2015-12-01

Hydropower development can be considered as a kind of trade-offs of ecosystem services generated by human activity for their economic and energy demand, because it can increase some river ecosystem services but decrease others. In this context, an ecosystem service trade-off framework in hydropower development was proposed in this paper. It aims to identify the ecological cost of river ecosystem and serve for the ecological compensation during hydropower development, for the hydropower services cannot completely replace the regulating services of river ecosystem. The valuing trade-offs framework was integrated by the influenced ecosystem services identification and ecosystem services valuation, through ecological monitoring and ecological economic methods, respectively. With a case study of Pondo hydropower project in Tibet, China, the valuing trade-offs of river ecosystem services in large hydropower development was illustrated. The typical ecological factors including water, sediment and soil were analyzed in this study to identify the altered river ecosystem services by Pondo hydropower project. Through the field monitoring and valuation, the results showed that the Lhasa River ecosystem services value could be changed annually by Pondo hydropower project with the increment of 5.7E+8CNY, and decrement of 5.1E+7CNY. The ecological compensation for river ecosystem should be focus on water and soil conservation, reservoir dredging and tributaries habitat protection.

Identifying hotspots and management of critical ecosystem services in rapidly urbanizing Yangtze River Delta Region, China.

PubMed

Cai, Wenbo; Gibbs, David; Zhang, Lang; Ferrier, Graham; Cai, Yongli

2017-04-15

Rapid urbanization has altered many ecosystems, causing a decline in many ecosystem services, generating serious ecological crisis. To cope with these challenges, we presented a comprehensive framework comprising five core steps for identifying and managing hotspots of critical ecosystem services in a rapid urbanizing region. This framework was applied in the case study of the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) Region. The study showed that there was large spatial heterogeneity in the hotspots of ecosystem services in the region, hotspots of supporting services and regulating services aggregately distributing in the southwest mountainous areas while hotspots of provisioning services mainly in the northeast plain, and hotspots of cultural services widespread in the waterbodies and southwest mountainous areas. The regionalization of the critical ecosystem services was made through the hotspot analysis. This study provided valuable information for environmental planning and management in a rapid urbanizing region and helped improve China's ecological redlines policy at regional scale. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Evaluating ecosystem services provided by non-native species: an experimental test in California grasslands.

PubMed

Stein, Claudia; Hallett, Lauren M; Harpole, W Stanley; Suding, Katharine N

2014-01-01

The concept of ecosystem services--the benefits that nature provides to human's society--has gained increasing attention over the past decade. Increasing global abiotic and biotic change, including species invasions, is threatening the secure delivery of these ecosystem services. Efficient evaluation methods of ecosystem services are urgently needed to improve our ability to determine management strategies and restoration goals in face of these new emerging ecosystems. Considering a range of multiple ecosystem functions may be a useful way to determine such strategies. We tested this framework experimentally in California grasslands, where large shifts in species composition have occurred since the late 1700's. We compared a suite of ecosystem functions within one historic native and two non-native species assemblages under different grazing intensities to address how different species assemblages vary in provisioning, regulatory and supporting ecosystem services. Forage production was reduced in one non-native assemblage (medusahead). Cultural ecosystem services, such as native species diversity, were inherently lower in both non-native assemblages, whereas most other services were maintained across grazing intensities. All systems provided similar ecosystem services under the highest grazing intensity treatment, which simulated unsustainable grazing intensity. We suggest that applying a more comprehensive ecosystem framework that considers multiple ecosystem services to evaluate new emerging ecosystems is a valuable tool to determine management goals and how to intervene in a changing ecosystem.

Fishing for Novel Approaches to Ecosystem Service Forecasts

EPA Science Inventory

The ecosystem service concept provides a powerful framework for conserving species and the environments they depend upon. Describing current distributions of ecosystem services and forecasting their future distributions have therefore become central objectives in many conservati...

An operational structured decision making framework for ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Pressure to develop an operational framework for decision makers to employ the concepts of ecosystem goods and services for assessing changes to human well-being has been increasing since these concepts gained widespread notoriety after the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Report. Many conceptual frameworks have been proposed, but most do not propose methodologies and tools to make this approach to decision making implementable. Building on common components of existing conceptual frameworks for ecosystem services and human well-being assessment we apply a structured decision making approach to develop a standardized operational framework and suggest tools and methods for completing each step. The structured decision making approach consists of six steps: 1) Clarify the Decision Context 2) Define Objectives and Evaluation Criteria 3) Develop Alternatives 4) Estimate Consequences 5) Evaluate Trade-Offs and Select and 6) Implement and Monitor. These six steps include the following activities, and suggested tools, when applied to ecosystem goods and services and human well-being conceptual frameworks: 1) Characterization of decision specific human beneficiaries using the Final Ecosystem Goods and Services (FEGS) approach and Classification System (FEGS-CS) 2) Determine beneficiaries’ relative priorities for human well-being domains in the Human Well-Being Index (HWBI) through stakeholder engagement and identify beneficiary-relevant metrics of FEGS using the Nat

A National Approach to Quantify and Map Biodiversity Conservation Metrics within an Ecosystem Services Framework

EPA Science Inventory

Ecosystem services, i.e., "services provided to humans from natural systems," have become a key issue of this century in resource management, conservation planning, human well-being, and environmental decision analysis. Mapping and quantifying ecosystem services have be...

Ecosystem Services in Risk Assessment and Management

EPA Science Inventory

The ecosystem services concept provides a comprehensive framework for considering ecosystems in decision making, for valuing the services they provide, and for ensuring that society can maintain a healthy and resilient natural environment now and for future generations. A global ...

Bringing ecosystem services into integrated water resources management.

PubMed

Liu, Shuang; Crossman, Neville D; Nolan, Martin; Ghirmay, Hiyoba

2013-11-15

In this paper we propose an ecosystem service framework to support integrated water resource management and apply it to the Murray-Darling Basin in Australia. Water resources in the Murray-Darling Basin have been over-allocated for irrigation use with the consequent degradation of freshwater ecosystems. In line with integrated water resource management principles, Australian Government reforms are reducing the amount of water diverted for irrigation to improve ecosystem health. However, limited understanding of the broader benefits and trade-offs associated with reducing irrigation diversions has hampered the planning process supporting this reform. Ecosystem services offer an integrative framework to identify the broader benefits associated with integrated water resource management in the Murray-Darling Basin, thereby providing support for the Government to reform decision-making. We conducted a multi-criteria decision analysis for ranking regional potentials to provide ecosystem services at river basin scale. We surveyed the wider public about their understanding of, and priorities for, managing ecosystem services and then integrated the results with spatially explicit indicators of ecosystem service provision. The preliminary results of this work identified the sub-catchments with the greatest potential synergies and trade-offs of ecosystem service provision under the integrated water resources management reform process. With future development, our framework could be used as a decision support tool by those grappling with the challenge of the sustainable allocation of water between irrigation and the environment. Crown Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Decision Support Framework (DSF) Team Research Implementation Plan

EPA Science Inventory

The mission of ORD's Ecosystem Services Research Program (ESRP) is to provide the information and methods needed by decision-makers to assess the benefits of ecosystem goods and services to human well-being for inclusion in management alternatives. The Decision Support Framework...

Quantifying and Mapping Habitat-Based Biodiversity Metrics Within an Ecosystem Services Framework

EPA Science Inventory

Ecosystem services have become a key issue of this century in resource management, conservation planning, human well-being, and environmental decision analysis. Mapping and quantifying ecosystem services have become strategic national interests for integrating ecology with econom...

Interregional flows of ecosystem services: Concepts, typology and four cases

USGS Publications Warehouse

Schröter, Matthias; Koellner, Thomas; Alkemade, Rob; Arnhold, Sebastian; Bagstad, Kenneth J.; Frank, Karin; Erb, Karl-Heinz; Kastner, Thomas; Kissinger, Meidad; Liu, Jianguo; López-Hoffman, Laura; Maes, Joachim; Marques, Alexandra; Martín-López, Berta; Meyer, Carsten; Schulp, Catharina J. E.; Thober, Jule; Wolff, Sarah; Bonn, Aletta

2018-01-01

Conserving and managing global natural capital requires an understanding of the complexity of flows of ecosystem services across geographic boundaries. Failing to understand and to incorporate these flows into national and international ecosystem assessments leads to incomplete and potentially skewed conclusions, impairing society’s ability to identify sustainable management and policy choices. In this paper, we synthesise existing knowledge and develop a conceptual framework for analysing interregional ecosystem service flows. We synthesise the types of such flows, the characteristics of sending and receiving socio-ecological systems, and the impacts of ecosystem service flows on interregional sustainability. Using four cases (trade of certified coffee, migration of northern pintails, flood protection in the Danube watershed, and information on giant pandas), we test the conceptual framework and show how an enhanced understanding of interregional telecouplings in socio-ecological systems can inform ecosystem service-based decision making and governance with respect to sustainability goals.

Integrating adaptive management and ecosystem services concepts to improve natural resource management: Challenges and opportunities

USGS Publications Warehouse

Epanchin-Niell, Rebecca S.; Boyd, James W.; Macauley, Molly K.; Scarlett, Lynn; Shapiro, Carl D.; Williams, Byron K.

2018-05-07

Executive Summary—OverviewNatural resource managers must make decisions that affect broad-scale ecosystem processes involving large spatial areas, complex biophysical interactions, numerous competing stakeholder interests, and highly uncertain outcomes. Natural and social science information and analyses are widely recognized as important for informing effective management. Chief among the systematic approaches for improving the integration of science into natural resource management are two emergent science concepts, adaptive management and ecosystem services. Adaptive management (also referred to as “adaptive decision making”) is a deliberate process of learning by doing that focuses on reducing uncertainties about management outcomes and system responses to improve management over time. Ecosystem services is a conceptual framework that refers to the attributes and outputs of ecosystems (and their components and functions) that have value for humans.This report explores how ecosystem services can be moved from concept into practice through connection to a decision framework—adaptive management—that accounts for inherent uncertainties. Simultaneously, the report examines the value of incorporating ecosystem services framing and concepts into adaptive management efforts.Adaptive management and ecosystem services analyses have not typically been used jointly in decision making. However, as frameworks, they have a natural—but to date underexplored—affinity. Both are policy and decision oriented in that they attempt to represent the consequences of resource management choices on outcomes of interest to stakeholders. Both adaptive management and ecosystem services analysis take an empirical approach to the analysis of ecological systems. This systems orientation is a byproduct of the fact that natural resource actions affect ecosystems—and corresponding societal outcomes—often across large geographic scales. Moreover, because both frameworks focus on resource systems, both must confront the analytical challenges of systems modeling—in terms of complexity, dynamics, and uncertainty.Given this affinity, the integration of ecosystem services analysis and adaptive management poses few conceptual hurdles. In this report, we synthesize discussions from two workshops that considered ways in which adaptive management approaches and ecosystem service concepts may be complementary, such that integrating them into a common framework may lead to improved natural resource management outcomes. Although the literature on adaptive management and ecosystem services is vast and growing, the report focuses specifically on the integration of these two concepts rather than aiming to provide new definitions or an indepth review or primer of the concepts individually.Key issues considered include the bidirectional links between adaptive decision making and ecosystem services, as well as the potential benefits and inevitable challenges arising in the development and use of an integrated framework. Specifically, the workshops addressed the following questions:How can application of ecosystem service analysis within an adaptive decision process improve the outcomes of management and advance understanding of ecosystem service identification, production, and valuation?How can these concepts be integrated in concept and practice?What are the constraints and challenges to integrating adaptive management and ecosystem services?And, should the integration of these concepts be moved forward to wider application—and if so, how?

Adaptive management for ecosystem services (j/a) | Science ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Management of natural resources for the production of ecosystem services, which are vital for human well-being, is necessary even when there is uncertainty regarding system response to management action. This uncertainty is the result of incomplete controllability, complex internal feedbacks, and non-linearity that often interferes with desired management outcomes, and insufficient understanding of nature and people. Adaptive management was developed to reduce such uncertainty. We present a framework for the application of adaptive management for ecosystem services that explicitly accounts for cross-scale tradeoffs in the production of ecosystem services. Our framework focuses on identifying key spatiotemporal scales (plot, patch, ecosystem, landscape, and region) that encompass dominant structures and processes in the system, and includes within- and cross-scale dynamics, ecosystem service tradeoffs, and management controllability within and across scales. Resilience theory recognizes that a limited set of ecological processes in a given system regulate ecosystem services, yet our understanding of these processes is poorly understood. If management actions erode or remove these processes, the system may shift into an alternative state unlikely to support the production of desired services. Adaptive management provides a process to assess the underlying within and cross-scale tradeoffs associated with production of ecosystem services while proceeding with manage

An Architecture Framework for Orchestrating Context-Aware IT Ecosystems: A Case Study for Quantitative Evaluation †.

PubMed

Park, Soojin; Park, Sungyong; Park, Young B

2018-02-12

With the emergence of various forms of smart devices and new paradigms such as the Internet of Things (IoT) concept, the IT (Information Technology) service areas are expanding explosively compared to the provision of services by single systems. A new system operation concept that has emerged in accordance with such technical trends is the IT ecosystem. The IT ecosystem can be considered a special type of system of systems in which multiple systems with various degrees of autonomy achieve common goals while adapting to the given environment. The single systems that participate in the IT ecosystem adapt autonomously to the current situation based on collected data from sensors. Furthermore, to maintain the services supported by the whole IT ecosystem sustainably, the configuration of single systems that participate in the IT ecosystem also changes appropriately in accordance with the changed situation. In order to support the IT ecosystem, this paper proposes an architecture framework that supports dynamic configuration changes to achieve the goal of the whole IT ecosystem, while ensuring the autonomy of single systems through the collection of data from sensors so as to recognize the situational context of individual participating systems. For the feasibility evaluation of the proposed framework, a simulated example of an IT ecosystem for unmanned forest management was constructed, and the quantitative evaluation results are discussed in terms of the extent to which the proposed architecture framework can continuously provide sustainable services in response to diverse environmental context changes.

An Architecture Framework for Orchestrating Context-Aware IT Ecosystems: A Case Study for Quantitative Evaluation †

PubMed Central

Park, Young B.

2018-01-01

With the emergence of various forms of smart devices and new paradigms such as the Internet of Things (IoT) concept, the IT (Information Technology) service areas are expanding explosively compared to the provision of services by single systems. A new system operation concept that has emerged in accordance with such technical trends is the IT ecosystem. The IT ecosystem can be considered a special type of system of systems in which multiple systems with various degrees of autonomy achieve common goals while adapting to the given environment. The single systems that participate in the IT ecosystem adapt autonomously to the current situation based on collected data from sensors. Furthermore, to maintain the services supported by the whole IT ecosystem sustainably, the configuration of single systems that participate in the IT ecosystem also changes appropriately in accordance with the changed situation. In order to support the IT ecosystem, this paper proposes an architecture framework that supports dynamic configuration changes to achieve the goal of the whole IT ecosystem, while ensuring the autonomy of single systems through the collection of data from sensors so as to recognize the situational context of individual participating systems. For the feasibility evaluation of the proposed framework, a simulated example of an IT ecosystem for unmanned forest management was constructed, and the quantitative evaluation results are discussed in terms of the extent to which the proposed architecture framework can continuously provide sustainable services in response to diverse environmental context changes. PMID:29439540

The potential of using the Ecosystem Approach in the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive.

PubMed

Vlachopoulou, M; Coughlin, D; Forrow, D; Kirk, S; Logan, P; Voulvoulis, N

2014-02-01

The Ecosystem Approach provides a framework for looking at whole ecosystems in decision making to ensure that society can maintain a healthy and resilient natural environment now and for future generations. Although not explicitly mentioned in the Water Framework Directive, the Ecosystem Approach appears to be a promising concept to help its implementation, on the basis that there is a connection between the aims and objectives of the Directive (including good ecological status) and the provision of ecosystem services. In this paper, methodological linkages between the Ecosystem Approach and the Water Framework Directive have been reviewed and a framework is proposed that links its implementation to the Ecosystem Approach taking into consideration all ecosystem services and water management objectives. Individual River Basin Management Plan objectives are qualitatively assessed as to how strong their link is with individual ecosystem services. The benefits of using this approach to provide a preliminary assessment of how it could support future implementation of the Directive have been identified and discussed. Findings also demonstrate its potential to encourage more systematic and systemic thinking as it can provide a consistent framework for identifying shared aims and evaluating alternative water management scenarios and options in decision making. Allowing for a broad consideration of the benefits, costs and tradeoffs that occur in each case, this approach can further improve the economic case for certain measures, and can also help restore the shift in focus from strict legislative compliance towards a more holistic implementation that can deliver the wider aims and intentions of the Directive. © 2013.

A resilience framework for chronic exposures: water quality and ecosystem services in coastal social-ecological systems

EPA Science Inventory

We outline a tailored resilience framework that applies ecosystem service concepts to coastal social-ecological systems (SES) affected by water quality degradation. Unlike acute coastal disturbances such as hurricanes or oil spills, water quality issues, particularly those relate...

A watershed-based adaptive knowledge system for developing ecosystem stakeholder partnerships

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lin, Hebin; Thornton, Jeffrey A.; Shadrin, Nickolai

2015-11-01

This study proposes a Watershed-based Adaptive Knowledge System (WAKES) to consistently coordinate multiple stakeholders in developing sustainable partnerships for ecosystem management. WAKES is extended from the institutional mechanism of Payments for Improving Ecosystem Services at the Watershed-scale (PIES-W). PIES-W is designed relating to the governance of ecosystem services fl ows focused on a lake as a resource stock connecting its infl owing and outfl owing rivers within its watershed. It explicitly realizes the values of conservation services provided by private land managers and incorporates their activities into the public organizing framework for ecosystem management. It implicitly extends the "upstream-to-downstream" organizing perspective to a broader vision of viewing the ecosystems as comprised of both "watershed landscapes" and "marine landscapes". Extended from PIES-W, WAKES specifies two corresponding feedback: Framework I and II. Framework I is a relationship matrix comprised of three input-output structures of primary governance factors intersecting three subsystems of a watershed with regard to ecosystem services and human stakeholders. Framework II is the Stakeholder-and-Information structure channeling five types of information among four stakeholder groups in order to enable the feedbacks mechanism of Framework I. WAKES identifies the rationales behind three fundamental information transformations, illustrated with the Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis and the Strategic Action Program of the Bermejo River Binational Basin. These include (1) translating scientific knowledge into public information within the Function-and-Service structure corresponding to the ecological subsystem, (2) incorporating public perceptions into political will within the Service- and- Value structure corresponding to the economic subsystem, and (3) integrating scientific knowledge, public perceptions and political will into management options within the Value-and-Stakeholder structure corresponding to the social subsystem. This study seeks to share a vision of social adaptation for a global sustainable future through developing a network to adopt contributions from and forming partnerships among all ecosystem stakeholders.

Evaluating the Impact of Modern Copper Mining on Ecosystem Services in Southern Arizona

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Virgone, K.; Brusseau, M. L.; Ramirez-Andreotta, M.; Coeurdray, M.; Poupeau, F.

2014-12-01

Historic mining practices were conducted with little environmental forethought, and hence generated a legacy of environmental and human-health impacts. However, an awareness and understanding of the impacts of mining on ecosystem services has developed over the past few decades. Ecosystem services are defined as benefits that humans obtain from ecosystems, and upon which they are fundamentally dependent for their survival. Ecosystem services are divided into four categories including provisioning services (i.e., food, water, timber, and fiber); regulating services (i.e., climate, floods, disease, wastes, and water quality); supporting services (i.e., soil formation, photosynthesis, and nutrient cycling) and cultural services (i.e., recreational, aesthetic, and spiritual benefits) (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005). Sustainable mining practices have been and are being developed in an effort to protect and preserve ecosystem services. This and related efforts constitute a new generation of "modern" mines, which are defined as those that are designed and permitted under contemporary environmental legislation. The objective of this study is to develop a framework to monitor and assess the impact of modern mining practices and sustainable mineral development on ecosystem services. Using the sustainability performance indicators from the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) as a starting point, we develop a framework that is reflective of and adaptive to specific local conditions. Impacts on surface and groundwater water quality and quantity are anticipated to be of most importance to the southern Arizona region, which is struggling to meet urban and environmental water demands due to population growth and climate change. We seek to build a more comprehensive and effective assessment framework by incorporating socio-economic aspects via community engaged research, including economic valuations, community-initiated environmental monitoring, and environmental human-health education programs.

The EnviroAtlas ‐ Developing a National Approach to Quantify and Map Metrics within an Ecosystem Services Framework. Subfocus: Multi‐scale Biodiversity Conservation Metrics

EPA Science Inventory

Ecosystem services, i.e., "services provided to humans from natural systems," have become a key issue of this century in resource management, conservation planning, human well-being, and environmental decision analysis. Mapping and quantifying ecosystem services have become stra...

A framework for developing urban forest ecosystem services and goods indicators

Treesearch

Cynnamon Dobbs; Francisco J. Escobedo; Wayne C. Zipperer

2011-01-01

The social and ecological processes impacting on urban forests have been studied at multiple temporal and spatial scales in order to help us quantify, monitor, and value the ecosystem services that benefit people. Few studies have comprehensively analyzed the full suite of ecosystem services, goods (ESG), and ecosystem disservices provided by an urban forest....

The impact of chemical pollution on biodiversity and ecosystem services: the need for an improved understanding

EPA Science Inventory

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005) provided a framework that acknowledges biodiversity as one key factor for ensuring the continuous supply of ecosystem services, facilitating ecosystem stability and consequently as a critical basis for sustainable development. The close...

An integrated eco-hydrologic modeling framework for assessing the effects of interacting stressors on forest ecosystem services

EPA Science Inventory

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently established the Ecosystem Services Research Program to help formulate methods and models for conducting comprehensive risk assessments that quantify how multiple ecosystem services interact and respond in concert to environmental ...

An integrated eco-hydrologic modeling framework for assessing the effects of interacting stressors on multiple ecosystem services

EPA Science Inventory

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently established the Ecosystem Services Research Program to help formulate methods and models for conducting comprehensive risk assessments that quantify how multiple ecosystem services interact and respond in concert to environmental ...

Developing an institutional framework to incorporate ecosystem services into decision making-Proceedings of a workshop

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hogan, Dianna; Arthaud, Greg; Brookshire, David; Gunther, Tom; Pincetl, Stephanie; Shapiro, Carl; Van Horne, Bea

2011-01-01

The appropriate use of institutional structures, including markets, to integrate ecosystem services into decision making depends on the players and characteristics of the specific situation (such as stakeholders, the ecosystem, resources, and the political environment). Incorporating ecosystem service values into decisions requires consideration of place-based social, cultural, economic, and landscape characteristics and institutions. Thus, a single, prescribed solution will not work-various institutional strategies must be used in different situations. Market-based approaches require appropriate regulations, monitoring, and enforcement, depending on the situation and place. Further, market approaches will need to be coupled with nonmarket approaches into an integrated institutional framework.

Ecosystem service bundles for analyzing tradeoffs in diverse landscapes

PubMed Central

Raudsepp-Hearne, C.; Peterson, G. D.; Bennett, E. M.

2010-01-01

A key challenge of ecosystem management is determining how to manage multiple ecosystem services across landscapes. Enhancing important provisioning ecosystem services, such as food and timber, often leads to tradeoffs between regulating and cultural ecosystem services, such as nutrient cycling, flood protection, and tourism. We developed a framework for analyzing the provision of multiple ecosystem services across landscapes and present an empirical demonstration of ecosystem service bundles, sets of services that appear together repeatedly. Ecosystem service bundles were identified by analyzing the spatial patterns of 12 ecosystem services in a mixed-use landscape consisting of 137 municipalities in Quebec, Canada. We identified six types of ecosystem service bundles and were able to link these bundles to areas on the landscape characterized by distinct social–ecological dynamics. Our results show landscape-scale tradeoffs between provisioning and almost all regulating and cultural ecosystem services, and they show that a greater diversity of ecosystem services is positively correlated with the provision of regulating ecosystem services. Ecosystem service-bundle analysis can identify areas on a landscape where ecosystem management has produced exceptionally desirable or undesirable sets of ecosystem services. PMID:20194739

Invited OSU class lecture: An integrated eco-hydrologic modeling framework for assessing the effects of interacting stressors on multiple ecosystem services

EPA Science Inventory

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently established the Ecosystem Services Research Program to help formulate methods and models for conducting comprehensive risk assessments that quantify how multiple ecosystem services interact and respond in concert to environmental ...

An integrated eco-hydrologic modeling framework for assessing the effects of interacting stressors on forest ecosystem services - ESRP mtg

EPA Science Inventory

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently established the Ecosystem Services Research Program to help formulate methods and models for conducting comprehensive risk assessments that quantify how multiple ecosystem services interact and respond in concert to environmental ...

An integrated eco-hydrologic modeling framework for assessing the effects of interacting stressors on multiple ecosystem services - 4/27/10

EPA Science Inventory

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently established the Ecosystem Services Research Program to help formulate methods and models for conducting comprehensive risk assessments that quantify how multiple ecosystem services interact and respond in concert to environmental ...

An eco-hydrological modeling framework for assessing trade-offs among ecosystem services in response to alternative land use and climate

EPA Science Inventory

Scientists, policymakers, community planners and others have discussed ecosystem services for decades, however, society is still in the early stages of developing methodologies to quantify and value the services provided by ecosystems. For example, the U.S. Environmental Protect...

Adaptive management for ecosystem services.

PubMed

Birgé, Hannah E; Allen, Craig R; Garmestani, Ahjond S; Pope, Kevin L

2016-12-01

Management of natural resources for the production of ecosystem services, which are vital for human well-being, is necessary even when there is uncertainty regarding system response to management action. This uncertainty is the result of incomplete controllability, complex internal feedbacks, and non-linearity that often interferes with desired management outcomes, and insufficient understanding of nature and people. Adaptive management was developed to reduce such uncertainty. We present a framework for the application of adaptive management for ecosystem services that explicitly accounts for cross-scale tradeoffs in the production of ecosystem services. Our framework focuses on identifying key spatiotemporal scales (plot, patch, ecosystem, landscape, and region) that encompass dominant structures and processes in the system, and includes within- and cross-scale dynamics, ecosystem service tradeoffs, and management controllability within and across scales. Resilience theory recognizes that a limited set of ecological processes in a given system regulate ecosystem services, yet our understanding of these processes is poorly understood. If management actions erode or remove these processes, the system may shift into an alternative state unlikely to support the production of desired services. Adaptive management provides a process to assess the underlying within and cross-scale tradeoffs associated with production of ecosystem services while proceeding with management designed to meet the demands of a growing human population. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Ecosystem services provided by a complex coastal region: challenges of classification and mapping.

PubMed

Sousa, Lisa P; Sousa, Ana I; Alves, Fátima L; Lillebø, Ana I

2016-03-11

A variety of ecosystem services classification systems and mapping approaches are available in the scientific and technical literature, which needs to be selected and adapted when applied to complex territories (e.g. in the interface between water and land, estuary and sea). This paper provides a framework for addressing ecosystem services in complex coastal regions. The roadmap comprises the definition of the exact geographic boundaries of the study area; the use of CICES (Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services) for ecosystem services identification and classification; and the definition of qualitative indicators that will serve as basis to map the ecosystem services. Due to its complexity, the Ria de Aveiro coastal region was selected as case study, presenting an opportunity to explore the application of such approaches at a regional scale. The main challenges of implementing the proposed roadmap, together with its advantages are discussed in this research. The results highlight the importance of considering both the connectivity of natural systems and the complexity of the governance framework; the flexibility and robustness, but also the challenges when applying CICES at regional scale; and the challenges regarding ecosystem services mapping.

Ecosystem services provided by a complex coastal region: challenges of classification and mapping

PubMed Central

Sousa, Lisa P.; Sousa, Ana I.; Alves, Fátima L.; Lillebø, Ana I.

2016-01-01

A variety of ecosystem services classification systems and mapping approaches are available in the scientific and technical literature, which needs to be selected and adapted when applied to complex territories (e.g. in the interface between water and land, estuary and sea). This paper provides a framework for addressing ecosystem services in complex coastal regions. The roadmap comprises the definition of the exact geographic boundaries of the study area; the use of CICES (Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services) for ecosystem services identification and classification; and the definition of qualitative indicators that will serve as basis to map the ecosystem services. Due to its complexity, the Ria de Aveiro coastal region was selected as case study, presenting an opportunity to explore the application of such approaches at a regional scale. The main challenges of implementing the proposed roadmap, together with its advantages are discussed in this research. The results highlight the importance of considering both the connectivity of natural systems and the complexity of the governance framework; the flexibility and robustness, but also the challenges when applying CICES at regional scale; and the challenges regarding ecosystem services mapping. PMID:26964892

The Landscape Framework for the Spatial Characterization and Mapping of Ecosystem Services: What is the State of the Science?

EPA Science Inventory

Ecosystem services (ESS) represent an ecosystems capacity for satisfying essential human needs, directly or indirectly, above that required to maintain ecosystem integrity (structure, function and processes). The spatial characterization and mapping of ESS is an essential first s...

An ecosystem services framework to support both practical conservation and economic development.

PubMed

Tallis, Heather; Kareiva, Peter; Marvier, Michelle; Chang, Amy

2008-07-15

The core idea of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment is that the human condition is tightly linked to environmental condition. This assertion suggests that conservation and development projects should be able to achieve both ecological and social progress without detracting from their primary objectives. Whereas "win-win" projects that achieve both conservation and economic gains are a commendable goal, they are not easy to attain. An analysis of World Bank projects with objectives of alleviating poverty and protecting biodiversity revealed that only 16% made major progress on both objectives. Here, we provide a framework for anticipating win-win, lose-lose, and win-lose outcomes as a result of how people manage their ecosystem services. This framework emerges from detailed explorations of several case studies in which biodiversity conservation and economic development coincide and cases in which there is joint failure. We emphasize that scientific advances around ecosystem service production functions, tradeoffs among multiple ecosystem services, and the design of appropriate monitoring programs are necessary for the implementation of conservation and development projects that will successfully advance both environmental and social goals. The potentially bright future of jointly advancing ecosystem services, conservation, and human well-being will be jeopardized unless a global monitoring effort is launched that uses the many ongoing projects as a grand experiment.

An ecosystem services framework to support both practical conservation and economic development

PubMed Central

Tallis, Heather; Kareiva, Peter; Marvier, Michelle; Chang, Amy

2008-01-01

The core idea of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment is that the human condition is tightly linked to environmental condition. This assertion suggests that conservation and development projects should be able to achieve both ecological and social progress without detracting from their primary objectives. Whereas “win–win” projects that achieve both conservation and economic gains are a commendable goal, they are not easy to attain. An analysis of World Bank projects with objectives of alleviating poverty and protecting biodiversity revealed that only 16% made major progress on both objectives. Here, we provide a framework for anticipating win–win, lose–lose, and win–lose outcomes as a result of how people manage their ecosystem services. This framework emerges from detailed explorations of several case studies in which biodiversity conservation and economic development coincide and cases in which there is joint failure. We emphasize that scientific advances around ecosystem service production functions, tradeoffs among multiple ecosystem services, and the design of appropriate monitoring programs are necessary for the implementation of conservation and development projects that will successfully advance both environmental and social goals. The potentially bright future of jointly advancing ecosystem services, conservation, and human well-being will be jeopardized unless a global monitoring effort is launched that uses the many ongoing projects as a grand experiment. PMID:18621702

A framework for monitoring social process and outcomes in environmental programs.

PubMed

Chapman, Sarah

2014-12-01

When environmental programs frame their activities as being in the service of human wellbeing, social variables need to be integrated into monitoring and evaluation (M&E) frameworks. This article draws upon ecosystem services theory to develop a framework to guide the M&E of collaborative environmental programs with anticipated social benefits. The framework has six components: program need, program activities, pathway process variables, moderating process variables, outcomes, and program value. Needs are defined in terms of ecosystem services, as well as other human needs that must be addressed to achieve outcomes. The pathway variable relates to the development of natural resource governance capacity in the target community. Moderating processes can be externalities such as the inherent capacity of the natural system to service ecosystem needs, local demand for natural resources, policy or socio-economic drivers. Internal program-specific processes relate to program service delivery, targeting and participant responsiveness. Ecological outcomes are expressed in terms of changes in landscape structure and function, which in turn influence ecosystem service provision. Social benefits derived from the program are expressed in terms of the value of the eco-social service to user-specified goals. The article provides suggestions from the literature for identifying indicators and measures for components and component variables, and concludes with an example of how the framework was used to inform the M&E of an adaptive co-management program in western Kenya. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Framework to Quantify the Strength of the Ecological Links ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Anthropogenic stressors such as climate change, fire, and pollution are driving shifts in ecosystem function and resilience. Scientists generally rely on biological indicators of these stressors to signal that ecosystem conditions have been altered beyond an acceptable amount. However, these biological indicators are not always capable of being directly related to ecosystem services that allow scientists to communicate the importance of the change to land managers and policy makers. Therefore, we developed the STEPS (STressor – Ecological Production function – final ecosystem goods and Services) Framework to link changes in a biological indicator of a stressor to Final Ecosystem Goods and Services (FEGS). The STEPS framework produces “chains” of ecological components that connect the change in a biological indicator to the Final Ecosystem Goods and Services Classification System (FEGS-CS). The series of ecological components is an ecological production functions (EPF) which links a biological indicator of a stressor to an ecological endpoint (i.e., FEGS) that is directly used, appreciated, or valued by humans. The framework uses a qualitative score (High, Medium, Low) for the Strength of Science (SOS) for the relationship between each of the components in the EPF to identify research gaps and prioritize decision making based on what research has been completed. The ecological endpoint of the EPF is a FEGS to which discrete Beneficiaries, or direct users

Ecosystem services: foundations, opportunities, and challenges for the forest products sector

Treesearch

Trista M. Patterson; Dana L. Coelho

2009-01-01

The ecosystem service concept has been proposed as a meaningful framework for natural resource management. In theory, it holds concomitant benefit and consequence for the forest product sector. However, numerous barriers impede practitioners from developing concrete and enduring responses to emerging ecosystem service markets, policies, and initiatives. Principal among...

Integrating the provision of ecosystem services and trawl fisheries for the management of the marine environment.

PubMed

Muntadas, Alba; de Juan, Silvia; Demestre, Montserrat

2015-02-15

The species interaction and their biological traits (BT) determine the function of benthic communities and, hence, the delivery of ecosystem services. Therefore, disturbance of benthic communities by trawling may compromise ecosystem service delivery, including fisheries' catches. In this work, we explore 1) the impact of trawling activities on benthic functional components (after the BTA approach) and 2) how trawling impact may affect the ecosystem services delivered by benthic communities. To this aim, we assessed the provision of ecosystem services by adopting the concept of Ecosystem Service Providers (ESP), i.e. ecological units that perform ecosystem functions that will ultimately deliver ecosystem services. We studied thirteen sites subjected to different levels of fishing effort in the Mediterranean. From a range of environmental variables included in the study, we found ESPs to be mainly affected by fishing effort and grain size. Our results suggested that habitat type has significant effects on the distribution of ESPs and this natural variability influences ESP response to trawling at a specific site. In order to summarize the complex relationships between human uses, ecosystem components and the demand for ecosystem services in trawling grounds, we adapted a DPSIR (Drivers-Pressures-State Change-Impact-Response) framework to the study area, emphasizing the role of society as Drivers of change and actors demanding management Responses. This integrative framework aims to inform managers about the interactions between all the elements involved in the management of trawling grounds, highlighting the need for an integrated approach in order to ensure ecosystem service provision. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The EBM-DPSER Conceptual Model: Integrating Ecosystem Services into the DPSIR Framework

PubMed Central

Kelble, Christopher R.; Loomis, Dave K.; Lovelace, Susan; Nuttle, William K.; Ortner, Peter B.; Fletcher, Pamela; Cook, Geoffrey S.; Lorenz, Jerry J.; Boyer, Joseph N.

2013-01-01

There is a pressing need to integrate biophysical and human dimensions science to better inform holistic ecosystem management supporting the transition from single species or single-sector management to multi-sector ecosystem-based management. Ecosystem-based management should focus upon ecosystem services, since they reflect societal goals, values, desires, and benefits. The inclusion of ecosystem services into holistic management strategies improves management by better capturing the diversity of positive and negative human-natural interactions and making explicit the benefits to society. To facilitate this inclusion, we propose a conceptual model that merges the broadly applied Driver, Pressure, State, Impact, and Response (DPSIR) conceptual model with ecosystem services yielding a Driver, Pressure, State, Ecosystem service, and Response (EBM-DPSER) conceptual model. The impact module in traditional DPSIR models focuses attention upon negative anthropomorphic impacts on the ecosystem; by replacing impacts with ecosystem services the EBM-DPSER model incorporates not only negative, but also positive changes in the ecosystem. Responses occur as a result of changes in ecosystem services and include inter alia management actions directed at proactively altering human population or individual behavior and infrastructure to meet societal goals. The EBM-DPSER conceptual model was applied to the Florida Keys and Dry Tortugas marine ecosystem as a case study to illustrate how it can inform management decisions. This case study captures our system-level understanding and results in a more holistic representation of ecosystem and human society interactions, thus improving our ability to identify trade-offs. The EBM-DPSER model should be a useful operational tool for implementing EBM, in that it fully integrates our knowledge of all ecosystem components while focusing management attention upon those aspects of the ecosystem most important to human society and does so within a framework already familiar to resource managers. PMID:23951002

The EBM-DPSER conceptual model: integrating ecosystem services into the DPSIR framework.

PubMed

Kelble, Christopher R; Loomis, Dave K; Lovelace, Susan; Nuttle, William K; Ortner, Peter B; Fletcher, Pamela; Cook, Geoffrey S; Lorenz, Jerry J; Boyer, Joseph N

2013-01-01

There is a pressing need to integrate biophysical and human dimensions science to better inform holistic ecosystem management supporting the transition from single species or single-sector management to multi-sector ecosystem-based management. Ecosystem-based management should focus upon ecosystem services, since they reflect societal goals, values, desires, and benefits. The inclusion of ecosystem services into holistic management strategies improves management by better capturing the diversity of positive and negative human-natural interactions and making explicit the benefits to society. To facilitate this inclusion, we propose a conceptual model that merges the broadly applied Driver, Pressure, State, Impact, and Response (DPSIR) conceptual model with ecosystem services yielding a Driver, Pressure, State, Ecosystem service, and Response (EBM-DPSER) conceptual model. The impact module in traditional DPSIR models focuses attention upon negative anthropomorphic impacts on the ecosystem; by replacing impacts with ecosystem services the EBM-DPSER model incorporates not only negative, but also positive changes in the ecosystem. Responses occur as a result of changes in ecosystem services and include inter alia management actions directed at proactively altering human population or individual behavior and infrastructure to meet societal goals. The EBM-DPSER conceptual model was applied to the Florida Keys and Dry Tortugas marine ecosystem as a case study to illustrate how it can inform management decisions. This case study captures our system-level understanding and results in a more holistic representation of ecosystem and human society interactions, thus improving our ability to identify trade-offs. The EBM-DPSER model should be a useful operational tool for implementing EBM, in that it fully integrates our knowledge of all ecosystem components while focusing management attention upon those aspects of the ecosystem most important to human society and does so within a framework already familiar to resource managers.

Ecosystem services to enhance sustainable forest management in the US: moving from forest service national programmes to local projects in the Pacific Northwest

Treesearch

Robert L. Deal; Nikola Smith; Joe Gates

2017-01-01

Ecosystem services are increasingly recognized as a way of framing and describing the broad suite of benefits that people receive from forests. The USDA Forest Service has been exploring use of an ecosystem services framework to describe forest values provided by federal lands and to attract and build partnerships with stakeholders to implement projects. Recently, the...

Towards Mapping the Provision of Ecosystem Services from Headwater Wetlands in the Susquehanna River Basin

EPA Science Inventory

Headwater wetlands provide a range of ecosystem services including habitat provisioning and flood retention. Following the River Ecosystem Synthesis framework we identified and assessed not only headwater wetlands, but unconstrained reaches with the potential to support diverse s...

Using USEPA'S Final Ecosystem Goods and Services (FEGS) Classification With EnviroAtlas As The Basic Framework To Describe Natures Benefits and Beneficiaries

EPA Science Inventory

Ecosystem Services have received increasing scientific focus for a decade, yet the natural and social scientists working on mainstreaming these concepts are still struggling with the task. FEGS (Final Ecosystem Goods and Services) are an informative and useful concept as they emb...

River rehabilitation for the delivery of multiple ecosystem services at the river network scale.

PubMed

Gilvear, David J; Spray, Chris J; Casas-Mulet, Roser

2013-09-15

This paper presents a conceptual framework and methodology to assist with optimising the outcomes of river rehabilitation in terms of delivery of multiple ecosystem services and the benefits they represent for humans at the river network scale. The approach is applicable globally, but was initially devised in the context of a project critically examining opportunities and constraints on delivery of river rehabilitation in Scotland. The spatial-temporal approach highlighted is river rehabilitation measure, rehabilitation scale, location on the stream network, ecosystem service and timescale specific and could be used as initial scoping in the process of planning rehabilitation at the river network scale. The levels of service delivered are based on an expert-derived scoring system based on understanding how the rehabilitation measure assists in reinstating important geomorphological, hydrological and ecological processes and hence intermediate or primary ecosystem function. The framework permits a "total long-term (>25 years) ecosystem service score" to be calculated which is the cumulative result of the combined effect of the number of and level of ecosystem services delivered over time. Trajectories over time for attaining the long-term ecosystem service score for each river rehabilitation measures are also given. Scores could also be weighted according to societal values and economic valuation. These scores could assist decision making in relation to river rehabilitation at the catchment scale in terms of directing resources towards alternative scenarios. A case study is presented of applying the methodology to the Eddleston Water in Scotland using proposed river rehabilitation options for the catchment to demonstrate the value of the approach. Our overall assertion is that unless sound conceptual frameworks are developed that permit the river network scale ecosystem services of river rehabilitation to be evaluated as part of the process of river basin planning and management, the total benefit of river rehabilitation may well be reduced. River rehabilitation together with a 'vision' and framework within which it can be developed, is fundamental to future success in river basin management. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A methodology for quantifying and mapping ecosystem services provided by watersheds

USGS Publications Warehouse

Villamagna, Amy M.; Angermeier, Paul L.

2015-01-01

Watershed processes – physical, chemical, and biological – are the foundation for many benefits that ecosystems provide for human societies. A crucial step toward accurately representing those benefits, so they can ultimately inform decisions about land and water management, is the development of a coherent methodology that can translate available data into the ecosystem services (ES) produced by watersheds. Ecosystem services (ES) provide an instinctive way to understand the tradeoffs associated with natural resource management. We provide a synthesis of common terminology and explain a rationale and framework for distinguishing among the components of ecosystem service delivery, including: an ecosystem’s capacity to produce a service; societal demand for the service; ecological pressures on this service; and flow of the service to people. We discuss how interpretation and measurement of these components can differ among provisioning, regulating, and cultural services and describe selected methods for quantifying ES components as well as constraints on data availability. We also present several case studies to illustrate our methods, including mapping capacity of several water purification services and demand for two forms of wildlife-based recreation, and discuss future directions for ecosystem service assessments. Our flexible framework treats service capacity, demand, ecological pressure, and flow as separate but interactive entities to better evaluate the sustainability of service provision across space and time and to help guide management decisions.

Priorities to Advance Monitoring of Ecosystem Services Using Earth Observation.

PubMed

Cord, Anna F; Brauman, Kate A; Chaplin-Kramer, Rebecca; Huth, Andreas; Ziv, Guy; Seppelt, Ralf

2017-06-01

Managing ecosystem services in the context of global sustainability policies requires reliable monitoring mechanisms. While satellite Earth observation offers great promise to support this need, significant challenges remain in quantifying connections between ecosystem functions, ecosystem services, and human well-being benefits. Here, we provide a framework showing how Earth observation together with socioeconomic information and model-based analysis can support assessments of ecosystem service supply, demand, and benefit, and illustrate this for three services. We argue that the full potential of Earth observation is not yet realized in ecosystem service studies. To provide guidance for priority setting and to spur research in this area, we propose five priorities to advance the capabilities of Earth observation-based monitoring of ecosystem services. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Food security in a perfect storm: using the ecosystem services framework to increase understanding

PubMed Central

Poppy, G. M.; Chiotha, S.; Eigenbrod, F.; Harvey, C. A.; Honzák, M.; Hudson, M. D.; Jarvis, A.; Madise, N. J.; Schreckenberg, K.; Shackleton, C. M.; Villa, F.; Dawson, T. P.

2014-01-01

Achieving food security in a ‘perfect storm’ scenario is a grand challenge for society. Climate change and an expanding global population act in concert to make global food security even more complex and demanding. As achieving food security and the millennium development goal (MDG) to eradicate hunger influences the attainment of other MDGs, it is imperative that we offer solutions which are complementary and do not oppose one another. Sustainable intensification of agriculture has been proposed as a way to address hunger while also minimizing further environmental impact. However, the desire to raise productivity and yields has historically led to a degraded environment, reduced biodiversity and a reduction in ecosystem services (ES), with the greatest impacts affecting the poor. This paper proposes that the ES framework coupled with a policy response framework, for example Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR), can allow food security to be delivered alongside healthy ecosystems, which provide many other valuable services to humankind. Too often, agro-ecosystems have been considered as separate from other natural ecosystems and insufficient attention has been paid to the way in which services can flow to and from the agro-ecosystem to surrounding ecosystems. Highlighting recent research in a large multi-disciplinary project (ASSETS), we illustrate the ES approach to food security using a case study from the Zomba district of Malawi. PMID:24535394

Food security in a perfect storm: using the ecosystem services framework to increase understanding.

PubMed

Poppy, G M; Chiotha, S; Eigenbrod, F; Harvey, C A; Honzák, M; Hudson, M D; Jarvis, A; Madise, N J; Schreckenberg, K; Shackleton, C M; Villa, F; Dawson, T P

2014-04-05

Achieving food security in a 'perfect storm' scenario is a grand challenge for society. Climate change and an expanding global population act in concert to make global food security even more complex and demanding. As achieving food security and the millennium development goal (MDG) to eradicate hunger influences the attainment of other MDGs, it is imperative that we offer solutions which are complementary and do not oppose one another. Sustainable intensification of agriculture has been proposed as a way to address hunger while also minimizing further environmental impact. However, the desire to raise productivity and yields has historically led to a degraded environment, reduced biodiversity and a reduction in ecosystem services (ES), with the greatest impacts affecting the poor. This paper proposes that the ES framework coupled with a policy response framework, for example Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR), can allow food security to be delivered alongside healthy ecosystems, which provide many other valuable services to humankind. Too often, agro-ecosystems have been considered as separate from other natural ecosystems and insufficient attention has been paid to the way in which services can flow to and from the agro-ecosystem to surrounding ecosystems. Highlighting recent research in a large multi-disciplinary project (ASSETS), we illustrate the ES approach to food security using a case study from the Zomba district of Malawi.

Integrated assessment of social and environmental sustainability dynamics in the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna delta, Bangladesh

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nicholls, R. J.; Hutton, C. W.; Lázár, A. N.; Allan, A.; Adger, W. N.; Adams, H.; Wolf, J.; Rahman, M.; Salehin, M.

2016-12-01

Deltas provide diverse ecosystem services and benefits for their populations. At the same time, deltas are also recognised as one of the most vulnerable coastal environments, with a range of drivers operating at multiple scales, from global climate change and sea-level rise to deltaic-scale subsidence and land cover change. These drivers threaten these ecosystem services, which often provide livelihoods for the poorest communities in these regions. The imperative to maintain ecosystem services presents a development challenge: how to develop deltaic areas in ways that are sustainable and benefit all residents including the most vulnerable. Here we present an integrated framework to analyse changing ecosystem services in deltas and the implications for human well-being, focussing in particular on the provisioning ecosystem services of agriculture, inland and offshore capture fisheries, aquaculture and mangroves that directly support livelihoods. The framework is applied to the world's most populated delta, the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna Delta within Bangladesh. The framework adopts a systemic perspective to represent the principal biophysical and socio-ecological components and their interaction. A range of methods are integrated within a quantitative framework, including biophysical and socio-economic modelling and analyses of governance through scenario development. The approach is iterative, with learning both within the project team and with national policy-making stakeholders. The analysis is used to explore physical and social outcomes for the delta under different scenarios and policy choices. We consider how the approach is transferable to other deltas and potentially other coastal areas.

Development of Final Ecosystem Goods and Services Indicators for Estuaries and Coasts

EPA Science Inventory

Ecosystem services are those goods and services produced by the environment that benefit people. The concept aims to aid in the assessment of tradeoffs based on goods and services produced by the environment. Over the past seven years EPA has developed a framework for classificat...

Applying the Ecosystem Services Concept to Public Land Management

EPA Science Inventory

We examine the challenges opportunities involved in applying ecosystem services to public lands management, with an emphasis on the work of the USDA Forest Service. We review the history of economics approaches to landscape management, outline a conceptual framework defining the ...

A multi-indicator framework for mapping cultural ecosystem services: The case of freshwater recreational fishing

USGS Publications Warehouse

Villamagna, Amy M.; Mogollón, Beatriz; Angermeier, Paul

2014-01-01

Despite recent interest, ecosystem services are not yet fully incorporated into private and public decisions about natural resource management. Cultural ecosystem services (CES) are among the most challenging of services to include because they comprise complex ecological and social properties and processes that make them difficult to measure, map or monetize. Like others, CES are vulnerable to landscape changes and unsustainable use. To date, the sustainability of services has not been adequately addressed and few studies have considered measures of service capacity and demand simultaneously. To facilitate sustainability assessments and management of CES, our study objectives were to (1) develop a spatially explicit framework for mapping the capacity of ecosystems to provide freshwater recreational fishing, an important cultural service, (2) map societal demand for freshwater recreational fishing based on license data and identify areas of potential overuse, and (3) demonstrate how maps of relative capacity and relative demand could be interfaced to estimate sustainability of a CES. We mapped freshwater recreational fishing capacity at the 12-digit hydrologic unit-scale in North Carolina and Virginia using a multi-indicator service framework incorporating biophysical and social landscape metrics and mapped demand based on fishing license data. Mapping of capacity revealed a gradual decrease in capacity eastward from the mountains to the coastal plain and that fishing demand was greatest in urban areas. When comparing standardized relative measures of capacity and demand for freshwater recreational fishing, we found that ranks of capacity exceeded ranks of demand in most hydrologic units, except in 17% of North Carolina and 5% of Virginia. Our GIS-based approach to view freshwater recreational fishing through an ecosystem service lens will enable scientists and managers to examine (1) biophysical and social factors that foster or diminish cultural ecosystem services delivery, (2) demand for cultural ecosystem services relative to their capacity, and (3) ecological pressures like potential overuse that affect service sustainability. Ultimately, we expect such analyses to inform decision-making for freshwater recreational fisheries and other cultural ecosystem services.

Safeguarding Ecosystem Services: A Methodological Framework to Buffer the Joint Effect of Habitat Configuration and Climate Change.

PubMed

Giannini, Tereza C; Tambosi, Leandro R; Acosta, André L; Jaffé, Rodolfo; Saraiva, Antonio M; Imperatriz-Fonseca, Vera L; Metzger, Jean Paul

2015-01-01

Ecosystem services provided by mobile agents are increasingly threatened by the loss and modification of natural habitats and by climate change, risking the maintenance of biodiversity, ecosystem functions, and human welfare. Research oriented towards a better understanding of the joint effects of land use and climate change over the provision of specific ecosystem services is therefore essential to safeguard such services. Here we propose a methodological framework, which integrates species distribution forecasts and graph theory to identify key conservation areas, which if protected or restored could improve habitat connectivity and safeguard ecosystem services. We applied the proposed framework to the provision of pollination services by a tropical stingless bee (Melipona quadrifasciata), a key pollinator of native flora from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest and important agricultural crops. Based on the current distribution of this bee and that of the plant species used to feed and nest, we projected the joint distribution of bees and plants in the future, considering a moderate climate change scenario (following IPPC). We then used this information, the bee's flight range, and the current mapping of Atlantic Forest remnants to infer habitat suitability and quantify local and regional habitat connectivity for 2030, 2050 and 2080. Our results revealed north to south and coastal to inland shifts in the pollinator distribution during the next 70 years. Current and future connectivity maps unraveled the most important corridors, which if protected or restored, could facilitate the dispersal and establishment of bees during distribution shifts. Our results also suggest that coffee plantations from eastern São Paulo and southern Minas Gerais States could suffer a pollinator deficit in the future, whereas pollination services seem to be secured in southern Brazil. Landowners and governmental agencies could use this information to implement new land use schemes. Overall, our proposed methodological framework could help design novel conservational and agricultural practices that can be crucial to conserve ecosystem services by buffering the joint effect of habitat configuration and climate change.

Development of a concept for non-monetary assessment of urban ecosystem services at the site level.

PubMed

Wurster, Daniel; Artmann, Martina

2014-05-01

Determining the performance of ecosystem services at the city or regional level cannot accurately take into account the fine differences between green or gray structures. The supply of regulating ecosystem services in, for instance, parks can differ as parks vary in their land cover composition. A comprehensive ecosystem service assessment approach also needs to reflect land use to consider the demands placed on ecosystem services, which are mostly neglected by current research yet important for urban planning. For instance, if a sealed surface is no longer used, it could be unsealed to improve ecosystem service supply. Because of these scientific shortcomings, this article argues for a conceptual framework for the non-monetary assessment of urban ecosystem services at the site scale. This paper introduces a standardized method for selecting representative sites and evaluating their supply of and demand on ecosystem services. The conceptual design is supplemented by examples of Salzburg, Austria.

Illustrating the Interaction of Nature and People in Ecosystem Services: The Case of Terroir in Wine

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nicholas, K. A.

2014-12-01

The ecosystem services (ES) approach is increasingly used in research and policy, with the Common International Framework on Ecosystem Services (CICES) "cascade" gaining traction as a framework for conceptualizing the production of ecosystem services by the natural environment, and then people consuming these services and obtaining benefits depending on their values. However, uptake of the ES concept on the ground by ecosystem managers, and understanding by everyday citizens, is still limited. One barrier is the challenge of providing tangible, examples of everyday benefits and values that people can readily connect with the biophysical structures and functions that underlie their provision. Winegrowing offers one promising case to illustrate the linkages all along the chain of production and consumption of ecosystem services. The sensitive winegrape has long been known for its properties of terroir, where the taste of wine reflects the environmental conditions of the place where it is grown, a feature valued by consumers. Here the CICES framework is illustrated with the case of winegrowing, demonstrating that the current linear model of natural production and human consumption of ES needs to be modified for this case because people influence each of the five stages by shaping and responding to their environment, producing a two-way interaction between people and the environment throughout. For example, while natural drivers such as climate and soils are key to the provision of the service of winegrape yields, landowners modify the biophysical environment through site selection and growers modify plant ecophysiological function through farming practices such as pruning and irrigation in order to influence the final service. Similarly, winemakers' expertise is needed to transform the service of winegrape yields into the product of wine that can be enjoyed and valued by consumers, whose preferences shape wine styles as well. This case illustrates how incorporating both natural and human factors all along the chain of production and consumption of ecosystem services can better represent the potential services provided, and highlights the need to identify relevant decisionmakers at each stage to better understand and manage ecosystem services under environmental change.

Operationalizing Network Theory for Ecosystem Service Assessments.

PubMed

Dee, Laura E; Allesina, Stefano; Bonn, Aletta; Eklöf, Anna; Gaines, Steven D; Hines, Jes; Jacob, Ute; McDonald-Madden, Eve; Possingham, Hugh; Schröter, Matthias; Thompson, Ross M

2017-02-01

Managing ecosystems to provide ecosystem services in the face of global change is a pressing challenge for policy and science. Predicting how alternative management actions and changing future conditions will alter services is complicated by interactions among components in ecological and socioeconomic systems. Failure to understand those interactions can lead to detrimental outcomes from management decisions. Network theory that integrates ecological and socioeconomic systems may provide a path to meeting this challenge. While network theory offers promising approaches to examine ecosystem services, few studies have identified how to operationalize networks for managing and assessing diverse ecosystem services. We propose a framework for how to use networks to assess how drivers and management actions will directly and indirectly alter ecosystem services. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Toward a standard lexicon for ecosystem services

EPA Science Inventory

The complex, widely dispersed, and cumulative environmental challenges currently facing society require holistic, transdisciplinary approaches to resolve. The concept of ecosystem services (ES) has become more widely accepted both as a framework that cuts across the dimensions of...

A National Approach to Map and Quantify Terrestrial Vertebrate Biodiversity within an Ecosystem Services Framework

EPA Science Inventory

Biodiversity is crucial for the functioning of ecosystems and the products and services from which we transform natural assets of the Earth for human survival, security, and well-being. The ability to assess, report, map, and forecast the life support functions of ecosystems is a...

Mechanistic models as a transferable framework for projecting effects of habitat change on production and delivery of ecosystem services

EPA Science Inventory

Drawing a link between habitat change and the production and delivery of ecosystem services is a priority in coastal estuarine ecosystems. Mechanistic modeling tools are highly functional for exploring this link because they allow for the synthesis of multiple ecological and beh...

A conceptual framework of urban forest ecosystem vulnerability

Treesearch

James W.N. Steenberg; Andrew A. Millward; David J. Nowak; Pamela J. Robinson

2017-01-01

The urban environment is becoming the most common setting in which people worldwide will spend their lives. Urban forests, and the ecosystem services they provide, are becoming a priority for municipalities. Quantifying and communicating the vulnerability of this resource are essential for maintaining a consistent and equitable supply of these ecosystem services. We...

Soil and water related forest ecosystem services and resilience of social ecological system in the Central Highlands of Ethiopia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tekalign, Meron; Muys, Bart; Nyssen, Jan; Poesen, Jean

2014-05-01

In the central highlands of Ethiopia, deforestation and forest degradation are occurring and accelerating during the last century. The high population pressure is the most repeatedly mentioned reason. However, in the past 30 years researchers agreed that the absence of institutions, which could define the access rights to particular forest resources, is another underlying cause of forest depletion and loss. Changing forest areas into different land use types is affecting the biodiversity, which is manifested through not proper functioning of ecosystem services. Menagesha Suba forest, the focus of this study has been explored from various perspectives. However the social dimension and its interaction with the ecology have been addressed rarely. This research uses a combined theoretical framework of Ecosystem Services and that of Resilience thinking for understanding the complex social-ecological interactions in the forest and its influence on ecosystem services. For understanding the history and extent of land use land cover changes, in-depth literature review and a GIS and remote sensing analysis will be made. The effect of forest conversion into plantation and agricultural lands on soil and above ground carbon sequestration, fuel wood and timber products delivery will be analyzed with the accounting of the services on five land use types. The four ecosystem services to be considered are Supporting, Provisioning, Regulating, and Cultural services as set by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. A resilience based participatory framework approach will be used to analyze how the social and ecological systems responded towards the drivers of change that occurred in the past. The framework also will be applied to predict future uncertainties. Finally this study will focus on the possible interventions that could contribute to the sustainable management and conservation of the forest. An ecosystem services trade-off analysis and an environmental valuation of the water regulation and soil erosion control services will be made to propose solutions for increasing the social-ecological system resilience of Menagesha Suba forest.

'Ecosystem service opportunities': A practice-oriented framework for identifying economic instruments to enhance biodiversity and human livelihoods.

PubMed

Rode, Julian; Wittmer, Heidi; Emerton, Lucy; Schröter-Schlaack, Christoph

2016-09-01

Economic instruments that promise "win-win" solutions for both biodiversity conservation and human livelihoods have become increasingly popular over recent years. There however remains a gap in terms of practical and policy-relevant guidance about appropriate approaches that take into account the local needs and the specific cultural, legal, and ecological context in which such instruments are being developed and applied. This paper presents a step-by-step framework that helps conservation and development planners and practitioners to identify economic instruments that can promote pro-conservation behaviour in a specific setting. The concept of 'ecosystem service opportunities' builds on, and brings together, general economic principles and an ecosystem services perspective. The framework was designed to also address a number of concerns regarding economic approaches in order to help practitioners recognise the potentials and limits of economic approaches to nature conservation. The framework is illustrated by its application within the realm of a biodiversity conservation project in Thailand.

Summary: Ecosystem Services and Human Welfare

EPA Science Inventory

The ecosystem services paradigm is a framework conceived to engage support among people, especially policy- and decision-makers, for the recognition that human welfare, prosperity, security, and well-being are intrinsically linked to the health of the environment. Simply stated, ...

Fishing for ecosystem services.

PubMed

Pope, Kevin L; Pegg, Mark A; Cole, Nicholas W; Siddons, Stephen F; Fedele, Alexis D; Harmon, Brian S; Ruskamp, Ryan L; Turner, Dylan R; Uerling, Caleb C

2016-12-01

Ecosystems are commonly exploited and manipulated to maximize certain human benefits. Such changes can degrade systems, leading to cascading negative effects that may be initially undetected, yet ultimately result in a reduction, or complete loss, of certain valuable ecosystem services. Ecosystem-based management is intended to maintain ecosystem quality and minimize the risk of irreversible change to natural assemblages of species and to ecosystem processes while obtaining and maintaining long-term socioeconomic benefits. We discuss policy decisions in fishery management related to commonly manipulated environments with a focus on influences to ecosystem services. By focusing on broader scales, managing for ecosystem services, and taking a more proactive approach, we expect sustainable, quality fisheries that are resilient to future disturbances. To that end, we contend that: (1) management always involves tradeoffs; (2) explicit management of fisheries for ecosystem services could facilitate a transition from reactive to proactive management; and (3) adaptive co-management is a process that could enhance management for ecosystem services. We propose adaptive co-management with an ecosystem service framework where actions are implemented within ecosystem boundaries, rather than political boundaries, through strong interjurisdictional relationships. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Fishing for ecosystem services

USGS Publications Warehouse

Pope, Kevin L.; Pegg, Mark A.; Cole, Nicholas W.; Siddons, Stephen F.; Fedele, Alexis D.; Harmon, Brian S.; Ruskamp, Ryan L.; Turner, Dylan R.; Uerling, Caleb C.

2016-01-01

Ecosystems are commonly exploited and manipulated to maximize certain human benefits. Such changes can degrade systems, leading to cascading negative effects that may be initially undetected, yet ultimately result in a reduction, or complete loss, of certain valuable ecosystem services. Ecosystem-based management is intended to maintain ecosystem quality and minimize the risk of irreversible change to natural assemblages of species and to ecosystem processes while obtaining and maintaining long-term socioeconomic benefits. We discuss policy decisions in fishery management related to commonly manipulated environments with a focus on influences to ecosystem services. By focusing on broader scales, managing for ecosystem services, and taking a more proactive approach, we expect sustainable, quality fisheries that are resilient to future disturbances. To that end, we contend that: (1) management always involves tradeoffs; (2) explicit management of fisheries for ecosystem services could facilitate a transition from reactive to proactive management; and (3) adaptive co-management is a process that could enhance management for ecosystem services. We propose adaptive co-management with an ecosystem service framework where actions are implemented within ecosystem boundaries, rather than political boundaries, through strong interjurisdictional relationships.

Contributions of cultural services to the ecosystem services agenda

Treesearch

Terry C. Daniel; Andreas Muhar; Arne Arnberger; Olivier Aznar; James W. Boyd; Kai M.A. Chan; Robert Costanza; Thomas Elmqvist; Courtney G. Flint; Paul H. Gobster; A. Gret-Regamey; R. Lave; S. Muhar; M. Penker; R.G. Ribe; T. Schauppenlehner; T. Sikor; I. Soloviy; M. Spierenburg; K. Taczanowska; J. Tam; A. von der Dunk

2012-01-01

Cultural ecosystem services (ES) are consistently recognized but not yet adequately defined or integrated within the ES framework. A substantial body of models, methods, and data relevant to cultural services has been developed within the social and behavioral sciences before and outside of the ES approach. A selective review of work in landscape aesthetics, cultural...

Moving Species Redundancy Toward a More Predictive Framework

EPA Science Inventory

Human activities are driving rapid changes in species diversity in a wide range of habitats globally. These changes in species diversity raise questions about the ability of altered systems to continue to offer valuable ecosystem services. Maintenance of ecosystem services unde...

Applying an ecosystem service approach to unravel links between ecosystems and society in the coast of central Chile.

PubMed

de Juan, Silvia; Gelcich, Stefan; Ospina-Alvarez, Andres; Perez-Matus, Alejandro; Fernandez, Miriam

2015-11-15

Ecosystem-based management implies understanding feedbacks between ecosystems and society. Such understanding can be approached with the Drivers-Pressures-State change-Impacts-Response framework (DPSIR), incorporating stakeholders' preferences for ecosystem services to assess impacts on society. This framework was adapted to six locations in the central coast of Chile, where artisanal fisheries coexist with an increasing influx of tourists, and a set of fisheries management areas alternate with open access areas and a no-take Marine Protected Area (MPA). The ecosystem services in the study area were quantified using biomass and species richness in intertidal and subtidal areas as biological indicators. The demand for ecosystem services was elicited by interviews to the principal groups of users. Our results evidenced decreasing landings and a negative perception of fishermen on temporal trends of catches. The occurrence of recreational fishing was negligible, although the consumption of seafood by tourists was relatively high. Nevertheless, the consumption of organisms associated to the study system was low, which could be linked, amongst other factors, to decreasing catches. The comparison of biological indicators between management regimens provided variable results, but a positive effect of management areas and the MPA on some of the metrics was observed. The prioritising of ecosystem attributes by tourists was highly homogenous across the six locations, with "scenic beauty" consistently selected as the preferred attribute, followed by "diversity". The DPSIR framework illustrated the complex interactions existing in these locations, with weak linkages between society's priorities, existing management objectives and the state of biological communities. Overall, this work improved our knowledge on relations between components of coastal areas in central Chile, of paramount importance to advance towards an ecosystem-based management in the area. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Ecosystem Services Connect Environmental Change to Human Health Outcomes

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bayles, Brett R.; Brauman, Kate A.; Adkins, Joshua N.

Global environmental change, driven in large part by human activities, profoundly impacts the structure and functioning of Earth’s ecosystems (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005). We are beginning to push beyond planetary boundaries (Steffan et al. 2015), and the consequences for human health remain largely unknown (Myers et al. 2013). Growing evidence suggests that ecological transformations can dramatically affect human health in ways that are both obvious and obscure (Myers and Patz 2009; Myers et al. 2013). The framework of ecosystem services, designed to evaluate the benefits that people derive from ecosystem products and processes, provides a compelling framework for integrating themore » many factors that influence the human health response to global change, as well as for integrating health impacts into broader analyses of the impacts of this change« less

Ecosystem Services Insights into Water Resources Management in China: A Case of Xi'an City.

PubMed

Liu, Jingya; Li, Jing; Gao, Ziyi; Yang, Min; Qin, Keyu; Yang, Xiaonan

2016-11-24

Global climate and environmental changes are endangering global water resources; and several approaches have been tested to manage and reduce the pressure on these decreasing resources. This study uses the case study of Xi'an City in China to test reasonable and effective methods to address water resource shortages. The study generated a framework combining ecosystem services and water resource management. Seven ecosystem indicators were classified as supply services, regulating services, or cultural services. Index values for each indicator were calculated, and based on questionnaire results, each index's weight was calculated. Using the Likert method, we calculated ecosystem service supplies in every region of the city. We found that the ecosystem's service capability is closely related to water resources, providing a method for managing water resources. Using Xi'an City as an example, we apply the ecosystem services concept to water resources management, providing a method for decision makers.

Development of an integrated methodology for the sustainable environmental and socio-economic management of river ecosystems.

PubMed

Koundouri, P; Ker Rault, P; Pergamalis, V; Skianis, V; Souliotis, I

2016-01-01

The development of the Water Framework Directive aimed to establish an integrated framework of water management at European level. This framework revolves around inland surface waters, transitional waters, coastal waters and ground waters. In the process of achieving the environment and ecological objectives set from the Directive, the role of economics is put in the core of the water management. An important feature of the Directive is the recovery of total economic cost of water services by all users. The total cost of water services can be disaggregated into environmental, financial and resource costs. Another important aspect of the directive is the identification of major drivers and pressures in each River Basin District. We describe a methodology that is aiming to achieve sustainable and environmental and socioeconomic management of freshwater ecosystem services. The Ecosystem Services Approach is in the core of the suggested methodology for the implementation of a more sustainable and efficient water management. This approach consists of the following three steps: (i) socio-economic characterization of the River Basin area, (ii) assessment of the current recovery of water use cost, and (iii) identification and suggestion of appropriate programs of measures for sustainable water management over space and time. This methodology is consistent with a) the economic principles adopted explicitly by the Water Framework Directive (WFD), b) the three-step WFD implementation approach adopted in the WATECO document, c) the Ecosystem Services Approach to valuing freshwater goods and services to humans. Furthermore, we analyze how the effects of multiple stressors and socio-economic development can be quantified in the context of freshwater resources management. We also attempt to estimate the value of four ecosystem services using the benefit transfer approach for the Anglian River Basin, which showed the significance of such services. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Multiple ecosystem services in a working landscape.

PubMed

Eastburn, Danny J; O'Geen, Anthony T; Tate, Kenneth W; Roche, Leslie M

2017-01-01

Policy makers and practitioners are in need of useful tools and models for assessing ecosystem service outcomes and the potential risks and opportunities of ecosystem management options. We utilize a state-and-transition model framework integrating dynamic soil and vegetation properties to examine multiple ecosystem services-specifically agricultural production, biodiversity and habitat, and soil health-across human created vegetation states in a managed oak woodland landscape in a Mediterranean climate. We found clear tradeoffs and synergies in management outcomes. Grassland states maximized agricultural productivity at a loss of soil health, biodiversity, and other ecosystem services. Synergies existed among multiple ecosystem services in savanna and woodland states with significantly larger nutrient pools, more diversity and native plant richness, and less invasive species. This integrative approach can be adapted to a diversity of working landscapes to provide useful information for science-based ecosystem service valuations, conservation decision making, and management effectiveness assessments.

Safeguarding Ecosystem Services: A Methodological Framework to Buffer the Joint Effect of Habitat Configuration and Climate Change

PubMed Central

Giannini, Tereza C.; Tambosi, Leandro R.; Acosta, André L.; Jaffé, Rodolfo; Saraiva, Antonio M.; Imperatriz-Fonseca, Vera L.; Metzger, Jean Paul

2015-01-01

Ecosystem services provided by mobile agents are increasingly threatened by the loss and modification of natural habitats and by climate change, risking the maintenance of biodiversity, ecosystem functions, and human welfare. Research oriented towards a better understanding of the joint effects of land use and climate change over the provision of specific ecosystem services is therefore essential to safeguard such services. Here we propose a methodological framework, which integrates species distribution forecasts and graph theory to identify key conservation areas, which if protected or restored could improve habitat connectivity and safeguard ecosystem services. We applied the proposed framework to the provision of pollination services by a tropical stingless bee (Melipona quadrifasciata), a key pollinator of native flora from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest and important agricultural crops. Based on the current distribution of this bee and that of the plant species used to feed and nest, we projected the joint distribution of bees and plants in the future, considering a moderate climate change scenario (following IPPC). We then used this information, the bee’s flight range, and the current mapping of Atlantic Forest remnants to infer habitat suitability and quantify local and regional habitat connectivity for 2030, 2050 and 2080. Our results revealed north to south and coastal to inland shifts in the pollinator distribution during the next 70 years. Current and future connectivity maps unraveled the most important corridors, which if protected or restored, could facilitate the dispersal and establishment of bees during distribution shifts. Our results also suggest that coffee plantations from eastern São Paulo and southern Minas Gerais States could suffer a pollinator deficit in the future, whereas pollination services seem to be secured in southern Brazil. Landowners and governmental agencies could use this information to implement new land use schemes. Overall, our proposed methodological framework could help design novel conservational and agricultural practices that can be crucial to conserve ecosystem services by buffering the joint effect of habitat configuration and climate change. PMID:26091014

Off-stage ecosystem service burdens: A blind spot for global sustainability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pascual, Unai; Palomo, Ignacio; Adams, William M.; Chan, Kai M. A.; Daw, Tim M.; Garmendia, Eneko; Gómez-Baggethun, Erik; de Groot, Rudolf S.; Mace, Georgina M.; Martín-López, Berta; Phelps, Jacob

2017-07-01

The connected nature of social-ecological systems has never been more apparent than in today’s globalized world. The ecosystem service framework and associated ecosystem assessments aim to better inform the science-policy response to sustainability challenges. Such assessments, however, often overlook distant, diffuse and delayed impacts that are critical for global sustainability. Ecosystem-services science must better recognise the off-stage impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services of place-based ecosystem management, which we term ‘ecosystem service burdens’. These are particularly important since they are often negative, and have a potentially significant effect on ecosystem management decisions. Ecosystem-services research can better recognise these off-stage burdens through integration with other analytical approaches, such as life cycle analysis and risk-based approaches that better account for the uncertainties involved. We argue that off-stage ecosystem service burdens should be incorporated in ecosystem assessments such as those led by the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Taking better account of these off-stage burdens is essential to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of cross-scale interactions, a pre-requisite for any sustainability transition.

Biodiversity, ecosystem functions and services in environmental risk assessment: introduction to the special issue.

PubMed

Schäfer, Ralf B

2012-01-15

This Special Issue focuses on the questions if and how biodiversity, ecosystem functions and resulting services could be incorporated into the Ecological Risk Assessment (ERA). Therefore, three articles provide a framework for the integration of ecosystem services into ERA of soils, sediments and pesticides. Further articles demonstrate ways how stakeholders can be integrated into an ecosystem service-based ERA for soils and describe how the current monitoring could be adapted to new assessment endpoints that are directly linked to ecosystem services. Case studies show that the current ERA may not be protective for biodiversity, ecosystem functions and resulting services and that both pesticides and salinity currently adversely affect ecosystem functions in the field. Moreover, ecological models can be used for prediction of new protection goals and could finally support their implementation into the ERA. Overall, the Special Issue stresses the urgent need to enhance current procedures of ERA if biodiversity, ecosystem functions and resulting services are to be protected. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Techno-ecological synergy: a framework for sustainable engineering.

PubMed

Bakshi, Bhavik R; Ziv, Guy; Lepech, Michael D

2015-02-03

Even though the importance of ecosystems in sustaining all human activities is well-known, methods for sustainable engineering fail to fully account for this role of nature. Most methods account for the demand for ecosystem services, but almost none account for the supply. Incomplete accounting of the very foundation of human well-being can result in perverse outcomes from decisions meant to enhance sustainability and lost opportunities for benefiting from the ability of nature to satisfy human needs in an economically and environmentally superior manner. This paper develops a framework for understanding and designing synergies between technological and ecological systems to encourage greater harmony between human activities and nature. This framework considers technological systems ranging from individual processes to supply chains and life cycles, along with corresponding ecological systems at multiple spatial scales ranging from local to global. The demand for specific ecosystem services is determined from information about emissions and resource use, while the supply is obtained from information about the capacity of relevant ecosystems. Metrics calculate the sustainability of individual ecosystem services at multiple spatial scales and help define necessary but not sufficient conditions for local and global sustainability. Efforts to reduce ecological overshoot encourage enhancement of life cycle efficiency, development of industrial symbiosis, innovative designs and policies, and ecological restoration, thus combining the best features of many existing methods. Opportunities for theoretical and applied research to make this framework practical are also discussed.

Ecosystem Services: a Framework for Environmental Management of the Deep Sea

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Le, J. T.; Levin, L. A.; Carson, R. T.

2016-02-01

As demand for deep-sea resources rapidly expands in the food, energy, mineral, and pharmaceutical sectors, it has become increasingly clear that a regulatory structure for extracting these resources is not yet in place. There are jurisdictional gaps and a lack of regulatory consistency regarding what aspects of the deep sea need protection and what requirements might help guarantee that protection. Given the mining sector's intent to exploit seafloor massive sulphides, Mn nodules, cobalt crusts, and phosphorites in the coming years, there is an urgent need for deep-ocean environmental management. Here, we propose an ecosystem services-based framework to inform decisions and best practices regarding resource exploitation, and to guide baseline studies, preventative actions, monitoring, and remediation. With policy in early stages of development, an ecosystem services approach has the potential to serve as an overarching framework that takes protection of natural capital provided by the environment into account during the decision-making process. We show how an ecosystem services approach combined with economic tools, such as benefit transfer techniques, should help illuminate issues where there are direct conflicts among different industries, and between industry and conservation. We argue for baseline and monitoring measurements and metrics that inform about deep-sea ecosystem services that would be impaired by mining, and discuss ways to incorporate the value of those losses into decision making, mitigation measures, and ultimately product costs. This proposal is considered relative to current International Seabed Authority recommendations and contractor practices, and new actions are proposed. An ecosystem services-based understanding of how these systems work and their value to society can improve sustainability and stewardship of the deep ocean.

The National Ecosystem Services Classification System: A Framework for Identifying and Reducing Relevant Uncertainties

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rhodes, C. R.; Sinha, P.; Amanda, N.

2013-12-01

In recent years the gap between what scientists know and what policymakers should appreciate in environmental decision making has received more attention, as the costs of the disconnect have become more apparent to both groups. Particularly for water-related policies, the EPA's Office of Water has struggled with benefit estimates held low by the inability to quantify ecological and economic effects that theory, modeling, and anecdotal or isolated case evidence suggest may prove to be larger. Better coordination with ecologists and hydrologists is being explored as a solution. The ecosystem services (ES) concept now nearly two decades old links ecosystem functions and processes to the human value system. But there remains no clear mapping of which ecosystem goods and services affect which individual or economic values. The National Ecosystem Services Classification System (NESCS, 'nexus') project brings together ecologists, hydrologists, and social scientists to do this mapping for aquatic and other ecosystem service-generating systems. The objective is to greatly reduce the uncertainty in water-related policy making by mapping and ultimately quantifying the various functions and products of aquatic systems, as well as how changes to aquatic systems impact the human economy and individual levels of non-monetary appreciation for those functions and products. Primary challenges to fostering interaction between scientists, social scientists, and policymakers are lack of a common vocabulary, and the need for a cohesive comprehensive framework that organizes concepts across disciplines and accommodates scientific data from a range of sources. NESCS builds the vocabulary and the framework so both may inform a scalable transdisciplinary policy-making application. This talk presents for discussion the process and progress in developing both this vocabulary and a classifying framework capable of bridging the gap between a newer but existing ecosystem services classification system, and a standardized industrial classification system. Our goal is to model then predict the effects of a policy choice on the environment, from impacts on ecological components and processes all the way through to endpoints in the human value chain.

Unraveling the Relationships between Ecosystems and Human Wellbeing in Spain

PubMed Central

Santos-Martín, Fernando; Martín-López, Berta; García-Llorente, Marina; Aguado, Mateo; Benayas, Javier; Montes, Carlos

2013-01-01

National ecosystem assessments provide evidence on the status and trends of biodiversity, ecosystem conditions, and the delivery of ecosystem services to society. I this study, we analyze the complex relationships established between ecosystems and human systems in Spain through the combination of Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response framework and structural equation models. Firstly, to operationalize the framework, we selected 53 national scale indicators that provide accurate, long-term information on each of the components. Secondly, structural equation models were performed to understand the relationships among the components of the framework. Trend indicators have shown an overall progressive biodiversity loss, trade-offs between provisioning and cultural services associated with urban areas vs. regulating and cultural services associated with rural areas, a decoupling effect between material and non-material dimensions of human wellbeing, a rapid growing trend of conservation responses in recent years and a constant growing linear trend of direct or indirect drivers of change. Results also show that all the components analyzed in the model are strongly related. On one hand, the model shows that biodiversity erosion negatively affect the supply of regulating services, while it is positively related with the increase of provisioning service delivery. On the other hand, the most important relationship found in the model is the effect of pressures on biodiversity loss, indicating that response options for conserving nature cannot counteract the effect of the drivers of change. These results suggest that there is an insufficient institutional response to address the underlying causes (indirect drivers of change) of biodiversity loos in Spain. We conclude that more structural changes are required in the Spanish institutional framework to reach 2020 biodiversity conservation international targets. PMID:24039894

Unraveling the relationships between ecosystems and human wellbeing in Spain.

PubMed

Santos-Martín, Fernando; Martín-López, Berta; García-Llorente, Marina; Aguado, Mateo; Benayas, Javier; Montes, Carlos

2013-01-01

National ecosystem assessments provide evidence on the status and trends of biodiversity, ecosystem conditions, and the delivery of ecosystem services to society. I this study, we analyze the complex relationships established between ecosystems and human systems in Spain through the combination of Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response framework and structural equation models. Firstly, to operationalize the framework, we selected 53 national scale indicators that provide accurate, long-term information on each of the components. Secondly, structural equation models were performed to understand the relationships among the components of the framework. Trend indicators have shown an overall progressive biodiversity loss, trade-offs between provisioning and cultural services associated with urban areas vs. regulating and cultural services associated with rural areas, a decoupling effect between material and non-material dimensions of human wellbeing, a rapid growing trend of conservation responses in recent years and a constant growing linear trend of direct or indirect drivers of change. Results also show that all the components analyzed in the model are strongly related. On one hand, the model shows that biodiversity erosion negatively affect the supply of regulating services, while it is positively related with the increase of provisioning service delivery. On the other hand, the most important relationship found in the model is the effect of pressures on biodiversity loss, indicating that response options for conserving nature cannot counteract the effect of the drivers of change. These results suggest that there is an insufficient institutional response to address the underlying causes (indirect drivers of change) of biodiversity loos in Spain. We conclude that more structural changes are required in the Spanish institutional framework to reach 2020 biodiversity conservation international targets.

GEOHYDROLOGY IN SUPPORT OF ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION

EPA Science Inventory

The practical framework for ecosystem restoration is the watershed. The structure and function of riparian and wetland areas within the watershed provide water quality services for healthy aquatic ecosystems. Urbanization, agriculture and other pressures can produce point and n...

Ecosystem service valuations of mangrove ecosystems to inform decision making and future valuation exercises.

PubMed

Mukherjee, Nibedita; Sutherland, William J; Dicks, Lynn; Hugé, Jean; Koedam, Nico; Dahdouh-Guebas, Farid

2014-01-01

The valuation of ecosystem services is a complex process as it includes several dimensions (ecological, socio-cultural and economic) and not all of these can be quantified in monetary units. The aim of this paper is to conduct an ecosystem services valuation study for mangroves ecosystems, the results of which can be used to inform governance and management of mangroves. We used an expert-based participatory approach (the Delphi technique) to identify, categorize and rank the various ecosystem services provided by mangrove ecosystems at a global scale. Subsequently we looked for evidence in the existing ecosystem services literature for monetary valuations of these ecosystem service categories throughout the biogeographic distribution of mangroves. We then compared the relative ranking of ecosystem service categories between the monetary valuations and the expert based analysis. The experts identified 16 ecosystem service categories, six of which are not adequately represented in the literature. There was no significant correlation between the expert based valuation (the Delphi technique) and the economic valuation, indicating that the scope of valuation of ecosystem services needs to be broadened. Acknowledging this diversity in different valuation approaches, and developing methodological frameworks that foster the pluralism of values in ecosystem services research, are crucial for maintaining the credibility of ecosystem services valuation. To conclude, we use the findings of our dual approach to valuation to make recommendations on how to assess and manage the ecosystem services provided by mangrove ecosystems.

Ecosystem Service Valuations of Mangrove Ecosystems to Inform Decision Making and Future Valuation Exercises

PubMed Central

Mukherjee, Nibedita; Sutherland, William J.; Dicks, Lynn; Hugé, Jean; Koedam, Nico; Dahdouh-Guebas, Farid

2014-01-01

The valuation of ecosystem services is a complex process as it includes several dimensions (ecological, socio-cultural and economic) and not all of these can be quantified in monetary units. The aim of this paper is to conduct an ecosystem services valuation study for mangroves ecosystems, the results of which can be used to inform governance and management of mangroves. We used an expert-based participatory approach (the Delphi technique) to identify, categorize and rank the various ecosystem services provided by mangrove ecosystems at a global scale. Subsequently we looked for evidence in the existing ecosystem services literature for monetary valuations of these ecosystem service categories throughout the biogeographic distribution of mangroves. We then compared the relative ranking of ecosystem service categories between the monetary valuations and the expert based analysis. The experts identified 16 ecosystem service categories, six of which are not adequately represented in the literature. There was no significant correlation between the expert based valuation (the Delphi technique) and the economic valuation, indicating that the scope of valuation of ecosystem services needs to be broadened. Acknowledging this diversity in different valuation approaches, and developing methodological frameworks that foster the pluralism of values in ecosystem services research, are crucial for maintaining the credibility of ecosystem services valuation. To conclude, we use the findings of our dual approach to valuation to make recommendations on how to assess and manage the ecosystem services provided by mangrove ecosystems. PMID:25243852

Creating a Liveable City - Eco-services, Systems and Place

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hamilton, R. J.; Dean, M.; Birtles, P. J.; Hore, J.; Dahlenburg, J.

2014-12-01

The use of an ecosystem service framework for natural resource management has gained increasing traction in the public sector. This is of especial interest in cities as residual ecosystems - typically located along creeks and estuaries, or remaining in scattered pockets throughout the urban area - offer some of the highest value social and economic returns per capita for the land area they occupy, yet are often impractical to manage from more traditional approaches to conservation. We posit that the well-being of humans and other species is the outcome of healthy, functioning ecosystems, and that, from a policy perspective, it is essential to consider services in this context. We arrange ecosystem services into three categories: life-enabling, life-sustaining and life-fulfilling, in a modification to the categories of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, and identify additional eco-services unique to urban areas. At local scale, these contribute to the well-being of city residents and positively affect quality of life, forming essential elements of urban liveability. However, dynamics of co-located built and natural environments challenge the capacity of ecosystems to function and provide their full suite of services. Using Sydney as an example, we outline a modular framework of socio-ecological systems and places to show how eco-services supporting liveability can be considered in conceptual and physical space. At a policy level, framing systems-based management objectives that protect, improve and re-discover desirable ecosystem services within the city (as opposed to further increasing the environmental footprint outside), will allow for unique, positive, socially-enabling outcomes for urban centres, in Australia, and globally.

Placing ecosystem services at the heart of urban water systems management.

PubMed

Garcia, X; Barceló, D; Comas, J; Corominas, Ll; Hadjimichael, A; Page, T J; Acuña, V

2016-09-01

Current approaches have failed to deliver a truly integrated management of the different elements of the urban water system, such as freshwater ecosystems, drinking water treatment plants, distribution networks, sewer systems and wastewater treatment plants. Because the different parts of urban water have not been well integrated, poor decisions have been made for society in general, leading to the misuse of water resources, the degradation of freshwater ecosystems and increased overall treatment costs. Some attempts to solve environmental issues have adopted the ecosystem services concept in a more integrated approach, however this has rarely strayed far away from pure policy, and has made little impact in on-the-ground operational matters. Here, we present an improved decision-making framework to integrate the management of urban water systems. This framework uses the ecosystem service concept in a practical way to make a better use of both financial and water resources, while continuing to preserve the environment. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Using Ecosystem Services to Inform Decisions on U.S. Air Quality Standards

EPA Science Inventory

The ecosystem services (ES) framework provides a link between changes in a natural system’s structure and function and public welfare. This systematic integration of ecology and economics allows for more consistency and transparency in environmental decision making by enab...

Managing bay and estuarine ecosystems for multiple services

USGS Publications Warehouse

Needles, Lisa A.; Lester, Sarah E.; Ambrose, Richard; Andren, Anders; Beyeler, Marc; Connor, Michael S.; Eckman, James E.; Costa-Pierce, Barry A.; Gaines, Steven D.; Lafferty, Kevin D.; Lenihan, Junter S.; Parrish, Julia; Peterson, Mark S.; Scaroni, Amy E.; Weis, Judith S.; Wendt, Dean E.

2013-01-01

Managers are moving from a model of managing individual sectors, human activities, or ecosystem services to an ecosystem-based management (EBM) approach which attempts to balance the range of services provided by ecosystems. Applying EBM is often difficult due to inherent tradeoffs in managing for different services. This challenge particularly holds for estuarine systems, which have been heavily altered in most regions and are often subject to intense management interventions. Estuarine managers can often choose among a range of management tactics to enhance a particular service; although some management actions will result in strong tradeoffs, others may enhance multiple services simultaneously. Management of estuarine ecosystems could be improved by distinguishing between optimal management actions for enhancing multiple services and those that have severe tradeoffs. This requires a framework that evaluates tradeoff scenarios and identifies management actions likely to benefit multiple services. We created a management action-services matrix as a first step towards assessing tradeoffs and providing managers with a decision support tool. We found that management actions that restored or enhanced natural vegetation (e.g., salt marsh and mangroves) and some shellfish (particularly oysters and oyster reef habitat) benefited multiple services. In contrast, management actions such as desalination, salt pond creation, sand mining, and large container shipping had large net negative effects on several of the other services considered in the matrix. Our framework provides resource managers a simple way to inform EBM decisions and can also be used as a first step in more sophisticated approaches that model service delivery.

Spatial dynamics of ecosystem service flows: a comprehensive approach to quantifying actual services

USGS Publications Warehouse

Bagstad, Kenneth J.; Johnson, Gary W.; Voigt, Brian; Villa, Ferdinando

2013-01-01

Recent ecosystem services research has highlighted the importance of spatial connectivity between ecosystems and their beneficiaries. Despite this need, a systematic approach to ecosystem service flow quantification has not yet emerged. In this article, we present such an approach, which we formalize as a class of agent-based models termed “Service Path Attribution Networks” (SPANs). These models, developed as part of the Artificial Intelligence for Ecosystem Services (ARIES) project, expand on ecosystem services classification terminology introduced by other authors. Conceptual elements needed to support flow modeling include a service's rivalness, its flow routing type (e.g., through hydrologic or transportation networks, lines of sight, or other approaches), and whether the benefit is supplied by an ecosystem's provision of a beneficial flow to people or by absorption of a detrimental flow before it reaches them. We describe our implementation of the SPAN framework for five ecosystem services and discuss how to generalize the approach to additional services. SPAN model outputs include maps of ecosystem service provision, use, depletion, and flows under theoretical, possible, actual, inaccessible, and blocked conditions. We highlight how these different ecosystem service flow maps could be used to support various types of decision making for conservation and resource management planning.

Integrated modelling of ecosystem services and energy systems research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Agarwala, Matthew; Lovett, Andrew; Bateman, Ian; Day, Brett; Agnolucci, Paolo; Ziv, Guy

2016-04-01

The UK Government is formally committed to reducing carbon emissions and protecting and improving natural capital and the environment. However, actually delivering on these objectives requires an integrated approach to addressing two parallel challenges: de-carbonising future energy system pathways; and safeguarding natural capital to ensure the continued flow of ecosystem services. Although both emphasise benefiting from natural resources, efforts to connect natural capital and energy systems research have been limited, meaning opportunities to improve management of natural resources and meet society's energy needs could be missed. The ecosystem services paradigm provides a consistent conceptual framework that applies in multiple disciplines across the natural and economic sciences, and facilitates collaboration between them. At the forefront of the field, integrated ecosystem service - economy models have guided public- and private-sector decision making at all levels. Models vary in sophistication from simple spreadsheet tools to complex software packages integrating biophysical, GIS and economic models and draw upon many fields, including ecology, hydrology, geography, systems theory, economics and the social sciences. They also differ in their ability to value changes in natural capital and ecosystem services at various spatial and temporal scales. Despite these differences, current models share a common feature: their treatment of energy systems is superficial at best. In contrast, energy systems research has no widely adopted, unifying conceptual framework that organises thinking about key system components and interactions. Instead, the literature is organised around modelling approaches, including life cycle analyses, econometric investigations, linear programming and computable general equilibrium models. However, some consistencies do emerge. First, often contain a linear set of steps, from exploration to resource supply, fuel processing, conversion/generation, transmission, distribution, and finally, end energy use. Although each step clearly impacts upon natural capital, links to the natural environment are rarely identified or quantified within energy research. In short, the respective conceptual frameworks guiding ecosystem service and energy research are not well integrated. Major knowledge and research gaps appear at the system boundaries: while energy models may mention flows of residuals, exploring where exactly these flows enter the environment, and how they impact ecosystems and natural capital is often considered to be 'outside the system boundary'. While integrated modelling represents the frontier of ecosystem service research, current efforts largely ignore the future energy pathways set out by energy systems models and government carbon targets. This disconnect means that policy-oriented research on how best to (i) maintain natural capital and (ii) meet specific climate targets may be poorly aligned, or worse, offer conflicting advice. We present a re-imagined version of the ecosystem services conceptual framework, in which emphasis is placed on interactions between energy systems and the natural environment. Using the UK as a case study, we employ a recent integrated environmental-economic ecosystem service model, TIM, developed by Bateman et al (2014) and energy pathways developed by the UK Energy Research Centre and the UK Government Committee on Climate Change to illustrate how the new conceptual framework might apply in real world applications.

Multiple ecosystem services in a working landscape

PubMed Central

Eastburn, Danny J.; O’Geen, Anthony T.; Tate, Kenneth W.; Roche, Leslie M.

2017-01-01

Policy makers and practitioners are in need of useful tools and models for assessing ecosystem service outcomes and the potential risks and opportunities of ecosystem management options. We utilize a state-and-transition model framework integrating dynamic soil and vegetation properties to examine multiple ecosystem services—specifically agricultural production, biodiversity and habitat, and soil health—across human created vegetation states in a managed oak woodland landscape in a Mediterranean climate. We found clear tradeoffs and synergies in management outcomes. Grassland states maximized agricultural productivity at a loss of soil health, biodiversity, and other ecosystem services. Synergies existed among multiple ecosystem services in savanna and woodland states with significantly larger nutrient pools, more diversity and native plant richness, and less invasive species. This integrative approach can be adapted to a diversity of working landscapes to provide useful information for science-based ecosystem service valuations, conservation decision making, and management effectiveness assessments. PMID:28301475

[Ecosystem services evaluation based on geographic information system and remote sensing technology: a review].

PubMed

Li, Wen-Jie; Zhang, Shi-Huang; Wang, Hui-Min

2011-12-01

Ecosystem services evaluation is a hot topic in current ecosystem management, and has a close link with human beings welfare. This paper summarized the research progress on the evaluation of ecosystem services based on geographic information system (GIS) and remote sensing (RS) technology, which could be reduced to the following three characters, i. e., ecological economics theory is widely applied as a key method in quantifying ecosystem services, GIS and RS technology play a key role in multi-source data acquisition, spatiotemporal analysis, and integrated platform, and ecosystem mechanism model becomes a powerful tool for understanding the relationships between natural phenomena and human activities. Aiming at the present research status and its inadequacies, this paper put forward an "Assembly Line" framework, which was a distributed one with scalable characteristics, and discussed the future development trend of the integration research on ecosystem services evaluation based on GIS and RS technologies.

A HYPOTHESIS-DRIVEN FRAMEWORK FOR ASSESSING CLIMATE INDUCED CHANGES IN COASTAL FINAL ECOSYSTEM GOODS AND SERVICES

EPA Science Inventory

Understanding how climate change will alter the availability of coastal final ecosystem goods and services (FEGS; such as food provisioning from fisheries, property protection, and recreation) has significant implications for coastal planning and the development of adaptive manag...

USEPA’s Ecological Exposure Modeling Science: Frameworks, Components and the Emerging Community of Practice for Reuse

EPA Science Inventory

The Ecosystem Services Research Program of the EPA Office of Research and Development envisions a comprehensive theory and practice for characterizing, quantifying and valuing ecosystem services and their relationship to human well-being. This vision of future environmental deci...

Advances of Air Pollution Science: From Forest Decline to Multiple-Stress Effects on Forest Ecosystem Services

Treesearch

E. Paoletti; M. Schaub; R. Matyssek; G. Wieser; A. Augustaitis; A. M. Bastrup-Birk; A. Bytnerowicz; M. S. Gunthardt-Goerg; G. Muller-Starck; Y. Serengil

2010-01-01

Over the past 20 years, the focus of forest science on air pollution has moved from forest decline to a holistic framework of forest health, and from the effects on forest production to the ecosystem services provided by forest ecosystems. Hence, future research should focus on the interacting factorial impacts and resulting antagonistic and synergistic responses of...

Incorporating ecosystem services into environmental management of deep-seabed mining

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Le, Jennifer T.; Levin, Lisa A.; Carson, Richard T.

2017-03-01

Accelerated exploration of minerals in the deep sea over the past decade has raised the likelihood that commercial mining of the deep seabed will commence in the near future. Environmental concerns create a growing urgency for development of environmental regulations under commercial exploitation. Here, we consider an ecosystem services approach to the environmental policy and management of deep-sea mineral resources. Ecosystem services link the environment and human well-being, and can help improve sustainability and stewardship of the deep sea by providing a quantitative basis for decision-making. This paper briefly reviews ecosystem services provided by habitats targeted for deep-seabed mining (hydrothermal vents, seamounts, nodule provinces, and phosphate-rich margins), and presents practical steps to incorporate ecosystem services into deep-seabed mining regulation. The linkages and translation between ecosystem structure, ecological function (including supporting services), and ecosystem services are highlighted as generating human benefits. We consider criteria for identifying which ecosystem services are vulnerable to potential mining impacts, the role of ecological functions in providing ecosystem services, development of ecosystem service indicators, valuation of ecosystem services, and implementation of ecosystem services concepts. The first three steps put ecosystem services into a deep-seabed mining context; the last two steps help to incorporate ecosystem services into a management and decision-making framework. Phases of environmental planning discussed in the context of ecosystem services include conducting strategic environmental assessments, collecting baseline data, monitoring, establishing marine protected areas, assessing cumulative impacts, identifying thresholds and triggers, and creating an environmental damage compensation regime. We also identify knowledge gaps that need to be addressed in order to operationalize ecosystem services concepts in deep-seabed mining regulation and propose potential tools to fill them.

Practical Strategies for Integrating Final Ecosystem Goods and ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

The concept of Final Ecosystem Goods and Services (FEGS) explicitly connects ecosystem services to the people that benefit from them. This report presents a number of practical strategies for incorporating FEGS, and more broadly ecosystem services, into the decision-making process. Whether a decision process is in early or late stages, or whether a process includes informal or formal decision analysis, there are multiple points where ecosystem services concepts can be integrated. This report uses Structured Decision Making (SDM) as an organizing framework to illustrate the role ecosystem services can play in a values-focused decision-process, including: • Clarifying the decision context: Ecosystem services can help clarify the potential impacts of an issue on natural resources together with their spatial and temporal extent based on supply and delivery of those services, and help identify beneficiaries for inclusion as stakeholders in the deliberative process. • Defining objectives and performance measures: Ecosystem services may directly represent stakeholder objectives, or may be means toward achieving other objectives. • Creating alternatives: Ecosystem services can bring to light creative alternatives for achieving other social, economic, health, or general well-being objectives. • Estimating consequences: Ecosystem services assessments can implement ecological production functions (EPFs) and ecological benefits functions (EBFs) to link decision alt

Ecosystem Services in the Real World: Using the U.S. EnviroAtlas Tool in Impact Assessments

EPA Science Inventory

There have been widespread calls to integrate ecosystem services (ES) into decision processes, including a recent U.S. mandate directing Federal agencies to incorporate ES into their planning, investments, and regulatory contexts. Using an ES framework is expected to lead to bet...

Invited seminar, University of North Texas: An integrated eco-hydrologic modeling framework for assessing the effects of interacting stressors

EPA Science Inventory

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently established the Ecosystem Services Research Program to help formulate methods and models for conducting comprehensive risk assessments that quantify how multiple ecosystem services interact and respond in concert to environmental ...

USEPA'S FINAL ECOSYSTEM AND SERVICES (FEGS) CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM: Concept to Implementation and Links with EnviroAtlas

EPA Science Inventory

For the last decade ecosystem services have received increasing focus, yet the natural and social scientists working on mainstreaming these concepts are still struggling with the basic issues. One of such issue is developing a framework that avoids double counting, provides guid...

Evaluating ecological and economic benefits of a low-carbon industrial park based on millennium ecosystem assessment framework.

PubMed

Chen, Bin; He, Guoxuan; Yang, Jin; Zhang, Jieru; Su, Meirong; Qi, Jing

2012-01-01

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) framework was modified with a special focus on ecosystem service values. A case study of a typical low-carbon industrial park in Beijing was conducted to assess the ecological and economic benefits. The total economic value of this industrial park per year is estimated to be 1.37 × 10(8) RMB yuan, where the accommodating and social cultural services are the largest two contributors. Due to the construction of small grasslands or green roofs, considerable environmental regulation services are also provided by the park. However, compared with an ecoindustrial park, carbon mitigation is the most prominent service for the low-carbon industrial park. It can be concluded that low-carbon industrial park construction is an efficacious way to achieve coordinated development of society, economy, and environment, and a promising approach to achieving energy saving and carbon reduction.

Ecosystem services and the protection, restoration, and management of ecosystems exposed to chemical stressors.

PubMed

Maltby, Lorraine

2013-04-01

Ecosystem services-the benefits people obtain from ecosystem structures and processes-are essential for human survival and well-being. Chemicals are also an essential component of modern life; however, they may cause adverse ecological effects and reduce ecosystem service provision. Environmental policy makers are increasingly adopting the ecosystem services concept, but applying this approach to the protection, restoration, and management of ecosystems requires the development of new understanding, tools, and frameworks. There is an urgent need to understand and predict the effect of single and multiple stressors on ecosystem service delivery across different spatial scales (local to global), to develop indicators that can be used to quantify and map services and identify synergies and trade-offs between them, to establish protection goals and restoration targets defined in terms of the types and levels of service delivery required, and to develop approaches for the assessment and management of chemical risk to ecosystem services that consider the whole life cycle of products and processes. These are major research challenges for the environmental science community in general and for ecotoxicologists and risk assessors in particular. Copyright © 2013 SETAC.

Ecosystem services as a framework for forest stewardship: Deschutes National Forest overview

Treesearch

Nikola Smith; Robert Deal; Jeff Kline; Dale Blahna; Trista Patterson; Thomas A. Spies; Karen Bennett

2011-01-01

The concept of ecosystem services has emerged as a way of framing and describing the comprehensive set of benefits that people receive from nature. These include commonly recognized goods like timber and fresh water, as well as processes like climate regulation and water purification, and aesthetic, spiritual, and cultural benefits. The USDA Forest Service has been...

Reconnecting cities to the biosphere: stewardship of green infrastructure and urban ecosystem services.

PubMed

Andersson, Erik; Barthel, Stephan; Borgström, Sara; Colding, Johan; Elmqvist, Thomas; Folke, Carl; Gren, Åsa

2014-05-01

Within-city green infrastructure can offer opportunities and new contexts for people to become stewards of ecosystem services. We analyze cities as social-ecological systems, synthesize the literature, and provide examples from more than 15 years of research in the Stockholm urban region, Sweden. The social-ecological approach spans from investigating ecosystem properties to the social frameworks and personal values that drive and shape human interactions with nature. Key findings demonstrate that urban ecosystem services are generated by social-ecological systems and that local stewards are critically important. However, land-use planning and management seldom account for their role in the generation of urban ecosystem services. While the small scale patchwork of land uses in cities stimulates intense interactions across borders much focus is still on individual patches. The results highlight the importance and complexity of stewardship of urban biodiversity and ecosystem services and of the planning and governance of urban green infrastructure.

Sustainability and productivity of southern pine ecosystems: A thematic framework for integrating research and building partnerships

Treesearch

Charles K. McMahon; James P. Barnett

2000-01-01

In 1997, the USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS) published a Strategic Plan that formed a framework for addressing the Sustainability of Southern Forest Ecosystems. Six crosscutting themes were identified to facilitate research integration and partnership building among the widely dispersed SRS research work units. The Sustainability and Productivity of...

Adaptive management for soil ecosystem services

USGS Publications Warehouse

Birge, Hannah E.; Bevans, Rebecca A.; Allen, Craig R.; Angeler, David G.; Baer, Sara G.; Wall, Diana H.

2016-01-01

Ecosystem services provided by soil include regulation of the atmosphere and climate, primary (including agricultural) production, waste processing, decomposition, nutrient conservation, water purification, erosion control, medical resources, pest control, and disease mitigation. The simultaneous production of these multiple services arises from complex interactions among diverse aboveground and belowground communities across multiple scales. When a system is mismanaged, non-linear and persistent losses in ecosystem services can arise. Adaptive management is an approach to management designed to reduce uncertainty as management proceeds. By developing alternative hypotheses, testing these hypotheses and adjusting management in response to outcomes, managers can probe dynamic mechanistic relationships among aboveground and belowground soil system components. In doing so, soil ecosystem services can be preserved and critical ecological thresholds avoided. Here, we present an adaptive management framework designed to reduce uncertainty surrounding the soil system, even when soil ecosystem services production is not the explicit management objective, so that managers can reach their management goals without undermining soil multifunctionality or contributing to an irreversible loss of soil ecosystem services.

Ecohydrology frameworks for green infrastructure design and ecosystem service provision

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pavao-Zuckerman, M.; Knerl, A.; Barron-Gafford, G.

2014-12-01

Urbanization is a dominant form of landscape change that affects the structure and function of ecosystems and alters control points in biogeochemical and hydrologic cycles. Green infrastructure (GI) has been proposed as a solution to many urban environmental challenges and may be a way to manage biogeochemical control points. Despite this promise, there has been relatively limited empirical focus to evaluate the efficacy of GI, relationships between design and function, and the ability of GI to provide ecosystem services in cities. This work has been driven by goals of adapting GI approaches to dryland cities and to harvest rain and storm water for providing ecosystem services related to storm water management and urban heat island mitigation, as well as other co-benefits. We will present a modification of ecohydrologic theory for guiding the design and function of green infrastructure for dryland systems that highlights how GI functions in context of Trigger - Transfer - Reserve - Pulse (TTRP) dynamic framework. Here we also apply this TTRP framework to observations of established street-scape green infrastructure in Tucson, AZ, and an experimental installation of green infrastructure basins on the campus of Biosphere 2 (Oracle, AZ) where we have been measuring plant performance and soil biogeochemical functions. We found variable sensitivity of microbial activity, soil respiration, N-mineralization, photosynthesis and respiration that was mediated both by elements of basin design (soil texture and composition, choice of surface mulches) and antecedent precipitation inputs and soil moisture conditions. The adapted TTRP framework and field studies suggest that there are strong connections between design and function that have implications for stormwater management and ecosystem service provision in dryland cities.

Operationalizing the telecoupling framework for migratory species using the spatial subsidies approach to examine ecosystem services provided by Mexican free-tailed bats

USGS Publications Warehouse

Lopez Hoffman, Laura; Diffendorfer, James E.; Widerholt, Ruscena; Thogmartin, Wayne E.; McCraken, Gary; Medellin, Rodrigo; Bagstad, Kenneth J.; Russell, Amy; Semmens, Darius J.

2017-01-01

Drivers of environmental change in one location can have profound effects on ecosystem services and human well-being in distant locations, often across international borders. The telecoupling provides a conceptual framework for describing these interactions—for example, locations can be defined as sending areas (sources of flows of ecosystem services, energy, or information) or receiving areas (recipients of flows). However, the ability to quantify feedbacks between ecosystem change in one area and societal benefits in other areas requires analytical approaches. We use spatial subsidies—an approach developed to measure the degree to which a migratory species’ ability to provide services in one location depends on habitat in another location—as an example of how telecoupling can be operationalized. Using the cotton pest control and ecotourism services of Mexican free-tailed bats as an example, we determined that of the 16 states in the United States and Mexico where the species resides, three states (Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado) are receiving areas, while the rest of the states are sending areas. In addition, the magnitude of spatial subsidy can be used as an indicator of the degree to which different locations are telecoupled to other locations. In this example, the Mexican free-tailed bat ecosystem services to cotton production and ecotourism in Texas and New Mexico are heavily dependent on winter habitat in four states in central and southern Mexico. In sum, spatial subsidies can be used to operationalize the telecoupling conceptual framework by identifying sending and receiving areas, and by indicating the degree to which locations are telecoupled to other locations.

Achieving sustainable ese of environment: a framework for payment for protected forest ecosystem service

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Widicahyono, A.; Awang, S. A.; Maryudi, A.; Setiawan, M. A.; Rusdimi, A. U.; Handoko, D.; Muhammad, R. A.

2018-04-01

Over the last decade, deforestation in Indonesia has reduced the forest area down to more than 6 million hectares. There is conflict that the protected forest ecosystem service is still often perceived as public goods. Many of them went unrecognized in planning process and continue to be undervalued. The challenge lies in maintaining socioeconomic development and ecosystem services sustainability without overlooking the people’s opportunities and improving their livelihoods over the long term. An integrated approach is required to understand the comprehensive concept of protected forest ecosystem service. This research aims to formulate a scheme of payment for ecosystem service (PES) in a protected forest. It is a first step towards the attempt for the value of ecosystem services to be reflected in decision-making. Literatures, previous researches and secondary data are reviewed thoroughly to analyze the interrelated components by looking at the environment as a whole and recognize their linkages that have consequences to one another both positive and negative. The framework of implementation of PES schemes outlines the complexity of human-environment interconnecting relationships. It evaluates the contributing actors of different interest i.e. long term use and short term use. The concept of PES accommodates the fulfillment of both conservation and exploitation with an incentive scheme to the contributing parties who are willing to implement conservation and issuance of compensation expense for any exploitation means. The most crucial part in this concept is to have a good and effective communication between every policy makers concerning the forest ecosystem and local communities.

Upgrading Marine Ecosystem Restoration Using Ecological-Social Concepts.

PubMed

Abelson, Avigdor; Halpern, Benjamin S; Reed, Daniel C; Orth, Robert J; Kendrick, Gary A; Beck, Michael W; Belmaker, Jonathan; Krause, Gesche; Edgar, Graham J; Airoldi, Laura; Brokovich, Eran; France, Robert; Shashar, Nadav; de Blaeij, Arianne; Stambler, Noga; Salameh, Pierre; Shechter, Mordechai; Nelson, Peter A

2016-02-01

Conservation and environmental management are principal countermeasures to the degradation of marine ecosystems and their services. However, in many cases, current practices are insufficient to reverse ecosystem declines. We suggest that restoration ecology , the science underlying the concepts and tools needed to restore ecosystems, must be recognized as an integral element for marine conservation and environmental management. Marine restoration ecology is a young scientific discipline, often with gaps between its application and the supporting science. Bridging these gaps is essential to using restoration as an effective management tool and reversing the decline of marine ecosystems and their services. Ecological restoration should address objectives that include improved ecosystem services, and it therefore should encompass social-ecological elements rather than focusing solely on ecological parameters. We recommend using existing management frameworks to identify clear restoration targets, to apply quantitative tools for assessment, and to make the re-establishment of ecosystem services a criterion for success.

Upgrading Marine Ecosystem Restoration Using Ecological‐Social Concepts

PubMed Central

Abelson, Avigdor; Halpern, Benjamin S.; Reed, Daniel C.; Orth, Robert J.; Kendrick, Gary A.; Beck, Michael W.; Belmaker, Jonathan; Krause, Gesche; Edgar, Graham J.; Airoldi, Laura; Brokovich, Eran; France, Robert; Shashar, Nadav; de Blaeij, Arianne; Stambler, Noga; Salameh, Pierre; Shechter, Mordechai; Nelson, Peter A.

2015-01-01

Conservation and environmental management are principal countermeasures to the degradation of marine ecosystems and their services. However, in many cases, current practices are insufficient to reverse ecosystem declines. We suggest that restoration ecology, the science underlying the concepts and tools needed to restore ecosystems, must be recognized as an integral element for marine conservation and environmental management. Marine restoration ecology is a young scientific discipline, often with gaps between its application and the supporting science. Bridging these gaps is essential to using restoration as an effective management tool and reversing the decline of marine ecosystems and their services. Ecological restoration should address objectives that include improved ecosystem services, and it therefore should encompass social–ecological elements rather than focusing solely on ecological parameters. We recommend using existing management frameworks to identify clear restoration targets, to apply quantitative tools for assessment, and to make the re-establishment of ecosystem services a criterion for success. PMID:26977115

EnviroAtlas: A New Geospatial Tool to Foster Ecosystem Services Science and Resource Management

EPA Science Inventory

In this article we present EnviroAtlas, a web-based, open access tool that seeks to meet a range of needs by bringing together environmental, economic and demographic data in an ecosystem services framework. Within EnviroAtlas, there are three primary types of geospatial data: r...

Decision Support Framework (DSF) For Planning Land And Resource Use To Sustainably Maintain Healthy Ecosystem Services And Communities

EPA Science Inventory

Land and resource use decisions are typically made to increase the economic viability of an area with little attention to the long term effects on human health and the environment from the resulting environmental condition after an action is taken. Currently, ecosystem services ...

Applying the ecosystem services concept to public land management

Treesearch

Jeffrey D. Kline; Marisa J. Mazzota; Thomas A. Spies; Mark E. Harmon

2013-01-01

We examine challenges and opportunities involved in applying ecosystem services to public land management with an emphasis on national forests in the United States. We review historical forest management paradigms and related economic approaches, outline a conceptual framework defining the informational needs of forest managers, and consider the feasibility of its...

Impacts of forestry on boreal forests: An ecosystem services perspective.

PubMed

Pohjanmies, Tähti; Triviño, María; Le Tortorec, Eric; Mazziotta, Adriano; Snäll, Tord; Mönkkönen, Mikko

2017-11-01

Forests are widely recognized as major providers of ecosystem services, including timber, other forest products, recreation, regulation of water, soil and air quality, and climate change mitigation. Extensive tracts of boreal forests are actively managed for timber production, but actions aimed at increasing timber yields also affect other forest functions and services. Here, we present an overview of the environmental impacts of forest management from the perspective of ecosystem services. We show how prevailing forestry practices may have substantial but diverse effects on the various ecosystem services provided by boreal forests. Several aspects of these processes remain poorly known and warrant a greater role in future studies, including the role of community structure. Conflicts among different interests related to boreal forests are most likely to occur, but the concept of ecosystem services may provide a useful framework for identifying and resolving these conflicts.

Identification, definition and quantification of goods and services provided by marine biodiversity: implications for the ecosystem approach.

PubMed

Beaumont, N J; Austen, M C; Atkins, J P; Burdon, D; Degraer, S; Dentinho, T P; Derous, S; Holm, P; Horton, T; van Ierland, E; Marboe, A H; Starkey, D J; Townsend, M; Zarzycki, T

2007-03-01

This paper identifies and defines ecosystem goods and services provided by marine biodiversity. Case studies have been used to provide an insight into the practical issues associated with the assessment of marine ecosystem goods and services at specific locations. The aim of this research was to validate the definitions of goods and services, and to identify knowledge gaps and likely difficulties of quantifying the goods and services. A validated theoretical framework for the assessment of goods and services is detailed, and examples of the goods and services at a variety of case study areas are documented. These results will enable future assessments of marine ecosystem goods and services. It is concluded that the utilisation of this goods and services approach has the capacity to play a fundamental role in the Ecosystem Approach, by enabling the pressures and demands of society, the economy and the environment to be integrated into environmental management.

Modelling ecosystem service flows under uncertainty with stochiastic SPAN

USGS Publications Warehouse

Johnson, Gary W.; Snapp, Robert R.; Villa, Ferdinando; Bagstad, Kenneth J.

2012-01-01

Ecosystem service models are increasingly in demand for decision making. However, the data required to run these models are often patchy, missing, outdated, or untrustworthy. Further, communication of data and model uncertainty to decision makers is often either absent or unintuitive. In this work, we introduce a systematic approach to addressing both the data gap and the difficulty in communicating uncertainty through a stochastic adaptation of the Service Path Attribution Networks (SPAN) framework. The SPAN formalism assesses ecosystem services through a set of up to 16 maps, which characterize the services in a study area in terms of flow pathways between ecosystems and human beneficiaries. Although the SPAN algorithms were originally defined deterministically, we present them here in a stochastic framework which combines probabilistic input data with a stochastic transport model in order to generate probabilistic spatial outputs. This enables a novel feature among ecosystem service models: the ability to spatially visualize uncertainty in the model results. The stochastic SPAN model can analyze areas where data limitations are prohibitive for deterministic models. Greater uncertainty in the model inputs (including missing data) should lead to greater uncertainty expressed in the model’s output distributions. By using Bayesian belief networks to fill data gaps and expert-provided trust assignments to augment untrustworthy or outdated information, we can account for uncertainty in input data, producing a model that is still able to run and provide information where strictly deterministic models could not. Taken together, these attributes enable more robust and intuitive modelling of ecosystem services under uncertainty.

Hierarchical Marginal Land Assessment for Land Use Planning

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kang, Shujiang; Post, Wilfred M; Wang, Dali

2013-01-01

Marginal land provides an alternative potential for food and bioenergy production in the face of limited land resources; however, effective assessment of marginal lands is not well addressed. Concerns over environmental risks, ecosystem services and sustainability for marginal land have been widely raised. The objective of this study was to develop a hierarchical marginal land assessment framework for land use planning and management. We first identified major land functions linking production, environment, ecosystem services and economics, and then classified land resources into four categories of marginal land using suitability and limitations associated with major management goals, including physically marginal land,more » biologically marginal land, environmental-ecological marginal land, and economically marginal land. We tested this assessment framework in south-western Michigan, USA. Our results indicated that this marginal land assessment framework can be potentially feasible on land use planning for food and bioenergy production, and balancing multiple goals of land use management. We also compared our results with marginal land assessment from the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and land capability classes (LCC) that are used in the US. The hierarchical assessment framework has advantages of quantitatively reflecting land functions and multiple concerns. This provides a foundation upon which focused studies can be identified in order to improve the assessment framework by quantifying high-resolution land functions associated with environment and ecosystem services as well as their criteria are needed to improve the assessment framework.« less

Constructing a Conceptual Model Linking Drivers and Ecosystem Services in Piedmont Streams

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-04-01

to the Virginia-Maryland border and is bound by the Appalachian Mountains and Blue Ridge to the northwest and the Atlantic Coastal Plain to the south...demand on freshwater ecosystem services, and a growing appreciation for the value of functioning ecosystems, the Appalachian Piedmont has developed a...the model and how it can be adapted and ap - plied for specific projects. A FRAMEWORK FOR CONCEPTUAL MODELING The general approach to conceptual

Common ground for biodiversity and ecosystem services: the “partial protection” challenge

PubMed Central

Faith, Daniel P

2012-01-01

New global initiatives require clarity about similarities and differences between biodiversity and ecosystem services. One argument is that ecosystem services capture utilitarian values, while biodiversity captures intrinsic values. However, the concept of biodiversity equally emerges from anthropogenic use values. Measures of biodiversity indicate broad option values, and so provide different information about future uses and benefits. Such differences nevertheless can be the basis for “common ground” for biodiversity and ecosystem services. Systematic conservation planning and related frameworks acknowledge such differences through effective trade-offs and synergies among different values of society. The early work on regional biodiversity trade-offs includes a little-explored aspect that could enhance this common ground. Regional planning here takes into account the “partial protection” of biodiversity provided by some land uses. Common-ground will be promoted by better integrating the ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation offered by ecosystems at the “natural end of the spectrum” with the partial protection and other benefits/services provided by more intensively-transformed places. PMID:24358821

Ecosystem Services Insights into Water Resources Management in China: A Case of Xi’an City

PubMed Central

Liu, Jingya; Li, Jing; Gao, Ziyi; Yang, Min; Qin, Keyu; Yang, Xiaonan

2016-01-01

Global climate and environmental changes are endangering global water resources; and several approaches have been tested to manage and reduce the pressure on these decreasing resources. This study uses the case study of Xi’an City in China to test reasonable and effective methods to address water resource shortages. The study generated a framework combining ecosystem services and water resource management. Seven ecosystem indicators were classified as supply services, regulating services, or cultural services. Index values for each indicator were calculated, and based on questionnaire results, each index’s weight was calculated. Using the Likert method, we calculated ecosystem service supplies in every region of the city. We found that the ecosystem’s service capability is closely related to water resources, providing a method for managing water resources. Using Xi’an City as an example, we apply the ecosystem services concept to water resources management, providing a method for decision makers. PMID:27886137

[Quantitative assessment of urban ecosystem services flow based on entropy theory: A case study of Beijing, China].

PubMed

Li, Jing Xin; Yang, Li; Yang, Lei; Zhang, Chao; Huo, Zhao Min; Chen, Min Hao; Luan, Xiao Feng

2018-03-01

Quantitative evaluation of ecosystem service is a primary premise for rational resources exploitation and sustainable development. Examining ecosystem services flow provides a scientific method to quantity ecosystem services. We built an assessment indicator system based on land cover/land use under the framework of four types of ecosystem services. The types of ecosystem services flow were reclassified. Using entropy theory, disorder degree and developing trend of indicators and urban ecosystem were quantitatively assessed. Beijing was chosen as the study area, and twenty-four indicators were selected for evaluation. The results showed that the entropy value of Beijing urban ecosystem during 2004 to 2015 was 0.794 and the entropy flow was -0.024, suggesting a large disordered degree and near verge of non-health. The system got maximum values for three times, while the mean annual variation of the system entropy value increased gradually in three periods, indicating that human activities had negative effects on urban ecosystem. Entropy flow reached minimum value in 2007, implying the environmental quality was the best in 2007. The determination coefficient for the fitting function of total permanent population in Beijing and urban ecosystem entropy flow was 0.921, indicating that urban ecosystem health was highly correlated with total permanent population.

A Framework to Quantify the Strength of the Ecological Links Between an Environmental Stressor and Final Ecosystem Services

EPA Science Inventory

Anthropogenic stressors such as climate change, fire, and pollution are driving shifts in ecosystem function and resilience. Scientists generally rely on biological indicators of these stressors to signal that ecosystem conditions have been altered beyond an acceptable amount. Ho...

A Conceptual Model to Assess Stress-Associated Health Effects of Multiple Ecosystem Services Degraded by Disaster Events in the Gulf of Mexico and Elsewhere

EPA Science Inventory

Few conceptual frameworks attempt to connect disaster-associated environmental injuries to impacts on ecosystem services (the benefits humans derive from nature) and thence to both psychological and physiological human health effects. To our knowledge, this study is one of the fi...

Using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to model ecosystem services: A systematic review

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Francesconi, Wendy; Srinivasan, Raghavan; Pérez-Miñana, Elena; Willcock, Simon P.; Quintero, Marcela

2016-04-01

SWAT, a watershed modeling tool has been proposed to help quantify ecosystem services. The concept of ecosystem services incorporates the collective benefits natural systems provide primarily to human beings. It is becoming increasingly important to track the impact that human activities have on the environment in order to determine its resilience and sustainability. The objectives of this paper are to provide an overview of efforts using SWAT to quantify ecosystem services, to determine the model's capability examining various types of services, and to describe the approach used by various researchers. A literature review was conducted to identify studies in which SWAT was explicitly used for quantifying ecosystem services in terms of provisioning, regulating, supporting, and cultural aspects. A total of 44 peer reviewed publications were identified. Most of these used SWAT to quantify provisioning services (34%), regulating services (27%), or a combination of both (25%). While studies using SWAT for evaluating ecosystem services are limited (approximately 1% of SWAT's peered review publications), and usage (vs. potential) of services by beneficiaries is a current model limitation, the available literature sets the stage for the continuous development and potential of SWAT as a methodological framework for quantifying ecosystem services to assist in decision-making.

Stormwater management and ecosystem services: a review

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Prudencio, Liana; Null, Sarah E.

2018-03-01

Researchers and water managers have turned to green stormwater infrastructure, such as bioswales, retention basins, wetlands, rain gardens, and urban green spaces to reduce flooding, augment surface water supplies, recharge groundwater, and improve water quality. It is increasingly clear that green stormwater infrastructure not only controls stormwater volume and timing, but also promotes ecosystem services, which are the benefits that ecosystems provide to humans. Yet there has been little synthesis focused on understanding how green stormwater management affects ecosystem services. The objectives of this paper are to review and synthesize published literature on ecosystem services and green stormwater infrastructure and identify gaps in research and understanding, establishing a foundation for research at the intersection of ecosystems services and green stormwater management. We reviewed 170 publications on stormwater management and ecosystem services, and summarized the state-of-the-science categorized by the four types of ecosystem services. Major findings show that: (1) most research was conducted at the parcel-scale and should expand to larger scales to more closely understand green stormwater infrastructure impacts, (2) nearly a third of papers developed frameworks for implementing green stormwater infrastructure and highlighted barriers, (3) papers discussed ecosystem services, but less than 40% quantified ecosystem services, (4) no geographic trends emerged, indicating interest in applying green stormwater infrastructure across different contexts, (5) studies increasingly integrate engineering, physical science, and social science approaches for holistic understanding, and (6) standardizing green stormwater infrastructure terminology would provide a more cohesive field of study than the diverse and often redundant terminology currently in use. We recommend that future research provide metrics and quantify ecosystem services, integrate disciplines to measure ecosystem services from green stormwater infrastructure, and better incorporate stormwater management into environmental policy. Our conclusions outline promising future research directions at the intersection of stormwater management and ecosystem services.

Identifying spatial priorities for protecting ecosystem services

PubMed Central

Luck, Gary W

2012-01-01

Priorities for protecting ecosystem services must be identified to ensure future human well-being. Approaches to broad-scale spatial prioritization of ecosystem services are becoming increasingly popular and are a vital precursor to identifying locations where further detailed analyses of the management of ecosystem services is required (e.g., examining trade-offs among management actions). Prioritization approaches often examine the spatial congruence between priorities for protecting ecosystem services and priorities for protecting biodiversity; therefore, the spatial prioritization method used is crucial because it will influence the alignment of service protection and conservation goals. While spatial prioritization of ecosystem services and prioritization for conservation share similarities, such as the need to document threats and costs, the former differs substantially from the latter owing to the requirement to measure the following components: supply of services; availability of human-derived alternatives to service provision; capacity to meet beneficiary demand; and site dependency in and scale of service delivery. We review studies that identify broad-scale spatial priorities for managing ecosystem services and demonstrate that researchers have used different approaches and included various measures for identifying priorities, and most studies do not consider all of the components listed above. We describe a conceptual framework for integrating each of these components into spatial prioritization of ecosystem services and illustrate our approach using a worked example for water provision. A fuller characterization of the biophysical and social context for ecosystem services that we call for should improve future prioritization and the identification of locations where ecosystem-service management is especially important or cost effective. PMID:24555017

Adaptive management for soil ecosystem services.

PubMed

Birgé, Hannah E; Bevans, Rebecca A; Allen, Craig R; Angeler, David G; Baer, Sara G; Wall, Diana H

2016-12-01

Ecosystem services provided by soil include regulation of the atmosphere and climate, primary (including agricultural) production, waste processing, decomposition, nutrient conservation, water purification, erosion control, medical resources, pest control, and disease mitigation. The simultaneous production of these multiple services arises from complex interactions among diverse aboveground and belowground communities across multiple scales. When a system is mismanaged, non-linear and persistent losses in ecosystem services can arise. Adaptive management is an approach to management designed to reduce uncertainty as management proceeds. By developing alternative hypotheses, testing these hypotheses and adjusting management in response to outcomes, managers can probe dynamic mechanistic relationships among aboveground and belowground soil system components. In doing so, soil ecosystem services can be preserved and critical ecological thresholds avoided. Here, we present an adaptive management framework designed to reduce uncertainty surrounding the soil system, even when soil ecosystem services production is not the explicit management objective, so that managers can reach their management goals without undermining soil multifunctionality or contributing to an irreversible loss of soil ecosystem services. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

A Conceptual Framework to Address Stress-Associated ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Chronic stress leads to a variety of mental and physiological disorders, and stress effects are the primary concern after traumatic injury and exposure to infectious diseases or toxic agents from disaster events. We developed a conceptual model to address the question of whether degradation of ecosystem services (ES) by disasters such as recent hurricanes and the Deepwater Horizon oil catastrophe produce acute and chronic stress that ultimately result in short- and long-term negative health outcomes in people. An interdisciplinary team with expertise in data mining, ecology, ecosystem services, ecotoxicology, landscape ecology, mental health, psychiatry, and stress physiology utilized the Driver-Pressure-State-Ecosystem Service model of Kelble et al. (2013), the mental health framework of Palinkas (2012) and McEwen’s (1993) allostatic load model of chronic stress as starting points. Initial modeling results were augmented via expert workshops and peer review. Our conceptual model connects effects of disasters to changes in specific ecosystem components (e.g., water quality, biodiversity, fishery populations) with resulting degradation of multiple ES such as commercial and recreational fishing, tourism, and sense of place. The model shows how the degraded ES produce acute and chronic stress in people and how such stress may lead to a variety of negative mental, physical and behavioral health outcomes. Using this framework, one can trace potential for str

An ecological basis for managing giant sequoia ecosystems.

PubMed

Piirto, Douglas D; Rogers, Robert R

2002-07-01

A strategy for management of giant sequoia groves is formulated using a conceptual framework for ecosystem management recently developed by Region Five of the USDA Forest Service. The framework includes physical, biological, and social dimensions. Environmental indicators and reference variability for key ecosystem elements are discussed in this paper. The selected ecosystem elements include: 1) attitudes, beliefs, and values; 2) economics and subsistence; 3) stream channel morphology; 4) sediment; 5) water; 6) fire; 7) organic debris; and 8) vegetation mosaic. Recommendations are made for the attributes of environmental indicators that characterize these elements. These elements and associated indicators will define and control management activities for the protection, preservation, and restoration of national forest giant sequoia ecosystems.

Connecting marine ecosystem services to human well-being: insights from participatory well-being assessment in Kenya.

PubMed

Abunge, Caroline; Coulthard, Sarah; Daw, Tim M

2013-12-01

The linkage between ecosystems and human well-being is a focus of the conceptualization of "ecosystem services" as promoted by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. However, the actual nature of connections between ecosystems and the well-being of individuals remains complex and poorly understood. We conducted a series of qualitative focus groups with five different stakeholder groups connected to a small-scale Kenyan coastal fishery to understand (1) how well-being is understood within the community, and what is important for well-being, (2) how people's well-being has been affected by changes over the recent past, and (3) people's hopes and aspirations for their future fishery. Our results show that people conceive well-being in a diversity of ways, but that these can clearly map onto the MA framework. In particular, our research unpacks the "freedoms and choices" element of the framework and argues for greater recognition of these aspects of well-being in fisheries management in Kenya through, for example, more participatory governance processes.

Towards Integrating Soil Quality Monitoring Targets as Measures of Soil Natural Capital Stocks with the Provision of Ecosystem Services

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Taylor, M. D.; Mackay, A. D.; Dominati, E.; Hill, R. B.

2012-04-01

This paper presents the process used to review soil quality monitoring in New Zealand to better align indicators and indicator target ranges with critical values of change in soil function. Since its inception in New Zealand 15 year ago, soil quality monitoring has become an important state of the environment reporting tool for Regional Councils. This tool assists councils to track the condition of soils resources, assess the impact of different land management practices, and provide timely warning of emerging issues to allow early intervention and avoid irreversible loss of natural capital stocks. Critical to the effectiveness of soil quality monitoring is setting relevant, validated thresholds or target ranges. Provisional Target Ranges were set in 2003 using expert knowledge available and data on production responses. Little information was available at that time for setting targets for soil natural capital stocks other than those for food production. The intention was to revise these provisional ranges as further information became available and extend target ranges to cover the regulating and cultural services provided by soils. A recently developed ecosystems service framework was used to explore the feasibility of linking soil natural capital stocks measured by the current suite of soil quality indicators to the provision of ecosystem services by soils. Importantly the new approach builds on and utilises the time series data sets collected by current suite of soil quality indicators, adding value to the current effort, and has the potential to set targets ranges based on the economic and environmental outcomes required for a given farm, catchment or region. It is now timely to develop a further group of environmental indicators for measuring specific soil issues. As with the soil quality indicators, these environmental indicators would be aligned with the provision of ecosystem services. The toolbox envisaged is a set of indicators for specific soil issues with appropriate targets tied to ecosystem services and changes in critical soil function. Such indicators would be used for specific purposes for limited periods, rather than long-term, continuous monitoring. Some examples will be presented. An important step needed to successfully initiate and complete the review was assigning national oversight. Reigniting scientific interest (which had declined with the cessation of funding in 2003) and documentation of the process were other important steps. We had to extend the recently developed ecosystem service approach to accommodate the catchment scale. This required additional attributes in the framework and recognition that some of the proxies will change with scale as will the techniques to value the services. The framework was originally developed for use at the farm scale. Macroporosity, one of the two indicators used to monitor the physical condition of the soil, was used to illustrate how the ecosystem service framework could be used to link a change in the physical condition of the soil with the provision of services. The sum of the dollar values of selected soil ecosystem services were used to inform the state of soil natural capital stocks. This estimate provides a new insight into the value of the soil quality indicators and existing target ranges. Doing so will enable targets to be more closely aligned and integrated with the provision of a range of ecosystem services, going far beyond food production.

The role of hydrological and water quality models in the application of the ecosystem services framework for the EU Water Framework Directive

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hallouin, Thibault; Bruen, Michael; Feeley, Hugh B.; Christie, Michael; Bullock, Craig; Kelly, Fiona; Kelly-Quinn, Mary

2017-04-01

The hydrological cycle is intimately linked with environmental processes that are essential for human welfare in many regards including, among others, the provision of safe water from surface and subsurface waterbodies, rain-fed agricultural production, or the provision of aquatic-sourced food. As well as being a receiver of these natural benefits, the human population is also a manager of the water and other natural resources and, as such, can affect their future sustainable provision. With global population growth and climate change, both the dependence of the human population on water resources and the threat they pose to these resources are likely to intensify so that the sustainability of the coupled natural and human system is threatened. In the European Union, the Water Framework Directive is driving policy and encouraging member states to manage their water resources wisely in order to maintain or restore ecological quality. To this end, the ecosystem services framework can be a useful tool to link the requirements in terms of ecological status into more tangible descriptors, that is the ecosystem services. In the ESManage Project, existing environmental system models such as hydrological models and water quality models are used as the basis to quantify the provision of many hydrological and aquatic ecosystem services by constructing indicators for the ecosystem services from the modelled environmental variables. By allowing different management options and policies to be compared, these models can be a valuable source of information for policy makers when they are used for climate and land use scenario analyses. Not all hydrological models developed for flood forecasting are suitable for this application and inappropriate models can lead to questionable conclusions. This paper demonstrates the readily available capabilities of a specially developed catchment hydrological model coupled with a water quality model to quantify a wide range of biophysically quantifiable water-related ecosystem services such as water provision (river flows, groundwater recharge and vegetation transpiration), flood regulation or nutrient and sediment retention. This combination of models will be used to carry out scenario analyses on IPCC climate change scenarios as well as various land use scenarios. Results will be presented for a test catchment in the Republic of Ireland.

Model development of a participatory Bayesian network for coupling ecosystem services into integrated water resources management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xue, Jie; Gui, Dongwei; Lei, Jiaqiang; Zeng, Fanjiang; Mao, Donglei; Zhang, Zhiwei

2017-11-01

There is an increasing consensus on the importance of coupling ecosystem services (ES) into integrated water resource management (IWRM), due to a wide range of benefits to human from the ES. This paper proposes an ES-based IWRM framework within which a participatory Bayesian network (BN) model is developed to assist with the coupling between ES and IWRM. The framework includes three steps: identifying water-related services of ecosystems; analysis of the tradeoff and synergy among users of water; and ES-based IWRM implementation using the participatory BN model. We present the development, evaluation and application of the participatory BN model with the involvement of four participant groups (stakeholders, water manager, water management experts, and research team) in Qira oasis area, Northwest China. As a typical catchment-scale region, the Qira oasis area is facing severe water competition between the demands of human activities and natural ecosystems. Results demonstrate that the BN model developed provides effective integration of ES into a quantitative IWMR framework via public negotiation and feedback. The network results, sensitivity evaluation, and management scenarios are broadly accepted by the participant groups. The intervention scenarios from the model conclude that any water management measure remains unable to sustain the ecosystem health in water-related ES. Greater cooperation among the stakeholders is highly necessary for dealing with such water conflicts. In particular, a proportion of the agricultural water saved through improving water-use efficiency should be transferred to natural ecosystems via water trade. The BN model developed is appropriate for areas throughout the world in which there is intense competition for water between human activities and ecosystems.

The need for simultaneous evaluation of ecosystem services and land use change

USGS Publications Warehouse

Euliss, Ned H.; Smith, Loren M.; Liu, Shu-Guang; Feng, Min; Mushet, David M.; Auch, Roger F.; Loveland, Thomas R.

2010-01-01

We are living in a period of massive global change. This rate of change may be almost without precedent in geologic history (1). Even the most remote areas of the planet are influenced by human activities. Modern landscapes have been highly modified to accommodate a growing human population that the United Nations has forecast to peak at 9.1 billion by 2050. Over this past century, reliance on services from ecosystems has increased significantly and, over past decades, sustainability of our modern, intensively managed ecosystems has been a topic of serious international concern (1). Numerous papers addressing a particular land-use change effect on specific ecosystem services have recently been published. For example, there is currently great interest in increasing biofuel production to achieve energy inde- pendence goals and recent papers have independently focused attention on impacts of land-use change on single ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration (2) and many others (e.g., water availability, biodiversity, pollination). However, land-use change clearly affects myriad ecosystem services simultaneously. Hence, a broader perspective and context is needed to evaluate and understand interrelated affects on multiple ecosystem services, especially as we strive for the goal of sustainably managing global ecosystems. Similarly, land uses affect ecosystem services synergistically; single land-use evaluations may be misleading because the overall impact on an ecosystem is not evaluated. A more holistic approach would provide a means and framework to characterize how land-use change affects provisioning of goods and services of complete ecosystems.

Combining analytical frameworks to assess livelihood vulnerability to climate change and analyse adaptation options.

PubMed

Reed, M S; Podesta, G; Fazey, I; Geeson, N; Hessel, R; Hubacek, K; Letson, D; Nainggolan, D; Prell, C; Rickenbach, M G; Ritsema, C; Schwilch, G; Stringer, L C; Thomas, A D

2013-10-01

Experts working on behalf of international development organisations need better tools to assist land managers in developing countries maintain their livelihoods, as climate change puts pressure on the ecosystem services that they depend upon. However, current understanding of livelihood vulnerability to climate change is based on a fractured and disparate set of theories and methods. This review therefore combines theoretical insights from sustainable livelihoods analysis with other analytical frameworks (including the ecosystem services framework, diffusion theory, social learning, adaptive management and transitions management) to assess the vulnerability of rural livelihoods to climate change. This integrated analytical framework helps diagnose vulnerability to climate change, whilst identifying and comparing adaptation options that could reduce vulnerability, following four broad steps: i) determine likely level of exposure to climate change, and how climate change might interact with existing stresses and other future drivers of change; ii) determine the sensitivity of stocks of capital assets and flows of ecosystem services to climate change; iii) identify factors influencing decisions to develop and/or adopt different adaptation strategies, based on innovation or the use/substitution of existing assets; and iv) identify and evaluate potential trade-offs between adaptation options. The paper concludes by identifying interdisciplinary research needs for assessing the vulnerability of livelihoods to climate change.

Combining analytical frameworks to assess livelihood vulnerability to climate change and analyse adaptation options☆

PubMed Central

Reed, M.S.; Podesta, G.; Fazey, I.; Geeson, N.; Hessel, R.; Hubacek, K.; Letson, D.; Nainggolan, D.; Prell, C.; Rickenbach, M.G.; Ritsema, C.; Schwilch, G.; Stringer, L.C.; Thomas, A.D.

2013-01-01

Experts working on behalf of international development organisations need better tools to assist land managers in developing countries maintain their livelihoods, as climate change puts pressure on the ecosystem services that they depend upon. However, current understanding of livelihood vulnerability to climate change is based on a fractured and disparate set of theories and methods. This review therefore combines theoretical insights from sustainable livelihoods analysis with other analytical frameworks (including the ecosystem services framework, diffusion theory, social learning, adaptive management and transitions management) to assess the vulnerability of rural livelihoods to climate change. This integrated analytical framework helps diagnose vulnerability to climate change, whilst identifying and comparing adaptation options that could reduce vulnerability, following four broad steps: i) determine likely level of exposure to climate change, and how climate change might interact with existing stresses and other future drivers of change; ii) determine the sensitivity of stocks of capital assets and flows of ecosystem services to climate change; iii) identify factors influencing decisions to develop and/or adopt different adaptation strategies, based on innovation or the use/substitution of existing assets; and iv) identify and evaluate potential trade-offs between adaptation options. The paper concludes by identifying interdisciplinary research needs for assessing the vulnerability of livelihoods to climate change. PMID:25844020

A new framework for assessing river ecosystem health with consideration of human service demand.

PubMed

Luo, Zengliang; Zuo, Qiting; Shao, Quanxi

2018-06-01

In order to study river health status from harmonic relationship between human and natural environment, a river health evaluation method was proposed from the aspects of ecosystem integrity and human service demand, and the understanding of river health connotation. The proposed method is based on the harmony theory and two types of river health assessment methods (the forecasting model and index evaluation). A new framework for assessing river water health was then formed from the perspective of harmony and dynamic evolution between human service demand and river ecosystem integrity. As a case study, the method and framework were applied to the Shaying River Basin, a tributary of the most polluted Huaihe River Basin in China. The health status of the river's ecosystem and its effect on the mainstream of Huaihe River were evaluated based on water ecological experiment. The results indicated that: (1) the water ecological environment in Shaying River was generally poor and showed a gradual changing pattern along the river. The river health levels were generally "medium" in the upstream but mostly "sub-disease" in the midstream and downstream, indicating that the water pollution in Shaying River were mainly concentrated in the midstream and downstream; (2) the water pollution of Shaying River had great influence on the ecosystem of Huaihe River, and the main influencing factors were TN, followed by TP and COD Mn ; (3) the natural attribute of river was transferring toward to the direction of socialization due to the increasing human activities. The stronger the human activity intervention is, the faster the transfer will be and the more river's attributes will match with human service demand. The proposed framework contributes to the research in water ecology and environment management, and the research results can serve as an important reference for basin management in Shaying River and Huaihe River. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Linking water quality and well-being for improved assessment and valuation of ecosystem services

PubMed Central

Keeler, Bonnie L.; Polasky, Stephen; Brauman, Kate A.; Johnson, Kris A.; Finlay, Jacques C.; O’Neill, Ann; Kovacs, Kent; Dalzell, Brent

2012-01-01

Despite broad recognition of the value of the goods and services provided by nature, existing tools for assessing and valuing ecosystem services often fall short of the needs and expectations of decision makers. Here we address one of the most important missing components in the current ecosystem services toolbox: a comprehensive and generalizable framework for describing and valuing water quality-related services. Water quality is often misrepresented as a final ecosystem service. We argue that it is actually an important contributor to many different services, from recreation to human health. We present a valuation approach for water quality-related services that is sensitive to different actions that affect water quality, identifies aquatic endpoints where the consequences of changing water quality on human well-being are realized, and recognizes the unique groups of beneficiaries affected by those changes. We describe the multiple biophysical and economic pathways that link actions to changes in water quality-related ecosystem goods and services and provide guidance to researchers interested in valuing these changes. Finally, we present a valuation template that integrates biophysical and economic models, links actions to changes in service provision and value estimates, and considers multiple sources of water quality-related ecosystem service values without double counting. PMID:23091018

Linking water quality and well-being for improved assessment and valuation of ecosystem services.

PubMed

Keeler, Bonnie L; Polasky, Stephen; Brauman, Kate A; Johnson, Kris A; Finlay, Jacques C; O'Neill, Ann; Kovacs, Kent; Dalzell, Brent

2012-11-06

Despite broad recognition of the value of the goods and services provided by nature, existing tools for assessing and valuing ecosystem services often fall short of the needs and expectations of decision makers. Here we address one of the most important missing components in the current ecosystem services toolbox: a comprehensive and generalizable framework for describing and valuing water quality-related services. Water quality is often misrepresented as a final ecosystem service. We argue that it is actually an important contributor to many different services, from recreation to human health. We present a valuation approach for water quality-related services that is sensitive to different actions that affect water quality, identifies aquatic endpoints where the consequences of changing water quality on human well-being are realized, and recognizes the unique groups of beneficiaries affected by those changes. We describe the multiple biophysical and economic pathways that link actions to changes in water quality-related ecosystem goods and services and provide guidance to researchers interested in valuing these changes. Finally, we present a valuation template that integrates biophysical and economic models, links actions to changes in service provision and value estimates, and considers multiple sources of water quality-related ecosystem service values without double counting.

Management of the marine environment: integrating ecosystem services and societal benefits with the DPSIR framework in a systems approach.

PubMed

Atkins, Jonathan P; Burdon, Daryl; Elliott, Mike; Gregory, Amanda J

2011-02-01

Ever increasing and diverse use of the marine environment is leading to human-induced changes in marine life, habitats and landscapes, making necessary the development of marine policy that considers all members of the user community and addresses current, multiple, interacting uses. Taking a systems approach incorporating an understanding of The Ecosystem Approach, we integrate the DPSIR framework with ecosystem services and societal benefits, and the focus this gives allows us to create a specific framework for supporting decision making in the marine environment. Based on a linking of these three concepts, we present a set of basic postulates for the management of the marine environment and emphasise that these postulates should hold for marine management to be achieved. We illustrate these concepts using two case studies: the management of marine aggregates extraction in UK waters and the management of marine biodiversity at Flamborough Head, UK. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Decision Support Framework (DSF) For Evaluating Planned Land And Resource Use Decisions: Hypothetical Application Of The DSF To Address Nutrient Loads In The Florida Keys

EPA Science Inventory

The mission of ORD's Ecosystme Services Research Program (ESRP) is to provide the information and methods needed by decision-makers to assess the benefits of ecosystem goods and services to human well-being for inclusion in management alternatives. The Decision Support Framework...

Science for managing ecosystem services: Beyond the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment

PubMed Central

Carpenter, Stephen R.; Mooney, Harold A.; Agard, John; Capistrano, Doris; DeFries, Ruth S.; Díaz, Sandra; Dietz, Thomas; Duraiappah, Anantha K.; Oteng-Yeboah, Alfred; Pereira, Henrique Miguel; Perrings, Charles; Reid, Walter V.; Sarukhan, José; Scholes, Robert J.; Whyte, Anne

2009-01-01

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) introduced a new framework for analyzing social–ecological systems that has had wide influence in the policy and scientific communities. Studies after the MA are taking up new challenges in the basic science needed to assess, project, and manage flows of ecosystem services and effects on human well-being. Yet, our ability to draw general conclusions remains limited by focus on discipline-bound sectors of the full social–ecological system. At the same time, some polices and practices intended to improve ecosystem services and human well-being are based on untested assumptions and sparse information. The people who are affected and those who provide resources are increasingly asking for evidence that interventions improve ecosystem services and human well-being. New research is needed that considers the full ensemble of processes and feedbacks, for a range of biophysical and social systems, to better understand and manage the dynamics of the relationship between humans and the ecosystems on which they rely. Such research will expand the capacity to address fundamental questions about complex social–ecological systems while evaluating assumptions of policies and practices intended to advance human well-being through improved ecosystem services. PMID:19179280

Comparing two tools for ecosystem service assessments regarding water resources decisions.

PubMed

Dennedy-Frank, P James; Muenich, Rebecca Logsdon; Chaubey, Indrajeet; Ziv, Guy

2016-07-15

We present a comparison of two ecohydrologic models commonly used for planning land management to assess the production of hydrologic ecosystem services: the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) and the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) annual water yield model. We compare these two models at two distinct sites in the US: the Wildcat Creek Watershed in Indiana and the Upper Upatoi Creek Watershed in Georgia. The InVEST and SWAT models provide similar estimates of the spatial distribution of water yield in Wildcat Creek, but very different estimates of the spatial distribution of water yield in Upper Upatoi Creek. The InVEST model may do a poor job estimating the spatial distribution of water yield in the Upper Upatoi Creek Watershed because baseflow provides a significant portion of the site's total water yield, which means that storage dynamics which are not modeled by InVEST may be important. We also compare the ability of these two models, as well as one newly developed set of ecosystem service indices, to deliver useful guidance for land management decisions focused on providing hydrologic ecosystem services in three particular decision contexts: environmental flow ecosystem services, ecosystem services for potable water supply, and ecosystem services for rainfed irrigation. We present a simple framework for selecting models or indices to evaluate hydrologic ecosystem services as a way to formalize where models deliver useful guidance. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Coupled hydrological, ecological, decision and economic models for monetary valuation of riparian ecosystem services

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goodrich, D. C.; Brookshire, D.; Broadbent, C.; Dixon, M. D.; Brand, L. A.; Thacher, J.; Benedict, K. K.; Lansey, K. E.; Stromberg, J. C.; Stewart, S.; McIntosh, M.

2011-12-01

Water is a critical component for sustaining both natural and human systems. Yet the value of water for sustaining ecosystem services is not well quantified in monetary terms. Ideally decisions involving water resource management would include an apples-to-apples comparison of the costs and benefits in dollars of both market and non-market goods and services - human and ecosystem. To quantify the value of non-market ecosystem services, scientifically defensible relationships must be developed that link the effect of a decision (e.g. human growth) to the change in ecosystem attributes from current conditions. It is this linkage that requires the "poly-disciplinary" coupling of knowledge and models from the behavioral, physical, and ecological sciences. In our experience another key component of making this successful linkage is development of a strong poly-disciplinary scientific team that can readily communicate complex disciplinary knowledge to non-specialists outside their own discipline. The time to build such a team that communicates well and has a strong sense of trust should not be underestimated. The research described in the presentation incorporated hydrologic, vegetation, avian, economic, and decision models into an integrated framework to determine the value of changes in ecological systems that result from changes in human water use. We developed a hydro-bio-economic framework for the San Pedro River Region in Arizona that considers groundwater, stream flow, and riparian vegetation, as well as abundance, diversity, and distribution of birds. In addition, we developed a similar framework for the Middle Rio Grande of New Mexico. There are six research components for this project: (1) decision support and scenario specification, (2) regional groundwater model, (3) the riparian vegetation model, (4) the avian model, (5) methods for displaying the information gradients in the valuation survey instruments (Choice Modeling and Contingent Valuation), and (6) the economic framework. Our modeling framework began with the identification of factors that influence spatial and temporal changes in riparian vegetation on the two rivers. The linked modeling framework was then employed for making spatial predictions of the changes in presence of surface water, vegetation change, and avian populations in both river systems. An overview of the overall project will be provided, with lessons learned, and initial valuation survey results.

Realizing the Potential of Ecosystem Services: A Framework for Relating Ecological Changes to Economic Benefits

EPA Science Inventory

An analysis framework to link ecological change to economic benefits for multiple stakeholders requires several key components. First, since we aim to support policy decisions, the framework should link a factor that can be controlled or influenced by policy (discharge limit, ca...

A Participatory Assessment of Ecosystem Services and Human Wellbeing in Rural Costa Rica Using Photo-Voice

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Berbés-Blázquez, Marta

2012-04-01

Human well-being is intricately connected to ecosystem services. A keystone contribution to the ecosystem service literature has been the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, MA, (Ecosystems and human well-being: a framework for assessment, Island Press, Washington, DC; 2003, 2005). Much of the work on ecosystem services to date has focused on the assessment and classification of environmental functions. The need for inclusion of community perspectives in ecosystem assessments has been widely recognized in order to better understand the distribution of impacts and benefits resulting from natural resource use. Communities can offer a direct route to understanding the complex relationships between ecosystems and human well-being and how environmental management affects their livelihoods. Photovoice has been made popular as a tool for participatory needs assessment but it has had limited use in ecosystem assessments to date. The purpose of this paper is twofold: (1) to present the results of a community-level assessment of environmental services in a watershed dominated by pineapple monoculture in Costa Rica; and (2) to evaluate the strengths and the limitations of photovoice as a tool for mapping the relationship between ecosystems and people. I argue that photovoice is an underutilized methodology that has the potential to complement biophysical ecosystem service assessments in the context of impoverished and resource-dependent communities, particularly, since assessing ecosystem services and acting upon that information requires integrating the knowledges of diverse stakeholders, recognizing power imbalances, and grappling with the complexity of social-ecological systems. Processes such as photovoice have the potential to catalyze community self-organization, which is a critical component for empowerment.

A participatory assessment of ecosystem services and human wellbeing in rural Costa Rica using photo-voice.

PubMed

Berbés-Blázquez, Marta

2012-04-01

Human well-being is intricately connected to ecosystem services. A keystone contribution to the ecosystem service literature has been the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, MA, (Ecosystems and human well-being: a framework for assessment, Island Press, Washington, DC; 2003, 2005). Much of the work on ecosystem services to date has focused on the assessment and classification of environmental functions. The need for inclusion of community perspectives in ecosystem assessments has been widely recognized in order to better understand the distribution of impacts and benefits resulting from natural resource use. Communities can offer a direct route to understanding the complex relationships between ecosystems and human well-being and how environmental management affects their livelihoods. Photovoice has been made popular as a tool for participatory needs assessment but it has had limited use in ecosystem assessments to date. The purpose of this paper is twofold: (1) to present the results of a community-level assessment of environmental services in a watershed dominated by pineapple monoculture in Costa Rica; and (2) to evaluate the strengths and the limitations of photovoice as a tool for mapping the relationship between ecosystems and people. I argue that photovoice is an underutilized methodology that has the potential to complement biophysical ecosystem service assessments in the context of impoverished and resource-dependent communities, particularly, since assessing ecosystem services and acting upon that information requires integrating the knowledges of diverse stakeholders, recognizing power imbalances, and grappling with the complexity of social-ecological systems. Processes such as photovoice have the potential to catalyze community self-organization, which is a critical component for empowerment.

Ecosystem services provided by bats.

PubMed

Kunz, Thomas H; Braun de Torrez, Elizabeth; Bauer, Dana; Lobova, Tatyana; Fleming, Theodore H

2011-03-01

Ecosystem services are the benefits obtained from the environment that increase human well-being. Economic valuation is conducted by measuring the human welfare gains or losses that result from changes in the provision of ecosystem services. Bats have long been postulated to play important roles in arthropod suppression, seed dispersal, and pollination; however, only recently have these ecosystem services begun to be thoroughly evaluated. Here, we review the available literature on the ecological and economic impact of ecosystem services provided by bats. We describe dietary preferences, foraging behaviors, adaptations, and phylogenetic histories of insectivorous, frugivorous, and nectarivorous bats worldwide in the context of their respective ecosystem services. For each trophic ensemble, we discuss the consequences of these ecological interactions on both natural and agricultural systems. Throughout this review, we highlight the research needed to fully determine the ecosystem services in question. Finally, we provide a comprehensive overview of economic valuation of ecosystem services. Unfortunately, few studies estimating the economic value of ecosystem services provided by bats have been conducted to date; however, we outline a framework that could be used in future studies to more fully address this question. Consumptive goods provided by bats, such as food and guano, are often exchanged in markets where the market price indicates an economic value. Nonmarket valuation methods can be used to estimate the economic value of nonconsumptive services, including inputs to agricultural production and recreational activities. Information on the ecological and economic value of ecosystem services provided by bats can be used to inform decisions regarding where and when to protect or restore bat populations and associated habitats, as well as to improve public perception of bats. © 2011 New York Academy of Sciences.

Combining ecosystem service relationships and DPSIR framework to manage multiple ecosystem services.

PubMed

Xue, Hui; Li, Shiyu; Chang, Jie

2015-03-01

Ecosystem service (ES) relationship occurs due to two types of mechanisms: (1) interact directly or (2) interact through the impact of a shared factor. Identifying such mechanisms behind ES relationship within a single land-use/land-cover category and combining it with a system thinking framework is especially necessary for effective decision-making to manage multiple ESs generated by this land-use/land-cover. In this study, we use tea plantations in China to investigate mechanisms behind ES relationships. We find that tea production is positively correlated with four regulating services (i.e., carbon sequestration, soil N protection, soil P protection, and water conservation). Several regulating services, such as carbon sequestration and soil N, P, and K protection, have positive correlations with each other. Tea production, carbon sequestration, and soil retention are significantly correlated with local annual mean temperature and precipitation. We then establish driver-pressure-state-impact-response (DPSIR) framework for tea plantations, which has been widely used for environmental management issues. Integrating our findings of ES relationship into DPSIR framework, we can estimate how ES change is responding to two types of responses: response to control drivers and response to maintain or restore state. Scenario analysis showed that the responses to control drivers have a larger impact on ES. We discuss that DPSIR would favor managing multiple ES because it enables a more precise understanding of how ES interacts through the effects of factors from various hierarchies. Finally, we suggest integrating ES direct interaction into DPSIR framework. We think such integration could improve the ability of DPSIR framework to support decision-making in multiple ES management, specifically in at least three aspects: (1) favor to identify all possible response alternatives, (2) enable us to evaluate ES which cannot be assessed if without such combining, and (3) help to identify ecological leverage points where small management investment can yield substantial benefits.

A software tool for ecosystem services assessments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Riegels, Niels; Klinting, Anders; Butts, Michael; Middelboe, Anne Lise; Mark, Ole

2017-04-01

The EU FP7 DESSIN project is developing methods and tools for assessment of ecosystem services (ESS) and associated economic values, with a focus on freshwater ESS in urban settings. Although the ESS approach has gained considerable visibility over the past ten years, operationalizing the approach remains a challenge. Therefore, DESSSIN is also supporting development of a free software tool to support users implementing the DESSIN ESS evaluation framework. The DESSIN ESS evaluation framework is a structured approach to measuring changes in ecosystem services. The main purpose of the framework is to facilitate the application of the ESS approach in the appraisal of projects that have impacts on freshwater ecosystems and their services. The DESSIN framework helps users evaluate changes in ESS by linking biophysical, economic, and sustainability assessments sequentially. It was developed using the Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services (CICES) and the DPSIR (Drivers, Pressures, States, Impacts, Responses) adaptive management cycle. The former is a standardized system for the classification of ESS developed by the European Union to enhance the consistency and comparability of ESS assessments. The latter is a well-known concept to disentangle the biophysical and social aspects of a system under study. As part of its analytical component, the DESSIN framework also integrates elements of the Final Ecosystem Goods and Services-Classification System (FEGS-CS) of the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). As implemented in the software tool, the DESSIN framework consists of five parts: • In part I of the evaluation, the ecosystem is defined and described and the local stakeholders are identified. In addition, administrative details and objectives of the assessment are defined. • In part II, drivers and pressures are identified. Once these first two elements of the DPSIR scheme have been characterized, the claimed/expected capabilities of a proposed project can be estimated to determine whether the project affects drivers, pressures, states or a combination of these. • In part III, information about impacts on drivers, pressures, and states is used to identify ESS impacted by a proposed project. Potential beneficiaries of impacted ESS are also identified. • In part IV, changes in ESS are estimated. These estimates include changes in the provision of ESS, the use of ESS, and the value of ESS. • A sustainability assessment in Part V estimates the broader impact of a proposed project according to social, environmental, governance and other criteria. The ESS evaluation software tool is designed to assist an evaluation or study leader carrying out an ESS assessment. The tool helps users move through the logic of the ESS evaluation and make sense of relationships between elements of the DPSIR framework, the CICES classification scheme, and the FEGS approach. The tool also provides links to useful indicators and assessment methods in order to help users quantify changes in ESS and ESS values. The software tool is developed in collaboration with the DESSIN user group, who will use the software to estimate changes in ESS resulting from the implementation of green technologies addressing water quality and water scarcity issues. Although the software is targeted to this user group, it will be made available for free to the public after the conclusion of the project.

AN INTEGRATIVE WATERSHED MODELING FRAMEWORK (IWMF) FOR ECOSYSTEM SUSTAINABILITY ASSESSMENT AT THE WATERSHED SCALE

EPA Science Inventory

The public's right to continued access and use of ecosystem services requires an evaluation of the environmental risks that are associated with activities such as urban development, agriculture, forestry, mining, water withdrawal, and dam construction. Human activities can cause ...

A proposed framework to operationalize ESS for the mitigation of soil threats

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schwilch, Gudrun; Bernet, Lea; Fleskens, Luuk; Mills, Jane; Stolte, Jannes; van Delden, Hedwig; Verzandvoort, Simone

2015-04-01

Despite various research activities in the last decades across the world, many challenges remain to integrate the concept of ecosystem services (ESS) in decision-making, and a coherent approach to assess and value ESS is still lacking. There are a lot of different - often context-specific - ESS frameworks with their own definitions and understanding of terms. Based on a thorough review, the EU FP7 project RECARE (www.recare-project.eu) suggests an adapted framework for ecosystem services related to soils that can be used for practical application in preventing and remediating degradation of soils in Europe. This lays the foundation for the development and selection of appropriate methods to measure, evaluate, communicate and negotiate the services we obtain from soils with stakeholders in order to improve land management. Similar to many ESS frameworks, the RECARE framework distinguishes between an ecosystem and human well-being part. As the RECARE project is focused on soil threats, this is the starting point on the ecosystem part of the framework. Soil threats affect natural capital, such as soil, water, vegetation, air and animals, and are in turn influenced by those. Within the natural capital, the RECARE framework focuses especially on soil and its properties, classified in inherent and manageable properties. The natural capital then enables and underpins soil processes, while at the same time being affected by those. Soil processes, finally, are the ecosystem's capacity to provide services, thus they support the provision of soil functions and ESS. ESS may be utilized to produce benefits for individuals and human society. Those benefits are explicitly or implicitly valued by individuals and human society. The values placed on those benefits influence policy and decision-making and thus lead to a societal response. Individual (e.g. farmers') and societal decision making and policy determine land management and other (human) driving forces, which in turn affect soil threats and natural capital. In order to improve ESS with Sustainable Land Management (SLM) - i.e. measures aimed to prevent or remediate soil threats, the services identified in the framework need to be "manageable" (modifiable) for the stakeholders. To this end, effects of soil threats and prevention / remediation measures are captured by key soil properties as well as through bio-physical (e.g. reduced soil loss), socio-economic (e.g. reduced workload) and socio-cultural (e.g. aesthetics) impact indicators. In order to use such indicators in RECARE, it should be possible to associate the changes in soil processes to impacts of prevention / remediation measures (SLM). This requires the indicators to be sensitive enough to small changes, but still sufficiently robust to provide evidence of the change and attribute it to SLM. The RECARE ESS framework will be presented and discussed in order to further develop its operationalization. Inputs from the conference participants are highly welcome.

Mapping tsunami impacts on land cover and related ecosystem service supply in Phang Nga, Thailand

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kaiser, G.; Burkhard, B.; Römer, H.; Sangkaew, S.; Graterol, R.; Haitook, T.; Sterr, H.; Sakuna-Schwartz, D.

2013-12-01

The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami caused damages to coastal ecosystems and thus affected the livelihoods of the coastal communities who depend on services provided by these ecosystems. The paper presents a case study on evaluating and mapping the spatial and temporal impacts of the tsunami on land use and land cover (LULC) and related ecosystem service supply in the Phang Nga province, Thailand. The method includes local stakeholder interviews, field investigations, remote-sensing techniques, and GIS. Results provide an ecosystem services matrix with capacity scores for 18 LULC classes and 17 ecosystem functions and services as well as pre-/post-tsunami and recovery maps indicating changes in the ecosystem service supply capacities in the study area. Local stakeholder interviews revealed that mangroves, casuarina forest, mixed beach forest, coral reefs, tidal inlets, as well as wetlands (peat swamp forest) have the highest capacity to supply ecosystem services, while e.g. plantations have a lower capacity. The remote-sensing based damage and recovery analysis showed a loss of the ecosystem service supply capacities in almost all LULC classes for most of the services due to the tsunami. A fast recovery of LULC and related ecosystem service supply capacities within one year could be observed for e.g. beaches, while mangroves or casuarina forest needed several years to recover. Applying multi-temporal mapping the spatial variations of recovery could be visualised. While some patches of coastal forest were fully recovered after 3 yr, other patches were still affected and thus had a reduced capacity to supply ecosystem services. The ecosystem services maps can be used to quantify ecological values and their spatial distribution in the framework of a tsunami risk assessment. Beyond that they are considered to be a useful tool for spatial analysis in coastal risk management in Phang Nga.

Integrating the social, hydrological and ecological dimensions of freshwater health: The Freshwater Health Index.

PubMed

Vollmer, Derek; Shaad, Kashif; Souter, Nicholas J; Farrell, Tracy; Dudgeon, David; Sullivan, Caroline A; Fauconnier, Isabelle; MacDonald, Glen M; McCartney, Matthew P; Power, Alison G; McNally, Amy; Andelman, Sandy J; Capon, Timothy; Devineni, Naresh; Apirumanekul, Chusit; Ng, Cho Nam; Rebecca Shaw, M; Wang, Raymond Yu; Lai, Chengguang; Wang, Zhaoli; Regan, Helen M

2018-06-15

Degradation of freshwater ecosystems and the services they provide is a primary cause of increasing water insecurity, raising the need for integrated solutions to freshwater management. While methods for characterizing the multi-faceted challenges of managing freshwater ecosystems abound, they tend to emphasize either social or ecological dimensions and fall short of being truly integrative. This paper suggests that management for sustainability of freshwater systems needs to consider the linkages between human water uses, freshwater ecosystems and governance. We present a conceptualization of freshwater resources as part of an integrated social-ecological system and propose a set of corresponding indicators to monitor freshwater ecosystem health and to highlight priorities for management. We demonstrate an application of this new framework -the Freshwater Health Index (FHI) - in the Dongjiang River Basin in southern China, where stakeholders are addressing multiple and conflicting freshwater demands. By combining empirical and modeled datasets with surveys to gauge stakeholders' preferences and elicit expert information about governance mechanisms, the FHI helps stakeholders understand the status of freshwater ecosystems in their basin, how ecosystems are being manipulated to enhance or decrease water-related services, and how well the existing water resource management regime is equipped to govern these dynamics over time. This framework helps to operationalize a truly integrated approach to water resource management by recognizing the interplay between governance, stakeholders, freshwater ecosystems and the services they provide. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Productive Urban Landscape In Developing Home Garden In Yogyakarta City

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Irwan, S. N. R.; Sarwadi, A.

2017-10-01

Home garden is one type of agroecosystem that supports ecosystem services even in the urban settlement. The studies involved literature references and field survey along with a framework of the productive urban landscape that support ecosystem services in home garden. Productive urban landscape provided environmentally, socially and economically benefits that contained in ecosystem services. Problems on limited space in the urban settlement have to be managed by modified home garden system in order to work for ecosystem service in developing productive landscape. This study aimed to assess home garden (Pekarangan) system in a cluster of high density settlement in Yogyakarta City. Structured interview and vegetation identification of home garden have been conducted on 80 samples in Rejowinangun Kotagede District, Yogyakarta City. People showed enthusiasm in ecosystem services provided by home garden “Pekarangan Produktif” through developing productive urban landscape. Some benefits on ecosystem services of home garden were revealed on this study consisted of food production for sale (4.7%), home industry (7.69%), aesthetics (22.65%), food (14.10%), biodiversity (10.68%), ecosystem (12.82%), education (2.56), social interaction (11.54%), recreation (4.70%), and others (8.55%). Nevertheless, vegetation and other elements of home gardens have been managed irregularly and in particularly, the planned home gardens were only 17.07%. Actually, home gardens provided a large set of ecosystem services including being cultural services those are the category most valued. The urban people almost hided the understanding of the cultural benefit of ecosystem services of home garden, even though Yogyakarta has known the cultural city. Thus, urban home garden, as way as “Pekarangan Produktif” in the limited space that managed and planned sustainably, provide many benefits of ecosystem services in a productive urban landscape.

The Role of Herbivory in Structuring Tropical Seagrass Ecosystem Service Delivery

PubMed Central

Scott, Abigail L.; York, Paul H.; Duncan, Clare; Macreadie, Peter I.; Connolly, Rod M.; Ellis, Megan T.; Jarvis, Jessie C.; Jinks, Kristin I.; Marsh, Helene; Rasheed, Michael A.

2018-01-01

Seagrass meadows support key ecosystem services, via provision of food directly for herbivores, and indirectly to their predators. The importance of herbivores in seagrass meadows has been well-documented, but the links between food webs and ecosystem services in seagrass meadows have not previously been made explicit. Herbivores interact with ecosystem services – including carbon sequestration, cultural values, and coastal protection. Interactions can be positive or negative and depend on a range of factors including the herbivore identity and the grazing type and intensity. There can be unintended consequences from management actions based on a poor understanding of trade-offs that occur with complex seagrass-herbivore interactions. Tropical seagrass meadows support a diversity of grazers spanning the meso-, macro-, and megaherbivore scales. We present a conceptual model to describe how multiple ecosystem services are influenced by herbivore pressure in tropical seagrass meadows. Our model suggests that a balanced ecosystem, incorporating both seagrass and herbivore diversity, is likely to sustain the broadest range of ecosystem services. Our framework suggests the pathway to achieve desired ecosystem services outcomes requires knowledge on four key areas: (1) how size classes of herbivores interact to structure seagrass; (2) desired community and management values; (3) seagrass responses to top–down and bottom–up controls; (4) the pathway from intermediate to final ecosystem services and human benefits. We suggest research should be directed to these areas. Herbivory is a major structuring influence in tropical seagrass systems and needs to be considered for effective management of these critical habitats and their services. PMID:29487606

An eco-hydrological modeling framework for assessing trade-offs among ecosystem services in response to alternative land use scenarios

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mckane, R.; Abdelnour, A. G.; Brookes, A.; Djang, K.; Stieglitz, M.; Pan, F.; Bolte, J.; Papenfus, M.; Burdick, C.

2012-12-01

Scientists, policymakers, community planners and others have discussed ecosystem services for decades, however, society is still in the early stages of developing methodologies to quantify and value the services that ecosystems provide. For example, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently established the Sustainable and Healthy Communities Research Program to develop such methodologies, so that natural capital can be better accounted for in decisions that affect the supply of the ecosystem goods and services upon which human well-being depends. Essential to this goal are highly integrated models that can be used to define policy and management strategies for entire ecosystems, not simply individual components of the ecosystem. We developed the VELMA (Visualizing Ecosystems for Land Management Assessments) eco-hydrologic modeling framework to help address this emerging risk assessment objective. Here we describe a proof-of-concept application of VELMA to the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest, a forested 64 km2 basin and Long Term Ecological Research site in the western Cascade Range of Oregon, USA. VELMA is a spatially-distributed eco-hydrologic model that links a land surface hydrologic model with a terrestrial biogeochemistry model for simulating the integrated responses of vegetation, soil, and water resources to interacting stressors. We used the model to simulate the effects of three different land use scenarios (100% old-growth, 100% clearcut harvest, and present-day land cover consisting of 45% old-growth and 55% harvested) on trade-offs among five ecosystem services: timber production, carbon sequestration, greenhouse gas regulation, water quantity, and water quality. Compared to the old-growth simulation, over a 60-yr period the clearcut simulation reduced total ecosystem carbon stocks (-40%), and initially increased total stream discharge (+28%), stream nitrogen export (>300%), and total CO2 and N2O radiative forcing (>200%). The simulation for present-day land cover resulted in intermediate values, albeit substantially closer to old growth than to clearcut values. Ongoing work is focused on incorporating VELMA within a flexible decision support platform (Envision) that integrates a wide variety of models, decision tools, and datasets for evaluating economic, social and environmental trade-offs associated with alternative decision scenarios. This framework will be used to address questions about the sustainability of natural capital vital to local and regional economies, initially in the PNW and Great Plains. For example, can those factors that have the greatest potential to improve future trajectories of ecosystem services and human well-being be identified? What green and grey infrastructure improvements, carbon and nitrogen management practices, and growth and development policies can most effectively be managed to attain a sustainable and desirable future?

Modelling impacts of second generation bioenergy production on Ecosystem Services in Europe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Henner, Dagmar N.; Smith, Pete; Davies, Christian; McNamara, Niall P.

2015-04-01

Bioenergy crops are an important source of renewable energy and are a possible mechanism to mitigate global climate warming, by replacing fossil fuel energy with higher greenhouse gas emissions. There is, however, uncertainty about the impacts of the growth of bioenergy crops on ecosystem services. This uncertainty is further enhanced by the unpredictable climate change currently going on. The goal of this project is to develop a comprehensive model that covers as many ecosystem services as possible at a Continental level including biodiversity, water, GHG emissions, soil, and cultural services. The distribution and production of second generation energy crops, such as Miscanthus, Short Rotation Coppice (SRC) and Short Rotation Forestry (SRF), is currently being modelled, and ecosystem models will be used to examine the impacts of these crops on ecosystem services. The project builds on models of energy crop production, biodiversity, soil impacts, greenhouse gas emissions and other ecosystem services, and on work undertaken in the UK on the ETI-funded ELUM project (www.elum.ac.uk). In addition, methods like water footprint tools, tourism value maps and ecosystem valuation tools and models (e.g. InVest, TEEB database, GREET LCA Model, World Business Council for Sustainable Development corporate ecosystem valuation, Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and the Ecosystem Services Framework) will be utilised. Research will focus on optimisation of land use change feedbacks on ecosystem services and biodiversity, and weighting of the importance of the individual ecosystem services. Energy crops will be modelled using low, medium and high climate change scenarios for the years between 2015 and 2050. We will present first results for GHG emissions and soil organic carbon change after different land use change scenarios (e.g. arable to Miscanthus, forest to SRF), and with different climate warming scenarios. All this will be complemented by the presentation of a matrix including all the factors and ecosystem services influenced by land use change to bioenergy crop production under different climate change scenarios.

Ecosystem-Based Management and the Sustainable Delivery of Marine Ecosystem Services

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fogarty, M.; Schwing, F. B.

2016-12-01

Ecosystem-Based Management can provide an essential framework for the sustainable delivery of a broad spectrum of marine Ecosystem Services (ES) essential to human well being. Key elements of the approach involve the specification of clearly articulated goals for EBM; the development of an accompanying Marine Ecosystem Services Assessment (MESA) designed to evaluate the status of delivery of these services; and strategies for the implementation of management options designed to achieve the stated goals of the program. The specification of goals is the purview of managers. In the United States under the provisions of the National Ocean Policy, Regional Planning Bodies are charged with the responsibility of articulating goals and developing strategies to meet these goals. Government agencies, in concert with the broader scientific community, hold the responsibility for assessing the status of the delivery of ecosystem services in relation to designated objectives and advising on appropriate management strategies. In this presentation, I will illustrate the specification of a MESA for the Northwest U.S Continental Shelf Large Marine Ecosystem (NES LME). The approach focuses on the evaluation of ES indicators and additional metrics related to threats and impacts to the sustainable delivery of these services. Results are combined into an overall index of status of the NES LME.

Incorporating ecosystem function concept in environmental planning and decision making by means of multi-criteria evaluation: the case-study of Kalloni, Lesbos, Greece.

PubMed

Oikonomou, Vera; Dimitrakopoulos, Panayiotis G; Troumbis, Andreas Y

2011-01-01

Nature provides life-support services which do not merely constitute the basis for ecosystem integrity but also benefit human societies. The importance of such multiple outputs is often ignored or underestimated in environmental planning and decision making. The economic valuation of ecosystem functions or services has been widely used to make these benefits economically visible and thus address this deficiency. Alternatively, the relative importance of the components of ecosystem value can be identified and compared by means of multi-criteria evaluation. Hereupon, this article proposes a conceptual framework that couples ecosystem function analysis, multi criteria evaluation and social research methodologies for introducing an ecosystem function-based planning and management approach. The framework consists of five steps providing the structure of a participative decision making process which is then tested and ratified, by applying the discrete multi-criteria method NAIADE, in the Kalloni Natura 2000 site, on Lesbos, Greece. Three scenarios were developed and evaluated with regard to their impacts on the different types of ecosystem functions and the social actors' value judgements. A conflict analysis permitted the better elaboration of the different views, outlining the coalitions formed in the local community and shaping the way towards reaching a consensus.

Incorporating Ecosystem Function Concept in Environmental Planning and Decision Making by Means of Multi-Criteria Evaluation: The Case-Study of Kalloni, Lesbos, Greece

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oikonomou, Vera; Dimitrakopoulos, Panayiotis G.; Troumbis, Andreas Y.

2011-01-01

Nature provides life-support services which do not merely constitute the basis for ecosystem integrity but also benefit human societies. The importance of such multiple outputs is often ignored or underestimated in environmental planning and decision making. The economic valuation of ecosystem functions or services has been widely used to make these benefits economically visible and thus address this deficiency. Alternatively, the relative importance of the components of ecosystem value can be identified and compared by means of multi-criteria evaluation. Hereupon, this article proposes a conceptual framework that couples ecosystem function analysis, multi criteria evaluation and social research methodologies for introducing an ecosystem function-based planning and management approach. The framework consists of five steps providing the structure of a participative decision making process which is then tested and ratified, by applying the discrete multi-criteria method NAIADE, in the Kalloni Natura 2000 site, on Lesbos, Greece. Three scenarios were developed and evaluated with regard to their impacts on the different types of ecosystem functions and the social actors' value judgements. A conflict analysis permitted the better elaboration of the different views, outlining the coalitions formed in the local community and shaping the way towards reaching a consensus.

Redefining ecosystem multifunctionality.

PubMed

Manning, Peter; van der Plas, Fons; Soliveres, Santiago; Allan, Eric; Maestre, Fernando T; Mace, Georgina; Whittingham, Mark J; Fischer, Markus

2018-03-01

Recent years have seen a surge of interest in ecosystem multifunctionality, a concept that has developed in the largely separate fields of biodiversity-ecosystem function and land management research. Here we discuss the merit of the multifunctionality concept, the advances it has delivered, the challenges it faces and solutions to these challenges. This involves the redefinition of multifunctionality as a property that exists at two levels: ecosystem function multifunctionality and ecosystem service multifunctionality. The framework presented provides a road map for the development of multifunctionality measures that are robust, quantifiable and relevant to both fundamental ecological science and ecosystem management.

Socioeconomic influences on biodiversity, ecosystem services and human well-being: a quantitative application of the DPSIR model in Jiangsu, China.

PubMed

Hou, Ying; Zhou, Shudong; Burkhard, Benjamin; Müller, Felix

2014-08-15

One focus of ecosystem service research is the connection between biodiversity, ecosystem services and human well-being as well as the socioeconomic influences on them. Despite existing investigations, exact impacts from the human system on the dynamics of biodiversity, ecosystem services and human well-being are still uncertain because of the insufficiency of the respective quantitative analyses. Our research aims are discerning the socioeconomic influences on biodiversity, ecosystem services and human well-being and demonstrating mutual impacts between these items. We propose a DPSIR framework coupling ecological integrity, ecosystem services as well as human well-being and suggest DPSIR indicators for the case study area Jiangsu, China. Based on available statistical and surveying data, we revealed the factors significantly impacting biodiversity, ecosystem services and human well-being in the research area through factor analysis and correlation analysis, using the 13 prefecture-level cities of Jiangsu as samples. The results show that urbanization and industrialization in the urban areas have predominant positive influences on regional biodiversity, agricultural productivity and tourism services as well as rural residents' living standards. Additionally, the knowledge, technology and finance inputs for agriculture also have generally positive impacts on these system components. Concerning regional carbon storage, non-cropland vegetation cover obviously plays a significant positive role. Contrarily, the expansion of farming land and the increase of total food production are two important negative influential factors of biodiversity, ecosystem's food provisioning service capacity, regional tourism income and the well-being of the rural population. Our study provides a promising approach based on the DPSIR model to quantitatively capture the socioeconomic influential factors of biodiversity, ecosystem services and human well-being for human-environmental systems at regional scales. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Decision Support Framework (DSF) (Formerly Decision Support Platform)

EPA Science Inventory

The Science Advisory Board (SAB) provided several comments on the draft Ecosystem Services Research Program's (ESRP's) Multi-Year Plan (MYP). This presentation provides a response to comments related to the decision support framework (DSF) part of Long-Term Goal 1. The comments...

Delta Morphodynamics Matters! Ecosystem Services, Poverty and Morphodynamic Change in the Ganges-Brahmaputra Mega-Delta

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nicholls, R. J.; Adger, N.; Allan, A.; Darby, S. E.; Hutton, C.; Matthews, Z.; Rahman, M.; Whitehead, P. G.; Wolf, J.

2013-12-01

The world's deltas are probably the most vulnerable type of coastal environment, and they face multiple stresses in the coming decades. These stresses include, amongst others, local drivers due to land subsidence, population growth and urbanisation within the deltas, regional drivers due to changes in catchment management (e.g. upstream land use and dam construction), as well as global climate change impacts such as sea-level rise. At the same time, the ecosystem services of river deltas support high population densities, with around 14% of the global population inhabiting deltas. A large proportion of these people experience extremes of poverty and they are therefore severely exposed to vulnerability from environmental and ecological stress and degradation. In areas close to or below the poverty boundary, both subsistence and cash elements of the economy tend to rely disproportionately heavily on ecosystem services which underpin livelihoods. Therefore, to sustainably manage delta environments they must be viewed as complex social-environmental systems where change is only partially driven by physical drivers such as sea level rise and climate change, and human-induced development activities are also critical. Here we outline a new conceptual framework for the development of methods to understand and characterise the key drivers of change in ecosystem services that affect the environment and economic status of populous deltas, focusing specifically on the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) mega-delta. The GBM delta is characterised by densely populated coastal lowlands with significant poverty, with livelihoods supported to a large extent by natural ecosystems such as the Sunderbahns (the largest mangrove forest in the world). However, the GBM delta is under severe development pressure due to many growing cities. At present the importance of ecosystems services to poverty and livelihoods is poorly understood. This is due to due to the complexity of interactions between physical drivers, environmental pressures and the human responses to stresses and the resultant impacts on ecosystems. We argue that since the availability of land exerts a fundamental control on the nature and quality of ecosystem services (e.g., agriculture, flood regulation, etc. versus fisheries), an understanding of delta morphodynamic processes is central to the ecosystem services framework. We present an overview of the historical (~last two centuries) morphodynamic evolution of the GBM delta and demonstrate the effects that these changes have had on trade-offs in the nature of ecosystem services that are accessed by the inhabitants of the GBM delta system.

Combining ecosystem services assessment with structured decision making to support ecological restoration planning.

PubMed

Martin, David M; Mazzotta, Marisa; Bousquin, Justin

2018-04-10

Accounting for ecosystem services in environmental decision making is an emerging research topic. Modern frameworks for ecosystem services assessment emphasize evaluating the social benefits of ecosystems, in terms of who benefits and by how much, to aid in comparing multiple courses of action. Structured methods that use decision analytic-approaches are emerging for the practice of ecological restoration. In this article, we combine ecosystem services assessment with structured decision making to estimate and evaluate measures of the potential benefits of ecological restoration with a case study in the Woonasquatucket River watershed, Rhode Island, USA. We partnered with a local watershed management organization to analyze dozens of candidate wetland restoration sites for their abilities to supply five ecosystem services-flood water retention, scenic landscapes, learning opportunities, recreational opportunities, and birds. We developed 22 benefit indicators related to the ecosystem services as well as indicators for social equity and reliability that benefits will sustain in the future. We applied conceptual modeling and spatial analysis to estimate indicator values for each candidate restoration site. Lastly, we developed a decision support tool to score and aggregate the values for the organization to screen the restoration sites. Results show that restoration sites in urban areas can provide greater social benefits than sites in less urban areas. Our research approach is general and can be used to investigate other restoration planning studies that perform ecosystem services assessment and fit into a decision-making process.

Earth observation for regional scale environmental and natural resources management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bernknopf, R.; Brookshire, D.; Faulkner, S.; Chivoiu, B.; Bridge, B.; Broadbent, C.

2013-12-01

Earth observations (EO) provide critical information to natural resource assessment. Three examples are presented: conserving potable groundwater in intense agricultural regions, maximizing ecosystem service benefits at regional scales from afforestation investment and management, and enabling integrated natural and behavioral sciences for resource management and policy analysis. In each of these cases EO of different resolutions are used in different ways to help in the classification, characterization, and availability of natural resources and ecosystem services. To inform decisions, each example includes a spatiotemporal economic model to optimize the net societal benefits of resource development and exploitation. 1) EO is used for monitoring land use in intensively cultivated agricultural regions. Archival imagery is coupled to a hydrogeological process model to evaluate the tradeoff between agrochemical use and retention of potable groundwater. EO is used to couple individual producers and regional resource managers using information from markets and natural systems to aid in the objective of maximizing agricultural production and maintaining groundwater quality. The contribution of EO is input to a nitrate loading and transport model to estimate the cumulative impact on groundwater at specified distances from specific sites (wells) for 35 Iowa counties and two aquifers. 2) Land use/land cover (LULC) derived from EO is used to compare biological carbon sequestration alternatives and their provisioning of ecosystem services. EO is used to target land attributes that are more or less desirable for enhancing ecosystem services in two parishes in Louisiana. Ecological production functions are coupled with value data to maximize the expected return on investment in carbon sequestration and other ancillary ecosystem services while minimizing the risk. 3) Environmental and natural resources management decisions employ probabilistic estimates of yet-to-find or yet-to-develop volumes of natural and environmental resources and ecosystem services. The potential quantities of resources available are of great societal relevance, as are the resources that are necessarily disturbed in the development of economic reserves. EO is input to a multidimensional decision framework for natural resources and ecosystem services. Imagery supports a spatiotemporal model of regional resource extraction and the associated impacts on ecosystem services. The framework is used to assess societal tradeoffs by evaluating the benefits and costs of future development or preservation in a comparison of regional development options.

To what extent can ecosystem services motivate protecting biodiversity?

PubMed

Dee, Laura E; De Lara, Michel; Costello, Christopher; Gaines, Steven D

2017-08-01

Society increasingly focuses on managing nature for the services it provides people rather than for the existence of particular species. How much biodiversity protection would result from this modified focus? Although biodiversity contributes to ecosystem services, the details of which species are critical, and whether they will go functionally extinct in the future, are fraught with uncertainty. Explicitly considering this uncertainty, we develop an analytical framework to determine how much biodiversity protection would arise solely from optimising net value from an ecosystem service. Using stochastic dynamic programming, we find that protecting a threshold number of species is optimal, and uncertainty surrounding how biodiversity produces services makes it optimal to protect more species than are presumed critical. We define conditions under which the economically optimal protection strategy is to protect all species, no species, and cases in between. We show how the optimal number of species to protect depends upon different relationships between species and services, including considering multiple services. Our analysis provides simple criteria to evaluate when managing for particular ecosystem services could warrant protecting all species, given uncertainty. Evaluating this criterion with empirical estimates from different ecosystems suggests that optimising some services will be more likely to protect most species than others. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd/CNRS.

Mapping potential carbon and timber losses from hurricanes using a decision tree and ecosystem services driver model.

PubMed

Delphin, S; Escobedo, F J; Abd-Elrahman, A; Cropper, W

2013-11-15

Information on the effect of direct drivers such as hurricanes on ecosystem services is relevant to landowners and policy makers due to predicted effects from climate change. We identified forest damage risk zones due to hurricanes and estimated the potential loss of 2 key ecosystem services: aboveground carbon storage and timber volume. Using land cover, plot-level forest inventory data, the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) model, and a decision tree-based framework; we determined potential damage to subtropical forests from hurricanes in the Lower Suwannee River (LS) and Pensacola Bay (PB) watersheds in Florida, US. We used biophysical factors identified in previous studies as being influential in forest damage in our decision tree and hurricane wind risk maps. Results show that 31% and 0.5% of the total aboveground carbon storage in the LS and PB, respectively was located in high forest damage risk (HR) zones. Overall 15% and 0.7% of the total timber net volume in the LS and PB, respectively, was in HR zones. This model can also be used for identifying timber salvage areas, developing ecosystem service provision and management scenarios, and assessing the effect of other drivers on ecosystem services and goods. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Accounting for the ecosystem services of migratory species: Quantifying migration support and spatial subsidies

USGS Publications Warehouse

Semmens, Darius J.; Diffendorfer, James E.; López-Hoffman, Laura; Shapiro, Carl D.

2011-01-01

Migratory species support ecosystem process and function in multiple areas, establishing ecological linkages between their different habitats. As they travel, migratory species also provide ecosystem services to people in many different locations. Previous research suggests there may be spatial mismatches between locations where humans use services and the ecosystems that produce them. This occurs with migratory species, between the areas that most support the species' population viability – and hence their long-term ability to provide services – and the locations where species provide the most ecosystem services. This paper presents a conceptual framework for estimating how much a particular location supports the provision of ecosystem services in other locations, and for estimating the extent to which local benefits are dependent upon other locations. We also describe a method for estimating the net payment, or subsidy, owed by or to a location that balances benefits received and support provided by locations throughout the migratory range of multiple species. The ability to quantify these spatial subsidies could provide a foundation for the establishment of markets that incentivize cross-jurisdictional cooperative management of migratory species. It could also provide a mechanism for resolving conflicts over the sustainable and equitable allocation of exploited migratory species.

Contributions of cultural services to the ecosystem services agenda

PubMed Central

Daniel, Terry C.; Muhar, Andreas; Arnberger, Arne; Aznar, Olivier; Boyd, James W.; Chan, Kai M. A.; Costanza, Robert; Elmqvist, Thomas; Flint, Courtney G.; Gobster, Paul H.; Grêt-Regamey, Adrienne; Lave, Rebecca; Muhar, Susanne; Penker, Marianne; Ribe, Robert G.; Schauppenlehner, Thomas; Sikor, Thomas; Soloviy, Ihor; Spierenburg, Marja; Taczanowska, Karolina; Tam, Jordan; von der Dunk, Andreas

2012-01-01

Cultural ecosystem services (ES) are consistently recognized but not yet adequately defined or integrated within the ES framework. A substantial body of models, methods, and data relevant to cultural services has been developed within the social and behavioral sciences before and outside of the ES approach. A selective review of work in landscape aesthetics, cultural heritage, outdoor recreation, and spiritual significance demonstrates opportunities for operationally defining cultural services in terms of socioecological models, consistent with the larger set of ES. Such models explicitly link ecological structures and functions with cultural values and benefits, facilitating communication between scientists and stakeholders and enabling economic, multicriterion, deliberative evaluation and other methods that can clarify tradeoffs and synergies involving cultural ES. Based on this approach, a common representation is offered that frames cultural services, along with all ES, by the relative contribution of relevant ecological structures and functions and by applicable social evaluation approaches. This perspective provides a foundation for merging ecological and social science epistemologies to define and integrate cultural services better within the broader ES framework. PMID:22615401

Ecosystem services in urban water investment.

PubMed

Kandulu, John M; Connor, Jeffery D; MacDonald, Darla Hatton

2014-12-01

Increasingly, water agencies and utilities have an obligation to consider the broad environmental impacts associated with investments. To aid in understanding water cycle interdependencies when making urban water supply investment decisions, an ecosystem services typology was augmented with the concept of integrated water resources management. This framework is applied to stormwater harvesting in a case study catchment in Adelaide, South Australia. Results show that this methodological framework can effectively facilitate systematic consideration and quantitative assessment of broad environmental impacts of water supply investments. Five ecosystem service impacts were quantified including provision of 1) urban recreational amenity, 2) regulation of coastal water quality, 3) salinity, 4) greenhouse gas emissions, and 5) support of estuarine habitats. This study shows that ignoring broad environmental impacts can underestimate ecosystem service benefits of water supply investments by a value of up to A$1.36/kL, or three times the cost of operating and maintenance of stormwater harvesting. Rigorous assessment of the public welfare impacts of water infrastructure investments is required to guide long-term optimal water supply investment decisions. Numerous challenges remain in the quantification of broad environmental impacts of a water supply investment including a lack of peer-reviewed studies of environmental impacts, aggregation of incommensurable impacts, potential for double-counting errors, uncertainties in available impact estimates, and how to determine the most suitable quantification technique. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Assessment of freshwater ecosystem services in the Beas River Basin, Himalayas region, India

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ncube, Sikhululekile; Beevers, Lindsay; Adeloye, Adebayo J.; Visser, Annie

2018-06-01

River systems provide a diverse range of ecosystem services, examples include: flood regulation (regulating), fish (provisioning), nutrient cycling (supporting) and recreation (cultural). Developing water resources through the construction of dams (hydropower or irrigation) can enhance the delivery of provisioning ecosystem services. However, these hydrologic alterations result in reductions in less tangible regulating, cultural and supporting ecosystem services. This study seeks to understand how multiple impoundments, abstractions and transfers within the upper Beas River Basin, Western Himalayas, India, are affecting the delivery of supporting ecosystem services. Whilst approaches for assessing supporting ecosystem services are under development, the immediate aim of this paper is to set out a framework for their quantification, using the macroinvertebrate index Lotic-Invertebrate Index for Flow Evaluation (LIFE). LIFE is a weighted measure of the flow velocity preferences of the macroinvertebrate community. Flow records from multiple gauging stations within the basin were used to investigate flow variability at seasonal, inter-annual and decadal time scales. The findings show that both mean monthly and seasonal cumulative flows have decreased over time in the Beas River Basin. A positive hydroecological relationship between LIFE and flow was also identified, indicative of macroinvertebrate response to seasonal changes in the flow regime. For example, high LIFE scores (7.7-9.3) in the winter and summer seasons indicate an abundance of macroinvertebrates with a preference for high flows; this represents a high potential for instream supporting ecosystem services delivery. However, further analysis is required to understand these hydroecological interactions in the study basin and the impact on instream supporting ecosystem services delivery.

Estimating the impacts of conservation on ecosystem services and poverty by integrating modeling and evaluation.

PubMed

Ferraro, Paul J; Hanauer, Merlin M; Miteva, Daniela A; Nelson, Joanna L; Pattanayak, Subhrendu K; Nolte, Christoph; Sims, Katharine R E

2015-06-16

Scholars have made great advances in modeling and mapping ecosystem services, and in assigning economic values to these services. This modeling and valuation scholarship is often disconnected from evidence about how actual conservation programs have affected ecosystem services, however. Without a stronger evidence base, decision makers find it difficult to use the insights from modeling and valuation to design effective policies and programs. To strengthen the evidence base, scholars have advanced our understanding of the causal pathways between conservation actions and environmental outcomes, but their studies measure impacts on imperfect proxies for ecosystem services (e.g., avoidance of deforestation). To be useful to decision makers, these impacts must be translated into changes in ecosystem services and values. To illustrate how this translation can be done, we estimated the impacts of protected areas in Brazil, Costa Rica, Indonesia, and Thailand on carbon storage in forests. We found that protected areas in these conservation hotspots have stored at least an additional 1,000 Mt of CO2 in forests and have delivered ecosystem services worth at least $5 billion. This aggregate impact masks important spatial heterogeneity, however. Moreover, the spatial variability of impacts on carbon storage is the not the same as the spatial variability of impacts on avoided deforestation. These findings lead us to describe a research program that extends our framework to study other ecosystem services, to uncover the mechanisms by which ecosystem protection benefits humans, and to tie cost-benefit analyses to conservation planning so that we can obtain the greatest return on scarce conservation funds.

Estimating the impacts of conservation on ecosystem services and poverty by integrating modeling and evaluation

PubMed Central

Ferraro, Paul J.; Hanauer, Merlin M.; Miteva, Daniela A.; Nelson, Joanna L.; Pattanayak, Subhrendu K.; Nolte, Christoph; Sims, Katharine R. E.

2015-01-01

Scholars have made great advances in modeling and mapping ecosystem services, and in assigning economic values to these services. This modeling and valuation scholarship is often disconnected from evidence about how actual conservation programs have affected ecosystem services, however. Without a stronger evidence base, decision makers find it difficult to use the insights from modeling and valuation to design effective policies and programs. To strengthen the evidence base, scholars have advanced our understanding of the causal pathways between conservation actions and environmental outcomes, but their studies measure impacts on imperfect proxies for ecosystem services (e.g., avoidance of deforestation). To be useful to decision makers, these impacts must be translated into changes in ecosystem services and values. To illustrate how this translation can be done, we estimated the impacts of protected areas in Brazil, Costa Rica, Indonesia, and Thailand on carbon storage in forests. We found that protected areas in these conservation hotspots have stored at least an additional 1,000 Mt of CO2 in forests and have delivered ecosystem services worth at least $5 billion. This aggregate impact masks important spatial heterogeneity, however. Moreover, the spatial variability of impacts on carbon storage is the not the same as the spatial variability of impacts on avoided deforestation. These findings lead us to describe a research program that extends our framework to study other ecosystem services, to uncover the mechanisms by which ecosystem protection benefits humans, and to tie cost-benefit analyses to conservation planning so that we can obtain the greatest return on scarce conservation funds. PMID:26082549

Conceptualizing the role of sediment in sustaining ecosystem services: Sediment-ecosystem regional assessment (SEcoRA).

PubMed

Apitz, Sabine E

2012-01-15

There is a growing trend to include a consideration of ecosystem services, the benefits that people obtain from ecosystems, within decision frameworks. Not more than a decade ago, sediment management efforts were largely site-specific and held little attention except in terms of managing contaminant inputs and addressing sediments as a nuisance at commercial ports and harbors. Sediments figure extensively in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment; however, contaminated sediment is not the dominant concern. Rather, the focus is on land and water use and management on the landscape scale, which can profoundly affect soil and sediment quality, quantity and fate. Habitat change and loss, due to changes in sediment inputs, whether reductions (resulting in the loss of beaches, storm protection, nutrient inputs, etc.) or increases (resulting in lake, reservoir and wetland infilling, coral reef smothering, etc.); eutrophication and reductions in nutrient inputs, and disturbance due to development and fishing practices are considered major drivers, with significant consequences for biodiversity and the provision and resilience of ecosystem functions and services. As a mobile connecting medium between various parts of the ecosystem via the hydrocycle, sediments both contaminated and uncontaminated, play both positive and negative roles in the viability and sustainability of social, economic, and ecological objectives. How these roles are interpreted depends upon whether sediment status (defined in terms of sediment quality, quantity, location and transport) is appropriate to the needs of a given endpoint; understanding and managing the dynamic interactions of sediment status on a diverse range of endpoints at the landscape or watershed scale should be the focus of sediment management. This paper seeks to provide a language and conceptual framework upon which sediment-ecosystem regional assessments (SEcoRAs) can be developed in support of that goal. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Towards Integration of Ecosystem and Human Health: A Novel Conceptual Framework to Operationalise Ecological Public Health and to Incorporate Distal and Proximal Effects of Climate Change

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reis, S.; Fleming, L. E.; Beck, S.; Austen, M.; Morris, G.; White, M.; Taylor, T. J.; Orr, N.; Osborne, N. J.; Depledge, M.

2014-12-01

Conceptual models for problem framing in environmental (EIA) and health impact assessment (HIA) share similar concepts, but differ in their scientific or policy focus, methodologies and underlying causal chains, and the degree of complexity and scope. The Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) framework used by the European Environment Agency, the OECD and others and the Integrated Science for Society and the Environment (ISSE) frameworks are widely applied in policy appraisal and impact assessments. While DPSIR is applied across different policy domains, the ISSE framework is used in Ecosystem Services assessments. The modified Driver-Pressure-State-Exposure-Effect-Action (DPSEEA) model extends DPSIR by separating exposure from effect, adding context as a modifier of effect, and susceptibility to exposures due to socio-economic, demographic or other determinants. While continuously evolving, the application of conceptual frameworks in policy appraisals mainly occurs within established discipline boundaries. However, drivers and environmental states, as well as policy measures and actions, affect both human and ecosystem receptors. Furthermore, unintended consequences of policy actions are seldom constrained within discipline or policy silos. Thus, an integrated conceptual model is needed, accounting for the full causal chain affecting human and ecosystem health in any assessment. We propose a novel model integrating HIA methods and ecosystem services in an attempt to operationalise the emerging concept of "Ecological Public Health." The conceptual approach of the ecosystem-enriched DPSEEA model ("eDPSEEA") has stimulated wide-spread debates and feedback. We will present eDPSEEA as a stakeholder engagement process and a conceptual model, using illustrative case studies of climate change as a starting point, not a complete solution, for the integration of human and ecosystem health impact assessment as a key challenge in a rapidly changing world. Rayner G and Lang T Ecological Public Health: Reshaping the Conditions for Good Health. Routledge Publishers; 2012.Reis S, Morris G, Fleming LE, Beck S, Taylor T, White M, Depledge MH, Steinle S, Sabel CE, Cowie H, Hurley F, Dick JMcP, Smith RI, Austen M (2013) Integrating Health & Environmental Impact Analysis. Public Health.

An ecosystem services approach to the ecological effects of salvage logging: valuation of seed dispersal.

PubMed

Leverkus, Alexandro B; Castro, Jorge

2017-06-01

Forest disturbances diminish ecosystem services and boost disservices. Because post-disturbance management intends to recover the greatest possible value, selling timber often prevails over other considerations. Ecological research has shown diverse effects of salvage logging, yet such research has focused on the biophysical component of post-disturbance ecosystems and lacks the link with human well-being. Here we bridge that gap under the ecosystem services framework by assessing the impact of post-fire management on a non-timber value. By employing the replacement cost method, we calculated the value of the post-fire natural regeneration of Holm oaks in southern Spain under three post-fire management options by considering the cost of planting instead. The value of this ecosystem service in non-intervention areas doubled that of salvage-logged stands due to the preference for standing dead trees by the main seed disperser. Still, most of the value resulted from the resprouting capacity of oaks. The value of this and other ecosystem services should be added to traditional cost/benefit analyses of post-disturbance management. We thus call for a more holistic approach to salvage logging research, one that explicitly links ecological processes with human well-being through ecosystem services, to better inform decision-makers on the outcomes of post-disturbance management. © 2017 by the Ecological Society of America.

From multifunctionality to multiple ecosystem services? A conceptual framework for multifunctionality in green infrastructure planning for urban areas.

PubMed

Hansen, Rieke; Pauleit, Stephan

2014-05-01

Green infrastructure (GI) and ecosystem services (ES) are promoted as concepts that have potential to improve environmental planning in urban areas based on a more holistic understanding of the complex interrelations and dynamics of social-ecological systems. However, the scientific discourses around both concepts still lack application-oriented frameworks that consider such a holistic perspective and are suitable to mainstream GI and ES in planning practice. This literature review explores how multifunctionality as one important principle of GI planning can be operationalized by approaches developed and tested in ES research. Specifically, approaches developed in ES research can help to assess the integrity of GI networks, balance ES supply and demand, and consider trade-offs. A conceptual framework for the assessment of multifunctionality from a social-ecological perspective is proposed that can inform the design of planning processes and support stronger exchange between GI and ES research.

Regional Approach for Managing for Resilience Linking Ecosystem Services and Livelihood Strategies for Agro-Pastoral Communities in the Mongolian Steppe Ecosystem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ojima, D. S.; Togtohyn, C.; Qi, J.; Galvin, K.

2011-12-01

Dramatic changes due to climate and land use dynamics in the Mongolian Plateau are affecting ecosystem services and agro-pastoral livelihoods in Mongolia and China. Recently, evaluation of pastoral systems, where humans depend on livestock and grassland ecosystem services, have demonstrated the vulnerability of the social-ecological system to climate change. Current social-ecological changes in ecosystem services are affecting land productivity and carrying capacity, land-atmosphere interactions, water resources, and livelihood strategies. Regional dust events, changes in hydrological cycle, and land use changes contribute to changing interactions between ecosystem and landscape processes which then affect social-ecological systems. The general trend involves greater intensification of resource exploitation at the expense of traditional patterns of extensive range utilization. Thus we expect climate-land use-land cover relationships to be crucially modified by the socio-economic forces. The analysis incorporates information of the socio-economic transitions taking place in the region which affect land-use, food security, and ecosystem dynamics. The region of study extends from the Mongolian plateau in Mongolia and China to the fertile northeast China plain. Sustainability of agro-pastoral systems in the region needs to integrate the impact of climate change on ecosystem services with socio-economic changes shaping the livelihood strategies of pastoral systems in the region. Adaptation strategies which incorporate landscape management provides a potential framework to link ecosystem services across space and time more effectively to meet the needs of agro-pastoral land use, herd quality, and herder's living standards. Under appropriate adaptation strategies agro-pastoralists will have the opportunity to utilize seasonal resources and enhance their ability to process and manufacture products from the available ecosystem services in these dynamic social-ecological systems.

Applying the ecosystem services framework to pasture-based livestock farming systems in Europe.

PubMed

Rodríguez-Ortega, T; Oteros-Rozas, E; Ripoll-Bosch, R; Tichit, M; Martín-López, B; Bernués, A

2014-08-01

The concept of 'Ecosystem Services' (ES) focuses on the linkages between ecosystems, including agroecosystems, and human well-being, referring to all the benefits, direct and indirect, that people obtain from ecosystems. In this paper, we review the application of the ES framework to pasture-based livestock farming systems, which allows (1) regulating, supporting and cultural ES to be integrated at the same level with provisioning ES, and (2) the multiple trade-offs and synergies that exist among ES to be considered. Research on livestock farming has focused mostly on provisioning ES (meat, milk and fibre production), despite the fact that provisioning ES strongly depends on regulating and supporting ES for their existence. We first present an inventory of the non-provisioning ES (regulating, supporting and cultural) provided by pasture-based livestock systems in Europe. Next, we review the trade-offs between provisioning and non-provisioning ES at multiple scales and present an overview of the methodologies for assessing biophysical trade-offs. Third, we present non-biophysical (economical and socio-cultural) methodologies and applications for ES valuation. We conclude with some recommendations for policy design.

Identification of linkages between potential Environmental and Social Impacts of Surface Mining and Ecosystem Services in Thar Coal field, Pakistan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hina, A.

2017-12-01

Although Thar coal is recognized to be one of the most abundant fossil fuel that could meet the need to combat energy crisis of Pakistan, but there still remains a challenge to tackle the associated environmental and socio-ecological changes and its linkage to the provision of ecosystem services of the region. The study highlights the importance of considering Ecosystem service assessment to be undertaken in all strategic Environmental and Social Assessments of Thar coal field projects. The three-step approach has been formulated to link the project impacts to the provision of important ecosystem services; 1) Identification of impact indicators and parameters by analyzing the environmental and social impacts of surface mining in Thar Coal field through field investigation, literature review and stakeholder consultations; 2) Ranking of parameters and criteria alternatives using Multi-criteria Decision Analysis(MCDA) tool: (AHP method); 3) Using ranked parameters as a proxy to prioritize important ecosystem services of the region; The ecosystem services that were prioritized because of both high significance of project impact and high project dependence are highlighted as: Water is a key ecosystem service to be addressed and valued due to its high dependency in the area for livestock, human wellbeing, agriculture and other purposes. Crop production related to agricultural services, in association with supply services such as soil quality, fertility, and nutrient recycling and water retention need to be valued. Cultural services affected in terms of land use change and resettlement and rehabilitation factors are recommended to be addressed. The results of the analysis outline a framework of identifying these linkages as key constraints to foster the emergence of green growth and development in Pakistan. The practicality of implementing these assessments requires policy instruments and strategies to support human well-being and social inclusion while minimizing environmental degradation and loss of ecosystem services. Keywords Ecosystem service assessment; Environmental and Social Impact Assessment; coal mining; Thar Coal Field; Sustainable development

A Coupled SD and CLUE-S Model for Exploring the Impact of Land Use Change on Ecosystem Service Value: A Case Study in Baoshan District, Shanghai, China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Meng; Ren, Xiangyu; Che, Yue; Yang, Kai

2015-08-01

Most of the cities in developing countries are experiencing rapid urbanization. Land use change driven by urban sprawl, population growth, and intensified socio-economic activities have led to a steep decline of ecosystem service value (ESV) in rapid urbanization areas, and decision-makers often ignore some valuable ecosystem service functions and values in land use planning. In this paper, we attempt to build a modeling framework which integrated System Dynamics model with Conversion of Land Use and its Effects at Small Extent model to simulate the dynamics of ESV of landscape and explore the potential impacts of land use change on ESV. We take Baoshan district of Shanghai as an example which is a fast urbanization area of metropolitan in China. The results of the study indicate that: (1) The integrated methodology can improve the characterization and presentation of the dynamics of ESV, which may give insight into understanding the possible impacts of land use change on ESV and provide information for land use planning. (2) Land use polices can affect the magnitude and location of ESV both directly and indirectly. Land use changes tend to weaken and simplify ecosystem service functions and values of landscape at urban rural fringe where land use change is more intensive. (3) The application of the methodology has proved that the integration of currently existing models within a single modeling framework could be a beneficial exploration, and should be encouraged and enhanced in the future research on the changing dynamics of ESV due to the complexity of ecosystem services and land use system.

A Coupled SD and CLUE-S Model for Exploring the Impact of Land Use Change on Ecosystem Service Value: A Case Study in Baoshan District, Shanghai, China.

PubMed

Wu, Meng; Ren, Xiangyu; Che, Yue; Yang, Kai

2015-08-01

Most of the cities in developing countries are experiencing rapid urbanization. Land use change driven by urban sprawl, population growth, and intensified socio-economic activities have led to a steep decline of ecosystem service value (ESV) in rapid urbanization areas, and decision-makers often ignore some valuable ecosystem service functions and values in land use planning. In this paper, we attempt to build a modeling framework which integrated System Dynamics model with Conversion of Land Use and its Effects at Small Extent model to simulate the dynamics of ESV of landscape and explore the potential impacts of land use change on ESV. We take Baoshan district of Shanghai as an example which is a fast urbanization area of metropolitan in China. The results of the study indicate that: (1) The integrated methodology can improve the characterization and presentation of the dynamics of ESV, which may give insight into understanding the possible impacts of land use change on ESV and provide information for land use planning. (2) Land use polices can affect the magnitude and location of ESV both directly and indirectly. Land use changes tend to weaken and simplify ecosystem service functions and values of landscape at urban rural fringe where land use change is more intensive. (3) The application of the methodology has proved that the integration of currently existing models within a single modeling framework could be a beneficial exploration, and should be encouraged and enhanced in the future research on the changing dynamics of ESV due to the complexity of ecosystem services and land use system.

Emergy-based urban ecosystem health assessment: A case study of Baotou, China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, G. Y.; Yang, Z. F.; Chen, B.; Zhang, Y.; Zhang, L. X.; Zhao, Y. W.; Jiang, M. M.

2009-03-01

Ecosystem health has been a hot topic of ecosystem management research for years. Considering the urban area as a complex ecosystem consisted of natural, societal and economic entities, urban ecosystem health assessment is necessary to be conducted for the scientific management and proper ecological restoration. Combining with the ecosystem service function of the urban ecosystem, theoretical framework and methodology of the urban ecosystem health assessment based on emergy are proposed and the temporal variation of the health level of the city are also outlined in this paper. Following the principle of ecosystem health assessment, four major factors, including vigor (V), organizational structure (O), resilience (R) and function maintenance (F), are integrated to construct a novel emergy-based urban ecosystem health index (EUEHI). Based on the EUEHI and comparing with those of five other typical Chinese cities, the case study of Baotou city shows that its urban ecosystem health level is steadily arising despite the year 2001 as a turning point. Due to the emphasis on the resource structure adjustment and utilization efficiency, Baotou has obtained a better organizational structure and service function for the total urban ecosystem.

Terrestrial acidification and ecosystem services: effects of acid rain on bunnies, baseball, and Christmas trees

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Irvine, Irina C.; Greaver, Tara; Phelan, Jennifer

Often termed “acid rain,” combined nitrogen and sulfur deposition can directly and indirectly impact the condition and health of forest ecosystems. Researchers use critical loads (CLs) to describe response thresholds, and recent studies on acid-sensitive biological indicators show that forests continue to be at risk from terrestrial acidification. However, rarely are impacts translated into changes in “ecosystem services” that impact human well-being. Further, the relevance of this research to the general public is seldom communicated in terms that can motivate action to protect valuable resources. To understand how changes in biological indicators affect human well-being, we used the STEPS (Stressor–Ecologicalmore » Production function–final ecosystem Services) Framework to quantitatively and qualitatively link CL exceedances to ecosystem service impacts. We specified the cause-and-effect ecological processes linking changes in biological indicators to final ecosystem services. The Final Ecosystem Goods and Services Classification System (FEGS-CS) was used within the STEPS Framework to classify the ecosystem component and the beneficiary class that uses or values the component. We analyzed two acid-sensitive tree species, balsam fir (Abies balsamea) and white ash (Fraxinus americana), that are common in northeastern USA. These well-known species provide habitat for animals and popular forest products that are relatable to a broad audience. We identified 160 chains with 10 classes of human beneficiaries for balsam fir and white ash combined, concluding that there are resources at risk that the public may value. Two stories resulting from these explorations into the cascading effects of acid rain on terrestrial resources are ideal for effective science communication: the relationship between (1) balsam fir as a popular Christmas tree and habitat for the snowshoe hare, a favorite of wildlife viewers, and (2) white ash because it is used for half of all baseball bats, fine wood products, and musical instruments. Thus, rather than focusing on biological indicators that may only be understood or appreciated by specific stakeholders or experts, this approach extends the analysis to include impacts on FEGS and humans. It also lays the foundation for developing stakeholder-specific narratives, quantitative measures of endpoints, and for conducting demand-based valuations of affected ecosystem services.« less

Terrestrial acidification and ecosystem services: effects of acid rain on bunnies, baseball, and Christmas trees

DOE PAGES

Irvine, Irina C.; Greaver, Tara; Phelan, Jennifer; ...

2017-06-22

Often termed “acid rain,” combined nitrogen and sulfur deposition can directly and indirectly impact the condition and health of forest ecosystems. Researchers use critical loads (CLs) to describe response thresholds, and recent studies on acid-sensitive biological indicators show that forests continue to be at risk from terrestrial acidification. However, rarely are impacts translated into changes in “ecosystem services” that impact human well-being. Further, the relevance of this research to the general public is seldom communicated in terms that can motivate action to protect valuable resources. To understand how changes in biological indicators affect human well-being, we used the STEPS (Stressor–Ecologicalmore » Production function–final ecosystem Services) Framework to quantitatively and qualitatively link CL exceedances to ecosystem service impacts. We specified the cause-and-effect ecological processes linking changes in biological indicators to final ecosystem services. The Final Ecosystem Goods and Services Classification System (FEGS-CS) was used within the STEPS Framework to classify the ecosystem component and the beneficiary class that uses or values the component. We analyzed two acid-sensitive tree species, balsam fir (Abies balsamea) and white ash (Fraxinus americana), that are common in northeastern USA. These well-known species provide habitat for animals and popular forest products that are relatable to a broad audience. We identified 160 chains with 10 classes of human beneficiaries for balsam fir and white ash combined, concluding that there are resources at risk that the public may value. Two stories resulting from these explorations into the cascading effects of acid rain on terrestrial resources are ideal for effective science communication: the relationship between (1) balsam fir as a popular Christmas tree and habitat for the snowshoe hare, a favorite of wildlife viewers, and (2) white ash because it is used for half of all baseball bats, fine wood products, and musical instruments. Thus, rather than focusing on biological indicators that may only be understood or appreciated by specific stakeholders or experts, this approach extends the analysis to include impacts on FEGS and humans. It also lays the foundation for developing stakeholder-specific narratives, quantitative measures of endpoints, and for conducting demand-based valuations of affected ecosystem services.« less

"And DPSIR begat DAPSI(W)R(M)!" - A unifying framework for marine environmental management.

PubMed

Elliott, M; Burdon, D; Atkins, J P; Borja, A; Cormier, R; de Jonge, V N; Turner, R K

2017-05-15

The marine environment is a complex system formed by interactions between ecological structure and functioning, physico-chemical processes and socio-economic systems. An increase in competing marine uses and users requires a holistic approach to marine management which considers the environmental, economic and societal impacts of all activities. If managed sustainably, the marine environment will deliver a range of ecosystem services which lead to benefits for society. In order to understand the complexity of the system, the DPSIR (Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response) approach has long been a valuable problem-structuring framework used to assess the causes, consequences and responses to change in a holistic way. Despite DPSIR being used for a long time, there is still confusion over the definition of its terms and so to be appropriate for current marine management, we contend that this confusion needs to be addressed. Our viewpoint advocates that DPSIR should be extended to DAPSI(W)R(M) (pronounced dap-see-worm) in which Drivers of basic human needs require Activities which lead to Pressures. The Pressures are the mechanisms of State change on the natural system which then leads to Impacts (on human Welfare). Those then require Responses (as Measures). Furthermore, because of the complexity of any managed sea area in terms of multiple Activities, there is the need for a linked-DAPSI(W)R(M) framework, and then the connectivity between marine ecosystems and ecosystems in the catchment and further at sea, requires an interlinked, nested-DAPSI(W)R(M) framework to reflect the continuum between adjacent ecosystems. Finally, the unifying framework for integrated marine management is completed by encompassing ecosystem structure and functioning, ecosystem services and societal benefits. Hence, DAPSI(W)R(M) links the socio-ecological system of the effects of changes to the natural system on the human uses and benefits of the marine system. However, to deliver these sustainably in the light of human activities requires a Risk Assessment and Risk Management framework; the ISO-compliant Bow-Tie method is used here as an example. Finally, to secure ecosystem health and economic benefits such as Blue Growth, successful, adaptive and sustainable marine management Responses (as Measures) are delivered using the 10-tenets, a set of facets covering all management disciplines and approaches. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Valuation of ecosystem services of commercial shrub willow (Salix spp.) woody biomass crops.

PubMed

Bressler, Alison; Vidon, Philippe; Hirsch, Paul; Volk, Timothy

2017-04-01

The development of shrub willow as a bioenergy feedstock contributes to renewable energy portfolios in many countries with temperate climates and marginal croplands due to excessive moisture. However, to fully understand the potential of shrub willow as an alternative crop on marginal cropland, more research is needed to understand the potential of shrub willow for providing a variety of ecosystem services. At the same time, there is much need for research developing strategies to value ecosystem services beyond conventional valuation systems (e.g., monetary, intrinsic). In this context, this project investigates the ecosystem services of shrub willow woody biomass from an environmental science perspective, and proposes a new avenue to assess ecosystem services for management purposes based on the relative value of key ecosystem services under various land management strategies (i.e., willow vs. corn vs. hay). On marginal cropland in the US Northeast, shrub willow may be used to replace crops like corn or hay. Transitioning from conventional corn or hay to willow tends to reduce nutrient loss and erosion, improve biodiversity and adaptability to climate change, and increase access to recreational activities. However, it is unlikely to change soil carbon pools or greenhouse gas emissions at the soil-atmosphere interface. By encouraging decision makers to weigh the pros and cons of each management decision (i.e., willow vs. corn vs. hay) based on the situation, the ecosystems services valuation method used here provides a clear framework for decision making in a watershed management context.

Ecosystem Based Management in Transition: From Ocean Policy to Application

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saumweber, W. J.; Goldman, E.

2016-02-01

Ecosystem-based management (EBM) has been proposed as a means to improve resource management and stewardship for more than two decades. Over this history, its exact goals and approaches have evolved in concert with advances in science and policy, including a greater understanding of ecosystem function, valuation, and thresholds for change, along with direct reference to EBM principles in statute, regulation, and other Executive Actions. Most recently, and explicitly, the Administration's National Ocean Policy (NOP) called for the development of a Federal EBM framework that would outline principles and guidelines for implementing EBM under existing authorities. This cross-agency framework has yet to be developed, but, the NOP, and related Administration initiatives, have resulted in the practical application of EBM principles in several issue-specific policy initiatives ranging from fisheries and marine protected area management to coastal adaptation and water resource infrastructure investment. In each case, the application of EBM principles uses apparently unique policy mechanisms (e.g. marine planning, ecosystem services assessment, adaptive management, dynamic ocean management, etc.). Despite differences in terminology and policy context, each of these policy initiatives is linked at its core to concepts of integrated and adaptive management that consider broad ecosystem function and services. This practical history of EBM implementation speaks to both the challenges and opportunities in broad incorporation of EBM across diverse policy initiatives and frameworks. We suggest that the continued growth of EBM as a practical policy concept will require a move away from broad frameworks, and towards the identification of specific resource management issues and accompanying policy levers with which to address those issues. In order to promote this progression, Federal policy should recognize and articulate the diverse set of policy mechanisms encompassed under the rubric of EBM and seek to require similar approaches across the spectra of resource management issues.

Ecosystem Based Management in Transition: From Ocean Policy to Application

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saumweber, W. J.; Goldman, E.

2016-12-01

Ecosystem-based management (EBM) has been proposed as a means to improve resource management and stewardship for more than two decades. Over this history, its exact goals and approaches have evolved in concert with advances in science and policy, including a greater understanding of ecosystem function, valuation, and thresholds for change, along with direct reference to EBM principles in statute, regulation, and other Executive Actions. Most recently, and explicitly, the Administration's National Ocean Policy (NOP) called for the development of a Federal EBM framework that would outline principles and guidelines for implementing EBM under existing authorities. This cross-agency framework has yet to be developed, but, the NOP, and related Administration initiatives, have resulted in the practical application of EBM principles in several issue-specific policy initiatives ranging from fisheries and marine protected area management to coastal adaptation and water resource infrastructure investment. In each case, the application of EBM principles uses apparently unique policy mechanisms (e.g. marine planning, ecosystem services assessment, adaptive management, dynamic ocean management, etc.). Despite differences in terminology and policy context, each of these policy initiatives is linked at its core to concepts of integrated and adaptive management that consider broad ecosystem function and services. This practical history of EBM implementation speaks to both the challenges and opportunities in broad incorporation of EBM across diverse policy initiatives and frameworks. We suggest that the continued growth of EBM as a practical policy concept will require a move away from broad frameworks, and towards the identification of specific resource management issues and accompanying policy levers with which to address those issues. In order to promote this progression, Federal policy should recognize and articulate the diverse set of policy mechanisms encompassed under the rubric of EBM and seek to require similar approaches across the spectra of resource management issues.

How agricultural multiple ecosystem services respond to socioeconomic factors in Mengyin County, China.

PubMed

Chen, Yajuan; Yu, Zhenrong; Li, Xuedong; Li, Pengyao

2018-07-15

Provisioning services have always been the main focus of agriculture, and which have led to a decline in biodiversity and have damaged a number of other services. Agriculture should contribute to current and future food security while producing multiple ecosystem services (ES). Restoration outcomes of multiple ES were affected by different socioeconomic drivers, thus a better understanding of how multiple ES respond to socioeconomic drivers can help to restore multiple ES. This paper used rural people's perceptions of ES to quantify and map ecosystem service obtainment and demand in the Mengyin County, China. An integrative index of multiple ecosystem services (IMES) was used to effectively aggregate the values of multiple ES. The threat categorization framework is designed to communicate the degree to which the adequate and sustainable provision of multiple ES is threatened, in order to prioritize conservation actions. The results revealed that 6 townships in the Mengyin County exhibited an excessive obtainment situation (demand is less than obtainment) of multiple ES; an insufficient obtainment situation (demand is greater than obtainment) of multiple ES was mainly situated in the northern part of Mengyin County. Overall, the current state of multiple ES across Mengyin County is classified as "Endangered" classification according to application of threat categorization framework. It is necessary to restructure and manage socioeconomic factors for multiple ES. At national level, the macro decision-making (controlling population density) and the mechanisms (attracting high-quality human resources into the rural) will play an important role in promoting multiple ES management, and it is necessary to provide 3 or more years of tailored educational resources for rural residents to advance multiple ES in agricultural landscape. Development of agricultural PES programs in China that enable farmers to profit from production ES is a sustainable strategy for increasing multiple ecosystem services. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Benthic Habitat-Based Framework for Ecological Production Functions: Case Study for Utilization by Estuarine Birds in a Northeast Pacific Estuary

EPA Science Inventory

Habitat-based frameworks have been proposed for developing Ecological Production Functions (EPFs) to describe the spatial distribution of ecosystem services. As proof of concept, we generated EPFs that compared bird use patterns among intertidal benthic habitats for Yaquina estu...

Revealing Invisible Water: Moisture Recycling as an Ecosystem Service.

PubMed

Keys, Patrick W; Wang-Erlandsson, Lan; Gordon, Line J

2016-01-01

An ecosystem service is a benefit derived by humanity that can be traced back to an ecological process. Although ecosystem services related to surface water have been thoroughly described, the relationship between atmospheric water and ecosystem services has been mostly neglected, and perhaps misunderstood. Recent advances in land-atmosphere modeling have revealed the importance of terrestrial ecosystems for moisture recycling. In this paper, we analyze the extent to which vegetation sustains the supply of atmospheric moisture and precipitation for downwind beneficiaries, globally. We simulate land-surface evaporation with a global hydrology model and track changes to moisture recycling using an atmospheric moisture budget model, and we define vegetation-regulated moisture recycling as the difference in moisture recycling between current vegetation and a hypothetical desert world. Our results show that nearly a fifth of annual average precipitation falling on land is from vegetation-regulated moisture recycling, but the global variability is large, with many places receiving nearly half their precipitation from this ecosystem service. The largest potential impacts for changes to this ecosystem service are land-use changes across temperate regions in North America and Russia. Likewise, in semi-arid regions reliant on rainfed agricultural production, land-use change that even modestly reduces evaporation and subsequent precipitation, could significantly affect human well-being. We also present a regional case study in the Mato Grosso region of Brazil, where we identify the specific moisture recycling ecosystem services associated with the vegetation in Mato Grosso. We find that Mato Grosso vegetation regulates some internal precipitation, with a diffuse region of benefit downwind, primarily to the south and east, including the La Plata River basin and the megacities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. We synthesize our global and regional results into a generalized framework for describing moisture recycling as an ecosystem service. We conclude that future work ought to disentangle whether and how this vegetation-regulated moisture recycling interacts with other ecosystem services, so that trade-offs can be assessed in a comprehensive and sustainable manner.

Advances of air pollution science: from forest decline to multiple-stress effects on forest ecosystem services.

PubMed

Paoletti, E; Schaub, M; Matyssek, R; Wieser, G; Augustaitis, A; Bastrup-Birk, A M; Bytnerowicz, A; Günthardt-Goerg, M S; Müller-Starck, G; Serengil, Y

2010-06-01

Over the past 20 years, the focus of forest science on air pollution has moved from forest decline to a holistic framework of forest health, and from the effects on forest production to the ecosystem services provided by forest ecosystems. Hence, future research should focus on the interacting factorial impacts and resulting antagonistic and synergistic responses of forest trees and ecosystems. The synergistic effects of air pollution and climatic changes, in particular elevated ozone, altered nitrogen, carbon and water availability, must be key issues for research. Present evidence suggests air pollution will become increasingly harmful to forests under climate change, which requires integration amongst various stressors (abiotic and biotic factors, including competition, parasites and fire), effects on forest services (production, biodiversity protection, soil protection, sustained water balance, socio-economical relevance) and assessment approaches (research, monitoring, modeling) to be fostered. Copyright 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Framework of the Maintenance Ecosystem Services Provided by Agroecosystems on the Territory of Bulgaria

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kenarova, Anelia; Tzonev, Rossen; Boteva, Silvena; Bogoev, Valentin; Nikolov, Marian; Pachedjieva, Kalina; Traykov, Ivan; Simeonovska-Nikolova, Daniela; Dimitrov, Krastio; Stefanov, Vladimir; Bakardjieva, Hristina; Dimitrova, Tsveta; Nachev, Georgi

2017-12-01

Over the past decade, efforts to value and protect ecosystem services have been promoted by many as the last, best hope for making conservation mainstream. Here, we present the results from the evaluation of the maintenance ecosystem services, provided by the agroecosystems in Bulgaria. The evaluation was conducted on a range of national, European and international databases following the methodology of MAES and classification system of CICES adapted by the Bulgarian Ministry of Environment and Water. During the study, 213857 agroecosystems were evaluated referring to their capacity to maintain pollinators, natural pest control, soil quality and atmospheric carbon sequestration. The capacity of agroecosystems to provide the above mentioned ecosystem services was ranged from moderate to very high, tending the mountainous agroecosystems to be more beneficial than that located in the plains and lowlands. The intensive management of the latter in order to achieve perceived efficiencies in the production of agricultural goods reduces their importance for local and regional ecological processes.

Linking ecosystem services with state-and-transition models to evaluate rangeland management decisions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lohani, S.; Heilman, P.; deSteiguer, J. E.; Guertin, D. P.; Wissler, C.; McClaran, M. P.

2014-12-01

Quantifying ecosystem services is a crucial topic for land management decision making. However, market prices are usually not able to capture all the ecosystem services and disservices. Ecosystem services from rangelands, that cover 70% of the world's land area, are even less well-understood since knowledge of rangelands is limited. This study generated a management framework for rangelands that uses remote sensing to generate state and transition models (STMs) for a large area and a linear programming (LP) model that uses ecosystem services to evaluate natural and/or management induced transitions as described in the STM. The LP optimization model determines the best management plan for a plot of semi-arid land in the Empire Ranch in southeastern Arizona. The model allocated land among management activities (do nothing, grazing, fire, and brush removal) to optimize net benefits and determined the impact of monetizing environmental services and disservices on net benefits, acreage allocation and production output. The ecosystem services under study were forage production (AUM/ac/yr), sediment (lbs/ac/yr), water runoff (inches/yr), soil loss (lbs/ac/yr) and recreation (thousands of number of visitors/ac/yr). The optimization model was run for three different scenarios - private rancher, public rancher including environmental services and excluding disservices, and public rancher including both services and disservices. The net benefit was the highest for the public rancher excluding the disservices. A result from the study is a constrained optimization model that incorporates ecosystem services to analyze investments on conservation and management activities. Rangeland managers can use this model to understand and explain, not prescribe, the tradeoffs of management investments.

Modeling the impact of watershed management policies on marine ecosystem services with application to Hood Canal, WA, USA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sutherland, D. A.; Kim, C.; Marsik, M.; Spiridonov, G.; Toft, J.; Ruckelshaus, M.; Guerry, A.; Plummer, M.

2011-12-01

Humans obtain numerous benefits from marine ecosystems, including fish to eat; mitigation of storm damage; nutrient and water cycling and primary production; and cultural, aesthetic and recreational values. However, managing these benefits, or ecosystem services, in the marine world relies on an integrated approach that accounts for both marine and watershed activities. Here we present the results of a set of simple, physically-based, and spatially-explicit models that quantify the effects of terrestrial activities on marine ecosystem services. Specifically, we model the circulation and water quality of Hood Canal, WA, USA, a fjord system in Puget Sound where multiple human uses of the nearshore ecosystem (e.g., shellfish aquaculture, recreational Dungeness crab and shellfish harvest) can be compromised when water quality is poor (e.g., hypoxia, excessive non-point source pollution). Linked to the estuarine water quality model is a terrestrial hydrology model that simulates streamflow and nutrient loading, so land cover and climate changes in watersheds can be reflected in the marine environment. In addition, a shellfish aquaculture model is linked to the water quality model to test the sensitivity of the ecosystem service and its value to both terrestrial and marine activities. The modeling framework is general and will be publicly available, allowing easy comparisons of watershed impacts on marine ecosystem services across multiple scales and regions.

EnviroAtlas: Providing Nationwide Geospatial Ecosystem Goods and Services Indicators and Indices to Inform Decision-Making, Research, and Education

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Neale, A. C.

2016-12-01

EnviroAtlas is a multi-organization effort led by the US Environmental Protection Agency to develop, host and display a large suite of nation-wide geospatial indicators and indices of ecosystem services. This open access tool allows users to view, analyze, and download a wealth of geospatial data and other resources related to ecosystem goods and services. More than 160 national indicators of ecosystem service supply, demand, and drivers of change provide a framework to inform decisions and policies at multiple spatial scales, educate a range of audiences, and supply data for research. A higher resolution component is also available, providing over 100 data layers for finer-scale analyses for selected communities across the US. The ecosystem goods and services data are organized into seven general ecosystem benefit categories: clean and plentiful water; natural hazard mitigation; food, fuel, and materials; climate stabilization; clean air; biodiversity conservation; and recreation, culture, and aesthetics. Each indicator is described in terms of how it is important to human health or well-being. EnviroAtlas includes data describing existing ecosystem markets for water quality and quantity, biodiversity, wetland mitigation, and carbon credits. This presentation will briefly describe the EnviroAtlas data and tools and how they are being developed and used in ongoing research studies and in decision-making contexts.

Are Wind Power and Hydropower Complements or Competitors? An Analysis of Ecosystem Service Constraints in the Roanoke Basin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reed, P. M.; Fernandez, A. R.; Blumsack, S.

2011-12-01

Hydropower can provide inexpensive, flexible fill-in power to compensate for intermittent renewable generation. Policies for hydropower dams maintain multiple services beyond electric generation, including environmental protection, flood control and recreation. We model the decision of a hydroelectric generator to shift some of its power production capacity away from the day-ahead energy market into a "wind-following" service that smoothes the intermittent production of wind turbines. Offering such a service imposes both private and social opportunity costs. Since fluctuations in wind energy output are not perfectly correlated with day-ahead energy prices, a wind-following service will necessarily affect generator revenues. Seasonal wind patterns produce conflicts with the goal of managing rivers for "ecosystem services" - the maintenance or enhancement of downstream ecosystems. We illustrate our decision model using the Kerr Dam in PJM's territory in North Carolina. We simulate the operation of Kerr Dam over a three-year period that features hydrologic variability from normal water years to extreme drought conditions. We use an optimization framework to estimate reservation prices for Kerr Dam offering wind-following services in the PJM market. Wind-following may be profitable for Kerr Dam at low capacity levels during some time periods if ecosystems services are neglected and if side payments, or reserves-type payments, are provided. Wind-following with ecosystem services yields revenue losses that typically cannot be recovered with reserves market payments. Water release patterns are inconsistent with ecosystem-services goals when Kerr Dam dedicates significant capacity to wind-following, particularly in drought years.

Hydroeconomic Analysis of the Balance between Renewable Wind Energy, Hydropower, and Ecosystems Services in the Roanoke River Basin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fernandez, A.; Blumsack, S.; Reed, P.

2012-04-01

Hydropower can provide inexpensive, flexible fill-in power to compensate for intermittent renewable generation. Policies for hydropower dams maintain multiple services beyond electric generation, including environmental protection, flood control and recreation. We model the decision of a hydroelectric generator to shift some of its power production capacity away from the day-ahead energy market into a "wind-following" service that smoothes the intermittent production of wind turbines. Offering such a service imposes both private and social opportunity costs. Since fluctuations in wind energy output are not perfectly correlated with day-ahead energy prices, a wind-following service will necessarily affect generator revenues. Seasonal wind patterns produce conflicts with the goal of managing rivers for "ecosystem services" - the maintenance or enhancement of downstream ecosystems. We illustrate our decision model using the Kerr Dam in PJM's territory in North Carolina. We simulate the operation of Kerr Dam over a three-year period that features hydrologic variability from normal water years to extreme drought conditions. We use an optimization framework to estimate reservation prices for Kerr Dam offering wind-following services in the PJM market. Wind-following may be profitable for Kerr Dam at low capacity levels during some time periods if ecosystems services are neglected and if side payments, or reserves-type payments, are provided. Wind-following with ecosystem services yields revenue losses that typically cannot be recovered with reserves market payments. Water release patterns are inconsistent with ecosystem-services goals when Kerr Dam dedicates significant capacity to wind-following, particularly in drought years.

Valuing the effects of hydropower development on watershed ecosystem services: Case studies in the Jiulong River Watershed, Fujian Province, China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Guihua; Fang, Qinhua; Zhang, Luoping; Chen, Weiqi; Chen, Zhenming; Hong, Huasheng

2010-02-01

Hydropower development brings many negative impacts on watershed ecosystems which are not fully integrated into current decision-making largely because in practice few accept the cost and benefit beyond market. In this paper, a framework was proposed to valuate the effects on watershed ecosystem services caused by hydropower development. Watershed ecosystem services were classified into four categories of provisioning, regulating, cultural and supporting services; then effects on watershed ecosystem services caused by hydropower development were identified to 21 indicators. Thereafter various evaluation techniques including the market value method, opportunity cost approach, project restoration method, travel cost method, and contingent valuation method were determined and the models were developed to valuate these indicators reflecting specific watershed ecosystem services. This approach was applied to three representative hydropower projects (Daguan, Xizaikou and Tiangong) of Jiulong River Watershed in southeast China. It was concluded that for hydropower development: (1) the value ratio of negative impacts to positive benefits ranges from 64.09% to 91.18%, indicating that the negative impacts of hydropower development should be critically studied during its environmental administration process; (2) the biodiversity loss and water quality degradation (together accounting for 80-94%) are the major negative impacts on watershed ecosystem services; (3) the average environmental cost per unit of electricity is up to 0.206 Yuan/kW h, which is about three quarters of its on-grid power tariff; and (4) the current water resource fee accounts for only about 4% of its negative impacts value, therefore a new compensatory method by paying for ecosystem services is necessary for sustainable hydropower development. These findings provide a clear picture of both positive and negative effects of hydropower development for decision-makers in the monetary term, and also provide a basis for further design of environmental instrument such as payment for watershed ecosystem services.

A framework for identifying carbon hotspots and forest management drivers

Treesearch

Nilesh Timilsina; Francisco J. Escobedo; Wendell P. Cropper; Amr Abd-Elrahman; Thomas Brandeis; Sonia Delphin; Samuel Lambert

2013-01-01

Spatial analyses of ecosystem system services that are directly relevant to both forest management decision making and conservation in the subtropics are rare. Also, frameworks that identify and map carbon stocks and corresponding forest management drivers using available regional, national, and international-level forest inventory datasets could provide insights into...

A Watershed-based spatially-explicit demonstration of an Integrated Environmental Modeling Framework for Ecosystem Services in the Coal River Basin (WV, USA)

EPA Science Inventory

We demonstrate a spatially-explicit regional assessment of current condition of aquatic ecoservices in the Coal River Basin (CRB), with limited sensitivity analysis for the atmospheric contaminant mercury. The integrated modeling framework (IMF) forecasts water quality and quant...

An ORCID based synchronization framework for a national CRIS ecosystem.

PubMed

Mendes Moreira, João; Cunha, Alcino; Macedo, Nuno

2015-01-01

PTCRIS (Portuguese Current Research Information System) is a program aiming at the creation and sustained development of a national integrated information ecosystem, to support research management according to the best international standards and practices. This paper reports on the experience of designing and prototyping a synchronization framework for PTCRIS based on ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID). This framework embraces the "input once, re-use often" principle, and will enable a substantial reduction of the research output management burden by allowing automatic information exchange between the various national systems. The design of the framework followed best practices in rigorous software engineering, namely well-established principles in the research field of consistency management, and relied on formal analysis techniques and tools for its validation and verification. The notion of consistency between the services was formally specified and discussed with the stakeholders before the technical aspects on how to preserve said consistency were explored. Formal specification languages and automated verification tools were used to analyze the specifications and generate usage scenarios, useful for validation with the stakeholder and essential to certificate compliant services.

Biological interactions and cooperative management of multiple species.

PubMed

Jiang, Jinwei; Min, Yong; Chang, Jie; Ge, Ying

2017-01-01

Coordinated decision making and actions have become the primary solution for the overexploitation of interacting resources within ecosystems. However, the success of coordinated management is highly sensitive to biological, economic, and social conditions. Here, using a game theoretic framework and a 2-species model that considers various biological relationships (competition, predation, and mutualism), we compute cooperative (or joint) and non-cooperative (or separate) management equilibrium outcomes of the model and investigate the effects of the type and strength of the relationships. We find that cooperation does not always show superiority to non-cooperation in all biological interactions: (1) if and only if resources are involved in high-intensity predation relationships, cooperation can achieve a win-win scenario for ecosystem services and resource diversity; (2) for competitive resources, cooperation realizes higher ecosystem services by sacrificing resource diversity; and (3) for mutual resources, cooperation has no obvious advantage for either ecosystem services or resource evenness but can slightly improve resource abundance. Furthermore, by using a fishery model of the North California Current Marine Ecosystem with 63 species and seven fleets, we demonstrate that the theoretical results can be reproduced in real ecosystems. Therefore, effective ecosystem management should consider the interconnection between stakeholders' social relationship and resources' biological relationships.

Decision support system based on DPSIR framework for a low flow Mediterranean river basin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bangash, Rubab Fatima; Kumar, Vikas; Schuhmacher, Marta

2013-04-01

The application of decision making practices are effectively enhanced by adopting a procedural approach setting out a general methodological framework within which specific methods, models and tools can be integrated. Integrated Catchment Management is a process that recognizes the river catchment as a basic organizing unit for understanding and managing ecosystem process. Decision support system becomes more complex by considering unavoidable human activities within a catchment that are motivated by multiple and often competing criteria and/or constraints. DPSIR is a causal framework for describing the interactions between society and the environment. This framework has been adopted by the European Environment Agency and the components of this model are: Driving forces, Pressures, States, Impacts and Responses. The proposed decision support system is a two step framework based on DPSIR. Considering first three component of DPSIR, Driving forces, Pressures and States, hydrological and ecosystem services models are developed. The last two components, Impact and Responses, helped to develop Bayesian Network to integrate the models. This decision support system also takes account of social, economic and environmental aspects. A small river of Catalonia (Northeastern Spain), Francoli River with a low flow (~2 m3/s) is selected for integration of catchment assessment models and to improve knowledge transfer from research to the stakeholders with a view to improve decision making process. DHI's MIKE BASIN software is used to evaluate the low-flow Francolí River with respect to the water bodies' characteristics and also to assess the impact of human activities aiming to achieve good water status for all waters to comply with the WFD's River Basin Management Plan. Based on ArcGIS, MIKE BASIN is a versatile decision support tool that provides a simple and powerful framework for managers and stakeholders to address multisectoral allocation and environmental issues in river basins. While InVEST is a spatially explicit tool, used to model and map a suite of ecosystem services caused by land cover changes or climate change impacts. Moreover, results obtained from low-flow hydrological simulation and ecosystem services models serves as useful tools to develop decision support system based on DPSIR framework by integrating models. Bayesian Networks is used as a knowledge integration and visualization tool to summarize the outcomes of hydrological and ecosystem services models at the "Response" stage of DPSIR. Bayesian Networks provide a framework for modelling the logical relationship between catchment variables and decision objectives by quantifying the strength of these relationships using conditional probabilities. Participatory nature of this framework can provide better communication of water research, particularly in the context of a perceived lack of future awareness-raising with the public that helps to develop more sustainable water management strategies. Acknowledgements The present study was financially supported by Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for its financial support through the project SCARCE (Consolider-Ingenio 2010 CSD2009-00065). R. F. Bangash also received PhD fellowship from AGAUR (Commissioner for Universities and Research of the Department of Innovation, Universities and Enterprise of the "Generalitat de Catalunya" and the European Social Fund).

Neighbourhood-scale urban forest ecosystem classification.

PubMed

Steenberg, James W N; Millward, Andrew A; Duinker, Peter N; Nowak, David J; Robinson, Pamela J

2015-11-01

Urban forests are now recognized as essential components of sustainable cities, but there remains uncertainty concerning how to stratify and classify urban landscapes into units of ecological significance at spatial scales appropriate for management. Ecosystem classification is an approach that entails quantifying the social and ecological processes that shape ecosystem conditions into logical and relatively homogeneous management units, making the potential for ecosystem-based decision support available to urban planners. The purpose of this study is to develop and propose a framework for urban forest ecosystem classification (UFEC). The multifactor framework integrates 12 ecosystem components that characterize the biophysical landscape, built environment, and human population. This framework is then applied at the neighbourhood scale in Toronto, Canada, using hierarchical cluster analysis. The analysis used 27 spatially-explicit variables to quantify the ecosystem components in Toronto. Twelve ecosystem classes were identified in this UFEC application. Across the ecosystem classes, tree canopy cover was positively related to economic wealth, especially income. However, education levels and homeownership were occasionally inconsistent with the expected positive relationship with canopy cover. Open green space and stocking had variable relationships with economic wealth and were more closely related to population density, building intensity, and land use. The UFEC can provide ecosystem-based information for greening initiatives, tree planting, and the maintenance of the existing canopy. Moreover, its use has the potential to inform the prioritization of limited municipal resources according to ecological conditions and to concerns of social equity in the access to nature and distribution of ecosystem service supply. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Management for adaptation

Treesearch

John Innes; Linda A. Joyce; Seppo Kellomaki; Bastiaan Louman; Aynslie Ogden; Ian Thompson; Matthew Ayres; Chin Ong; Heru Santoso; Brent Sohngen; Anita Wreford

2009-01-01

This chapter develops a framework to explore examples of adaptation options that could be used to ensure that the ecosystem services provided by forests are maintained under future climates. The services are divided into broad areas within which managers can identify specific management goals for individual forests or landscapes. Adaptation options exist for the major...

Growth projection and valuation of restoration of the shortleaf pine-bluestem grass ecosystem

Treesearch

Difei Zhang; Michael M. Huebschmann; Thomas B. Lynch; James M. Guldin

2012-01-01

The fire-dependent shortleaf pine–bluestem grass ecosystem that existed prior to European settlement is being restored on approximately 62,700 ha in the Ouachita National Forest. The restoration effort's economic effects are not completely understood. This study will provide the Forest Service with a framework for better communicating the biological and economic...

Assessment of water supply as an ecosystem service in a rural-urban watershed in southwestern Mexico City.

PubMed

Jujnovsky, Julieta; González-Martínez, Teresa Margarita; Cantoral-Uriza, Enrique Arturo; Almeida-Leñero, Lucia

2012-03-01

Studies from the ecosystem services perspective can provide a useful framework because they allow us to fully examine the benefits that humans obtain from socio-ecological systems. Mexico City, the second largest city in the world, has faced severe problems related to water shortages, which have worsened due to increasing population. Demand for space has forced changes in land cover, including covering areas that are essential for groundwater recharge. The city has 880 km(2) of forest areas that are crucial for the water supply. The Magdalena River Watershed was chosen as a model because it is a well-preserved zone within Mexico City and it provides water for the population. The general aim of this study was to assess the ecosystem service of the water supply in the Magdalena River Watershed by determining its water balance (SWAT model) and the number of beneficiaries of the ecosystem services. The results showed that the watershed provides 18.4 hm(3) of water per year. Baseflow was dominant, with a contribution of 85%, while surface runoff only accounted for 15%. The zone provides drinking water to 78,476 inhabitants and could supply 153,203 potential beneficiaries. This work provides an example for understanding how ecosystem processes determine the provision of ecosystem services and benefits to the population in a rural-urban watershed in Mexico City.

The services-oriented architecture: ecosystem services as a framework for diagnosing change in social ecological systems

Treesearch

Philip A. Loring; F. Stuart Chapin; S. Craig Gerlach

2008-01-01

Computational thinking (CT) is a way to solve problems and understand complex systems that draws on concepts fundamental to computer science and is well suited to the challenges that face researchers of complex, linked social-ecological systems. This paper explores CT's usefulness to sustainability science through the application of the services-oriented...

Using ecosystem services in decision-making to support sustainable development: Critiques, model development, a case study, and perspectives.

PubMed

Zagonari, Fabio

2016-04-01

In this paper, I propose a general, consistent, and operational approach that accounts for ecosystem services in a decision-making context: I link ecosystem services to sustainable development criteria; adopt multi-criteria analysis to measure ecosystem services, with weights provided by stakeholders used to account for equity issues; apply both temporal and spatial discount rates; and adopt a technique to order performance of the possible solutions based on their similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS) to account for uncertainty about the parameters and functions. Applying this approach in a case study of an offshore research platform in Italy (CNR Acqua Alta) revealed that decisions depend non-linearly on the degree of loss aversion, to a smaller extent on a global focus (as opposed to a local focus), and to the smallest extent on social concerns (as opposed to economic or environmental concerns). Application of the general model to the case study leads to the conclusion that the ecosystem services framework is likely to be less useful in supporting decisions than in identifying the crucial features on which decisions depend, unless experts from different disciplines are involved, stakeholders are represented, and experts and stakeholders achieve mutual understanding. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The nexus between climate change, ecosystem services and human health: Towards a conceptual framework.

PubMed

Chiabai, Aline; Quiroga, Sonia; Martinez-Juarez, Pablo; Higgins, Sahran; Taylor, Tim

2018-09-01

This paper addresses the impact that changes in natural ecosystems can have on health and wellbeing focusing on the potential co-benefits that green spaces could provide when introduced as climate change adaptation measures. Ignoring such benefits could lead to sub-optimal planning and decision-making. A conceptual framework, building on the ecosystem-enriched Driver, Pressure, State, Exposure, Effect, Action model (eDPSEEA), is presented to aid in clarifying the relational structure between green spaces and human health, taking climate change as the key driver. The study has the double intention of (i) summarising the literature with a special emphasis on the ecosystem and health perspectives, as well as the main theories behind these impacts, and (ii) modelling these findings into a framework that allows for multidisciplinary approaches to the underlying relations between human health and green spaces. The paper shows that while the literature based on the ecosystem perspective presents a well-documented association between climate, health and green spaces, the literature using a health-based perspective presents mixed evidence in some cases. The role of contextual factors and the exposure mechanism are rarely addressed. The proposed framework could serve as a multidisciplinary knowledge platform for multi-perspecitve analysis and discussion among experts and stakeholders, as well as to support the operationalization of quantitative assessment and modelling exercises. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A Framework for Creating Value from Fleet Data at Ecosystem Level

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kinnunen, Sini-Kaisu; Hanski, Jyri; Marttonen-Arola, Salla; Kärri, Timo

2017-09-01

As companies have recently gotten more interested in utilizing the increasingly gathered data and realizing the potential of data analysis, the ability to upgrade data into value for business has been recognized as an advantage. Companies gain competitive advantage if they are able to benefit from the fleet data that is produced both in and outside the boundaries of the company. Benefits of fleet management are based on the possibility to have access to the massive amounts of asset data that can then be utilized e.g. to gain cost savings and to develop products and services. The ambition of the companies is to create value from fleet data but this requires that different actors in ecosystem are working together for a common goal - to get the most value out of fleet data for the ecosystem. In order that this could be possible, we need a framework to meet the requirements of the fleet life-cycle data utilization. This means that the different actors in the ecosystem need to understand their role in the fleet data refining process in order to promote the value creation from fleet data. The objective of this paper is to develop a framework for knowledge management in order to create value from fleet data in ecosystems. As a result, we present a conceptual framework which helps companies to develop their asset management practices related to the fleet of assets.

A regional classification of unregulated stream flows: spatial resolution and hierarchical frameworks.

Treesearch

Ryan A. McManamay; Donald J. Orth; Charles A. Dolloff; Emmaneul A. Firmpong

2012-01-01

River regulation has resulted in substantial losses in habitat connectivity, biodiversity and ecosystem services. River managers are faced with a growing need to protect the key aspects of the natural flow regime. A practical approach to providing environmental flow standards is to create a regional framework by classifying unregulated streams into groups of similar...

Plant trait-based models identify direct and indirect effects of climate change on bundles of grassland ecosystem services

PubMed Central

Lamarque, Pénélope; Lavorel, Sandra; Mouchet, Maud; Quétier, Fabien

2014-01-01

Land use and climate change are primary causes of changes in the supply of ecosystem services (ESs). Although the consequences of climate change on ecosystem properties and associated services are well documented, the cascading impacts of climate change on ESs through changes in land use are largely overlooked. We present a trait-based framework based on an empirical model to elucidate how climate change affects tradeoffs among ESs. Using alternative scenarios for mountain grasslands, we predicted how direct effects of climate change on ecosystems and indirect effects through farmers’ adaptations are likely to affect ES bundles through changes in plant functional properties. ES supply was overall more sensitive to climate than to induced management change, and ES bundles remained stable across scenarios. These responses largely reflected the restricted extent of management change in this constrained system, which was incorporated when scaling up plot level climate and management effects on ecosystem properties to the entire landscape. The trait-based approach revealed how the combination of common driving traits and common responses to changed fertility determined interactions and tradeoffs among ESs. PMID:25225382

Plant trait-based models identify direct and indirect effects of climate change on bundles of grassland ecosystem services.

PubMed

Lamarque, Pénélope; Lavorel, Sandra; Mouchet, Maud; Quétier, Fabien

2014-09-23

Land use and climate change are primary causes of changes in the supply of ecosystem services (ESs). Although the consequences of climate change on ecosystem properties and associated services are well documented, the cascading impacts of climate change on ESs through changes in land use are largely overlooked. We present a trait-based framework based on an empirical model to elucidate how climate change affects tradeoffs among ESs. Using alternative scenarios for mountain grasslands, we predicted how direct effects of climate change on ecosystems and indirect effects through farmers' adaptations are likely to affect ES bundles through changes in plant functional properties. ES supply was overall more sensitive to climate than to induced management change, and ES bundles remained stable across scenarios. These responses largely reflected the restricted extent of management change in this constrained system, which was incorporated when scaling up plot level climate and management effects on ecosystem properties to the entire landscape. The trait-based approach revealed how the combination of common driving traits and common responses to changed fertility determined interactions and tradeoffs among ESs.

Revealing Invisible Water: Moisture Recycling as an Ecosystem Service

PubMed Central

Keys, Patrick W.; Wang-Erlandsson, Lan; Gordon, Line J.

2016-01-01

An ecosystem service is a benefit derived by humanity that can be traced back to an ecological process. Although ecosystem services related to surface water have been thoroughly described, the relationship between atmospheric water and ecosystem services has been mostly neglected, and perhaps misunderstood. Recent advances in land-atmosphere modeling have revealed the importance of terrestrial ecosystems for moisture recycling. In this paper, we analyze the extent to which vegetation sustains the supply of atmospheric moisture and precipitation for downwind beneficiaries, globally. We simulate land-surface evaporation with a global hydrology model and track changes to moisture recycling using an atmospheric moisture budget model, and we define vegetation-regulated moisture recycling as the difference in moisture recycling between current vegetation and a hypothetical desert world. Our results show that nearly a fifth of annual average precipitation falling on land is from vegetation-regulated moisture recycling, but the global variability is large, with many places receiving nearly half their precipitation from this ecosystem service. The largest potential impacts for changes to this ecosystem service are land-use changes across temperate regions in North America and Russia. Likewise, in semi-arid regions reliant on rainfed agricultural production, land-use change that even modestly reduces evaporation and subsequent precipitation, could significantly affect human well-being. We also present a regional case study in the Mato Grosso region of Brazil, where we identify the specific moisture recycling ecosystem services associated with the vegetation in Mato Grosso. We find that Mato Grosso vegetation regulates some internal precipitation, with a diffuse region of benefit downwind, primarily to the south and east, including the La Plata River basin and the megacities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. We synthesize our global and regional results into a generalized framework for describing moisture recycling as an ecosystem service. We conclude that future work ought to disentangle whether and how this vegetation-regulated moisture recycling interacts with other ecosystem services, so that trade-offs can be assessed in a comprehensive and sustainable manner. PMID:26998832

Optimal control of soybean aphid in the presence of natural enemies and the implied value of their ecosystem services.

PubMed

Zhang, Wei; Swinton, Scott M

2012-04-15

By suppressing pest populations, natural enemies provide an important ecosystem service that maintains the stability of agricultural ecosystems systems and potentially mitigates producers' pest control costs. Integrating natural control services into decisions about pesticide-based control has the potential to significantly improve the economic efficiency of pesticide use, with socially desirable outcomes. Two gaps have hindered the incorporation of natural enemies into pest management decision rules: (1) insufficient knowledge of pest and predator population dynamics and (2) lack of a decision framework for the economic tradeoffs among pest control options. Using a new intra-seasonal, dynamic bioeconomic optimization model, this study assesses how predation by natural enemies contributes to profit-maximizing pest management strategies. The model is applied to the management of the invasive soybean aphid, the most significant serious insect threat to soybean production in North America. The resulting lower bound estimate of the value of natural pest control ecosystem services was estimated at $84 million for the states of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan and Minnesota in 2005. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Land management influences trade-offs and the total supply of ecosystem services in alpine grassland in Tibet, China.

PubMed

Wu, Junxi; Zhao, Yan; Yu, Chengqun; Luo, Liming; Pan, Ying

2017-05-15

Developing sustainable use patterns for alpine grassland in Tibet is the primary challenge related to conserving these vulnerable ecosystems of the 'world's third pole' and guaranteeing the well-being of local inhabitants. This challenge requires researchers to think beyond the methods of most current studies that are limited to a single aspect of conservation or productivity, and focus on balancing various needs. An analysis of trade-offs involving ecosystem services provides a framework that can be used to quantify the type of balancing needed. In this study, we measured variations in four types of ecosystem services under five types of grassland management including grazing exclusion, sowing, combined plowing and grazing exclusion, combined plowing and sowing, and natural grassland, from 2013 to 2015. In addition, we accessed the existence and changing patterns of ecosystem service trade-offs using Spearman coefficients and a trade-off index. The results revealed the existence of trade-offs among provisioning and regulating services. Plowing and sowing could convert the trade-off relationships into synergies immediately. Grazing exclusion reduced the level of trade-offs gradually over time. Thus, the combined plowing and sowing treatment promoted the total supply of multiple ecosystem services when compared with natural grassland. We argue that the variations in dry matter allocation to above- and belowground serve as one cause of the variation in trade-off relationships. Another cause for variation in trade-offs is the varied species competition between selection effects and niche complementarity. Our study provides empirical evidence that the effects of trade-offs among ecosystem services could be reduced and even converted into synergies by optimizing management techniques. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Multi-actor involvement for integrating ecosystem services in strategic environmental assessment of spatial plans

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Rozas-Vásquez, Daniel, E-mail: danielrozas@gmail.com; Laboratorio de Planificación Territorial, Universidad Católica de Temuco, Rudecindo ortega, 02950 Temuco; Fürst, Christine

Integrating an ecosystem services (ES) approach into Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) of spatial plans potentially enhances the consideration of the value of nature in decision making and policy processes. However, there is increasing concern about the institutional context and a lack of a common understanding of SEA and ecosystem services for adopting them as an integrated framework. This paper addresses this concern by analysing the current understanding and network relations in a multi-actor arrangement as a first step towards a successful integration of ES in SEA and spatial planning. Our analysis focuses on a case study in Chile, where wemore » administered a questionnaire survey to some of the main actors involved in the spatial planning process. The questionnaire focused on issues such as network relations among actors and on conceptual understanding, perceptions and challenges for integrating ES in SEA and spatial planning, knowledge on methodological approaches, and the connections and gaps in the science-policy interface. Our findings suggest that a common understanding of SEA and especially of ES in a context of multiple actors is still at an initial stage in Chile. Additionally, the lack of institutional guidelines and methodological support is considered the main challenge for integration. We conclude that preconditions exist in Chile for integrating ES in SEA for spatial planning, but they strongly depend on appropriate governance schemes that promote a close science-policy interaction, as well as collaborative work and learning. - Highlights: • Linking ecosystem services in SEA is an effective framework for sustainability. • Multi-actor understanding and networks in ecosystem services and SEA were analyzed. • Understanding of SEA and especially of ES is still in an initial stage in Chile. • A lack of institutional guidelines is one of the key challenges for this link.« less

An ecosystem services framework for multidisciplinary research in the Colorado River headwaters

USGS Publications Warehouse

Semmens, D.J.; Briggs, J.S.; Martin, D.A.

2009-01-01

A rapidly spreading Mountain Pine Beetle epidemic is killing lodgepole pine forest in the Rocky Mountains, causing landscape change on a massive scale. Approximately 1.5 million acres of lodgepoledominated forest is already dead or dying in Colorado, the infestation is still spreading rapidly, and it is expected that in excess of 90 percent of all lodgepole forest will ultimately be killed. Drought conditions combined with dramatically reduced foliar moisture content due to stress or mortality from Mountain Pine Beetle have combined to elevate the probability of large fires throughout the Colorado River headwaters. Large numbers of homes in the wildland-urban interface, an extensive water supply infrastructure, and a local economy driven largely by recreational tourism make the potential costs associated with such a fire very large. Any assessment of fire risk for strategic planning of pre-fire management actions must consider these and a host of other important socioeconomic benefits derived from the Rocky Mountain Lodgepole Pine Forest ecosystem. This paper presents a plan to focus U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) multidisciplinary fire/beetle-related research in the Colorado River headwaters within a framework that integrates a wide variety of discipline-specific research to assess and value the full range of ecosystem services provided by the Rocky Mountain Lodgepole Pine Forest ecosystem. Baseline, unburned conditions will be compared with a hypothetical, fully burned scenario to (a) identify where services would be most severely impacted, and (b) quantify potential economic losses. Collaboration with the U.S. Forest Service will further yield a distributed model of fire probability that can be used in combination with the ecosystem service valuation to develop comprehensive, distributed maps of fire risk in the Upper Colorado River Basin. These maps will be intended for use by stakeholders as a strategic planning tool for pre-fire management activities and can be updated and improved adaptively on an annual basis as tree mortality, climatic conditions, and management actions unfold. 

Restoring oak ecosystems on national forest system lands in the eastern region: an adaptive management approach

Treesearch

Gregory Nowacki; Michael Ablutz; Dan Yaussy; Thomas Schuler; Dan Dey

2009-01-01

The U.S. Forest Service has recently completed an ecosystem restoration framework and enacted accompanying policy to help guide its nationwide efforts. The Eastern Region is in the midst of translating the general guidance set forth in these documents to actual on-the-ground restoration. We envision a set of coordinated field demonstrations that will initially focus on...

An Integrated Modeling Framework for Performing Environmental Assessments: Application to Ecosystem Services in the Albemarle-Pamlico Basins (NC and VA,USA)

EPA Science Inventory

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency uses environmental models to inform rulemaking and policy decisions at multiple spatial and temporal scales. As decision-making has moved towards integrated thinking and assessment (e.g. media, site, region, services), the increasing compl...

Diatoms to human uses: linking nitrogen deposition, aquatic eutrophication, and ecosystem services

DOE PAGES

Rhodes, Charles; Bingham, Andrew; Heard, Andrea M.; ...

2017-07-24

Nitrogen (N) loading to aquatic ecosystems can lead to eutrophication, changing the ecosystem within a waterbody, including primary productivity, water clarity, and food web dynamics. Nutrient loading often first affects the primary productivity of aquatic systems through shifts in phytoplankton communities. However, ecologically important changes in phytoplankton are often not relatable to the general public—whose behavior would need to change to alter patterns of nutrient loading. Therefore, we use the STressor–Ecological Production function–final ecosystem Services Framework to develop 154 chains that link changes in biological indicators of aquatic eutrophication (a shift in phytoplankton community) to final ecosystem services that peoplemore » use or appreciate. We identify 13 ecological production functions (EPF) within three different ecosystems (alpine lakes, lakes, and estuaries) that connect changes in phytoplankton and algae to ecological endpoints that the general public and policy makers can appreciate. Using the Final Ecosystem Goods and Services Classification System, we identify 18 classes of human beneficiaries that potentially will be impacted by a change in one of these endpoints. We further assign strength-of-science scores to each link within the EPFs for the 154 chains according to how well each link is supported by current peer-reviewed literature. By identifying many pathways through which excess N loading in U.S. surface waters can affect ecosystems and ultimately the beneficiaries of ecosystem services, this work intends to draw attention to gaps in empirical ecological literature that constrain understanding of the magnitude of effects that excess N loading can have on human well-being. Here, results highlight the importance of intersections between the natural and social sciences when managers and policy makers evaluate impacts from ecological stressors. A balance between knowledgeable specialists proved key to applying this approach and will continue to remain important.« less

Diatoms to human uses: linking nitrogen deposition, aquatic eutrophication, and ecosystem services

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Rhodes, Charles; Bingham, Andrew; Heard, Andrea M.

Nitrogen (N) loading to aquatic ecosystems can lead to eutrophication, changing the ecosystem within a waterbody, including primary productivity, water clarity, and food web dynamics. Nutrient loading often first affects the primary productivity of aquatic systems through shifts in phytoplankton communities. However, ecologically important changes in phytoplankton are often not relatable to the general public—whose behavior would need to change to alter patterns of nutrient loading. Therefore, we use the STressor–Ecological Production function–final ecosystem Services Framework to develop 154 chains that link changes in biological indicators of aquatic eutrophication (a shift in phytoplankton community) to final ecosystem services that peoplemore » use or appreciate. We identify 13 ecological production functions (EPF) within three different ecosystems (alpine lakes, lakes, and estuaries) that connect changes in phytoplankton and algae to ecological endpoints that the general public and policy makers can appreciate. Using the Final Ecosystem Goods and Services Classification System, we identify 18 classes of human beneficiaries that potentially will be impacted by a change in one of these endpoints. We further assign strength-of-science scores to each link within the EPFs for the 154 chains according to how well each link is supported by current peer-reviewed literature. By identifying many pathways through which excess N loading in U.S. surface waters can affect ecosystems and ultimately the beneficiaries of ecosystem services, this work intends to draw attention to gaps in empirical ecological literature that constrain understanding of the magnitude of effects that excess N loading can have on human well-being. Here, results highlight the importance of intersections between the natural and social sciences when managers and policy makers evaluate impacts from ecological stressors. A balance between knowledgeable specialists proved key to applying this approach and will continue to remain important.« less

Regional Approach for Linking Ecosystem Services and Livelihood Strategies Under Climate Change of Pastoral Communities in the Mongolian Steppe Ecosystem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ojima, D. S.; Galvin, K.; Togtohyn, C.

2012-12-01

Dramatic changes due to climate and land use dynamics in the Mongolian Plateau affecting ecosystem services and agro-pastoral systems in Mongolia. Recently, market forces and development strategies are affecting land and water resources of the pastoral communities which are being further stressed due to climatic changes. Evaluation of pastoral systems, where humans depend on livestock and grassland ecosystem services, have demonstrated the vulnerability of the social-ecological system to climate change. Current social-ecological changes in ecosystem services are affecting land productivity and carrying capacity, land-atmosphere interactions, water resources, and livelihood strategies. The general trend involves greater intensification of resource exploitation at the expense of traditional patterns of extensive range utilization. Thus we expect climate-land use-land cover relationships to be crucially modified by the social-economic forces. The analysis incorporates information about the social-economic transitions taking place in the region which affect land-use, food security, and ecosystem dynamics. The region of study extends from the Mongolian plateau in Mongolia. Our research indicate that sustainability of pastoral systems in the region needs to integrate the impact of climate change on ecosystem services with socio-economic changes shaping the livelihood strategies of pastoral systems in the region. Adaptation strategies which incorporate integrated analysis of landscape management and livelihood strategies provides a framework which links ecosystem services to critical resource assets. Analysis of the available livelihood assets provides insights to the adaptive capacity of various agents in a region or in a community. Sustainable development pathways which enable the development of these adaptive capacity elements will lead to more effective adaptive management strategies for pastoral land use and herder's living standards. Pastoralists will have the opportunity to utilize seasonal resources and enhance their ability to process and manufacture products from the available ecosystem services in these dynamic social-ecological systems.

Modelling impacts of second generation bioenergy production on Ecosystem Services in Europe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Henner, Dagmar; Smith, Pete; Davies, Christian; McNamara, Niall

2016-04-01

Bioenergy crops are an important source of renewable energy and are a possible mechanism to mitigate global climate warming, by replacing fossil fuel energy with higher greenhouse gas emissions. There is, however, uncertainty about the impacts of the growth of bioenergy crops on ecosystem services. This uncertainty is further enhanced by the unpredictable climate change currently going on. The goal of this project is to develop a comprehensive model that covers high impact, policy relevant ecosystem services at a Continental scale including biodiversity and pollination, water and air security, erosion control and soil security, GHG emissions, soil C and cultural services like tourism value. The technical distribution potential and likely yield of second generation energy crops, such as Miscanthus, Short Rotation Coppice (SRC) with willow, poplar, eucalyptus and other broadleaf species and Short Rotation Forestry (SRF), is currently being modelled using ECOSSE, DayCent, SalixFor and MiscanFor, and ecosystem models will be used to examine the impacts of these crops on ecosystem services. The project builds on models of energy crop production, biodiversity, soil impacts, greenhouse gas emissions and other ecosystem services, and on work undertaken in the UK on the ETI-funded ELUM project (www.elum.ac.uk). In addition, methods like water footprint tools, tourism value maps and ecosystem valuation tools and models (e.g. InVest, TEEB database, GREET LCA Model, World Business Council for Sustainable Development corporate ecosystem valuation, Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and the Ecosystem Services Framework) will be utilised. Research will focus on optimisation of land use change feedbacks on above named ecosystem services, impact on food security, land management practices and impacts from climate change. We will present results for GHG emissions and soil organic carbon change after different land use change scenarios (e.g. arable to Miscanthus, forest to SRF), and with different climate warming scenarios. Further, we will show modelled yield maps for Miscanthus, Salix and Poplar in Europe and will present constraint/opportunity maps for Europe based on yield modelled and other factors e.g. total economic value, technical potential, current land use, trade off and synergies, and so on. All this will be complemented by the presentation of a matrix including the factors and ecosystem services influenced by land use change to bioenergy crop production under different climate change scenarios.

A holistic view of marine regime shifts

PubMed Central

Conversi, Alessandra; Dakos, Vasilis; Gårdmark, Anna; Ling, Scott; Folke, Carl; Mumby, Peter J.; Greene, Charles; Edwards, Martin; Blenckner, Thorsten; Casini, Michele; Pershing, Andrew; Möllmann, Christian

2015-01-01

Understanding marine regime shifts is important not only for ecology but also for developing marine management that assures the provision of ecosystem services to humanity. While regime shift theory is well developed, there is still no common understanding on drivers, mechanisms and characteristic of abrupt changes in real marine ecosystems. Based on contributions to the present theme issue, we highlight some general issues that need to be overcome for developing a more comprehensive understanding of marine ecosystem regime shifts. We find a great divide between benthic reef and pelagic ocean systems in how regime shift theory is linked to observed abrupt changes. Furthermore, we suggest that the long-lasting discussion on the prevalence of top-down trophic or bottom-up physical drivers in inducing regime shifts may be overcome by taking into consideration the synergistic interactions of multiple stressors, and the special characteristics of different ecosystem types. We present a framework for the holistic investigation of marine regime shifts that considers multiple exogenous drivers that interact with endogenous mechanisms to cause abrupt, catastrophic change. This framework takes into account the time-delayed synergies of these stressors, which erode the resilience of the ecosystem and eventually enable the crossing of ecological thresholds. Finally, considering that increased pressures in the marine environment are predicted by the current climate change assessments, in order to avoid major losses of ecosystem services, we suggest that marine management approaches should incorporate knowledge on environmental thresholds and develop tools that consider regime shift dynamics and characteristics. This grand challenge can only be achieved through a holistic view of marine ecosystem dynamics as evidenced by this theme issue.

Linking social, ecological, and physical science to advance natural and nature-based protection for coastal communities.

PubMed

Arkema, Katie K; Griffin, Robert; Maldonado, Sergio; Silver, Jessica; Suckale, Jenny; Guerry, Anne D

2017-07-01

Interest in the role that ecosystems play in reducing the impacts of coastal hazards has grown dramatically. Yet the magnitude and nature of their effects are highly context dependent, making it difficult to know under what conditions coastal habitats, such as saltmarshes, reefs, and forests, are likely to be effective for saving lives and protecting property. We operationalize the concept of natural and nature-based solutions for coastal protection by adopting an ecosystem services framework that propagates the outcome of a management action through ecosystems to societal benefits. We review the literature on the basis of the steps in this framework, considering not only the supply of coastal protection provided by ecosystems but also the demand for protective services from beneficiaries. We recommend further attention to (1) biophysical processes beyond wave attenuation, (2) the combined effects of multiple habitat types (e.g., reefs, vegetation), (3) marginal values and expected damage functions, and, in particular, (4) community dependence on ecosystems for coastal protection and co-benefits. We apply our approach to two case studies to illustrate how estimates of multiple benefits and losses can inform restoration and development decisions. Finally, we discuss frontiers for linking social, ecological, and physical science to advance natural and nature-based solutions to coastal protection. © 2017 New York Academy of Sciences.

A review of invasive alien species impacts on eucalypt stands and citrus orchards ecosystem services: towards an integrated management approach.

PubMed

Branco, Sofia; Videira, Nuno; Branco, Manuela; Paiva, Maria Rosa

2015-02-01

Multidisciplinary knowledge on the impact caused by invasive alien species (IAS) on ecosystems is crucial for guiding policy makers in the adoption of sustainable management measures. This research was focused on insect IAS impacts on two managed ecosystems: eucalypt plantations and citrus orchards. It begins with an identification of the wide range of ecosystem services (ES) and disservices provided by each of these managed ecosystems, according to the methodology proposed by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. Subsequently, a comprehensive review of studies that promoted the identification and valuation of direct and indirect impacts IAS impacts on these ecosystems was performed. From the synthesis of previous findings, an integrative management framework is advanced. This links the identification of ES, drivers of change and development of IAS management strategies by means of assessment processes that account for multiple dimensions of ES values. The article concludes with a discussion on the challenges underpinning assessment and valuation approaches that inform the design of inclusive strategies and interventions to tackle IAS impacts. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Benchmarking Discount Rate in Natural Resource Damage Assessment with Risk Aversion.

PubMed

Wu, Desheng; Chen, Shuzhen

2017-08-01

Benchmarking a credible discount rate is of crucial importance in natural resource damage assessment (NRDA) and restoration evaluation. This article integrates a holistic framework of NRDA with prevailing low discount rate theory, and proposes a discount rate benchmarking decision support system based on service-specific risk aversion. The proposed approach has the flexibility of choosing appropriate discount rates for gauging long-term services, as opposed to decisions based simply on duration. It improves injury identification in NRDA since potential damages and side-effects to ecosystem services are revealed within the service-specific framework. A real embankment case study demonstrates valid implementation of the method. © 2017 Society for Risk Analysis.

Ecosystem services provided by groundwater dependent wetlands in karst areas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Massimo Delle Grazie, Fabio; Gill, Laurence

2017-04-01

Ecosystem services provided by groundwater dependent wetlands in karst areas Turloughs are topographic depressions in karst, which are intermittently flooded on an annual cycle via groundwater sources and have substrate and/or ecological communities characteristic of wetlands. Turloughs are designated a Priority Habitat in Annex 1 of the EU Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC) as well as GWDTEs under the Water Framework Directive (WFD). Hydrology is the primary driver of these unique ecosystems and so a rigorous understanding of the flooding regime is required in order to assess their conservation and future sustainability. This research aims to identify and quantify the ecosystem services associated with turloughs, particularly in relation to the need for habitat conservation in the face of external pressures associated with agriculture, road drainage schemes, water supply and wastewater disposal. The research focuses primarily on quantifying the ecosystem functions responsible for producing terrestrial hydrologic and climatic services, as well as intrinsic biodiversity services, and uses this context to lay out a blueprint for a more detailed ecosystem service assessment. These services have been quantified in appropriate units (biophysical or otherwise), based on actual or potential sustainable use levels. Available data and field studies have been used to assess the hydrological conditions necessary to sustain the biodiversity of vegetation as well as to better understand the connections between hydrology and biogeochemical cycles. The benefits of the turlough services have then been analyzed and quantified in appropriate units (ecological, socio-cultural and economic indicators) as well as monetary values. This has been done using the inVEST tool. InVEST includes models for quantifying, mapping, and valuing the benefits provided by terrestrial, freshwater, and marine systems. In particular the Habitat Risk Assessment and the Nutrient Delivery Ratio modules have been used.

Indicators and Methods for Evaluating Economic, Ecosystem ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

The U.S. Human Well-being Index (HWBI) is a composite measure that incorporates economic, environmental, and societal well-being elements through the eight domains of connection to nature, cultural fulfillment, education, health, leisure time, living standards, safety and security, and social cohesion (USEPA 2012a; Smith et al. 2013). Twenty-eight services, represented by a collection of indicators and metrics, have been identified as influencing these domains of human well-being. By taking an inventory of stocks or measuring the results of a service, a relationship function can be derived to understand how changes in the provisioning of that service can influence the HWBI. An extensive review of existing services was performed to identify current services, indicators and metrics in use. This report describes the indicators and methods we have selected to evaluate the provisioning of economic, ecosystem, and social services related to human well-being. Provide metadata and methods for calculating services provisioning scores for HWBI modeling framework

Coordinating ecological restoration options analysis and risk assessment to improve environmental outcomes.

PubMed

Kapustka, Lawrence A; Bowers, Keith; Isanhart, John; Martinez-Garza, Cristina; Finger, Susan; Stahl, Ralph G; Stauber, Jenny

2016-04-01

Ecological risk assessment as currently practiced has hindered consideration of ecosystem services endpoints and restoration goals in the environmental management process. Practitioners have created barriers between procedures to clean up contaminated areas and efforts to restore ecosystem functions. In this article, we examine linkages between contaminant risk assessment approaches and restoration efforts with the aim of identifying ways to improve environmental outcomes. We advocate that project managers and other stakeholders use an ecological planning framework, with restoration options included upfront in the risk assessment. We also considered the opportunities to incorporate ecosystem services as potential assessment endpoints in the Problem Formulation stages of a risk assessment. Indeed, diverse perspectives of stakeholders are central to understand the relevance of social, cultural, economic, and regional ecology as influences on future use options for the landscape being restored. The measurement endpoints used to characterize the existing ecological conditions for selected ecosystem services can also be used to evaluate restoration success. A regional, landscape, or seascape focus is needed throughout the risk assessment process, so that restoration efforts play a more prominent role in enhancing ecosystem services. In short, we suggest that practitioners begin with the question of "how can the ecological risk assessment inform the decision on how best to restore the ecosystem?" © 2015 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of SETAC.

Identifying Decision-Makers’ Science Needs for Adaptation to Climate-Related Impacts on Forest Ecosystem Services

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gordon, E.; Lukas, J.

2009-12-01

Through the Western Water Assessment RISA program, we are conducting a research project that will produce science synthesis information to help local, state, and federal decision-makers in Colorado and Wyoming develop adaptation strategies to deal with climate-related threats to forest ecosystem services, in particular bark beetle infestations and stand-replacing wildfires. We begin by using the problem orientation framework, a policy sciences methodology, to understand how decision-makers can most effectively address policy problems that threaten the attainment of socially accepted goals. By applying this framework to the challenges facing decision-makers, we more accurately identify specific areas where scientific research can improve decision-making. WWA researchers will next begin to connect decision-makers with relevant scientific literature and identify specific areas of future scientific research that will be most effective at addressing their needs.

TERRECO: A Flux-Based Approach to Understanding Landscape Change, Potentials of Resilience and Sustainability in Ecosystem Services

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tenhunen, J. D.; Kang, S.

2011-12-01

The Millenium Assessment has provided a broad perspective on the ways and degree to which global change has stressed ecosystems and their potential to deliver goods and services to mankind. Management of natural resources at regional scale requires a clear understanding of the ways that ongoing human activities modify or create new system stressors, leading to net gains or losses in ecosystem services. Ever since information from the International Biological Program (IBP) was summarized in the 1960s, we know that ecosystem stress response, recovery and resilience are related to changes in ecosystem turnover of materials, nutrient retention or loss, resource use efficiencies, and additional ecosystem properties that determine fluxes of carbon, water and nutrients. At landscape or regional scale, changes in system drivers influence land-surface to atmosphere gas exchange (water, carbon and trace gas emissions), the seasonal course of soil resource stores, hydrology, and transport of nutrients and carbon into and through river systems. In today's terminology, shifts in these fluxes indicate a modification of potential ecosystem services provided to us by the landscape or region of interest, and upon which we depend. Ongoing modeling efforts of the TERRECO project carried out in S. Korea focus on describing landscape and regional level flow networks for carbon, water, and nutrients, but in addition monetary flows associated with gains and losses in ecosystem services (cf. Fig. 1). The description is embedded within a framework which examines the trade-offs between agricultural intensification versus yield of high quality water to reservoirs for drinking water supply. The models also quantify hypothetical changes in flow networks that would occur in the context of climate, land use and social change scenarios.

Balkanized research in ecological engineering revealed by a bibliometric analysis of earthworms and ecosystem services.

PubMed

Blouin, Manuel; Sery, Nicolas; Cluzeau, Daniel; Brun, Jean-Jacques; Bédécarrats, Alain

2013-08-01

Energy crisis, climate changes, and biodiversity losses have reinforced the drive for more ecologically-based approaches for environmental management. Such approaches are characterized by the use of organisms rather than energy-consuming technologies. Although earthworms are believed to be potentially useful organisms for managing ecosystem services, there is actually no quantification of such a trend in literature. This bibliometric analysis aimed to measure the evolution of the association of "earthworms" and other terms such as ecosystem services (primary production, nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration, soil structure, and pollution remediation), "ecological engineering" or "biodiversity," to assess their convergence or divergence through time. In this aim, we calculated the similarity index, an indicator of the paradigmatic proximity defined in applied epistemology, for each year between 1900 and 2009. We documented the scientific fields and the geographical origins of the studies, as well as the land uses, and compare these characteristics with a 25 years old review on earthworm management. The association of earthworm related keywords with ecosystem services related keywords was increasing with time, reflecting the growing interest in earthworm use in biodiversity and ecosystem services management. Conversely, no significant increase in the association between earthworms and disciplines such as ecological engineering or restoration ecology was observed. This demonstrated that general ecologically-based approaches have yet to emerge and that there is little exchange of knowledge, methods or concepts among balkanized application realms. Nevertheless, there is a strong need for crossing the frontiers between fields of application and for developing an umbrella discipline to provide a framework for the use of organisms to manage ecosystem services.

Using Flow-Ecology Relationships to Evaluate Ecosystem Service Trade-Offs and Complementarities in the Nation's Largest River Swamp.

PubMed

Kozak, Justin P; Bennett, Micah G; Hayden-Lesmeister, Anne; Fritz, Kelley A; Nickolotsky, Aaron

2015-06-01

Large river systems are inextricably linked with social systems; consequently, management decisions must be made within a given ecological, social, and political framework that often defies objective, technical resolution. Understanding flow-ecology relationships in rivers is necessary to assess potential impacts of management decisions, but translating complex flow-ecology relationships into stakeholder-relevant information remains a struggle. The concept of ecosystem services provides a bridge between flow-ecology relationships and stakeholder-relevant data. Flow-ecology relationships were used to explore complementary and trade-off relationships among 12 ecosystem services and related variables in the Atchafalaya River Basin, Louisiana. Results from Indicators of Hydrologic Alteration were reduced to four management-relevant hydrologic variables using principal components analysis. Multiple regression was used to determine flow-ecology relationships and Pearson correlation coefficients, along with regression results, were used to determine complementary and trade-off relationships among ecosystem services and related variables that were induced by flow. Seven ecosystem service variables had significant flow-ecology relationships for at least one hydrologic variable (R (2) = 0.19-0.64). River transportation and blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) landings exhibited a complementary relationship mediated by flow; whereas transportation and crawfish landings, crawfish landings and crappie (Pomoxis spp.) abundance, and blue crab landings and blue catfish (Ictalurus furcatus) abundance exhibited trade-off relationships. Other trade-off and complementary relationships among ecosystem services and related variables, however, were not related to flow. These results give insight into potential conflicts among stakeholders, can reduce the dimensions of management decisions, and provide initial hypotheses for experimental flow modifications.

Using Flow-Ecology Relationships to Evaluate Ecosystem Service Trade-Offs and Complementarities in the Nation's Largest River Swamp

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kozak, Justin P.; Bennett, Micah G.; Hayden-Lesmeister, Anne; Fritz, Kelley A.; Nickolotsky, Aaron

2015-06-01

Large river systems are inextricably linked with social systems; consequently, management decisions must be made within a given ecological, social, and political framework that often defies objective, technical resolution. Understanding flow-ecology relationships in rivers is necessary to assess potential impacts of management decisions, but translating complex flow-ecology relationships into stakeholder-relevant information remains a struggle. The concept of ecosystem services provides a bridge between flow-ecology relationships and stakeholder-relevant data. Flow-ecology relationships were used to explore complementary and trade-off relationships among 12 ecosystem services and related variables in the Atchafalaya River Basin, Louisiana. Results from Indicators of Hydrologic Alteration were reduced to four management-relevant hydrologic variables using principal components analysis. Multiple regression was used to determine flow-ecology relationships and Pearson correlation coefficients, along with regression results, were used to determine complementary and trade-off relationships among ecosystem services and related variables that were induced by flow. Seven ecosystem service variables had significant flow-ecology relationships for at least one hydrologic variable ( R 2 = 0.19-0.64). River transportation and blue crab ( Callinectes sapidus) landings exhibited a complementary relationship mediated by flow; whereas transportation and crawfish landings, crawfish landings and crappie ( Pomoxis spp.) abundance, and blue crab landings and blue catfish ( Ictalurus furcatus) abundance exhibited trade-off relationships. Other trade-off and complementary relationships among ecosystem services and related variables, however, were not related to flow. These results give insight into potential conflicts among stakeholders, can reduce the dimensions of management decisions, and provide initial hypotheses for experimental flow modifications.

Mapping Ecosystem Services in the Jordan Valley, Jordan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Luz, Ana; Marques, Ana; Ribeiro, Inês; Alho, Maria; Catarina Afonso, Ana; Almeida, Erika; Branquinho, Cristina; Talozi, Samer; Pinho, Pedro

2016-04-01

In the last decade researchers started using ecosystem services as a new framework to understand the relationships between environment and society. Habitat quality and water quality are related with ecosystem services regulation and maintenance, or even provision. According to the Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services (CICES) both habitat quality and water quality are associated with lifecycle maintenance, habitat and gene pool protection, and water conditions, among others. As there is increased pressure on habitats and rivers especially for agricultural development, mapping and evaluating habitat and water quality has important implications for resource management and conservation, as well as for rural development. Here, we model and map habitat and water quality in the Jordan Valley, Jordan. In this study, we aim to identify and analyse ecosystem services both through 1) habitat quality and 2) water quality modelling using InVest, an integrated valuation of ecosystem services and tradeoffs. The data used in this study mainly includes the LULC, Jordan River watershed and main threats and pollutants in the study area, such as agriculture, industry, fish farms and urbanization. Results suggest a higher pressure on natural habitats in the Northern region of the Jordan Valley, where industry is dominant. Agriculture is present along the Jordan Valley and limits the few natural forested areas. Further, water pollution is mainly concentrated in disposal sites due to the low flow of the Jordan River. Our results can help to identify areas where natural resources and water resource management is most needed in the Jordan Valley. Acknowledgements: Transbasin FP7 project

The Eastern Non-industrial Private Forests

Treesearch

Gerard D. Hertel

The USDA Forest Service ?cares for the land and serves the people? under the framework of the Natural Resources Agenda (Watershed Health and Restoration; Sustainable Forest Ecosystems; Recreation; and Forest Roads). The National Forests comprise only 19 percent of the forestland (land that is at least 10% covered with trees) in the United States. The Forest Service has...

Revealing pathways from payments for ecosystem services to socioeconomic outcomes

PubMed Central

Zhang, Jindong

2018-01-01

Payments for ecosystem services (PES) programs have been widely implemented as a promising tool to conserve ecosystems while facilitating socioeconomic development. However, the underlying pathways (or processes) through which PES programs affect socioeconomic outcomes remain elusive, and existing literature provides little guidance to quantify them. By integrating linkages among PES programs, livelihood activities, and socioeconomic outcomes, we develop a framework to reveal pathways from PES programs to socioeconomic outcomes. We empirically demonstrate the framework’s operationalization and uncover the pathways that lead to unexpected negative effects of two important PES programs on participating households’ income. With improved understanding of the pathways (for example, the programs decreased income through reducing crop production), we provide recommendations to enhance the PES programs’ outcomes in our demonstration site and beyond. Our study highlights the finding that elucidating the pathways from PES programs to their outcomes can help identify specific strategies to achieve ecosystem conservation and socioeconomic development simultaneously. PMID:29750187

Toward a national, sustained U.S. ecosystem assessment

USGS Publications Warehouse

Jackson, Stephen T.; Duke, Clifford S.; Hampton, Stephanie E.; Jacobs, Katharine L.; Joppa, Lucas N.; Kassam, Karim-Aly S. K.; Mooney, Harold A.; Ogden, Laura A.; Ruckelshaus, Mary; Shogren, Jason F.

2016-01-01

The massive investment of resources devoted to monitoring and assessment of economic and societal indicators in the United States is neither matched by nor linked to efforts to monitor and assess the ecosystem services and biodiversity that support economic and social well-being. Although national-scale assessments of biodiversity (1) and ecosystem indicators (2) have been undertaken, nearly a decade has elapsed since the last systematic assessment (2). A 2011 White House report called for a national biodiversity and ecosystem services assessment (3), but the initiative has stalled. Our aim here is to stimulate the process and outline a credible framework and pathway for an ongoing assessment of ecosystem functioning (see the photo). A national assessment should engage diverse stakeholders from multiple sectors of society and should focus on metrics and analyses of direct relevance to policy decisions, from local to national levels. Although many technical or science-focused components are in place, they need to be articulated, distilled, and organized to address policy issues.

The Shape of Ecosystem Management to Come: Anticipating Risks and Fostering Resilience

PubMed Central

Seidl, Rupert

2014-01-01

Global change is increasingly challenging the sustainable provisioning of ecosystem services to society. Addressing future uncertainty and risk has therefore become a central problem of ecosystem management. With risk management and resilience-based stewardship, two contrasting approaches have been proposed to address this issue. Whereas one is concentrated on anticipating and mitigating risks, the other is focused on fostering the ability to absorb perturbations and maintain desired properties. While they have hitherto been discussed largely separately in the literature, I here propose a unifying framework of anticipating risks and fostering resilience in ecosystem management. Anticipatory action is advocated when the predictability of risk is high and sufficient knowledge to address it is available. Conversely, in situations in which predictability and knowledge are limited, resilience-based measures are paramount. I conclude that, by adopting a purposeful combination of insights from risk and resilience research, we can make ecosystem services provisioning more robust to future uncertainty and change. PMID:25729079

Linking Biological Responses of Terrestrial N Eutrophication to the Final Ecosystem Goods and Services Classification System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bell, M. D.; Clark, C.; Blett, T.

2015-12-01

The response of a biological indicator to N deposition can indicate that an ecosystem has surpassed a critical load and is at risk of significant change. The importance of this exceedance is often difficult to digest by policy makers and public audiences if the change is not linked to a familiar ecosystem endpoint. A workshop was held to bring together scientists, resource managers, and policy makers with expertise in ecosystem functioning, critical loads, and economics in an effort to identify the ecosystem services impacted by air pollution. This was completed within the framework of the Final Ecosystem Goods and Services (FEGS) Classification System to produce a product that identified distinct interactions between society and the effects of nitrogen pollution. From each change in a biological indicator, we created multiple ecological production functions to identify the cascading effects of the change to a measureable ecosystem service that a user interacts with either by enjoying, consuming, or appreciating the good or service, or using it as an input in the human economy. This FEGS metric was then linked to a beneficiary group that interacts with the service. Chains detailing the links from the biological indicator to the beneficiary group were created for aquatic and terrestrial acidification and eutrophication at the workshop, and here we present a subset of the workshop results by highlighting for 9 different ecosystems affected by terrestrial eutrophication. A total of 213 chains that linked to 37 unique FEGS metrics and impacted 15 beneficiary groups were identified based on nitrogen deposition mediated changes to biological indicators. The chains within each ecosystem were combined in flow charts to show the complex, overlapping relationships among biological indicators, ecosystem services, and beneficiary groups. Strength of relationship values were calculated for each chain based on support for the link in the scientific literature. We produced the complex diagrams to provide details to scientists and experts, identify research gaps, and understand the complexity of critical load exceedances. We then simplified the flow charts into stories that could produce an emotional connection and resonate with a general audience. These stories are important steps to breach the gaps between science and policy.

Safeguarding the provision of ecosystem services in catchment systems.

PubMed

Everard, Mark

2013-04-01

A narrow technocentric focus on a few favored ecosystem services (generally provisioning services) has led to ecosystem degradation globally, including catchment systems and their capacities to support human well-being. Increasing recognition of the multiple benefits provided by ecosystems is slowly being translated into policy and some areas of practice, although there remains a significant shortfall in the incorporation of a systemic perspective into operation management and decision-making tools. Nevertheless, a range of ecosystem-based solutions to issues as diverse as flooding and green space provision in the urban environment offers hope for improving habitat and optimization of beneficial services. The value of catchment ecosystem processes and their associated services is also being increasingly recognized and internalized by the water industry, improving water quality and quantity through catchment land management rather than at greater expense in the treatment costs of contaminated water abstracted lower in catchments. Parallel recognition of the value of working with natural processes, rather than "defending" built assets when catchment hydrology is adversely affected by unsympathetic upstream development, is being progressively incorporated into flood risk management policy. This focus on wider catchment processes also yields a range of cobenefits for fishery, wildlife, amenity, flood risk, and other interests, which may be optimized if multiple stakeholders and their diverse value systems are included in decision-making processes. Ecosystem services, particularly implemented as a central element of the ecosystem approach, provide an integrated framework for building in these different perspectives and values, many of them formerly excluded, into commercial and resource management decision-making processes, thereby making tractable the integrative aspirations of sustainable development. This can help redress deeply entrenched inherited assumptions, habits, and vested interests, replacing them in many management situations with wider recognition of the multiple values of ecosystems and their services. Global interest in taking an ecosystem approach is promoting novel scientific and policy thinking, yet there is a shortfall in its translation into practical management tools. Professional associations may have key roles to play in breaking down barriers to the "mainstreaming" of systemic perspectives into common practice, particularly through joining u different sectors of society essential to their implementation and ongoing adaptive management. Copyright © 2012 SETAC.

Open IoT Ecosystem for Enhanced Interoperability in Smart Cities-Example of Métropole De Lyon.

PubMed

Robert, Jérémy; Kubler, Sylvain; Kolbe, Niklas; Cerioni, Alessandro; Gastaud, Emmanuel; Främling, Kary

2017-12-08

The Internet of Things (IoT) has promised a future where everything gets connected. Unfortunately, building a single global ecosystem of Things that communicate with each other seamlessly is virtually impossible today. The reason is that the IoT is essentially a collection of isolated "Intranets of Things", also referred to as "vertical silos", which cannot easily and efficiently interact with each other. Smart cities are perhaps the most striking examples of this problem since they comprise a wide range of stakeholders and service providers who must work together, including urban planners, financial organisations, public and private service providers, telecommunication providers, industries, citizens, and so forth. Within this context, the contribution of this paper is threefold: (i) discuss business and technological implications as well as challenges of creating successful open innovation ecosystems, (ii) present the technological building blocks underlying an IoT ecosystem developed in the framework of the EU Horizon 2020 programme, (iii) present a smart city pilot (Heat Wave Mitigation in Métropole de Lyon ) for which the proposed ecosystem significantly contributes to improving interoperability between a number of system components, and reducing regulatory barriers for joint service co-creation practices.

Open IoT Ecosystem for Enhanced Interoperability in Smart Cities—Example of Métropole De Lyon

PubMed Central

Robert, Jérémy; Kolbe, Niklas; Cerioni, Alessandro; Gastaud, Emmanuel

2017-01-01

The Internet of Things (IoT) has promised a future where everything gets connected. Unfortunately, building a single global ecosystem of Things that communicate with each other seamlessly is virtually impossible today. The reason is that the IoT is essentially a collection of isolated “Intranets of Things”, also referred to as “vertical silos”, which cannot easily and efficiently interact with each other. Smart cities are perhaps the most striking examples of this problem since they comprise a wide range of stakeholders and service providers who must work together, including urban planners, financial organisations, public and private service providers, telecommunication providers, industries, citizens, and so forth. Within this context, the contribution of this paper is threefold: (i) discuss business and technological implications as well as challenges of creating successful open innovation ecosystems, (ii) present the technological building blocks underlying an IoT ecosystem developed in the framework of the EU Horizon 2020 programme, (iii) present a smart city pilot (Heat Wave Mitigation in Métropole de Lyon) for which the proposed ecosystem significantly contributes to improving interoperability between a number of system components, and reducing regulatory barriers for joint service co-creation practices. PMID:29292719

Understanding the Dynamics of Socio-Hydrological Environment: a Conceptual Framework

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Woyessa, Y.; Welderufael, W.; Edossa, D.

2011-12-01

Human actions affect ecological systems and the services they provide through various activities, such as land use, water use, pollution and climate change. Climate change is perhaps one of the most important sustainable development challenges that threaten to undo many of the development efforts being made to reach the targets set for the Millennium Development Goals. Understanding the change of ecosystems under different scenarios of climate and biophysical conditions could assist in bringing the issue of ecosystem services into decision making process. Similarly, the impacts of land use change on ecosystems and biodiversity have received considerable attention from ecologists and hydrologists alike. Land use change in a catchment can impact on water supply by altering hydrological processes, such as infiltration, groundwater recharge, base flow and direct runoff. In the past a variety of models were used for predicting land-use changes. Recently the focus has shifted away from using mathematically oriented models to agent-based modelling (ABM) approach to simulate land use scenarios. A conceptual framework is being developed which integrates climate change scenarios and the human dimension of land use decision into a hydrological model in order to assess its impacts on the socio-hydrological dynamics of a river basin. The following figures present the framework for the analysis and modelling of the socio-hydrological dynamics. Keywords: climate change, land use, river basin

The Marine Strategy Framework Directive and the ecosystem-based approach – pitfalls and solutions.

PubMed

Berg, Torsten; Fürhaupter, Karin; Teixeira, Heliana; Uusitalo, Laura; Zampoukas, Nikolaos

2015-07-15

The European Marine Strategy Framework Directive aims at good environmental status (GES) in marine waters, following an ecosystem-based approach, focused on 11 descriptors related to ecosystem features, human drivers and pressures. Furthermore, 29 subordinate criteria and 56 attributes are detailed in an EU Commission Decision. The analysis of the Decision and the associated operational indicators revealed ambiguity in the use of terms, such as indicator, impact and habitat and considerable overlap of indicators assigned to various descriptors and criteria. We suggest re-arrangement and elimination of redundant criteria and attributes avoiding double counting in the subsequent indicator synthesis, a clear distinction between pressure and state descriptors and addition of criteria on ecosystem services and functioning. Moreover, we suggest the precautionary principle should be followed for the management of pressures and an evidence-based approach for monitoring state as well as reaching and maintaining GES. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Evaluating Ecosystem Services for Reducing Groundwater Nitrate Contamination: Nitrate Attenuation in the Unsaturated and Saturated Zones

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, J.

2013-12-01

Nitrates are the most common type of groundwater contamination in agricultural regions. Environmental policies targeting nitrates have focused on input control (e.g., restricted fertilizer application), intermediate loads control (e.g., reduce nitrate leached from crop fields), and final loads control (e.g., reduce catchment nitrate loads). Nitrate loads can be affected by hydrological processes in both unsaturated and saturated zones. Although many of these processes have been extensively investigated in literature, they are commonly modeled as exogenous to farm management. A couple of recent studies by scientists from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory show that in some situations nitrate attenuation processes in the unsaturated/saturated zone, particularly denitrification, can be intensified by certain management practices to mitigate nitrate loads. Therefore, these nitrate attenuation processes can be regarded as a set of ecosystem services that farmers can take advantage of to reduce their cost of complying with environmental policies. In this paper, a representative California dairy farm is used as a case study to show how such ecosystem attenuation services can be framed within the farm owner's decision-making framework as an option for reducing groundwater nitrate contamination. I develop an integrated dynamic model, where the farmer maximizes discounted net farm profit over multiple periods subject to environmental regulations. The model consists of three submodels: animal-waste-crop, hydrologic, and economic model. In addition to common choice variables such as irrigation, fertilization, and waste disposal options, the farmer can also endogenously choose from three water sources: surface water, deep groundwater (old groundwater in the deep aquifer that is not affected by farm effluent in the short term), and shallow groundwater (drainage water that can be recycled via capture wells at the downstream end of the farm). The capture wells not only recycle wastewater, but can also increase the likelihood of denitrification. Thus the farmer essentially can choose whether, and to which extent, to install capture wells and take advantage of the ecosystem attenuation services. Decision rules from the dynamic optimization model demonstrate best management practices for the farm to improve its economic and environmental performance. I further use an economic valuation technique to value these services. Under the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment framework, nitrate attenuation in the unsaturated and saturated zone provides regulatory ecosystem services to humans, mainly nutrient regulation and waste treatment. With the integrated farm model, the production function approach is adopted to get the economic value of these regulatory services. The results highlight the significant role the environment can play in nitrate pollution control and potential benefits from designing policies that acknowledge this role. The most desirable policies are those that create incentive for farmers to use potential ecosystem services, which significantly reduce environmental compliance costs and increase social welfare.

How complete is our knowledge of the ecosystem services impacts of Europe's top 10 invasive species?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McLaughlan, C.; Gallardo, B.; Aldridge, D. C.

2014-01-01

Invasive non-native species have complex multilevel impacts on their introduced ecosystems, leading to far-ranging effects on fundamental ecosystem services, from the provision of food from that system, to human health and wellbeing. For this reason, there is an emerging interest in basing risk assessments not only on the species' ecological and economic impacts, but also on the effects related to ecosystem services. We investigated the quality and extent of baseline data detailing the effects that the top 10 of the 'worst' invasive species in Europe are having on their adopted ecosystems. The results were striking, as the 10 species showed a wide range of impacts on ecosystem services, a number of which were actually positive for ecosystems and human well-being. For instance, the bivalve Dreissena polymorpha is a prolific biofouler of pipes and boats, but it can improve water quality through its filtration of nuisance algae, a valuable effect that is often overlooked. We found that negative effects, particularly economic ones, were often assumed rather than quantitatively evidenced; for example, the cost of crop damage by species such as Myocastor coypus and Branta canadensis. In general, the evidence for impacts of these 'worst' invaders was severely lacking. We conclude that invasive species management requires prioritization, which should be based on informed and quantified assessment of the potential ecological and economic costs of species (both positive and negative), considered in the proper context of the invader and ecosystem. The Millennium Ecosystem Approach provides a useful framework to undertake such prioritization from a new perspective combining ecological and societal aspects. However, standard guidelines of evaluation are urgently needed in order to unify definitions, methods and evaluation scores.

Conversion of woodlands changes soil related ecosystem services in Subsaharan Africa

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Groengroeft, Alexander; Landschreiber, Lars; Luther-Mosebach, Jona; Masamba, Wellington; Zimmermann, Ibo; Eschenbach, Annette

2015-04-01

In remote areas of Subsaharan Africa, growing population, changes in consumption patterns and increasing global influences are leading to a strong pressure on the land resources. Smallholders convert woodlands by fire, grazing and clearing in different intensities thus changing soil properties and their ecosystem functioning. As the extraction of ecosystem services forms the basis of local wellbeing for many communities, the role of soils in providing ecosystem services is of high importance. Since 2010, "The Future Okavango" project investigates the quantification of ecosystem functions and services at four core research sites along the Okavango river basin (Angola, Namibia, Botswana, see http://www.future-okavango.org/). These research sites have an extent of 100 km2 each. Within our subproject the soil functions underlying ecosystem services are studied: The amount and spatial variation of soil nutrient reserves in woodland and their changes by land use activities, the water storage function as a basis for plant growth, and their effect on groundwater recharge and the carbon storage function. The scientific framework consists of four major parts including soil survey and mapping, lab analysis, field measurements and modeling approaches on different scales. A detailed soil survey leads to a measure of the spatial distribution, extent and heterogeneity of soil types for each research site. For generalization purposes, geomorphological and pedological characteristics are merged to derive landscape units. These landscape units have been overlaid by recent land use types to stratify the research site for subsequent soil sampling. On the basis of field and laboratory analysis, spatial distribution of soil properties as well as boundaries between neighboring landscape units are derived. The parameters analysed describe properties according to grain size distribution, organic carbon content, saturated and unsaturated hydraulic conductivity as well as pore space distribution. At nine selected sites, soil water contents and pressure heads are logged throughout the year with a 12 hour resolution in depth of 10 to 160 cm. This monitoring gives information about soil water dynamics at point scale and the database is used to evaluate model outputs of soil water balances later on. To derive point scale soil water balances for each landscape unit the one dimensional and physically based model SWAP 3.2 is applied. The presentation will demonstrate the conceptual framework, exemplary results and will discuss, if the ecosystem service approach can help to avoid future land degradation. Key word: Okavango catchment, soil functions, conceptual approach

Biodiversity, traditional medicine and public health: where do they meet?

PubMed Central

2007-01-01

Given the increased use of traditional medicines, possibilities that would ensure its successful integration into a public health framework should be explored. This paper discusses some of the links between biodiversity and traditional medicine, and addresses their implications to public health. We explore the importance of biodiversity and ecosystem services to global and human health, the risks which human impacts on ecosystems and biodiversity present to human health and welfare. PMID:17376227

Benefit Indicators for Flood Regulation Services of Wetlands ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This report describes a method for developing indicators of the benefits of flood regulation services of wetlands and presents a companion case study. We demonstrate our approach through an application to the Woonasquatucket River watershed in northern Rhode Island. This work is intended to address an important component of the assessment of ecosystem services: the development of metrics that clearly show how ecosystem functioning benefits people. What is unique and most useful about the approach presented here is that it incorporates people and the benefits they receive from ecosystem restoration assessment. Further, it provides a framework that can be used to compare potential wetland restoration scenarios based on these benefits without the need for estimating dollar values. This approach contributes in three ways to the assessment of flood regulation services provided by wetlands. First, it goes beyond standard ecological assessments of wetlands functioning by linking functioning with how, where, and how many people benefit from wetlands. Second, it provides a means of estimating defensible metrics using a tiered approach ranging from metrics that are more easily estimated but with greater uncertainty, to metrics that require detailed modeling and provide reduced uncertainty. Third, it works as an add-on to existing functional assessment tools, in order to extend their applicability to assessing ecosystem services, or augments economic benefit transfer appro

Ecosystem Services and Climate Change Considerations for ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Freshwater habitats provide fishable, swimmable and drinkable resources and are a nexus of geophysical and biological processes. These processes in turn influence the persistence and sustainability of populations, communities and ecosystems. Climate change and landuse change encompass numerous stressors of potential exposure, including the introduction of toxic contaminants, invasive species, and disease in addition to physical drivers such as temperature and hydrologic regime. A systems approach that includes the scientific and technologic basis of assessing the health of ecosystems is needed to effectively protect human health and the environment. The Integrated Environmental Modeling Framework “iemWatersheds” has been developed as a consistent and coherent means of forecasting the cumulative impact of co-occurring stressors. The Framework consists of three facilitating technologies: Data for Environmental Modeling (D4EM) that automates the collection and standardization of input data; the Framework for Risk Assessment of Multimedia Environmental Systems (FRAMES) that manages the flow of information between linked models; and the Supercomputer for Model Uncertainty and Sensitivity Evaluation (SuperMUSE) that provides post-processing and analysis of model outputs, including uncertainty and sensitivity analysis. Five models are linked within the Framework to provide multimedia simulation capabilities for hydrology and water quality processes: the Soil Water

An Overview Of The Ecosystem Services Research Program Decision Support Framework

EPA Science Inventory

There is an increasing understanding that top-down regulatory and technology driven responses are not sufficient to address current and emerging environmental challenges such as climate change, sustainable communities, and environmental justice. Such problems require ways to dee...

Landscape contexts and commonalities: building the LTAR network

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The United States Department of Agriculture has established a Long-Term Agroecosystem Research Network to provide a coordinated framework to, “Enable understanding and forecasting of regional landscape capacities to provide agricultural commodities and ecosystem services under changing conditions.” ...

An Ecosystem Services Framework for Desert Landscapes

EPA Science Inventory

Governments, tribal leaders and citizens of the deserts in North America are facing unprecedented pressures from population growth and climate change. The dominant environmental and economic issue is to ensure that people have access to clean water and sanitation while vital ecos...

From Manaus to Maputo: toward a public health and biodiversity framework.

PubMed

Romanelli, Cristina; Corvalan, Carlos; Cooper, H David; Manga, Lucien; Maiero, Marina; Campbell-Lendrum, Diarmid

2014-09-01

The linkages between human health, biodiversity, ecosystems, and the life-supporting services that they provide are varied and complex. The traditional neglect of this nexus by policy-makers perpetuates threats posed to ecosystems with potentially critical impacts on global health. The Convention on Biological Diversity and the World Health Organization recently co-convened two regional workshops on these intricate but vital linkages. From discussions held with policy-makers and experts in the biodiversity and health sectors, spanning some 50 countries in Africa and the Americas, we derive a broad framework for the development of national and regional public health and biodiversity strategies relevant to strategic planning processes in the emerging post-2015 development context.

Assessing the main threats to marine ecosystem components of the Adriatic - Ionian Region for the implementation of Maritime Spatial Planning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lipizer, Marina

2015-04-01

Marine and coastal ecosystems and the related benefits they provide for humans are threatened by increasing pressures and competing usages. To address these issues, in the last decade, several EU legislations have been formulated to guarantee and promote sustainable use of the sea (e.g. Common Fishery Policy, Marine Strategy Framework Directive, Maritime Spatial Planning). As a first step to implement cross-border Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) in the Adriatic - Ionian Seas, a review of the main anthropogenic pressures due to maritime activities involving the Adriatic - Ionian Region (AIR) as well as of the most relevant environmental components has been carried out. The main objective of the analysis is to better identify the spatial distribution of human uses of the sea and of the key environmental components and the ecosystem services provided. The analysis of the existing conditions includes a description of the human activities per economic sector, considering type, location, dimension and magnitude of the activity in the AIR and the spatial extent of the main environmental and ecological values present in the AIR. The environmental status has been characterized according to the descriptors proposed by the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD Directive 2008/56/EC) and the most sensitive ecosystem components in the AIR have been pointed out. A qualitative analysis of the relationships between good environmental status descriptors sensu MSFD and ecosystem services in the AIR has been carried out to provide useful information for the implementation of MSP. Cross-border Maritime Spatial Planning is particularly needed in a semi-enclosed basin such as the Adriatic Sea, hosting very diverse human activities, ranging from fishery to tourism, sand extraction, commercial and passenger transport, oil and gas exploration and exploitation, which may partially overlap and severely threaten ecosystem functioning and the associated services.

An Ecosystem Service Evaluation Tool to Support Ridge-to-Reef Management and Conservation in Hawaii

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oleson, K.; Callender, T.; Delevaux, J. M. S.; Falinski, K. A.; Htun, H.; Jin, G.

2014-12-01

Faced with increasing anthropogenic stressors and diverse stakeholders, local managers are adopting a ridge-to-reef and multi-objective management approach to restore declining coral reef health state. An ecosystem services framework, which integrates ecological indicators and stakeholder values, can foster more applied and integrated research, data collection, and modeling, and thus better inform the decision-making process and realize decision outcomes grounded in stakeholders' values. Here, we describe a research program that (i) leverages remotely sensed and empirical data to build an ecosystem services-based decision-support tool geared towards ridge-to-reef management; and (ii) applies it as part of a structured, value-based decision-making process to inform management in west Maui, a NOAA coral reef conservation priority site. The tool links terrestrial and marine biophysical models in a spatially explicit manner to quantify and map changes in ecosystem services delivery resulting from management actions, projected climate change impacts, and adaptive responses. We couple model outputs with localized valuation studies to translate ecosystem service outcomes into benefits and their associated socio-cultural and/or economic values. Managers can use this tool to run scenarios during their deliberations to evaluate trade-offs, cost-effectiveness, and equity implications of proposed policies. Ultimately, this research program aims at improving the effectiveness, efficiency, and equity outcomes of ecosystem-based management. This presentation will describe our approach, summarize initial results from the terrestrial modeling and economic valuations for west Maui, and highlight how this decision support tool benefits managers in west Maui.

Integrating landscape system and meta-ecosystem frameworks to advance the understanding of ecosystem function in heterogeneous landscapes: An analysis on the carbon fluxes in the Northern Highlands Lake District (NHLD) of Wisconsin and Michigan.

PubMed

Yang, Haile; Chen, Jiakuan

2018-01-01

The successful integration of ecosystem ecology with landscape ecology would be conducive to understanding how landscapes function. There have been several attempts at this, with two main approaches: (1) an ecosystem-based approach, such as the meta-ecosystem framework and (2) a landscape-based approach, such as the landscape system framework. These two frameworks are currently disconnected. To integrate these two frameworks, we introduce a protocol, and then demonstrate application of the protocol using a case study. The protocol includes four steps: 1) delineating landscape systems; 2) classifying landscape systems; 3) adjusting landscape systems to meta-ecosystems and 4) integrating landscape system and meta-ecosystem frameworks through meta-ecosystems. The case study is the analyzing of the carbon fluxes in the Northern Highlands Lake District (NHLD) of Wisconsin and Michigan using this protocol. The application of this protocol revealed that one could follow this protocol to construct a meta-ecosystem and analyze it using the integrative framework of landscape system and meta-ecosystem frameworks. That is, one could (1) appropriately describe and analyze the spatial heterogeneity of the meta-ecosystem; (2) understand the emergent properties arising from spatial coupling of local ecosystems in the meta-ecosystem. In conclusion, this protocol is a useful approach for integrating the meta-ecosystem framework and the landscape system framework, which advances the describing and analyzing of the spatial heterogeneity and ecosystem function of interconnected ecosystems.

Integrating landscape system and meta-ecosystem frameworks to advance the understanding of ecosystem function in heterogeneous landscapes: An analysis on the carbon fluxes in the Northern Highlands Lake District (NHLD) of Wisconsin and Michigan

PubMed Central

Chen, Jiakuan

2018-01-01

The successful integration of ecosystem ecology with landscape ecology would be conducive to understanding how landscapes function. There have been several attempts at this, with two main approaches: (1) an ecosystem-based approach, such as the meta-ecosystem framework and (2) a landscape-based approach, such as the landscape system framework. These two frameworks are currently disconnected. To integrate these two frameworks, we introduce a protocol, and then demonstrate application of the protocol using a case study. The protocol includes four steps: 1) delineating landscape systems; 2) classifying landscape systems; 3) adjusting landscape systems to meta-ecosystems and 4) integrating landscape system and meta-ecosystem frameworks through meta-ecosystems. The case study is the analyzing of the carbon fluxes in the Northern Highlands Lake District (NHLD) of Wisconsin and Michigan using this protocol. The application of this protocol revealed that one could follow this protocol to construct a meta-ecosystem and analyze it using the integrative framework of landscape system and meta-ecosystem frameworks. That is, one could (1) appropriately describe and analyze the spatial heterogeneity of the meta-ecosystem; (2) understand the emergent properties arising from spatial coupling of local ecosystems in the meta-ecosystem. In conclusion, this protocol is a useful approach for integrating the meta-ecosystem framework and the landscape system framework, which advances the describing and analyzing of the spatial heterogeneity and ecosystem function of interconnected ecosystems. PMID:29415066

Contribution of Cultural Ecosystem Services to Natural Capital in the coastal area of Civitavecchia (Latium, Italy)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marcelli, Marco; Madonia, Alice; Tofani, Anna; Molino, Chiara; Manfredi Frattarelli, Francesco

2017-04-01

Natural Capital evaluation is emerging as a fundamental tool to support the management of natural resources. Indeed, the achievement of the compatibility among their multiple uses, often in conflict in coastal areas, is a priority to avoid the increasing undesirable effects which threat both ecosystems and human health and well-being. It represents the scientific basis for actions needed to enhance the conservation and sustainable use of those systems and their contribution to human well-being. Furthermore the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (called by Kofi Annan in 2000), assessed the consequences of ecosystem change for human well-being, and in particular, the analysis method has been centered on the linkages between "ecosystem services" and human well-being. This "Ecosystem Approach" allows to evaluate the consequences of ecosystems changes on human well-being through the assessment of the Ecosystem Services (ES), which are defined as "the benefits that people obtain from ecosystems". These include provisioning services (food, water, timber, etc.), regulating services (climate, floods, disease, etc.); cultural services (recreational, aesthetic and spiritual benefits) and supporting services (soil formation, photosynthesis, nutrient cycling, etc.) Also the reference guidelines for European Environmental Policy (Marine Strategy Framework Directive 2008/56 / EC - MSFD; Maritime Spatial Planning Directive 2014/89 / EC - MSP) are based on the principle of the Ecosystem Approach to define the monitoring criteria of marine and maritime space management ecosystems. The assessment of ES provided by Natural Capital cannot overlook the integration of ecological data with economic and socio-cultural ones, since they are considered as the direct and indirect contributions to human well-being provided by ecosystems. Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES), often omitted in the cost-benefit impact studies, has been receiving increasing interest from the scientific community in order to improve the decision-making process on environmental issues, giving useful information on how environmental changes influence social well-being. This work focused on the valuation of CES in terms of aesthetic value, tourism, cultural heritage, recreational potential and archaeology in the coastal area of Civitavecchia, taking in account also the quantification of the hedonic value provided by marine landscape along the coast. In the study area, a great archaeological heritage (due to the presence of two UNESCO sites and copious smaller sites spread all along the coast) and the presence of priority habitat and species (Posidonia oceanica - Habitats Directive cod. 1120; Reefs - Habitats Directive cod. 1170; Pinna nobilis - Annex IV, Natura 2000; Corallium rubrum - Annex V Habitats Directive) are overlapped with human activities involving an intense use of maritime spaces. The collected data were used to calculate a provision level of CES according to their spatial distribution allowing to detect the ecosystem services hotspots which require targeted management interventions.

Getting Road Expansion on the Right Track: A Framework for Smart Infrastructure Planning in the Mekong

PubMed Central

Chen, Huafang; Phalan, Ben; Wang, Mingcheng; O’Connell, Christine; Tayleur, Cath

2016-01-01

The current unprecedented expansion of infrastructure promises to enhance human wellbeing but risks causing substantial harm to natural ecosystems and the benefits they provide for people. A framework for systematically and proactively identifying the likely benefits and costs of such developments is badly needed. Here, we develop and test at the subregional scale a recently proposed global scheme for comparing the potential gains from new roads for food production with their likely impact on biodiversity and ecosystem services. Working in the Greater Mekong—an exceptionally biodiverse subregion undergoing rapid development—we combined maps of isolation from urban centres, yield gaps, and the current area under 17 crops to estimate where and how far road development could in principle help to increase food production without the need for cropland expansion. We overlaid this information with maps summarising the importance of remaining habitats to terrestrial vertebrates and (as examples of major ecosystem services) to global and local climate regulation. This intersection revealed several largely converted yet relatively low-yielding areas (such as central, eastern, and northeastern Thailand and the Ayeyarwady Delta), where narrowing yield gaps by improving transport links has the potential to substantially increase food production at relatively limited environmental cost. Concentrating new roads and road improvements here while taking strong measures to prevent their spread into areas which are still extensively forested (such as northern Laos, western Yunnan, and southwestern Cambodia) could thus enhance rural livelihoods and regional food production while helping safeguard vital ecosystem services and globally significant biological diversity. PMID:27977663

Ocean acidification: Linking science to management solutions using the Great Barrier Reef as a case study.

PubMed

Albright, Rebecca; Anthony, Kenneth R N; Baird, Mark; Beeden, Roger; Byrne, Maria; Collier, Catherine; Dove, Sophie; Fabricius, Katharina; Hoegh-Guldberg, Ove; Kelly, Ryan P; Lough, Janice; Mongin, Mathieu; Munday, Philip L; Pears, Rachel J; Russell, Bayden D; Tilbrook, Bronte; Abal, Eva

2016-11-01

Coral reefs are one of the most vulnerable ecosystems to ocean acidification. While our understanding of the potential impacts of ocean acidification on coral reef ecosystems is growing, gaps remain that limit our ability to translate scientific knowledge into management action. To guide solution-based research, we review the current knowledge of ocean acidification impacts on coral reefs alongside management needs and priorities. We use the world's largest continuous reef system, Australia's Great Barrier Reef (GBR), as a case study. We integrate scientific knowledge gained from a variety of approaches (e.g., laboratory studies, field observations, and ecosystem modelling) and scales (e.g., cell, organism, ecosystem) that underpin a systems-level understanding of how ocean acidification is likely to impact the GBR and associated goods and services. We then discuss local and regional management options that may be effective to help mitigate the effects of ocean acidification on the GBR, with likely application to other coral reef systems. We develop a research framework for linking solution-based ocean acidification research to practical management options. The framework assists in identifying effective and cost-efficient options for supporting ecosystem resilience. The framework enables on-the-ground OA management to be the focus, while not losing sight of CO2 mitigation as the ultimate solution. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Protecting terrestrial ecosystems and the climate through a global carbon market.

PubMed

Bonnie, Robert; Carey, Melissa; Petsonk, Annie

2002-08-15

Protecting terrestrial ecosystems through international environmental laws requires the development of economic mechanisms that value the Earth's natural systems. The major international treaties to address ecosystem protection lack meaningful binding obligations and the requisite financial instruments to affect large-scale conservation. The Kyoto Protocol's emissions-trading framework creates economic incentives for nations to reduce greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions cost effectively. Incorporating GHG impacts from land-use activities into this system would create a market for an important ecosystem service provided by forests and agricultural lands: sequestration of atmospheric carbon. This would spur conservation efforts while reducing the 20% of anthropogenic CO(2) emissions produced by land-use change, particularly tropical deforestation. The Kyoto negotiations surrounding land-use activities have been hampered by a lack of robust carbon inventory data. Moreover, the Protocol's provisions agreed to in Kyoto made it difficult to incorporate carbon-sequestering land-use activities into the emissions-trading framework without undermining the atmospheric GHG reductions contemplated in the treaty. Subsequent negotiations since 1997 failed to produce a crediting system that provides meaningful incentives for enhanced carbon sequestration. Notably, credit for reducing rates of tropical deforestation was explicitly excluded from the Protocol. Ultimately, an effective GHG emissions-trading framework will require full carbon accounting for all emissions and sequestration from terrestrial ecosystems. Improved inventory systems and capacity building for developing nations will, therefore, be necessary.

A watershed-based spatially-explicit demonstration of an integrated environmental modeling framework for ecosystem services in the Coal River Basin (WV, USA)

Treesearch

John M. Johnston; Mahion C. Barber; Kurt Wolfe; Mike Galvin; Mike Cyterski; Rajbir Parmar; Luis Suarez

2016-01-01

We demonstrate a spatially-explicit regional assessment of current condition of aquatic ecoservices in the Coal River Basin (CRB), with limited sensitivity analysis for the atmospheric contaminant mercury. The integrated modeling framework (IMF) forecasts water quality and quantity, habitat suitability for aquatic biota, fish biomasses, population densities, ...

Ecological approaches to human nutrition.

PubMed

DeClerck, Fabrice A J; Fanzo, Jessica; Palm, Cheryl; Remans, Roseline

2011-03-01

Malnutrition affects a large number of people throughout the developing world. Approaches to reducing malnutrition rarely focus on ecology and agriculture to simultaneously improve human nutrition and environmental sustainability. However, evidence suggests that interdisciplinary approaches that combine the knowledge bases of these disciplines can serve as a central strategy in alleviating hidden hunger for the world's poorest. To describe the role that ecological knowledge plays in alleviating hidden hunger, considering human nutrition as an overlooked ecosystem service. We review existing literature and propose a framework that expands on earlier work on econutrition. We provide novel evidence from case studies conducted by the authors in western Kenya and propose a framework for interdisciplinary collaboration to alleviate hidden hunger, increase agricultural productivity, and improve environmental sustainability. Our review supports the concept that an integrated approach will impact human nutrition. We provide evidence that increased functional agrobiodiversity can alleviate anemia, and interventions that contribute to environmental sustainability can have both direct and indirect effects on human health and nutritional well-being. Integrated and interdisciplinary approaches are critical to reaching development goals. Ecologists must begin to consider not only how their field can contribute to biodiversity conservation, but also, the relationship between biodiversity and provisioning of nontraditional ecosystem services such as human health. Likewise, nutritionists and agronomists must recognize that many of the solutions to increasing human wellbeing and health can best be achieved by focusing on a healthy environment and the conservation of ecosystem services.

Embedding ecosystem services in coastal planning leads to better outcomes for people and nature

PubMed Central

Arkema, Katie K.; Verutes, Gregory M.; Wood, Spencer A.; Clarke-Samuels, Chantalle; Rosado, Samir; Canto, Maritza; Rosenthal, Amy; Ruckelshaus, Mary; Guannel, Gregory; Toft, Jodie; Faries, Joe; Silver, Jessica M.; Griffin, Robert; Guerry, Anne D.

2015-01-01

Recent calls for ocean planning envision informed management of social and ecological systems to sustain delivery of ecosystem services to people. However, until now, no coastal and marine planning process has applied an ecosystem-services framework to understand how human activities affect the flow of benefits, to create scenarios, and to design a management plan. We developed models that quantify services provided by corals, mangroves, and seagrasses. We used these models within an extensive engagement process to design a national spatial plan for Belize’s coastal zone. Through iteration of modeling and stakeholder engagement, we developed a preferred plan, currently under formal consideration by the Belizean government. Our results suggest that the preferred plan will lead to greater returns from coastal protection and tourism than outcomes from scenarios oriented toward achieving either conservation or development goals. The plan will also reduce impacts to coastal habitat and increase revenues from lobster fishing relative to current management. By accounting for spatial variation in the impacts of coastal and ocean activities on benefits that ecosystems provide to people, our models allowed stakeholders and policymakers to refine zones of human use. The final version of the preferred plan improved expected coastal protection by >25% and more than doubled the revenue from fishing, compared with earlier versions based on stakeholder preferences alone. Including outcomes in terms of ecosystem-service supply and value allowed for explicit consideration of multiple benefits from oceans and coasts that typically are evaluated separately in management decisions. PMID:26082545

Embedding ecosystem services in coastal planning leads to better outcomes for people and nature.

PubMed

Arkema, Katie K; Verutes, Gregory M; Wood, Spencer A; Clarke-Samuels, Chantalle; Rosado, Samir; Canto, Maritza; Rosenthal, Amy; Ruckelshaus, Mary; Guannel, Gregory; Toft, Jodie; Faries, Joe; Silver, Jessica M; Griffin, Robert; Guerry, Anne D

2015-06-16

Recent calls for ocean planning envision informed management of social and ecological systems to sustain delivery of ecosystem services to people. However, until now, no coastal and marine planning process has applied an ecosystem-services framework to understand how human activities affect the flow of benefits, to create scenarios, and to design a management plan. We developed models that quantify services provided by corals, mangroves, and seagrasses. We used these models within an extensive engagement process to design a national spatial plan for Belize's coastal zone. Through iteration of modeling and stakeholder engagement, we developed a preferred plan, currently under formal consideration by the Belizean government. Our results suggest that the preferred plan will lead to greater returns from coastal protection and tourism than outcomes from scenarios oriented toward achieving either conservation or development goals. The plan will also reduce impacts to coastal habitat and increase revenues from lobster fishing relative to current management. By accounting for spatial variation in the impacts of coastal and ocean activities on benefits that ecosystems provide to people, our models allowed stakeholders and policymakers to refine zones of human use. The final version of the preferred plan improved expected coastal protection by >25% and more than doubled the revenue from fishing, compared with earlier versions based on stakeholder preferences alone. Including outcomes in terms of ecosystem-service supply and value allowed for explicit consideration of multiple benefits from oceans and coasts that typically are evaluated separately in management decisions.

Ecosystem Services and Environmental Markets in Chesapeake Bay Restoration

EPA Science Inventory

This report contains two separate analyses, both of which make use of an optimization framework previously developed to evaluate trade-offs in alternative restoration strategies to achieve the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL). The first analysis expands on model app...

Intertidal habitat utilization patterns of birds in a Northeast Pacific estuary

EPA Science Inventory

A habitat-based framework is a practical method for developing models (or, ecological production functions, EPFs) to describe the spatial distribution of ecosystem services. To generate EPFs for Yaquina estuary, Oregon, USA, we compared bird use patterns among intertidal habitats...

Developing a framework to assess the water quality and quantity impacts of climate change, shifting land use, and urbanization in a Midwestern agricultural landscape

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Loheide, S. P.; Booth, E. G.; Kucharik, C. J.; Carpenter, S. R.; Gries, C.; Katt-Reinders, E.; Rissman, A. R.; Turner, M. G.

2011-12-01

Dynamic hydrological processes play a critical role in the structure and functioning of agricultural watersheds undergoing urbanization. Developing a predictive understanding of the complex interaction between agricultural productivity, ecosystem health, water quality, urban development, and public policy requires an interdisciplinary effort that investigates the important biophysical and social processes of the system. Our research group has initiated such a framework that includes a coordinated program of integrated scenarios, model experiments to assess the effects of changing drivers on a broad set of ecosystem services, evaluations of governance and leverage points, outreach and public engagement, and information management. Our geographic focus is the Yahara River watershed in south-central Wisconsin, which is an exemplar of water-related issues in the Upper Midwest. This research addresses three specific questions. 1) How do different patterns of land use, land cover, land management, and water resources engineering practices affect the resilience and sensitivity of ecosystem services under a changing climate? 2) How can regional governance systems for water and land use be made more resilient and adaptive to meet diverse human needs? 3) In what ways are regional human-environment systems resilient and in what ways are they vulnerable to potential changes in climate and water resources? A comprehensive program of model experiments and biophysical measurements will be utilized to evaluate changes in five freshwater ecosystem services (flood regulation, groundwater recharge, surface water quality, groundwater quality, and lake recreation) and five related ecosystem services (food crop yields, bioenergy crop yields, carbon storage in soil, albedo, and terrestrial recreation). Novel additions to existing biophysical models will allow us to simulate all components of the hydrological cycle as well as agricultural productivity, nitrogen and phosphorus transport, and lake water quality. The integrated model will be validated using a comprehensive observational database that includes soil moisture, evapotranspiration, stomatal conductance, streamflow, stream and lake water quality, and crop yields and productivity. Integrated scenarios will be developed to synthesize decision-maker perspectives, alternative approaches to resource governance, plausible trends in demographic and economic drivers, and model projections under alternate climate and land use regimes to understand future conditions of the watershed and its ecosystem services. The quantitative data and integrated scenarios will then be linked to evaluate governance of water and land use.

The impact of systematic landscape conservation planning on ecosystem: Chen Youlan river watershed

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Chi-ju

2017-04-01

Heraclitus said that "no man ever steps in the same river twice." Everything continues to change. Land use change will keep redefine itself and subject the Earth and humankind to collateral changes. Humankind benefits from ecosystem in many ways. The ecosystem provides people with nutrients, enriches soil with sediment, and sustains all living organisms with water; these benefits are known as ecosystem services. In Taiwan, land use change has impacted ecosystem and biodiversity on various levels. Thus, we took six land use scenarios from 1999 to 2005 in Chen Youlan river watershed as our case study, intending to observe the course of ecosystem and biodiversity changes and the cause of it. Systematic Landscape conservation planning (SLCP) framework can be adopted when designing land use policy to safeguard human interests and ecosystem. This study use SLCP to develop ecosystem services and biodiversity protection strategies. Several strategies were designed by using 1999 to 2005 data as provision to protect the intactness of future ecosystem services and biodiversity. This research explores the potential and possible impacts of different land use protection strategies in the future. It is possible to identify the conservation priority of a certain region by using the Zonation meta-algorithm. This study selects the zonation critical protection area (Joint set of Yushan National Park) as strategy A, B and C. Strategy D takes Yushan National Park as a protected area; unstable hot spots in 1999/03 (Joint set of Yushan National Park) are selected as strategy E. Next, we used Kappa statistical method to find the minimal ecosystem services change and biodiversity hotspots change of the five aforementioned strategies and compared with those from 1999/03. By the Kappa statistical method, we further prioritized the important conservation areas by strategy A, B, C, E in the future. The results can not only serve as management reference for government agencies, but also develop an ideal trajectory of policy making as well as human-nature dynamics, leading to a sustainable future. We do not have to be subject to changes passively, instead, we can evolve ourselves and actively initiate the evolutionary path towards sustainable coexistence with nature. Keywords: InVEST , CLUE-s , biodiversity , ecosystem services, ecosystem services hotspots, land use change, SLCP, Systematic Landscape conservation planning, Chen Youlan river

Great Lakes rivermouth ecosystems: scientific synthesis and management implications

USGS Publications Warehouse

Larson, James H.; Trebitz, Anett S.; Steinman, Alan D.; Wiley, Michael J.; Carlson Mazur, Martha; Pebbles, Victoria; Braun, Heather A.; Seelbach, Paul W.

2013-01-01

At the interface of the Great Lakes and their tributary rivers lies the rivermouths, a class of aquatic ecosystem where lake and lotic processes mix and distinct features emerge. Many rivermouths are the focal point of both human interaction with the Great Lakes and human impacts to the lakes; many cities, ports, and beaches are located in rivermouth ecosystems, and these human pressures often degrade key ecological functions that rivermouths provide. Despite their ecological uniqueness and apparent economic importance, there has been relatively little research on these ecosystems as a class relative to studies on upstream rivers or the open-lake waters. Here we present a synthesis of current knowledge about ecosystem structure and function in Great Lakes rivermouths based on studies in both Laurentian rivermouths, coastal wetlands, and marine estuarine systems. A conceptual model is presented that establishes a common semantic framework for discussing the characteristic spatial features of rivermouths. This model then is used to conceptually link ecosystem structure and function to ecological services provided by rivermouths. This synthesis helps identify the critical gaps in understanding rivermouth ecology. Specifically, additional information is needed on how rivermouths collectively influence the Great Lakes ecosystem, how human alterations influence rivermouth functions, and how ecosystem services provided by rivermouths can be managed to benefit the surrounding socioeconomic networks.

A framework to assess landscape structural capacity to provide regulating ecosystem services in West Africa.

PubMed

Inkoom, Justice Nana; Frank, Susanne; Greve, Klaus; Fürst, Christine

2018-03-01

The Sudanian savanna landscapes of West Africa are amongst the world's most vulnerable areas to climate change impacts. Inappropriate land use and agriculture management practices continuously impede the capacity of agricultural landscapes to provide ecosystem services (ES). Given the absence of practical assessment techniques to evaluate the landscape's capacity to provide regulating ES in this region, the goal of this paper is to propose an integrative assessment framework which combines remote sensing, geographic information systems, expert weighting and landscape metrics-based assessment. We utilized Analytical Hierarchical Process and Likert scale for the expert weighting of landscape capacity. In total, 56 experts from several land use and landscape management related departments participated in the assessment. Further, we adapted the hemeroby concept to define areas of naturalness while landscape metrics including Patch Density, Shannon's Diversity, and Shape Index were utilized for structural assessment. Lastly, we tested the reliability of expert weighting using certainty measurement rated by experts themselves. Our study focused on four regulating ES including flood control, pest and disease control, climate control, and wind erosion control. Our assessment framework was tested on four selected sites in the Vea catchment area of Ghana. The outcome of our study revealed that highly heterogeneous landscapes have a higher capacity to provide pest and disease control, while less heterogeneous landscapes have a higher potential to provide climate control. Further, we could show that the potential capacities to provide ecosystem services are underestimated by 15% if landscape structural aspects assessed through landscape metrics are not considered. We conclude that the combination of adapted land use and an optimized land use pattern could contribute considerably to lower climate change impacts in West African agricultural landscapes. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

An Integrated Modeling Framework Forecasting Ecosystem Exposure-- A Systems Approach to the Cumulative Impacts of Multiple Stressors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Johnston, J. M.

2013-12-01

Freshwater habitats provide fishable, swimmable and drinkable resources and are a nexus of geophysical and biological processes. These processes in turn influence the persistence and sustainability of populations, communities and ecosystems. Climate change and landuse change encompass numerous stressors of potential exposure, including the introduction of toxic contaminants, invasive species, and disease in addition to physical drivers such as temperature and hydrologic regime. A systems approach that includes the scientific and technologic basis of assessing the health of ecosystems is needed to effectively protect human health and the environment. The Integrated Environmental Modeling Framework 'iemWatersheds' has been developed as a consistent and coherent means of forecasting the cumulative impact of co-occurring stressors. The Framework consists of three facilitating technologies: Data for Environmental Modeling (D4EM) that automates the collection and standardization of input data; the Framework for Risk Assessment of Multimedia Environmental Systems (FRAMES) that manages the flow of information between linked models; and the Supercomputer for Model Uncertainty and Sensitivity Evaluation (SuperMUSE) that provides post-processing and analysis of model outputs, including uncertainty and sensitivity analysis. Five models are linked within the Framework to provide multimedia simulation capabilities for hydrology and water quality processes: the Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) predicts surface water and sediment runoff and associated contaminants; the Watershed Mercury Model (WMM) predicts mercury runoff and loading to streams; the Water quality Analysis and Simulation Program (WASP) predicts water quality within the stream channel; the Habitat Suitability Index (HSI) model scores physicochemical habitat quality for individual fish species; and the Bioaccumulation and Aquatic System Simulator (BASS) predicts fish growth, population dynamics and bioaccumulation of toxic substances. The capability of the Framework to address cumulative impacts will be demonstrated for freshwater ecosystem services and mountaintop mining.

Green Is the New Black: The Need for a New Currency That Values Water Resources in Rapidly Developing Landscapes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Creed, I. F.; Webster, K. L.; Kreutzweiser, D. P.; Beall, F.

2014-12-01

Canada's boreal forest supports many aquatic ecosystem services (AES) due to the intimate linkage between aquatic systems and their surrounding terrestrial watersheds in forested landscapes. There is an increasing risk to AES because natural development activities (forest management, mining, energy) have resulted in disruptions that deteriorate aquatic ecosystems at local (10s of km2) to regional (100s of km2) scales. These activities are intensifying and expanding, placing at risk the healthy aquatic ecosystems that provide AES and may threaten the continued development of the energy, forest, and mining sectors. Remarkably, we know little about the consequences of these activities on AES. The idea that AES should be explicitly integrated into modern natural resource management regulations is gaining broad acceptance. A major need is the ability to measure cumulative effects and determine thresholds (the points where aquatic ecosystems and their services cannot recover to a desired state within a reasonable time frame) in these cumulative effects. However, there is no single conceptual approach to assessing cumulative effects that is widely accepted by both scientists and managers. We present an integrated science-policy framework that enables the integration of AES into forest management risk assessment and prevention/mitigation strategies. We use this framework to explore the risk of further deterioration of AES by (1) setting risk criteria; (2) using emerging technologies to map process-based indicators representing causes and consequences of risk events to the deterioration of AES; (3) assessing existing prevention and mitigation policies in place to avoid risk events; and (4) identifying priorities for policy change needed to reduce risk event. Ultimately, the success of this framework requires that higher value be placed on AES, and in turn to improve the science and management of the boreal forest.

Complex problems and unchallenged solutions: Bringing ecosystem governance to the forefront of the UN sustainable development goals.

PubMed

Vasseur, Liette; Horning, Darwin; Thornbush, Mary; Cohen-Shacham, Emmanuelle; Andrade, Angela; Barrow, Ed; Edwards, Steve R; Wit, Piet; Jones, Mike

2017-11-01

Sustainable development aims at addressing economic, social, and environmental concerns, but the current lack of responsive environmental governance hinders progress. Short-term economic development has led to limited actions, unsustainable resource management, and degraded ecosystems. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) may continue to fall short of achieving significant progress without a better understanding of how ecosystems contribute to achieving sustainability for all people. Ecosystem governance is an approach that integrates the social and ecological components for improved sustainability and includes principles such as adaptive ecosystem co-management, subsidiarity, and telecoupling framework, as well as principles of democracy and accountability. We explain the importance of ecosystem governance in achieving the SDGs, and suggest some ways to ensure that ecosystem services are meaningfully considered. This paper reflects on how integration of these approaches into policies can enhance the current agenda of sustainability.

Economics of social trade-off: Balancing wastewater treatment cost and ecosystem damage.

PubMed

Jiang, Yu; Dinar, Ariel; Hellegers, Petra

2018-04-01

We have developed a social optimization model that integrates the financial and ecological costs associated with wastewater treatment and ecosystem damage. The social optimal abatement level of water pollution is determined by finding the trade-off between the cost of pollution control and its resulting ecosystem damage. The model is applied to data from the Lake Taihu region in China to demonstrate this trade-off. A wastewater treatment cost function is estimated with a sizable sample from China, and an ecological damage cost function is estimated following an ecosystem service valuation framework. Results show that the wastewater treatment cost function has economies of scale in facility capacity, and diseconomies in pollutant removal efficiency. Results also show that a low value of the ecosystem service will lead to serious ecological damage. One important policy implication is that the assimilative capacity of the lake should be enhanced by forbidding over extraction of water from the lake. It is also suggested that more work should be done to improve the accuracy of the economic valuation. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Impacts of climate change on biodiversity, ecosystems, and ecosystem services: technical input to the 2013 National Climate Assessment

USGS Publications Warehouse

Staudinger, Michelle D.; Grimm, Nancy B.; Staudt, Amanda; Carter, Shawn L.; Stuart, F. Stuart; Kareiva, Peter; Ruckelshaus, Mary; Stein, Bruce A.

2012-01-01

Ecosystems, and the biodiversity and services they support, are intrinsically dependent on climate. During the twentieth century, climate change has had documented impacts on ecological systems, and impacts are expected to increase as climate change continues and perhaps even accelerates. This technical input to the National Climate Assessment synthesizes our scientific understanding of the way climate change is affecting biodiversity, ecosystems, ecosystem services, and what strategies might be employed to decrease current and future risks. Building on past assessments of how climate change and other stressors are affecting ecosystems in the United States and around the world, we approach the subject from several different perspectives. First, we review the observed and projected impacts on biodiversity, with a focus on genes, species, and assemblages of species. Next, we examine how climate change is affecting ecosystem structural elements—such as biomass, architecture, and heterogeneity—and functions—specifically, as related to the fluxes of energy and matter. People experience climate change impacts on biodiversity and ecosystems as changes in ecosystem services; people depend on ecosystems for resources that are harvested, their role in regulating the movement of materials and disturbances, and their recreational, cultural, and aesthetic value. Thus, we review newly emerging research to determine how human activities and a changing climate are likely to alter the delivery of these ecosystem services. This technical input also examines two cross-cutting topics. First, we recognize that climate change is happening against the backdrop of a wide range of other environmental and anthropogenic stressors, many of which have caused dramatic ecosystem degradation already. This broader range of stressors interacts with climate change, and complicates our abilities to predict and manage the impacts on biodiversity, ecosystems, and the services they support. The second cross-cutting topic is the rapidly advancing field of climate adaptation, where there has been significant progress in developing the conceptual framework, planning approaches, and strategies for safeguarding biodiversity and other ecological resources. At the same time, ecosystem-based adaptation is becoming more prominent as a way to utilize ecosystem services to help human systems adapt to climate change. In this summary, we present key findings of the technical input, focusing on themes that can be found throughout the report. Thus, this summary takes a more integrated look at the question of how climate change is affecting our ecological resources, the implications for humans, and possible response strategies. This integrated approach better reflects the impacts of climate in the real world, where changes in ecosystem structure or function will alter the viability of different species and the efficacy of ecosystem services. Likewise, adaptation to climate change will simultaneously address a range of conservation goals. Case studies are used to illustrate this complete picture throughout the report; a snapshot of one case study, 2011 Las Conchas, New Mexico Fire, is included in this summary.

Rapid Assessment of Ecosystem Service Co-Benefits of Biodiversity Priority Areas in Madagascar

PubMed Central

Andriamaro, Luciano; Cano, Carlos Andres; Grantham, Hedley S.; Hole, David; Juhn, Daniel; McKinnon, Madeleine; Rasolohery, Andriambolantsoa; Steininger, Marc; Wright, Timothy Max

2016-01-01

The importance of ecosystems for supporting human well-being is increasingly recognized by both the conservation and development sectors. Our ability to conserve ecosystems that people rely on is often limited by a lack of spatially explicit data on the location and distribution of ecosystem services (ES), the benefits provided by nature to people. Thus there is a need to map ES to guide conservation investments, to ensure these co-benefits are maintained. To target conservation investments most effectively, ES assessments must be rigorous enough to support conservation planning, rapid enough to respond to decision-making timelines, and often must rely on existing data. We developed a framework for rapid spatial assessment of ES that relies on expert and stakeholder consultation, available data, and spatial analyses in order to rapidly identify sites providing multiple benefits. We applied the framework in Madagascar, a country with globally significant biodiversity and a high level of human dependence on ecosystems. Our objective was to identify the ES co-benefits of biodiversity priority areas in order to guide the investment strategy of a global conservation fund. We assessed key provisioning (fisheries, hunting and non-timber forest products, and water for domestic use, agriculture, and hydropower), regulating (climate mitigation, flood risk reduction and coastal protection), and cultural (nature tourism) ES. We also conducted multi-criteria analyses to identify sites providing multiple benefits. While our approach has limitations, including the reliance on proximity-based indicators for several ES, the results were useful for targeting conservation investments by the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF). Because our approach relies on available data, standardized methods for linking ES provision to ES use, and expert validation, it has the potential to quickly guide conservation planning and investment decisions in other data-poor regions. PMID:28006005

Linking remote-sensing and ecosystem services modeling to support and assess management for regenerative grazing in the South Gobi, Mongolia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chaplin-Kramer, R.; Kowal, V. A.; Sharp, R.

2017-12-01

Managing and monitoring supply chain sustainability is a major challenge and opportunity for business, especially in rangelands, heavily managed and often degraded natural systems that provide significant resources and raw materials for production. One of the largest and most threatened rangeland systems in the world is in Mongolia, which has seen a rapid rise in grazing pressure due to increasing global demand for cashmere along with privatization of a formerly government-run livestock industry. A new opportunity is emerging for remote-sensing to improve the management decisions of the producers and their incentive-setters, leading to a more sustainable rangeland system and better outcomes for biodiversity and people in this unique and imperiled landscape. Oyu Tolgoi (OT), the Mongolian subsidiary of the mining company Rio Tinto, in cooperation with Kering, an apparel conglomerate that sources cashmere from the region, are providing financial incentives to improve grazing patterns through a Sustainable Cashmere program, in order to restore the degraded rangeland ecosystem in the Gobi desert region. We present a framework and approach for predicting the effect of changing grazing practices on biodiversity and ecosystem services, which we are developing into decision-support tools for OT, Kering, and their local partner Wildlife Conservation Society to quantify the impacts of their programs and where these interventions will have greatest benefit. Our approach integrates remote-sensing and ecosystem modeling to scale up field monitoring data and forecast future impacts. Our rangeland production model, based on the soil-vegetation model CENTURY and the livestock model GRAZPLAN, predicts biomass production and plant species composition changes, and can feed into ecosystem services models such as soil retention and water regulation in the InVEST (Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade-offs) software suite. This presents a significant advance in ecosystem services modeling, moving toward continuous functions related to remotely-sensed ecosystem condition or quality rather than categorical land cover class. Preliminary findings suggest that categorical approaches may underestimate ecosystem services loss from degradation or gain from restoration by a factor of 2-5.

Towards a Global Wetland Observation System: The Geo-Wetlands Initiative

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Strauch, Adrian; Geller, Gary; Grobicki, Ania; Hilarides, Lammert; Muro, Javier; Paganini, Marc; Weise, Kathrin

2016-08-01

Wetlands are hot spots of biodiversity and provide a wide range of valuable ecosystem services, but at the same time they globally are one of the fastest declining and most endangered ecosystems. The development of a Global Wetland Observation System (GWOS) that is supported by the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands since 2007 is seen as a step towards improved capabilities for global mapping, monitoring and assessment of wetland ecosystems and their services, status and trends. A newly proposed GEO-Wetlands initiative is taking up this effort and developing the necessary governance and management structures, a community of practice and the necessary scientific and technical outputs to set up this system and maintain it over the long term. This effort is aiming at directly supporting the needs of global conventions and monitoring frameworks as well as users of wetland information on all levels (local to global) to build a platform that provides a knowledge-hub as a baseline for informed ecosystem management and decision-making.

Current Research in Land Use Impact Assessment

EPA Science Inventory

There is a continuing debate on how to best evaluate land use impacts within the LCA framework. While this problem is spatially and temporally complex, recent advances in tool development are providing options to allow a GIS-based analysis of various ecosystem services given the...

Ecosystem Services Approaches to Restoring a Sustainable Chesapeake Bay and its Tributary Watersheds

EPA Science Inventory

Within this set of reports and papers, the authors developed an optimization framework to examine how incorporating selected co-benefits (carbon sequestration, recreation/hunting, air quality) of nutrient reductions alters their optimal distribution in the watershed. They used th...

A Framework for Facilitating Ecosystem Services-based Decision-making and the Development of Decision-making Tools

EPA Science Inventory

There is an increasing understanding that top-down regulatory and technology driven responses are not sufficient to address current and emerging environmental challenges such as climate change, sustainable communities, and environmental justice. The vast majority of environmenta...

Decision-making in Coastal Management and a Collaborative Governance Framework

EPA Science Inventory

Over half of the US population lives in coastal watersheds, creating a regional pressure for coastal ecosystems to provide a broad spectrum of services while continuing to support healthy communities and economies. The National Ocean Policy, issued in 2010, and Coastal and Marin...

A Meta-Analysis of Urban Climate Change Adaptation Planning in the U.S.

EPA Science Inventory

The concentration of people, infrastructure, and ecosystem services in urban areas make them prime sites for climate change adaptation. While advances have been made in developing frameworks for adaptation planning and identifying both real and potential barriers to action, empir...

Application of a geomorphic and temporal perspective to wetland management in North America

USGS Publications Warehouse

Smith, L.M.; Euliss, N.H.; Wilcox, D.A.; Brinson, M.M.

2008-01-01

The failure of managed wetlands to provide a broad suite of ecosystem services (e.g., carbon storage, wildlife habitat, ground-water recharge, storm-water retention) valuable to society is primarily the result of a lack of consideration of ecosystem processes that maintain productive wetland ecosystems or physical and social forces that restrict a manager's ability to apply actions that allow those processes to occur. Therefore, we outline a course of action that considers restoration of ecosystem processes in those systems where off-site land use or physical alterations restrict local management. Upon considering a wetland system, or examining a particular management regime, there are several factors that will allow successful restoration of wetland services. An initial step is examination of the political/social factors that have structured the current ecological condition and whether those realities can be addressed. Most successful restorations of wetland ecosystem services involve cooperation among multiple agencies, acquisition of funds from non-traditional sources, seeking of scientific advice on ecosystem processes, and cultivation of good working relationships among biologists, managers, and maintenance staff. Beyond that, in on-site wetland situations, management should examine the existing hydrogeomorphic situation and processes (e.g., climatic variation, tides, riverine flood-pulse events) responsible for maintenance of ecosystem services within a given temporal framework appropriate for that wetland's hydrologic pattern. We discuss these processes for five major wetland types (depressional, lacustrine, estuarine, riverine, and man-made impoundments) and then provide two case histories in which this approach was applied: Seney National Wildlife Refuge with a restored fen system and Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge where riverine processes have been simulated to restore native habitat. With adequate partnerships and administrative and political support, managers faced with degraded and/or disconnected wetland processes will be able to restore ecosystem services for society in our highly altered landscape by considering wetlands in their given hydrogeomorphic setting and temporal stage. ?? 2008 The Society of Wetland Scientists.

Climate Change and Socio-Hydrological Dynamics: Adaptations and Feedbacks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Woyessa, Yali E.; Welderufael, Worku A.

2012-10-01

A functioning ecological system results in ecosystem goods and services which are of direct value to human beings. Ecosystem services are the conditions and processes which sustain and fulfil human life, and maintain biodiversity and the production of ecosystem goods. However, human actions affect ecological systems and the services they provide through various activities, such as land use, water use, pollution and climate change. Climate change is perhaps one of the most important sustainable development challenges that threatens to undo many of the development efforts being made to reach the targets set for the Millennium Development Goals. Understanding the provision of ecosystem services and how they change under different scenarios of climate and biophysical conditions could assist in bringing the issue of ecosystem services into decision making process. Similarly, the impacts of land use change on ecosystems and biodiversity have received considerable attention from ecologists and hydrologists alike. Land use change in a catchment can impact on water supply by altering hydrological processes, such as infiltration, groundwater recharge, base flow and direct runoff. In the past a variety of models were used for predicting landuse changes. Recently, the focus has shifted away from using mathematically oriented models to agent-based modeling (ABM) approach to simulate land use scenarios. The agent-based perspective, with regard to land-use cover change, is centered on the general nature and rules of land-use decision making by individuals. A conceptual framework is developed to investigate the possibility of incorporating the human dimension of land use decision and climate change model into a hydrological model in order to assess the impact of future land use scenario and climate change on the ecological system in general and water resources in particular.

Science framework for the conservation and restoration strategy of DOI secretarial order 3336: Utilizing resilience and resistance concepts to assess threats to sagebrush ecosystems and greater sage-grouse, prioritize conservation and restoration actions, and inform management strategies

USGS Publications Warehouse

Chambers, Jeanne C.; Campbell, Steve; Carlson, John; Beck, Jeffrey L.; Clause, Karen J.; Dinkins, Jonathan B.; Doherty, Kevin E.; Espinosa, Shawn; Griffin, Kathleen A.; Christiansen, Thomas J.; Crist, Michele R.; Hanser, Steven E.; Havlina, Douglas W.; Henke, Kenneth F.; Hennig, Jacob D.; Kurth, Laurie L.; Maestas, Jeremy D.; Mayer, Kenneth E.; Manning, Mary E.; Mealor, Brian A.; McCarthy, Clinton; Pellant, Mike; Prentice, Karen L.; Perea, Marco A.; Pyke, David A.; Wiechman , Lief A.; Wuenschel, Amarina

2016-01-01

The Science Framework for the Conservation and Restoration Strategy of the Department of the Interior, Secretarial Order 3336 (SO 3336), Rangeland Fire Prevention, Management and Restoration, provides a strategic, multiscale approach for prioritizing areas for management and determining effective management strategies across the sagebrush biome. The emphasis of this version is on sagebrush ecosystems and greater sage-grouse. The Science Framework uses a six step process in which sagebrush ecosystem resilience to disturbance and resistance to nonnative, invasive annual grasses is linked to species habitat information based on the distribution and abundance of focal species. The predominant ecosystem and anthropogenic threats are assessed, and a habitat matrix is developed that helps decision makers evaluate risks and determine appropriate management strategies at regional and local scales. Areas are prioritized for management action using a geospatial approach that overlays resilience and resistance, species habitat information, and predominant threats. Decision tools are discussed for determining the suitability of priority areas for management and the most appropriate management actions at regional to local scales. The Science Framework and geospatial crosscut are intended to complement the mitigation strategies associated with the Greater Sage-Grouse Land Use Plan amendments for the Department of the Interior Bureaus, such as the Bureau of Land Management, and the U.S. Forest Service.

Social-ecological outcomes in recreational fisheries: The interaction of lakeshore development and stocking

USGS Publications Warehouse

Ziegler, Jacob P.; Golebie, Elizabeth J.; Jones, Stuart E.; Weidel, Brian C.; Solomon, Christopher T.

2017-01-01

Many ecosystems continue to experience rapid transformations due to processes like land use change and resource extraction. A systems approach to maintaining natural resources focuses on how interactions and feedbacks among components of complex social‐ecological systems generate social and ecological outcomes. In recreational fisheries, residential shoreline development and fish stocking are two widespread human behaviors that influence fisheries, yet emergent social‐ecological outcomes from these potentially interacting behaviors remain under explored. We applied a social‐ecological systems framework using a simulation model and empirical data to determine whether lakeshore development is likely to promote stocking through its adverse effects on coarse woody habitat and thereby also on survival of juvenile and adult fish. We demonstrate that high lakeshore development is likely to generate dependency of the ecosystem on the social system, in the form of stocking. Further, lakeshore development can interact with social‐ecological processes to create deficits for state‐level governments, which threatens the ability to fund further ecosystem subsidies. Our results highlight the value of a social‐ecological framework for maintaining ecosystem services like recreational fisheries.

Trait-based approaches for understanding microbial biodiversity and ecosystem functioning

PubMed Central

Krause, Sascha; Le Roux, Xavier; Niklaus, Pascal A.; Van Bodegom, Peter M.; Lennon, Jay T.; Bertilsson, Stefan; Grossart, Hans-Peter; Philippot, Laurent; Bodelier, Paul L. E.

2014-01-01

In ecology, biodiversity-ecosystem functioning (BEF) research has seen a shift in perspective from taxonomy to function in the last two decades, with successful application of trait-based approaches. This shift offers opportunities for a deeper mechanistic understanding of the role of biodiversity in maintaining multiple ecosystem processes and services. In this paper, we highlight studies that have focused on BEF of microbial communities with an emphasis on integrating trait-based approaches to microbial ecology. In doing so, we explore some of the inherent challenges and opportunities of understanding BEF using microbial systems. For example, microbial biologists characterize communities using gene phylogenies that are often unable to resolve functional traits. Additionally, experimental designs of existing microbial BEF studies are often inadequate to unravel BEF relationships. We argue that combining eco-physiological studies with contemporary molecular tools in a trait-based framework can reinforce our ability to link microbial diversity to ecosystem processes. We conclude that such trait-based approaches are a promising framework to increase the understanding of microbial BEF relationships and thus generating systematic principles in microbial ecology and more generally ecology. PMID:24904563

Using greenhouse gas fluxes to define soil functional types

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Petrakis, Sandra; Barba, Josep; Bond-Lamberty, Ben

Soils provide key ecosystem services and directly control ecosystem functions; thus, there is a need to define the reference state of soil functionality. Most common functional classifications of ecosystems are vegetation-centered and neglect soil characteristics and processes. We propose Soil Functional Types (SFTs) as a conceptual approach to represent and describe the functionality of soils based on characteristics of their greenhouse gas (GHG) flux dynamics. We used automated measurements of CO2, CH4 and N2O in a forested area to define SFTs following a simple statistical framework. This study supports the hypothesis that SFTs provide additional insights on the spatial variabilitymore » of soil functionality beyond information represented by commonly measured soil parameters (e.g., soil moisture, soil temperature, litter biomass). We discuss the implications of this framework at the plot-scale and the potential of this approach at larger scales. This approach is a first step to provide a framework to define SFTs, but a community effort is necessary to harmonize any global classification for soil functionality. A global application of the proposed SFT framework will only be possible if there is a community-wide effort to share data and create a global database of GHG emissions from soils.« less

Structured decision making as a framework for linking quantitative decision support to community values

EPA Science Inventory

Community-level decisions can have large impacts on production and delivery of ecosystem services, which ultimately affects community well-being. But engaging stakeholders in a process to explore these impacts is a significant challenge. The principles of Structured Decision Ma...

Strengthening Resiliency in Coastal Watersheds: An Ecosystem Services and Ecological Integrity Decision Support System

EPA Science Inventory

This product provides an integrated assessment framework linked to a decision support system (DSS) that incorporates the ecological integrity (EI) principles and goals described in detail in the US EPA’s Office of Water’s Healthy Watersheds Program (HWP), with Ecosyst...

Decision Analysis for a Sustainable Environment, Economy, and Society: A Participatory Framework for Ecosystem Services-Based Decision-Making

EPA Science Inventory

There is an increasing understanding that top-down regulatory and technology driven responses are not sufficient to address current and emerging environmental challenges such as climate change, sustainable communities, and environmental justice. The vast majority of environmenta...

Mapping and quantifying ecosystem services: analysis of trade-offs and synergies at the different spatial scales

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tomczyk, Aleksandra; Ewertowski, Marek

2014-05-01

The importance of conserving the natural environment has been known for a long time. It can be fulfilled by designation of protected areas as well as proper management of broader landscapes. During past two decades, conservation has shifted from a predominantly species- and habitat-focus to a more holistic "ecosystem approach" with an emphasis on "ecosystem services", which underpin the benefits which society can obtain (directly or indirectly) from ecosystems. This study aims to investigate and compare existing land use prioritization models and to develop new GIS-based frameworks for analysis for different spatial scales. Research were carried out in several conservation areas in UK and Poland. Main focus was on regulating (including regulation of soil erosion and landslide susceptibility) and recreation services. A new GIS-based model was developed which enabled to analysis of this services. Different spatial scales, ranging from whole conservation areas to single catchments were chosen for mapping and quantifying. Based on different scenarios three sets of ecosystem services were calculated. Data contained specific land-cover/land-use resulting from the different strategy of the natural conservation for each of the study sites. Modelling was carried out based on the trends identified on the basis of past changes in land-use/land-cover (based on analysis of time-series satellite images), and the probability of a particular class of land-use/land-cover for the chosen scenario. Comparison between results revealed ecosystem service tradeoffs (when the obtaining of one service results in the reducing of another service) and synergies (when multiple services can be provides simultaneously). Results of the study shows where (and under which condition): (1) conservation areas can accommodate more visitors and in the same time provide regulation of soil erosion and protection against landslide developments, (2) further development of recreation services will lead to inevitable degradation of environment. Based on these results several further activities were proposed: from changing of conservation strategy for some part of the areas to changing of the land cover/land use.

Ecological overview of Kenai Fjords National Park

USGS Publications Warehouse

Spencer, Page; Irvine, Gail V.

2004-01-01

The major drivers of Kenai Fjords ecosystems are tectonics and climate. In this overview, we describe how these forces have contributed to the shaping of the lands and ecosystems of Kenai Fjords.Physically, the park is comprised of several distinct components, set within a broader ecophysical framework that includes the Kenai Peninsula and coastal marine waters and islands. Squeezed between the Gulf of Alaska and the Kenai Mountains, the coastal zone of the park is a narrow band of exposed headlands and deep fjords. The Harding Icefield caps the Kenai Mountains above the fjords with ice estimated to be 3,000 feet (1,000 m) thick (Figure 1). Although not included in the National Park Service jurisdiction, the park is ecologically linked to the offshore marine ecosystem, and the embedded offshore islands, most of which are part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Biodiversity in the Anthropocene: prospects and policy.

PubMed

Seddon, Nathalie; Mace, Georgina M; Naeem, Shahid; Tobias, Joseph A; Pigot, Alex L; Cavanagh, Rachel; Mouillot, David; Vause, James; Walpole, Matt

2016-12-14

Meeting the ever-increasing needs of the Earth's human population without excessively reducing biological diversity is one of the greatest challenges facing humanity, suggesting that new approaches to biodiversity conservation are required. One idea rapidly gaining momentum-as well as opposition-is to incorporate the values of biodiversity into decision-making using economic methods. Here, we develop several lines of argument for how biodiversity might be valued, building on recent developments in natural science, economics and science-policy processes. Then we provide a synoptic guide to the papers in this special feature, summarizing recent research advances relevant to biodiversity valuation and management. Current evidence suggests that more biodiverse systems have greater stability and resilience, and that by maximizing key components of biodiversity we maximize an ecosystem's long-term value. Moreover, many services and values arising from biodiversity are interdependent, and often poorly captured by standard economic models. We conclude that economic valuation approaches to biodiversity conservation should (i) account for interdependency and (ii) complement rather than replace traditional approaches. To identify possible solutions, we present a framework for understanding the foundational role of hard-to-quantify 'biodiversity services' in sustaining the value of ecosystems to humanity, and then use this framework to highlight new directions for pure and applied research. In most cases, clarifying the links between biodiversity and ecosystem services, and developing effective policy and practice for managing biodiversity, will require a genuinely interdisciplinary approach. © 2016 The Author(s).

Landscape ethnoecological knowledge base and management of ecosystem services in a Székely-Hungarian pre-capitalistic village system (Transylvania, Romania).

PubMed

Molnár, Zsolt; Gellény, Krisztina; Margóczi, Katalin; Biró, Marianna

2015-01-07

Previous studies showed an in-depth ecological understanding by traditional people of managing natural resources. We studied the landscape ethnoecological knowledge (LEEK) of Székelys on the basis of 16-19(th) century village laws. We analyzed the habitat types, ecosystem services and sustainable management types on which village laws had focused. Székelys had self-governed communities formed mostly of "noble peasants". Land-use was dominated by commons and regulated by village laws framed by the whole community. Seventy-two archival laws from 52 villages, resulting in 898 regulations, were analyzed using the DPSIR framework. Explicit and implicit information about the contemporary ecological knowledge of Székelys was extracted. We distinguished between responses that limited use and supported regeneration and those that protected produced/available ecosystem services and ensured their fair distribution. Most regulations referred to forests (674), arable lands (562), meadows (448) and pastures (134). Székelys regulated the proportion of arable land, pasture and forest areas consciously in order to maximize long-term exploitation of ecosystem services. The inner territory was protected against overuse by relocating certain uses to the outer territory. Competition for ecosystem services was demonstrated by conflicts of pressure-related (mostly personal) and response-related (mostly communal) driving forces. Felling of trees (oaks), grazing of forests, meadows and fallows, masting, use of wild apple/pear trees and fishing were strictly regulated. Cutting of leaf-fodder, grazing of green crops, burning of forest litter and the polluting of streams were prohibited. Marketing by villagers and inviting outsiders to use the ecosystem services were strictly regulated, and mostly prohibited. Székelys recognized at least 71 folk habitat types, understood ecological regeneration and degradation processes, the history of their landscape and the management possibilities of ecosystem services. Some aspects of LEEK were so well known within Székely communities that they were not made explicit in village laws, others remained implicit because they were not related to regulations. Based on explicit and implicit information, we argue that Székelys possessed detailed knowledge of the local ecological system. Moreover the world's first known explicit mention of ecosystem services ("Benefits that are provided by Nature for free") originated from this region from 1786.

Managing aquatic ecosystems and water resources under multiple stress--an introduction to the MARS project.

PubMed

Hering, Daniel; Carvalho, Laurence; Argillier, Christine; Beklioglu, Meryem; Borja, Angel; Cardoso, Ana Cristina; Duel, Harm; Ferreira, Teresa; Globevnik, Lidija; Hanganu, Jenica; Hellsten, Seppo; Jeppesen, Erik; Kodeš, Vit; Solheim, Anne Lyche; Nõges, Tiina; Ormerod, Steve; Panagopoulos, Yiannis; Schmutz, Stefan; Venohr, Markus; Birk, Sebastian

2015-01-15

Water resources globally are affected by a complex mixture of stressors resulting from a range of drivers, including urban and agricultural land use, hydropower generation and climate change. Understanding how stressors interfere and impact upon ecological status and ecosystem services is essential for developing effective River Basin Management Plans and shaping future environmental policy. This paper details the nature of these problems for Europe's water resources and the need to find solutions at a range of spatial scales. In terms of the latter, we describe the aims and approaches of the EU-funded project MARS (Managing Aquatic ecosystems and water Resources under multiple Stress) and the conceptual and analytical framework that it is adopting to provide this knowledge, understanding and tools needed to address multiple stressors. MARS is operating at three scales: At the water body scale, the mechanistic understanding of stressor interactions and their impact upon water resources, ecological status and ecosystem services will be examined through multi-factorial experiments and the analysis of long time-series. At the river basin scale, modelling and empirical approaches will be adopted to characterise relationships between multiple stressors and ecological responses, functions, services and water resources. The effects of future land use and mitigation scenarios in 16 European river basins will be assessed. At the European scale, large-scale spatial analysis will be carried out to identify the relationships amongst stress intensity, ecological status and service provision, with a special focus on large transboundary rivers, lakes and fish. The project will support managers and policy makers in the practical implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD), of related legislation and of the Blueprint to Safeguard Europe's Water Resources by advising the 3rd River Basin Management Planning cycle, the revision of the WFD and by developing new tools for diagnosing and predicting multiple stressors. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Development of innovative tools for understanding marine biodiversity and assessing good environmental status, within the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Borja, Angel; Uyarra, María C.

2014-05-01

Marine natural resources and ecosystem services constitute the natural capital that supports economies, societies and individual well-being. Good governance requires a quantification of the interactions and trade-offs among ecosystem services and understanding of how biodiversity underpins ecosystem functions and services across time, scales and sectors. Marine biodiversity is a key descriptor for the assessment within the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), approved in 2008, which comprises a total of 11 descriptors. However, the relationships between pressures from human activities and climatic influences and their effects on marine biological diversity are still only partially understood. Hence, these relationships need to be better understood in order to fully achieve a good environmental status (GEnS), as required by the MSFD. This contribution is based upon the FP7 EU project DEVOTES (DEVelopment Of innovative Tools for understanding marine biodiversity and assessing good Environmental Status), which focus on developing innovative conceptual frameworks, methods and coherent, shared protocols to provide consistent datasets and knowledge at different scales, within four regional seas (Black Sea, Mediterranean, Atlantic and Baltic Sea). This project is developing innovative approaches to valuate biodiversity and ecosystem services and to develop public goods and sustainable economic activities from them. The research will benefit sea users and stakeholders, and will contribute to assess and monitor the environmental status of marine waters. The main objectives are: (i) to improve our understanding of the impact of human activities and variations associated to climate on marine biodiversity, (ii) to test indicators (referred in the Commission Decision on GEnS) and develop new ones for assessment at several ecological levels (species, habitat, ecosystems) and for the characterization and status classification of the marine waters, (iii) to develop, test and validate, on the basis of observations, innovative integrative modelling tools in order to further strengthen our understanding of ecosystem and biodiversity changes in space and time. The resultant models are being developed for implementation as operational tools for managers, decision takers and policy makers. The project is contributing (i) to enable the adaptive development of management (ecosystem-based management approach) strategies and management measures as a result of their implementation taking into account the role of industry and relevant stakeholders, (ii) to provide economic assessment of the consequences of management practices, (iii) to identify the barriers (socio-economic and legislative) that prevent the GES to be achieved (e.g. eutrophication), (iv) to provide a set of policy options for the relevant authorities. In addition the project should propose and demonstrate the utility of innovative monitoring systems capable of providing data on a range of parameters, efficiently and effectively, that may be used as indicators of good environmental status. This contribution presents a summary of most of these aspects.

Social-Ecological Controls Over Earth-System Stewardship: a Framework for Sustainability in a Rapidly Changing World

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chapin, F. S.; Power, M. E.; Pickett, S.; Jackson, R. B.; Carter, D.; Harden, J. W.

2010-12-01

Human actions are having large and accelerating effects on Earth’s climate, environment, and ecosystems, thereby degrading ecosystem services required by society. This unsustainable trajectory demands a dramatic change in the relationship of humans with the environment and life-support systems of the planet. Earth-system stewardship is an action-oriented framework intended to foster social-ecological sustainability of a rapidly changing world. This builds on problem-relevant research about the social-ecological interactions that drive earth-system change. These include spiraling consumption in developed nations and the broadening gap between the livelihoods of rich and poor people within and among countries. Science that contributes effectively to reversing these trends requires an ongoing dialogue between scientists and users at multiple scales, communicated with sensitivity to social and cultural norms. Such science must motivate behavioral change and deliver information that is perceived as objective, timely, and useful to problem-solving. Recent developments identify four strategies that use current understanding in an environment of inevitable uncertainty and abrupt change: (1) reducing the magnitude of, and exposure and sensitivity to, known stresses; (2) focusing on proactive policies that shape change; and (3) avoiding or escaping unsustainable social-ecological traps. All social-ecological systems are vulnerable to change but have sources of adaptive capacity and resilience that can sustain ecosystem services and human well-being. Discovering and nurturing these sources of adaptive capacity requires, and defines active ecosystem stewardship.

A Set of Web-based Tools for Integrating Scientific Research and Decision-Making through Systems Thinking

EPA Science Inventory

Currently, many policy and management decisions are made without considering the goods and services humans derive from ecosystems and the costs associated with protecting them. This approach is unlikely to be sustainable. Conceptual frameworks provide a tool for capturing, visual...

Decoding ecosystem services in the neighborhood through the development and utilization of a framework

EPA Science Inventory

Remediation to Restoration to Revitalization (R2R2R) is a place-based practice that requires ongoing communication amongst agencies, local governments, and citizens. One of the challenges is that each of these entities have different relationships with and responsibilities to sit...

A Conceptual Framework to Address Stress-Associated Human Health Effects of Ecosystem Services Degraded by Disasters

EPA Science Inventory

Chronic stress leads to a variety of mental and physiological disorders, and stress effects are the primary concern after traumatic injury and exposure to infectious diseases or toxic agents from disaster events. We developed a conceptual model to address the question of whether...

Strengthening Resiliency in Coastal Watersheds: An Ecosystem Services and Ecological Integrity Decision Support System.

EPA Science Inventory

To promote and strengthen the resiliency of coastal watersheds in the face of climate change and development, ecological outcomes as well as economic, social, and environmental justice issues need to be considered. An integrated assessment framework is being developed to help wat...

Exploring the Decision Landscape using System Sketch: Integration and Display of Ecosystem Services & Indicators Using the DPSIR Framework and Dynamic Web Application

EPA Science Inventory

Stakeholders can use the tool to accomplish their sustainability goals by: Understanding interactions and feedback loops within human-environmental systems; Identifying areas of the system not previously considered and avoiding unintended consequences; Identifying metrics, indica...

Thermodynamic accounting of ecosystem contribution to economic sectors with application to 1992 U.S. economy.

PubMed

Ukidwe, Nandan U; Bakshi, Bhavik R

2004-09-15

Incorporation of ecological considerations in decision-making is essential for sustainable development, but is hindered by inadequate appreciation of the role of ecosystems, and lack of scientifically rigorous techniques for including their contribution. This paper develops a novel thermodynamic accounting framework for including the contribution of natural capital via thermodynamic input-output analysis. This framework is applied to the 1992 US economy comprising 91 industry sectors, resulting in delineation of the myriad ways in which sectors of the US economy rely on ecosystem products and services. The contribution of ecosystems is represented via the concept of ecological cumulative exergy consumption (ECEC), which is related to emergy analysis but avoids any of its controversial assumptions and claims. The use of thermodynamics permits representation of all kinds of inputs and outputs in consistent units, facilitating the definition of aggregate metrics. Total ECEC requirement indicates the extent to which each economic sector relies directly and indirectly on ecological inputs. The ECEC/money ratio indicates the relative monetary versus ecological throughputs in each sector, and indicates the relationship between the thermodynamic work needed to produce a product or service and the corresponding economic activity. This ratio is found to decrease along economic supply chains, indicating industries that are higher up in the economic food chain price ecosystem contribution more than the basic infrastructure industries such as mining and manufacturing. The ratio of CEC with and without inclusion of ecosystems indicates the extent to which conventional thermoeconomic analysis underestimates the contribution of ecosystems. Such ratios, made available for the first time, provide unique insight into the importance of natural capital, and are especially useful in hybrid thermodynamic life cycle analysis of industrial systems. The approach, data compiled in this work, and the resulting insight provide a more ecologically conscious tool for environmental decision-making, and has potential applications at micro as well as macro scales.

Going Beyond the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment: An Index System of Human Well-Being

PubMed Central

Yang, Wu; Dietz, Thomas; Kramer, Daniel Boyd; Chen, Xiaodong; Liu, Jianguo

2013-01-01

Understanding the linkages between ecosystem services (ES) and human well-being (HWB) is crucial to sustain the flow of ES for HWB. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) provided a state-of-the-art synthesis of such knowledge. However, due to the complexity of the linkages between ES and HWB, there are still many knowledge gaps, and in particular a lack of quantitative indicators and integrated models based on the MA framework. To fill some of these research needs, we developed a quantitative index system to measure HWB, and assessed the impacts of an external driver – the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake – on HWB. Our results suggest that our proposed index system of HWB is well-designed, valid and could be useful for better understanding the linkages between ES and HWB. The earthquake significantly affected households' well-being in our demonstration sites. Such impacts differed across space and across the five dimensions of the sub-index (i.e., the basic material for good life, security, health, good social relations, and freedom of choice and action). Since the conceptual framework is based on the generalizable MA framework, our methods should also be applicable to other study areas. PMID:23717635

Freshwater as shared between society and ecosystems: from divided approaches to integrated challenges.

PubMed

Falkenmark, Malin

2003-12-29

The paper has its focus on water's key functions behind ecosystem dynamics and the water-related balancing involved in a catchment-based ecosystem approach. A conceptual framework is being developed to address fundamental trade-offs between humans and ecosystems. This is done by paying attention to society's unavoidable landscape modifications and their unavoidable ecological effects mediated by water processes. Because the coevolution of societal and environmental processes indicates resonance rather than a cause-effect relationship, humanity will have to learn to live with change while securing ecosystem resilience. In view of the partial incompatibility of the social imperative of the millennium goals and its environmental sustainability goal, human activities and ecosystems have to be orchestrated for compatibility. To this end a catchment-based approach has to be taken by integrating water, land use and ecosystems. It is being suggested that ecosystem protection has to be thought of in two scales: site-specific biotic landscape components to be protected for their social value, and a catchment-based ecosystem approach to secure sustainable supply of crucial ecosystem goods and services on which social and economic development depends.

A framework for ecosystem management in the Interior Columbia Basin including portions of the Klamath and Great Basins.

Treesearch

Richard W. Haynes; Russell T. Graham; Thomas M. Quigley

1996-01-01

A framework for ecosystem management is proposed. This framework assumes the purpose of ecosystem management is to maintain the integrity of ecosystems over time and space. It is based on four ecosystem principles: ecosystems are dynamic, can be viewed as hierarchies with temporal and spatial dimensions, have limits, and are relatively unpredictable. This approach...

Innovation in healthcare services – creating a Combined Contingency Theory and Ecosystems Approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Engelseth, Per; Kritchanchai, Duangpun

2018-04-01

The purpose of this conceptual paper is to develop an analytical framework used for process development in healthcare services. Healthcare services imply a form of operations management demanding an adapted research approach. This study therefore highlights first in the introduction challenges of healthcare services as a reasoning of this study. It is a type of service that has high societal and therefore ethical concern, but at the same time needs to be carried out efficiently to economise service production resource use. Combined business and ethics concerns need to be balanced in this service supply system. In the literature review that is the bulk of this paper, first, particularities of the service industry processes are considered. This is followed by considering literature on contingency theory to consider the nature of the supply chain context of the healthcare service processes highlighting interdependencies and appropriate technology use. This developed view is then expanded to consider an ecosystems approach to encompass the environment expanding analyses to considering in balanced manner features of business, society and nature. A research model for directing both further researches on the healthcare service industry an innovation of such services in practice is introduced.

Ecoregions of Arizona (poster)

USGS Publications Warehouse

Griffith, Glenn E.; Omernik, James M.; Johnson, Colleen Burch; Turner, Dale S.

2014-01-01

Ecoregions denote areas of general similarity in ecosystems and in the type, quality, and quantity of environmental resources; they are designed to serve as a spatial framework for the research, assessment, management, and monitoring of ecosystems and ecosystem components. By recognizing the spatial differences in the capacities and potentials of ecosystems, ecoregions stratify the environment by its probable response to disturbance. These general purpose regions are critical for structuring and implementing ecosystem management strategies across federal agencies, state agencies, and nongovernment organizations that are responsible for different types of resources within the same geographical areas. The Arizona ecoregion map was compiled at a scale of 1:250,000. It revises and subdivides an earlier national ecoregion map that was originally compiled at a smaller scale. The approach used to compile this map is based on the premise that ecological regions can be identified through the analysis of the spatial patterns and the composition of biotic and abiotic phenomena that affect or reflect differences in ecosystem quality and integrity. These phenomena include geology, physiography, vegetation, climate, soils, land use, wildlife, and hydrology. The relative importance of each characteristic varies from one ecological region to another regardless of the hierarchical level. A Roman numeral hierarchical scheme has been adopted for different levels of ecological regions. Level I is the coarsest level, dividing North America into 15 ecological regions. Level II divides the continent into 50 regions. At level III, the continental United States contains 105 ecoregions and the conterminous United States has 85 ecoregions. Level IV is a further subdivision of level III ecoregions. Arizona contains arid deserts and canyonlands, semiarid shrub- and grass-covered plains, woodland- and shrubland-covered hills, lava fields and volcanic plateaus, forested mountains, glaciated peaks, and river alluvial floodplains. Ecological diversity is remarkably high. There are 7 level III ecoregions and 52 level IV ecoregions in Arizona and many continue into ecologically similar parts of adjacent states. This poster is part of a collaborative project primarily between the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), USEPA National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory (Corvallis, Oregon), USEPA Region IX, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)–Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), The Nature Conservancy, and several Arizona state agencies. The project is associated with an interagency effort to develop a common national framework of ecological regions. Reaching that objective requires recognition of the differences in the conceptual approaches and mapping methodologies applied to develop the most common ecoregion-type frameworks, including those developed by the USDA–Forest Service, the USEPA, and the NRCS. As each of these frameworks is further refined, their differences are becoming less discernible. Collaborative ecoregion projects, such as this one in Arizona, are a step toward attaining consensus and consistency in ecoregion frameworks for the entire nation.

From Metaphors to Formalism: A Heuristic Approach to Holistic Assessments of Ecosystem Health.

PubMed

Fock, Heino O; Kraus, Gerd

2016-01-01

Environmental policies employ metaphoric objectives such as ecosystem health, resilience and sustainable provision of ecosystem services, which influence corresponding sustainability assessments by means of normative settings such as assumptions on system description, indicator selection, aggregation of information and target setting. A heuristic approach is developed for sustainability assessments to avoid ambiguity and applications to the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) and OSPAR assessments are presented. For MSFD, nineteen different assessment procedures have been proposed, but at present no agreed assessment procedure is available. The heuristic assessment framework is a functional-holistic approach comprising an ex-ante/ex-post assessment framework with specifically defined normative and systemic dimensions (EAEPNS). The outer normative dimension defines the ex-ante/ex-post framework, of which the latter branch delivers one measure of ecosystem health based on indicators and the former allows to account for the multi-dimensional nature of sustainability (social, economic, ecological) in terms of modeling approaches. For MSFD, the ex-ante/ex-post framework replaces the current distinction between assessments based on pressure and state descriptors. The ex-ante and the ex-post branch each comprise an inner normative and a systemic dimension. The inner normative dimension in the ex-post branch considers additive utility models and likelihood functions to standardize variables normalized with Bayesian modeling. Likelihood functions allow precautionary target setting. The ex-post systemic dimension considers a posteriori indicator selection by means of analysis of indicator space to avoid redundant indicator information as opposed to a priori indicator selection in deconstructive-structural approaches. Indicator information is expressed in terms of ecosystem variability by means of multivariate analysis procedures. The application to the OSPAR assessment for the southern North Sea showed, that with the selected 36 indicators 48% of ecosystem variability could be explained. Tools for the ex-ante branch are risk and ecosystem models with the capability to analyze trade-offs, generating model output for each of the pressure chains to allow for a phasing-out of human pressures. The Bayesian measure of ecosystem health is sensitive to trends in environmental features, but robust to ecosystem variability in line with state space models. The combination of the ex-ante and ex-post branch is essential to evaluate ecosystem resilience and to adopt adaptive management. Based on requirements of the heuristic approach, three possible developments of this concept can be envisioned, i.e. a governance driven approach built upon participatory processes, a science driven functional-holistic approach requiring extensive monitoring to analyze complete ecosystem variability, and an approach with emphasis on ex-ante modeling and ex-post assessment of well-studied subsystems.

From Metaphors to Formalism: A Heuristic Approach to Holistic Assessments of Ecosystem Health

PubMed Central

Kraus, Gerd

2016-01-01

Environmental policies employ metaphoric objectives such as ecosystem health, resilience and sustainable provision of ecosystem services, which influence corresponding sustainability assessments by means of normative settings such as assumptions on system description, indicator selection, aggregation of information and target setting. A heuristic approach is developed for sustainability assessments to avoid ambiguity and applications to the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) and OSPAR assessments are presented. For MSFD, nineteen different assessment procedures have been proposed, but at present no agreed assessment procedure is available. The heuristic assessment framework is a functional-holistic approach comprising an ex-ante/ex-post assessment framework with specifically defined normative and systemic dimensions (EAEPNS). The outer normative dimension defines the ex-ante/ex-post framework, of which the latter branch delivers one measure of ecosystem health based on indicators and the former allows to account for the multi-dimensional nature of sustainability (social, economic, ecological) in terms of modeling approaches. For MSFD, the ex-ante/ex-post framework replaces the current distinction between assessments based on pressure and state descriptors. The ex-ante and the ex-post branch each comprise an inner normative and a systemic dimension. The inner normative dimension in the ex-post branch considers additive utility models and likelihood functions to standardize variables normalized with Bayesian modeling. Likelihood functions allow precautionary target setting. The ex-post systemic dimension considers a posteriori indicator selection by means of analysis of indicator space to avoid redundant indicator information as opposed to a priori indicator selection in deconstructive-structural approaches. Indicator information is expressed in terms of ecosystem variability by means of multivariate analysis procedures. The application to the OSPAR assessment for the southern North Sea showed, that with the selected 36 indicators 48% of ecosystem variability could be explained. Tools for the ex-ante branch are risk and ecosystem models with the capability to analyze trade-offs, generating model output for each of the pressure chains to allow for a phasing-out of human pressures. The Bayesian measure of ecosystem health is sensitive to trends in environmental features, but robust to ecosystem variability in line with state space models. The combination of the ex-ante and ex-post branch is essential to evaluate ecosystem resilience and to adopt adaptive management. Based on requirements of the heuristic approach, three possible developments of this concept can be envisioned, i.e. a governance driven approach built upon participatory processes, a science driven functional-holistic approach requiring extensive monitoring to analyze complete ecosystem variability, and an approach with emphasis on ex-ante modeling and ex-post assessment of well-studied subsystems. PMID:27509185

Adaptation policies to increase terrestrial ecosystem resilience. Potential utility of a multicriteria approach

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

de Bremond, Ariane; Engle, Nathan L.

2014-01-30

Climate change is rapidly undermining terrestrial ecosystem resilience and capacity to continue providing their services to the benefit of humanity and nature. Because of the importance of terrestrial ecosystems to human well-being and supporting services, decision makers throughout the world are busy creating policy responses that secure multiple development and conservation objectives- including that of supporting terrestrial ecosystem resilience in the context of climate change. This article aims to advance analyses on climate policy evaluation and planning in the area of terrestrial ecosystem resilience by discussing adaptation policy options within the ecology-economy-social nexus. The paper evaluates these decisions in themore » realm of terrestrial ecosystem resilience and evaluates the utility of a set of criteria, indicators, and assessment methods, proposed by a new conceptual multi-criteria framework for pro-development climate policy and planning developed by the United Nations Environment Programme. Potential applications of a multicriteria approach to climate policy vis-A -vis terrestrial ecosystems are then explored through two hypothetical case study examples. The paper closes with a brief discussion of the utility of the multi-criteria approach in the context of other climate policy evaluation approaches, considers lessons learned as a result efforts to evaluate climate policy in the realm of terrestrial ecosystems, and reiterates the role of ecosystem resilience in creating sound policies and actions that support the integration of climate change and development goals.« less

Conservation of soil organic carbon, biodiversity and the provision of other ecosystem services along climatic gradients in West Africa

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marks, E.; Aflakpui, G. K. S.; Nkem, J.; Poch, R. M.; Khouma, M.; Kokou, K.; Sagoe, R.; Sebastiã, M.-T.

2009-08-01

Terrestrial carbon resources are major drivers of development in West Africa. The distribution of these resources co-varies with ecosystem type and rainfall along a strong Northeast-Southwest climatic gradient. Soil organic carbon, a strong indicator of soil quality, has been severely depleted in some areas by human activities, which leads to issues of soil erosion and desertification, but this trend can be altered with appropriate management. There is significant potential to enhance existing soil carbon stores in West Africa, with benefits at the global and local scale, for atmospheric CO2 mitigation as well as supporting and provisioning ecosystem services. Three key factors impacting carbon stocks are addressed in this review: climate, biotic factors, and human activities. Climate risks must be considered in a framework of global change, especially in West Africa, where landscape managers have few resources available to adapt to climatic perturbations. Among biotic factors, biodiversity conservation paired with carbon conservation may provide a pathway to sustainable development, and biodiversity conservation is also a global priority with local benefits for ecosystem resilience, biomass productivity, and provisioning services such as foodstuffs. Finally, human management has largely been responsible for reduced carbon stocks, but this trend can be reversed through the implementation of appropriate carbon conservation strategies in the agricultural sector, as shown by multiple studies. Owing to the strong regional climatic gradient, country-level initiatives will need to consider carbon sequestration approaches for multiple ecosystem types. Given the diversity of environments, global policies must be adapted and strategies developed at the national or sub-national levels to improve carbon storage above and belowground. Initiatives of this sort must act locally at farmer scale, and focus on ecosystem services rather than on carbon sequestration solely.

A Stochastic Water Balance Framework for Lowland Watersheds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thompson, Sally; MacVean, Lissa; Sivapalan, Murugesu

2017-11-01

The water balance dynamics in lowland watersheds are influenced not only by local hydroclimatic controls on energy and water availability, but also by imports of water from the upstream watershed. These imports result in a stochastic extent of inundation in lowland watersheds that is determined by the local flood regime, watershed topography, and the rate of loss processes such as drainage and evaporation. Thus, lowland watershed water balances depend on two stochastic processes—rainfall and local inundation dynamics. Lowlands are high productivity environments that are disproportionately associated with urbanization, high productivity agriculture, biodiversity, and flood risk. Consequently, they are being rapidly altered by human development—generally with clear economic and social motivation—but also with significant trade-offs in ecosystem services provision, directly related to changes in the components and variability of the lowland water balance. We present a stochastic framework to assess the lowland water balance and its sensitivity to two common human interventions—replacement of native vegetation with alternative land uses, and construction of local flood protection levees. By providing analytical solutions for the mean and PDF of the water balance components, the proposed framework provides a mechanism to connect human interventions to hydrologic outcomes, and, in conjunction with ecosystem service production estimates, to evaluate trade-offs associated with lowland watershed development.

The Moquah Barrens Research Natural Area: Loss of a pine barrens ecosystem

USGS Publications Warehouse

Ribic, Christine

2017-01-01

The Moquah Barrens Research Natural Area (RNA) was established by the Chequamegon National Forest and the Lakes States Forest Experiment Station in 1935 with a research objective well-suited to the needs of the Forest Service and the scientific understanding of ecosystem function prevalent at the time of establishment. The original research plan was never implemented, which led to a joint Forest-Station decision in 1956 to disestablish the RNA. However, that decision was never implemented. A series of management decisions made after 1956 led to the loss of the pine barrens ecosystem originally encompassed by the RNA. This loss is not irretrievable and the work necessary to recover the original ecosystem is possible under existing RNA management guidelines. The experience of the Moquah Barrens RNA can be used by the Forest Service to improve overall management of the entire system of research natural areas. Two main areas of opportunity are identified: 1) implement an improved approach to managing official records associated with RNAs; and 2) adopt a management framework suitable for long-term ecological projects.

Quantifying the environmental impact of an integrated human/industrial-natural system using life cycle assessment; a case study on a forest and wood processing chain.

PubMed

Schaubroeck, Thomas; Alvarenga, Rodrigo A F; Verheyen, Kris; Muys, Bart; Dewulf, Jo

2013-01-01

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a tool to assess the environmental sustainability of a product; it quantifies the environmental impact of a product's life cycle. In conventional LCAs, the boundaries of a product's life cycle are limited to the human/industrial system, the technosphere. Ecosystems, which provide resources to and take up emissions from the technosphere, are not included in those boundaries. However, similar to the technosphere, ecosystems also have an impact on their (surrounding) environment through their resource usage (e.g., nutrients) and emissions (e.g., CH4). We therefore propose a LCA framework to assess the impact of integrated Techno-Ecological Systems (TES), comprising relevant ecosystems and the technosphere. In our framework, ecosystems are accounted for in the same manner as technosphere compartments. Also, the remediating effect of uptake of pollutants, an ecosystem service, is considered. A case study was performed on a TES of sawn timber production encompassing wood growth in an intensively managed forest ecosystem and further industrial processing. Results show that the managed forest accounted for almost all resource usage and biodiversity loss through land occupation but also for a remediating effect on human health, mostly via capture of airborne fine particles. These findings illustrate the potential relevance of including ecosystems in the product's life cycle of a LCA, though further research is needed to better quantify the environmental impact of TES.

Ecosystem Services and Reallocation Choices: A Framework for Preserving Semi-Arid Regions in the Southwest

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Conservation of freshwater systems is a paramount issue in the semi-arid Southwestern U.S. Over time, these systems have been degraded by anthropogenic activities and, more recently, are threatened by climate change. For water reallocation efforts to succeed in preserving these systems, a policy mak...

Developing qualitative ecosystem service relationships with the Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response framework: A case study on Cape Cod, Massachusetts

EPA Science Inventory

Understanding the effects of environmental management strategies on society and the environment is critical for evaluating their effectiveness but is often impeded by limited data availability. In this article, we present a method that can help scientists to support environmental...

Utilizing the Brand Ecosystem Framework in Designing Branding Strategies for Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pinar, Musa; Trapp, Paul; Girard, Tulay; Boyt, Thomas E.

2011-01-01

Purpose: In today's complex and highly competitive marketplace, universities and colleges, realizing a need to develop sustainable strategies, have turned to branding as a solution. However, because of their unique service characteristics, universities' branding attempts may not always result in success. The aim of this paper is to present a brand…

Decision Support Framework (DSF) For Planning Land And Resource Use To Sustainably Maintain Healthy Ecosystem Services and Communities - March 30, 2009

EPA Science Inventory

Land and resource use decisions are typically made by individuals, towns, counties, tribes, states and sometimes multiple states (regions) to increase economic viability of an area with little attention to the long term effects on human health and the environment. Individuals an...

Decision Support Framework (DSF) For Planning Land And Resource Use To Sustainably Maintain Healthy Ecosystem Services And Communities - March 31, 2009

EPA Science Inventory

Land and resource use decisions are typically made by individuals, towns, counties, tribes, states and sometimes multiple states (regions) to increase economic viability of an area with little attention to the long term effects on human health and the environment. Individuals an...

Lessons Learned From Applying An Ecosystem Services Framework for Post-Hurricane Sand Recovery and Resiliency Planning in Long Island, NY

EPA Science Inventory

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, the second costliest hurricane in U.S. history, the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Stony Brook University, The Nature Conservancy, and New York State (NYS) Department of State partnered with ...

Exploring the Decision Landscape: Integration and Display of Ecosystem Services & Indicators Using the Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response Framework and Dynamic Web Application

EPA Science Inventory

Making decisions to increase community or regional sustainability requires a comprehensive understanding of the linkages between environmental, social, and economic systems. We present a visualization tool that can improve decision processes by enhancing understanding of system c...

WEF nexus indicators: A study on the development of indicators for urban areas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yuan, M. H.; Lo, S. L.

2017-12-01

Energy shortages and resources constraints have both emerged as one of the greatest challenges facing mankind this century.By 2030, humans will require 30% more water, 45% more energy and 50 % more food. The Food- Energy -Water (FEW) nexus is extensive and few areas are now untouched by it. Competition for energy and resources is increasing , especially in urban areas. To explore ways of meeting the challenges and seizing new opportunities, indicators could provide valuable information on complex issues in a relatively accessible way. In this paper, we develop a framework for selection of indicators, to assess the comprehensive sustainable status and trends to the FEW system .We identify indicators based on related ecosystem services to examine the status of FEW sustainability. We test the framework on two case studies in Taipei and Canberra. Several criteria were used to evaluate the usefulness of the selected indicators, including scalability and sensitivity . This paper identifies the need to establish indicators that entirely and largely reveal the potential of an ecosystem services support by FEW sustainability.

Social-ecological outcomes in recreational fisheries: the interaction of lakeshore development and stocking.

PubMed

Ziegler, Jacob P; Golebie, Elizabeth J; Jones, Stuart E; Weidel, Brian C; Solomon, Christopher T

2017-01-01

Many ecosystems continue to experience rapid transformations due to processes like land use change and resource extraction. A systems approach to maintaining natural resources focuses on how interactions and feedbacks among components of complex social-ecological systems generate social and ecological outcomes. In recreational fisheries, residential shoreline development and fish stocking are two widespread human behaviors that influence fisheries, yet emergent social-ecological outcomes from these potentially interacting behaviors remain under explored. We applied a social-ecological systems framework using a simulation model and empirical data to determine whether lakeshore development is likely to promote stocking through its adverse effects on coarse woody habitat and thereby also on survival of juvenile and adult fish. We demonstrate that high lakeshore development is likely to generate dependency of the ecosystem on the social system, in the form of stocking. Further, lakeshore development can interact with social-ecological processes to create deficits for state-level governments, which threatens the ability to fund further ecosystem subsidies. Our results highlight the value of a social-ecological framework for maintaining ecosystem services like recreational fisheries. © 2016 by the Ecological Society of America.

The effect of a protected area on the tradeoffs between short-run and long-run benefits from mangrove ecosystems

PubMed Central

McNally, Catherine G.; Uchida, Emi; Gold, Arthur J.

2011-01-01

Protected areas are used to sustain biodiversity and ecosystem services. However, protected areas can create tradeoffs spatially and temporally among ecosystem services, which can affect the welfare of dependent local communities. This study examines the effect of a protected area on the tradeoff between two extractive ecosystem services from mangrove forests: cutting mangroves (fuelwood) and harvesting the shrimp and fish that thrive if mangroves are not cut. We demonstrate the effect in the context of Saadani National Park (SANAPA) in Tanzania, where enforcement of prohibition of mangrove harvesting was strengthened to preserve biodiversity. Remote sensing data of mangrove cover over time are integrated with georeferenced household survey data in an econometric framework to identify the causal effect of mangrove protection on income components directly linked to mangrove ecosystem services. Our findings suggest that many households experienced an immediate loss in the consumption of mangrove firewood, with the loss most prevalent in richer households. However, all wealth classes appear to benefit from long-term sustainability gains in shrimping and fishing that result from mangrove protection. On average, we find that a 10% increase in the mangrove cover within SANAPA boundaries in a 5-km2 radius of the subvillage increases shrimping income by approximately twofold. The creation of SANAPA shifted the future trajectory of the area from one in which mangroves were experiencing uncontrolled cutting to one in which mangrove conservation is providing gains in income for the local villages as a result of the preservation of nursery habitat and biodiversity. PMID:21873182

How to measure ecosystem stability? An evaluation of the reliability of stability metrics based on remote sensing time series across the major global ecosystems.

PubMed

De Keersmaecker, Wanda; Lhermitte, Stef; Honnay, Olivier; Farifteh, Jamshid; Somers, Ben; Coppin, Pol

2014-07-01

Increasing frequency of extreme climate events is likely to impose increased stress on ecosystems and to jeopardize the services that ecosystems provide. Therefore, it is of major importance to assess the effects of extreme climate events on the temporal stability (i.e., the resistance, the resilience, and the variance) of ecosystem properties. Most time series of ecosystem properties are, however, affected by varying data characteristics, uncertainties, and noise, which complicate the comparison of ecosystem stability metrics (ESMs) between locations. Therefore, there is a strong need for a more comprehensive understanding regarding the reliability of stability metrics and how they can be used to compare ecosystem stability globally. The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of temporal ESMs based on time series of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer derived Normalized Difference Vegetation Index of 15 global land-cover types. We provide a framework (i) to assess the reliability of ESMs in function of data characteristics, uncertainties and noise and (ii) to integrate reliability estimates in future global ecosystem stability studies against climate disturbances. The performance of our framework was tested through (i) a global ecosystem comparison and (ii) an comparison of ecosystem stability in response to the 2003 drought. The results show the influence of data quality on the accuracy of ecosystem stability. White noise, biased noise, and trends have a stronger effect on the accuracy of stability metrics than the length of the time series, temporal resolution, or amount of missing values. Moreover, we demonstrate the importance of integrating reliability estimates to interpret stability metrics within confidence limits. Based on these confidence limits, other studies dealing with specific ecosystem types or locations can be put into context, and a more reliable assessment of ecosystem stability against environmental disturbances can be obtained. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Multifunctional Agriculture: Conducting an Ecosystem Service Assessment for an Agricultural Watershed

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wacha, K.; Papanicolaou, T.; Wilson, C. G.

2012-12-01

To meet the food production demands on a finite area of land for an exponentially growing, global population, intensive agricultural management practices are being used. The implications of this these practices lead to soil degradation, loss of biodiversity, increased greenhouse gas emissions, and decreased water quality depending on the level of conservation practices implemented in a watershed. To offset these negative environmental effects, ecosystem services should be analyzed for possible economic valuation to provide incentives for good land stewardship. In this study a Multifunctional Agriculture (MFA) evaluation in a representative agricultural watershed in Iowa was performed by assessing the ecosystem services of water quality, crop/grain production, carbon sequestration, reduction in carbon dioxide emissions and biodiversity for representative land covers (e.g., corn-soybean rotation, alfalfa, oats, and Conservation Reserve Program, or CRP). The services were analyzed using a geo-spatial platform that simulated carbon dynamics with the biogeochemical model, CENTURY, as well as soil erosion/deposition and surface runoff with the Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP). Economic values given to the various services were based on current grain prices, water treatment costs, and hypothetical carbon storage credits. Results showed that crop/grain production for the corn-soybean rotations provided the largest service for the study site, followed by alfalfa. CRP provided the largest decrease in surface water runoff and CO2 emissions, while alfalfa provided the largest form of plant species diversity. The largest sequestration of carbon came from the corn-soybean rotation due to large amounts dead plant material being incorporated into the soil through tillage. Overall the MFA assessment can provide a framework for payment of ecosystem services supplied by agroecosystems which promote more sustainable land management practices.

Innovation and the growth of human population.

PubMed

Weinberger, V P; Quiñinao, C; Marquet, P A

2017-12-05

Biodiversity is sustained by and is essential to the services that ecosystems provide. Different species would use these services in different ways, or adaptive strategies, which are sustained in time by continuous innovations. Using this framework, we postulate a model for a biological species ( Homo sapiens ) in a finite world where innovations, aimed at increasing the flux of ecosystem services (a measure of habitat quality), increase with population size, and have positive effects on the generation of new innovations (positive feedback) as well as costs in terms of negatively affecting the provision of ecosystem services. We applied this model to human populations, where technological innovations are driven by cumulative cultural evolution. Our model shows that depending on the net impact of a technology on the provision of ecosystem services ( θ ), and the strength of technological feedback ( ξ ), different regimes can result. Among them, the human population can fill the entire planet while maximizing their well-being, but not exhaust ecosystem services. However, this outcome requires positive or green technologies that increase the provision of ecosystem services with few negative externalities or environmental costs, and that have a strong positive feedback in generating new technologies of the same kind. If the feedback is small, then the technological stock can collapse together with the human population. Scenarios where technological innovations generate net negative impacts may be associated with a limited technological stock as well as a limited human population at equilibrium and the potential for collapse. The only way to fill the planet with humans under this scenario of negative technologies is by reducing the technological stock to a minimum. Otherwise, the only feasible equilibrium is associated with population collapse. Our model points out that technological innovations per se may not help humans to grow and dominate the planet. Instead, different possibilities unfold for our future depending on their impact on the environment and on further innovation.This article is part of the themed issue 'Process and pattern in innovations from cells to societies'. © 2017 The Author(s).

Genetic information and ecosystem health: arguments for the application of chaos theory to identify boundary conditions for ecosystem management.

PubMed Central

Stomp, A M

1994-01-01

To meet the demands for goods and services of an exponentially growing human population, global ecosystems will come under increasing human management. The hallmark of successful ecosystem management will be long-term ecosystem stability. Ecosystems and the genetic information and processes which underlie interactions of organisms with the environment in populations and communities exhibit behaviors which have nonlinear characteristics. Nonlinear mathematical formulations describing deterministic chaos have been used successfully to model such systems in physics, chemistry, economics, physiology, and epidemiology. This approach can be extended to ecotoxicology and can be used to investigate how changes in genetic information determine the behavior of populations and communities. This article seeks to provide the arguments for such an approach and to give initial direction to the search for the boundary conditions within which lies ecosystem stability. The identification of a theoretical framework for ecotoxicology and the parameters which drive the underlying model is a critical component in the formulation of a prioritized research agenda and appropriate ecosystem management policy and regulation. PMID:7713038

REDD and PINC: A new policy framework to fund tropical forests as global 'eco-utilities'

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Trivedi, M. R.; Mitchell, A. W.; Mardas, N.; Parker, C.; Watson, J. E.; Nobre, A. D.

2009-11-01

Tropical forests are 'eco-utilities' providing critical ecosystem services that underpin food, energy, water and climate security at local to global scales. Currently, these services are unrecognised and unrewarded in international policy and financial frameworks, causing forests to be worth more dead than alive. Much attention is currently focused on REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) and A/R (Afforestation and Reforestation) as mitigation options. In this article we propose an additional mechanism - PINC (Proactive Investment in Natural Capital) - that recognises and rewards the value of ecosystem services provided by standing tropical forests, especially from a climate change adaptation perspective. Using Amazonian forests as a case study we show that PINC could improve the wellbeing of rural and forest-dependent populations, enabling them to cope with the impacts associated with climate change and deforestation. By investing pro-actively in areas where deforestation pressures are currently low, the long-term costs of mitigation and adaptation will be reduced. We suggest a number of ways in which funds could be raised through emerging financial mechanisms to provide positive incentives to maintain standing forests. To develop PINC, a new research and capacity-building agenda is needed that explores the interdependence between communities, the forest eco-utility and the wider economy.

Climate, ecosystems, and planetary futures: The challenge to predict life in Earth system models.

PubMed

Bonan, Gordon B; Doney, Scott C

2018-02-02

Many global change stresses on terrestrial and marine ecosystems affect not only ecosystem services that are essential to humankind, but also the trajectory of future climate by altering energy and mass exchanges with the atmosphere. Earth system models, which simulate terrestrial and marine ecosystems and biogeochemical cycles, offer a common framework for ecological research related to climate processes; analyses of vulnerability, impacts, and adaptation; and climate change mitigation. They provide an opportunity to move beyond physical descriptors of atmospheric and oceanic states to societally relevant quantities such as wildfire risk, habitat loss, water availability, and crop, fishery, and timber yields. To achieve this, the science of climate prediction must be extended to a more multifaceted Earth system prediction that includes the biosphere and its resources. Copyright © 2018, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Freshwater as shared between society and ecosystems: from divided approaches to integrated challenges.

PubMed Central

Falkenmark, Malin

2003-01-01

The paper has its focus on water's key functions behind ecosystem dynamics and the water-related balancing involved in a catchment-based ecosystem approach. A conceptual framework is being developed to address fundamental trade-offs between humans and ecosystems. This is done by paying attention to society's unavoidable landscape modifications and their unavoidable ecological effects mediated by water processes. Because the coevolution of societal and environmental processes indicates resonance rather than a cause-effect relationship, humanity will have to learn to live with change while securing ecosystem resilience. In view of the partial incompatibility of the social imperative of the millennium goals and its environmental sustainability goal, human activities and ecosystems have to be orchestrated for compatibility. To this end a catchment-based approach has to be taken by integrating water, land use and ecosystems. It is being suggested that ecosystem protection has to be thought of in two scales: site-specific biotic landscape components to be protected for their social value, and a catchment-based ecosystem approach to secure sustainable supply of crucial ecosystem goods and services on which social and economic development depends. PMID:14728797

A Global Geospatial Ecosystem Services Estimate of Urban Agriculture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Clinton, Nicholas; Stuhlmacher, Michelle; Miles, Albie; Uludere Aragon, Nazli; Wagner, Melissa; Georgescu, Matei; Herwig, Chris; Gong, Peng

2018-01-01

Though urban agriculture (UA), defined here as growing of crops in cities, is increasing in popularity and importance globally, little is known about the aggregate benefits of such natural capital in built-up areas. Here, we introduce a quantitative framework to assess global aggregate ecosystem services from existing vegetation in cities and an intensive UA adoption scenario based on data-driven estimates of urban morphology and vacant land. We analyzed global population, urban, meteorological, terrain, and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) datasets in Google Earth Engine to derive global scale estimates, aggregated by country, of services provided by UA. We estimate the value of four ecosystem services provided by existing vegetation in urban areas to be on the order of 33 billion annually. We project potential annual food production of 100-180 million tonnes, energy savings ranging from 14 to 15 billion kilowatt hours, nitrogen sequestration between 100,000 and 170,000 tonnes, and avoided storm water runoff between 45 and 57 billion cubic meters annually. In addition, we estimate that food production, nitrogen fixation, energy savings, pollination, climate regulation, soil formation and biological control of pests could be worth as much as 80-160 billion annually in a scenario of intense UA implementation. Our results demonstrate significant country-to-country variability in UA-derived ecosystem services and reduction of food insecurity. These estimates represent the first effort to consistently quantify these incentives globally, and highlight the relative spatial importance of built environments to act as change agents that alleviate mounting concerns associated with global environmental change and unsustainable development.

Nonmarket economic values of forest insect pests: An updated literature review

Treesearch

Randall S. Rosenberger; Lauren A. Bell; Patricia A. Champ; Eric. L. Smith

2012-01-01

This report updates the literature review and synthesis of economic valuation studies on the impacts of forest insect pests by Rosenberger and Smith (1997). A conceptual framework is presented to establish context for the studies. This report also discusses the concept of ecosystem services; identifies key elements of each study; examines areas of future research; and...

Decision Support Framework (DSF) For Planning Land And Resource Use To Sustainably Maintain Healthy Ecosystem Services And Communities - Slides For March 31, 2009

EPA Science Inventory

Land and resource use decisions are typically made by individuals, towns, counties, tribes, states and sometimes multiple states (regions) to increase economic viability of an area with little attention to the long term effects on human health and the environment. Individuals an...

A conceptual framework for adaptive forest management under climate change

Treesearch

Thomas P. Holmes; Steve McNulty; James M. Vose; Jeffrey P. Prestemon; Harbin Li

2014-01-01

The consensus among most scientists is that the global climate is changing in response to a rapid increase in greenhouse gas emissions over the past 150 years. This perspective has prompted research on potential changes in future forest conditions so that management interventions might be developed to protect desired ecosystem services. Some of the most significant...

Evaluating the ecological economic success of riparian restoration projects in Arizona (Abstract)

Treesearch

Gary B. Snider

2000-01-01

The past 4 years the Arizona Water Protection Fund provided more than $25 million to individuals and organizations for stream and riparian restoration projects in Arizona. Information which increases the awareness of the value of Arizona's riparian systems is crucial to the incorporation of ecosystem services into decision-making frameworks, which are largely...

CAN A MODEL TRANSFERABILITY FRAMEWORK IMPROVE ECOSYSTEM SERVICE ESTIMATES? A CASE STUDY OF SOIL FOREST CARBON SEQUESTRATION IN TILLAMOOK BAY, OR, USA

EPA Science Inventory

Budget constraints and policies that limit primary data collection have fueled a practice of transferring estimates (or models to generate estimates) of ecological endpoints from sites where primary data exists to sites where little to no primary data were collected. Whereas bene...

The assessment of mangrove biomass and carbon in West Africa: a spatially explicit analytical framework

Treesearch

Wenwu Tang; Wenpeng Feng; Meijuan Jia; Jiyang Shi; Huifang Zuo; Carl C. Trettin

2015-01-01

Mangrove forests are highly productive and have large carbon sinks while also providing numerous goods and ecosystem services. However, effective management and conservation of the mangrove forests are often dependent on spatially explicit assessments of the resource. Given the remote and highly dispersed nature of mangroves, estimation of biomass and carbon...

[Urban ecosystem services: A review].

PubMed

Mao, Qi-zheng; Huang, Gan-lin; Wu, Jian-guo

2015-04-01

Maintaining and improving ecosystem services in urban areas and human well-being are essential for sustainable development and therefore constitute an important topic in urban ecology. Here we reviewed studies on ecosystem services in urban areas. Based on the concept and classification of urban ecosystem services, we summarized characteristics of urban ecosystem services, including the human domination, high demand of ecosystem services in urban areas, spatial heterogeneity and temporal dynamics of ecosystem services supply and demand in urban areas, multi-services of urban green infrastructures, the socio-economic dimension of ecosystem services supply and ecosystem disservices in urban areas. Among different urban ecosystem services, the regulating service and cultural service are particularly indispensable to benefit human health. We pointed out that tradeoffs among different types of ecosystem services mostly occur between supportive service and cultural service, as well as regulating service and cultural service. In particular, we emphasized the relationship between landscape design (i.e. green infrastructure) and ecosystem services supply. Finally, we discussed current gaps to link urban ecosystem services studies to landscape design and management and pointed out several directions for future research in urban ecosystem services.

The superior effect of nature based solutions in land management for enhancing ecosystem services.

PubMed

Keesstra, Saskia; Nunes, Joao; Novara, Agata; Finger, David; Avelar, David; Kalantari, Zahra; Cerdà, Artemi

2018-01-01

The rehabilitation and restoration of land is a key strategy to recover services -goods and resources- ecosystems offer to the humankind. This paper reviews key examples to understand the superior effect of nature based solutions to enhance the sustainability of catchment systems by promoting desirable soil and landscape functions. The use of concepts such as connectivity and the theory of system thinking framework allowed to review coastal and river management as a guide to evaluate other strategies to achieve sustainability. In land management NBSs are not mainstream management. Through a set of case studies: organic farming in Spain; rewilding in Slovenia; land restoration in Iceland, sediment trapping in Ethiopia and wetland construction in Sweden, we show the potential of Nature based solutions (NBSs) as a cost-effective long term solution for hydrological risks and land degradation. NBSs can be divided into two main groups of strategies: soil solutions and landscape solutions. Soil solutions aim to enhance the soil health and soil functions through which local eco-system services will be maintained or restored. Landscape solutions mainly focus on the concept of connectivity. Making the landscape less connected, facilitating less rainfall to be transformed into runoff and therefore reducing flood risk, increasing soil moisture and reducing droughts and soil erosion we can achieve the sustainability. The enhanced eco-system services directly feed into the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Integrating ecosystem services analysis into scenario planning practice: accounting for street tree benefits with i-Tree valuation in Central Texas.

PubMed

Hilde, Thomas; Paterson, Robert

2014-12-15

Scenario planning continues to gain momentum in the United States as an effective process for building consensus on long-range community plans and creating regional visions for the future. However, efforts to integrate more sophisticated information into the analytical framework to help identify important ecosystem services have lagged in practice. This is problematic because understanding the tradeoffs of land consumption patterns on ecological integrity is central to mitigating the environmental degradation caused by land use change and new development. In this paper we describe how an ecosystem services valuation model, i-Tree, was integrated into a mainstream scenario planning software tool, Envision Tomorrow, to assess the benefits of public street trees for alternative future development scenarios. The tool is then applied to development scenarios from the City of Hutto, TX, a Central Texas Sustainable Places Project demonstration community. The integrated tool represents a methodological improvement for scenario planning practice, offers a way to incorporate ecosystem services analysis into mainstream planning processes, and serves as an example of how open source software tools can expand the range of issues available for community and regional planning consideration, even in cases where community resources are limited. The tool also offers room for future improvements; feasible options include canopy analysis of various future land use typologies, as well as a generalized street tree model for broader U.S. application. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The soils of Champaign are still alive. An assessment of socio-ecological co-evolution in viticulture using DPSIR framework.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nicolai, Annegret; Cluzeau, Daniel; Descotes, Arnaud; Georget, Cédric; Chaussod, Rémi; Nouaim-Chaussod, Rachida; Peres, Guénola; Guernion, Muriel; Cylly, Daniel; Rougé, Laurence; Garcia, Olivier; Panigai, Laurent; Moncomble, Dominique

2016-04-01

Conventional agricultural practices have lead to a loss of ecosystem services, such as soil fertility and soil integrity, water quality, and carbon storage. The importance of soil health to sustain agriculture in the future has raised sociological and political awareness. Wine growers in the Champaign have been the top one users of pesticides in France, and soils were declared by media "being dead" in the 1980ies. Using the DPSIR framework (Driving forces, Pressure, State, Impact, Response circle) we show the mechanism for the evolution of practices in viticulture between 1990 and 2010 in this region. The observed change from 90% to 33% conventional pesticide use is the result of the interaction between scientists and stakeholders via impact studies and technical advices, thereby modulating socio-economic driving forces. Until 1995, 100% of newly planted vineyard were subjected to fumigation by nematicides which represented the highest pressure in Champaign observed through the negative impact on Lombricidae biomass and diversity as well as on aging of vine. In response, a first warning message was published in 1993 in the Professional Technical Guide for Champaign's Viticulture followed by systematic yearly recommendation of alternative practices, such as 3 years of fallow before plantation. The increased fear of economic losses for vine farmers drove the nematicide treatment gradually down to 1% in 2010. The restoration of the soil's biological activities was observed progressively since 2000, associated to an improvement in ecosystem services. The assessment of Champaign's viticulture show, how studying and communicating indicators within a DPSIR framework at a regional scale allow for a directed evolution of management measures in socio-ecosystems.

Ecosystem Services Linking People to Coastal Habitats ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Background/Question/Methods: There is a growing need to incorporate and prioritize ecosystem services/condition information into land-use decision making. While there are a number of place-based studies looking at how land-use decisions affect the availability and delivery of coastal services, many of these methods require data, funding and/or expertise that may be inaccessible to many coastal communities. Using existing classification standards for beneficiaries and coastal habitats, (i.e., Final Ecosystem Goods and Services Classification System (FEGS-CS) and Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS)), a comprehensive literature review was coupled with a “weight of evidence” approach to evaluate linkages between beneficiaries and coastal habitat features most relevant to community needs. An initial search of peer-reviewed journal articles was conducted using JSTOR and ScienceDirect repositories identifying sources that provide evidence for coastal beneficiary:habitat linkages. Potential sources were further refined based on a double-blind review of titles, abstracts, and full-texts, when needed. Articles in the final list were then scored based on habitat/beneficiary specificity and data quality (e.g., indirect evidence from literature reviews was scored lower than direct evidence from case studies with valuation results). Scores were then incorporated into a weight of evidence framework summarizing the support for each benefici

Water Quality Is a Poor Predictor of Recreational Hotspots in England

PubMed Central

Mullin, Karen; Boeuf, Blandine; Fincham, William; Taylor, Nigel; Villalobos-Jiménez, Giovanna; von Vittorelli, Laura; Wolf, Christine; Fritsch, Oliver; Strauch, Michael; Seppelt, Ralf; Volk, Martin; Beckmann, Michael

2016-01-01

Maintaining and improving water quality is key to the protection and restoration of aquatic ecosystems, which provide important benefits to society. In Europe, the Water Framework Directive (WFD) defines water quality based on a set of biological, hydro-morphological and chemical targets, and aims to reach good quality conditions in all river bodies by the year 2027. While recently it has been argued that achieving these goals will deliver and enhance ecosystem services, in particular recreational services, there is little empirical evidence demonstrating so. Here we test the hypothesis that good water quality is associated with increased utilization of recreational services, combining four surveys covering walking, boating, fishing and swimming visits, together with water quality data for all water bodies in eight River Basin Districts (RBDs) in England. We compared the percentage of visits in areas of good water quality to a set of null models accounting for population density, income, age distribution, travel distance, public access, and substitutability. We expect such association to be positive, at least for fishing (which relies on fish stocks) and swimming (with direct contact to water). We also test if these services have stronger association with water quality relative to boating and walking alongside rivers, canals or lakeshores. In only two of eight RBDs (Northumbria and Anglian) were both criteria met (positive association, strongest for fishing and swimming) when comparing to at least one of the null models. This conclusion is robust to variations in dataset size. Our study suggests that achieving the WFD water quality goals may not enhance recreational ecosystem services, and calls for further empirical research on the connection between water quality and ecosystem services. PMID:27875562

An Ecosystem-Service Approach to Evaluate the Role of Non-Native Species in Urbanized Wetlands

PubMed Central

Yam, Rita S. W.; Huang, Ko-Pu; Hsieh, Hwey-Lian; Lin, Hsing-Juh; Huang, Shou-Chung

2015-01-01

Natural wetlands have been increasingly transformed into urbanized ecosystems commonly colonized by stress-tolerant non-native species. Although non-native species present numerous threats to natural ecosystems, some could provide important benefits to urbanized ecosystems. This study investigated the extent of colonization by non-native fish and bird species of three urbanized wetlands in subtropical Taiwan. Using literature data the role of each non-native species in the urbanized wetland was evaluated by their effect (benefits/damages) on ecosystem services (ES) based on their ecological traits. Our sites were seriously colonized by non-native fishes (39%–100%), but <3% by non-native birds. Although most non-native species could damage ES regulation (disease control and wastewater purification), some could be beneficial to the urbanized wetland ES. Our results indicated the importance of non-native fishes in supporting ES by serving as food source to fish-eating waterbirds (native, and migratory species) due to their high abundance, particularly for Oreochromis spp. However, all non-native birds are regarded as “harmful” species causing important ecosystem disservices, and thus eradication of these bird-invaders from urban wetlands would be needed. This simple framework for role evaluation of non-native species represents a holistic and transferable approach to facilitate decision making on management priority of non-native species in urbanized wetlands. PMID:25860870

Shifting paradigms in coastal restoration: Six decades' lessons from China.

PubMed

Liu, Zezheng; Cui, Baoshan; He, Qiang

2016-10-01

With accelerating degradation of coastal environment worldwide, restoration has been elevated as a global strategy to enhance the functioning and social services of coastal ecosystems. While many developing countries suffer from intense coastal degradation, current understanding of the science and practice of their coastal restorations is extremely limited. Based on analysis of >1000 restoration projects, we provide the first synthesis of China's coastal restorations. We show that China's coastal restoration has recently entered a rapidly developing stage, with an increasing number of restoration projects carried out in multiple types of coastal ecosystems. While long-term, national-level restorations enforced by the government appear promising for some coastal ecosystems, especially mangroves, restorations of many other coastal ecosystems, such as salt marshes, seagrasses and coral reefs, have been much less implemented, likely due to under-appreciation of their ecosystem services values. Furthermore, the planning, techniques, research/assessment, and participation models underlying current restorations remain largely inadequate for restoration to effectively halt rapid coastal degradation. To promote success, we propose a framework where paradigms in current restorations from planning to implementation and assessment are transformed in multiple ways. Our study has broad implications for coastal environmental management policies and practices, and should inform sustainable development of coupled human-ocean systems in many countries. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Ecosystem service provision: an operational way for marine biodiversity conservation and management.

PubMed

Cognetti, Giuseppe; Maltagliati, Ferruccio

2010-11-01

Since no extensive conceptual framework has been developed on the issues of ecosystem service (ES) and service provider (SP) in the marine environment, we have made an attempt to apply these to the conservation and management of marine biodiversity. Within this context, an accurate individuation of SPs, namely the biological component of a given ecosystem that supports human activities is fundamental. SPs are the agents responsible for making the ES-based approach operational. The application of these concepts to the marine environment should be based on an model different to the terrestrial one. In the latter, the basic model envisages a matrix of a human-altered landscape with fragments of original biodiversity; conversely, in the marine environment the model provides fragments where human activities are carried out and the matrix is represented by the original biodiversity. We have identified three main classes of ES provision: in natural, disturbed and human-controlled environments. Economic valuation of marine ESs is an essential condition for making conservation strategies financially sustainable, as it may stimulate the perceived need for investing in protection and exploitation of marine resources. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Managing adaptively for multifunctionality in agricultural systems

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hodbod, Jennifer; Barreteau, Olivier; Allen, Craig R.; Magda, Danièle

2016-01-01

The critical importance of agricultural systems for food security and as a dominant global landcover requires management that considers the full dimensions of system functions at appropriate scales, i.e. multifunctionality. We propose that adaptive management is the most suitable management approach for such goals, given its ability to reduce uncertainty over time and support multiple objectives within a system, for multiple actors. As such, adaptive management may be the most appropriate method for sustainably intensifying production whilst increasing the quantity and quality of ecosystem services. However, the current assessment of performance of agricultural systems doesn’t reward ecosystem service provision. Therefore, we present an overview of the ecosystem functions agricultural systems should and could provide, coupled with a revised definition for assessing the performance of agricultural systems from a multifunctional perspective that, when all satisfied, would create adaptive agricultural systems that can increase production whilst ensuring food security and the quantity and quality of ecosystem services. The outcome of this high level of performance is the capacity to respond to multiple shocks without collapse, equity and triple bottom line sustainability. Through the assessment of case studies, we find that alternatives to industrialized agricultural systems incorporate more functional goals, but that there are mixed findings as to whether these goals translate into positive measurable outcomes. We suggest that an adaptive management perspective would support the implementation of a systematic analysis of the social, ecological and economic trade-offs occurring within such systems, particularly between ecosystem services and functions, in order to provide suitable and comparable assessments. We also identify indicators to monitor performance at multiple scales in agricultural systems which can be used within an adaptive management framework to increase resilience at multiple scales.

Managing adaptively for multifunctionality in agricultural systems.

PubMed

Hodbod, Jennifer; Barreteau, Olivier; Allen, Craig; Magda, Danièle

2016-12-01

The critical importance of agricultural systems for food security and as a dominant global landcover requires management that considers the full dimensions of system functions at appropriate scales, i.e. multifunctionality. We propose that adaptive management is the most suitable management approach for such goals, given its ability to reduce uncertainty over time and support multiple objectives within a system, for multiple actors. As such, adaptive management may be the most appropriate method for sustainably intensifying production whilst increasing the quantity and quality of ecosystem services. However, the current assessment of performance of agricultural systems doesn't reward ecosystem service provision. Therefore, we present an overview of the ecosystem functions agricultural systems should and could provide, coupled with a revised definition for assessing the performance of agricultural systems from a multifunctional perspective that, when all satisfied, would create adaptive agricultural systems that can increase production whilst ensuring food security and the quantity and quality of ecosystem services. The outcome of this high level of performance is the capacity to respond to multiple shocks without collapse, equity and triple bottom line sustainability. Through the assessment of case studies, we find that alternatives to industrialized agricultural systems incorporate more functional goals, but that there are mixed findings as to whether these goals translate into positive measurable outcomes. We suggest that an adaptive management perspective would support the implementation of a systematic analysis of the social, ecological and economic trade-offs occurring within such systems, particularly between ecosystem services and functions, in order to provide suitable and comparable assessments. We also identify indicators to monitor performance at multiple scales in agricultural systems which can be used within an adaptive management framework to increase resilience at multiple scales. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Model-based Impact Assessment of an Integrated Water Management Strategy on Ecosystem Services relevant to Food Security in Namibia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Luetkemeier, R.; Liehr, S.

2012-04-01

North-central Namibia is characterized by seasonal alterations of drought and heavy rainfall, mostly saline groundwater resources and a lack of perennial rivers. Water scarcity poses a great challenge for freshwater supply, harvest and food security against the background of high population growth and climate change. CuveWaters project aims at poverty reduction and livelihood improvement on a long term basis by introducing a multi-resource-mix as part of an integrated water resources management (IWRM) approach. Herein, creating water buffers by rainwater harvesting (RWH) and subsurface water storage as well as reuse of treated wastewater facilitates micro-scale gardening activities. This link constitutes a major component of a sustainable adaptation strategy by contributing to the conservation and improvement of basic food and freshwater resources in order to reduce drought vulnerability. This paper presents main findings of an impact assessment carried out on the effect of integrated water resources management on ecosystem services (ESS) relevant to food security within the framework of CuveWaters project. North-central Namibia is perceived as a social-ecological system characterized by a strong mutual dependence between natural environment and anthropogenic system. This fundamental reliance on natural resources highlights the key role of ESS in semi-arid environments to sustain human livelihoods. Among other services, food provision was chosen for quantification as one of the most fundamental ESS in north-central Namibia. Different nutritional values were utilized as indicators to adopt a demand-supply approach (Ecosystem Service Profile) to illustrate the ability of the ecosystem to meet people's nutritional requirements. Calculations have been conducted using both Bayesian networks to incorporate uncertainty introduced by the variability of monthly precipitation and the application of plant specific water production functions. Results show that improving the water buffer and water use efficiency by facilities of the multi-resource-mix increases the amount of water available for irrigation and thus enhances intermediate and finale ESS relevant to food supply on the household scale. Furthermore, surplus water can be purified and used as an additional drinking water resource. The case study at hand shows that specific components of an IWRM approach can significantly increase the availability of supporting and provisioning ESS and thus reduce people's vulnerability to climate change and associated impacts. The model itself and the analytical framework as a whole can be utilized as a decision-support-tool in order to determine the optimal size of technological variables to maximize yields especially as a function of hydro-meteorological and socio-economic framework conditions.

Indicators of hydrological, biogeochemical and ecological integrity for estimating potential loss of ecosystem services from wetlands on domesticated landscapes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Creed, I. F.; Aldred, D.; Spargo, A.; Bayley, S.

2012-12-01

Wetlands are being lost at an alarming rate in the prairie pothole landscape of North America. The full consequence of this loss is not fully understood or recognized due to (1) inadequate or incomplete wetland inventories (with mapping emphasizing permanent and not ephemeral wetlands, and only capturing "easy to observe" wetland area defined by open water and not the true dynamic wetland extent defined by saturated soils), and (2) lack of appropriate theoretical frameworks to assess the functions and benefits of these wetlands. We present a theoretical framework that integrates indicators to estimate functions and benefits of wetland integrity in central Alberta. We establish indicators using the principles that are representative of the dominant processes operating on the landscape, are simple and are scalable. While some of these indicators may be widely recognized, their implementation is often not comprehensive or complete. First, we develop an automated method for fine scale mapping of permanent and ephemeral wetlands from a fusion of high-resolution elevation data and aerial photography. Second, we estimate historic wetland loss over the past 50 years during which intensive domestication of the landscape occurred by modeling the distribution of wetlands in an undisturbed landscape using area-frequency power functions and calculating the difference in the actual wetland inventory. Third, we define relative wetland assessment units using cluster analysis of hydrological and ecological variables, including climate, geology, topography, soils and land use/land covers. Fourth, for each assessment unit we define indicators of functions and benefits of aquatic ecosystem services including water storage (surface and subsurface), phosphorus retention, nitrate removal, sediment retention, ecological health/biodiversity and human use, and then use practical strategies rooted in the fusion of digital terrain analysis and remote sensing techniques to measure and monitor these indicators over the past years. For a time series of wetlands loss we derive these indicators of functions and benefits to estimate changes in the provision of specific aquatic ecosystem services on the landscape. Last, we develop formulae for integrating these indicators to determine whether a specific wetland or wetland complex should be prioritized for conservation, exemplifying potential trade-offs among ecosystem services in setting conservation targets on this wetland dominated landscapes. The proposed theoretical framework evolved from close collaboration between scientists and resource managers, and will inform those engaged in developing wetland policies for a broad range of jurisdictions.

Introduced and invasive species in novel rangeland ecosystems: friends or foes?

USGS Publications Warehouse

Belnap, Jayne; Ludwig, John A.; Wilcox, Bradford P.; Betancourt, Julio L.; Dean, W. Richard J.; Hoffmann, Benjamin D.; Milton, Sue J.

2012-01-01

Globally, new combinations of introduced and native plant and animal species have changed rangelands into novel ecosystems. Whereas many rangeland stakeholders (people who use or have an interest in rangelands) view intentional species introductions to improve forage and control erosion as beneficial, others focus on unintended costs, such as increased fire risk, loss of rangeland biodiversity, and threats to conservation efforts, specifically in nature reserves and parks. These conflicting views challenge all rangeland stakeholders, especially those making decisions on how best to manage novel ecosystems. To formulate a conceptual framework for decision making, we examined a wide range of novel ecosystems, created by intentional and unintentional introductions of nonnative species and land-use–facilitated spread of native ones. This framework simply divides decision making into two types: 1) straightforward–certain, and 2) complex–uncertain. We argue that management decisions to retain novel ecosystems are certain when goods and services provided by the system far outweigh the costs of restoration, for example in the case of intensively managed Cenchrus pastures. Decisions to return novel ecosystems to natural systems are also certain when the value of the system is low and restoration is easy and inexpensive as in the case of biocontrol of Opuntia infestations. In contrast, decisions whether to retain or restore novel ecosystems become complex and uncertain in cases where benefits are low and costs of control are high as, for example, in the case of stopping the expansion of Prosopis and Juniperus into semiarid rangelands. Decisions to retain or restore novel ecosystems are also complex and uncertain when, for example, nonnative Eucalyptus trees expand along natural streams, negatively affecting biodiversity, but also providing timber and honey. When decision making is complex and uncertain, we suggest that rangeland managers utilize cost–benefit analyses and hold stakeholder workshops to resolve conflicts.

CLASSIFICATION FRAMEWORK FOR COASTAL ECOSYSTEM RESPONSES TO AQUATIC STRESSORS

EPA Science Inventory

Many classification schemes have been developed to group ecosystems based on similar characteristics. To date, however, no single scheme has addressed coastal ecosystem responses to multiple stressors. We developed a classification framework for coastal ecosystems to improve the ...

[Research progress of ecosystem service flow.

PubMed

Liu, Hui Min; Fan, Yu Long; Ding, Sheng Yan

2016-07-01

With the development of social economy, human disturbance has resulted in a variety of ecosystem service degradation or disappearance. Ecosystem services flow plays an important role in delivery, transformation and maintenance of ecosystem services, and becomes one of the new research directions. In this paper, based on the classification of ecosystem services flow, we analyzed ecosystem service delivery carrier, and investigated the mechanism of ecosystem service flow, including the information, property, scale features, quantification and cartography. Moreover, a tentative analysis on cost-effective of ecosystem services flow (such as transportation costs, conversion costs, usage costs and cost of relativity) was made to analyze the consumption cost in ecosystem services flow process. It aimed to analyze dissipation cost in ecosystem services flow process. To a certain extent, the study of ecosystem service flow solved the problem of "double counting" in ecosystem services valuation, which could make a contribution for the sake of recognizing hot supply and consumption spots of ecosystem services. In addition, it would be conducive to maximizing the ecosystem service benefits in the transmission process and putting forward scientific and reasonable ecological compensation.

Ecoregions of California

USGS Publications Warehouse

Griffith, Glenn E.; Omernik, James M.; Smith, David W.; Cook, Terry D.; Tallyn, Ed; Moseley, Kendra; Johnson, Colleen B.

2016-02-23

Ecoregions denote areas of general similarity in ecosystems and in the type, quality, and quantity of environmental resources. They are designed to serve as a spatial framework for the research, assessment, management, and monitoring of ecosystems and ecosystem components. By recognizing the spatial differences in the capacities and potentials of ecosystems, ecoregions stratify the environment by its probable response to disturbance (Bryce and others, 1999). These general purpose regions are critical for structuring and implementing ecosystem management strategies across Federal agencies, State agencies, and nongovernment organizations that are responsible for different types of resources in the same geographical areas (Omernik and others, 2000).The approach used to compile this map is based on the premise that ecological regions are hierarchical and can be identified through the analysis of the spatial patterns and the composition of biotic and abiotic phenomena that affect or reflect differences in ecosystem quality and integrity (Wiken, 1986; Omernik, 1987, 1995). These phenomena include geology, physiography, vegetation, climate, soils, land use, wildlife, and hydrology. The relative importance of each characteristic varies from one ecological region to another regardless of the hierarchical level. A Roman numeral hierarchical scheme has been adopted for different levels of ecological regions. Level I is the coarsest level, dividing North America into 15 ecological regions. Level II divides the continent into 50 regions (Commission for Environmental Cooperation Working Group, 1997, map revised 2006). At level III, the continental United States contains 105 ecoregions and the conterminous United States has 85 ecoregions (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2013). Level IV, depicted here for California, is a further refinement of level III ecoregions. Explanations of the methods used to define these ecoregions are given in Omernik (1995), Omernik and others (2000), and Omernik and Griffith (2014).California has great ecological and biological diversity. The State contains offshore islands and coastal lowlands, large alluvial valleys, forested mountain ranges, deserts, and various aquatic habitats. There are 13 level III ecoregions and 177 level IV ecoregions in California and most continue into ecologically similar parts of adjacent States of the United States or Mexico (Bryce and others, 2003; Thorson and others, 2003; Griffith and others, 2014).The California ecoregion map was compiled at a scale of 1:250,000. It revises and subdivides an earlier national ecoregion map that was originally compiled at a smaller scale (Omernik, 1987; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2013). This poster is the result of a collaborative project primarily between U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) Region IX, USEPA National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory (Corvallis, Oregon), California Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)–Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), U.S. Department of the Interior–Geological Survey (USGS), and other State of California agencies and universities.The project is associated with interagency efforts to develop a common framework of ecological regions (McMahon and others, 2001). Reaching that objective requires recognition of the differences in the conceptual approaches and mapping methodologies applied to develop the most common ecoregion-type frameworks, including those developed by the USDA–Forest Service (Bailey and others, 1994; Miles and Goudy, 1997; Cleland and others, 2007), the USEPA (Omernik 1987, 1995), and the NRCS (U.S. Department of Agriculture–Soil Conservation Service, 1981; U.S. Department of Agriculture–Natural Resources Conservation Service, 2006). As each of these frameworks is further refined, their differences are becoming less discernible. Regional collaborative projects such as this one in California, where some agreement has been reached among multiple resource-management agencies, are a step toward attaining consensus and consistency in ecoregion frameworks for the entire nation.

An integrated Pan-European perspective on coastal Lagoons management through a mosaic-DPSIR approach

PubMed Central

Dolbeth, Marina; Stålnacke, Per; Alves, Fátima L.; Sousa, Lisa P.; Gooch, Geoffrey D.; Khokhlov, Valeriy; Tuchkovenko, Yurii; Lloret, Javier; Bielecka, Małgorzata; Różyński, Grzegorz; Soares, João A.; Baggett, Susan; Margonski, Piotr; Chubarenko, Boris V.; Lillebø, Ana I.

2016-01-01

A decision support framework for the management of lagoon ecosystems was tested using four European Lagoons: Ria de Aveiro (Portugal), Mar Menor (Spain), Tyligulskyi Liman (Ukraine) and Vistula Lagoon (Poland/Russia). Our aim was to formulate integrated management recommendations for European lagoons. To achieve this we followed a DPSIR (Drivers-Pressures-State Change-Impacts-Responses) approach, with focus on integrating aspects of human wellbeing, welfare and ecosystem sustainability. The most important drivers in each lagoon were identified, based on information gathered from the lagoons’ stakeholders, complemented by scientific knowledge on each lagoon as seen from a land-sea perspective. The DPSIR cycles for each driver were combined into a mosaic-DPSIR conceptual model to examine the interdependency between the multiple and interacting uses of the lagoon. This framework emphasizes the common links, but also the specificities of responses to drivers and the ecosystem services provided. The information collected was used to formulate recommendations for the sustainable management of lagoons within a Pan-European context. Several common management recommendations were proposed, but specificities were also identified. The study synthesizes the present conditions for the management of lagoons, thus analysing and examining the activities that might be developed in different scenarios, scenarios which facilitate ecosystem protection without compromising future generations. PMID:26776151

The Role of Governance in Connecting Ecosystem Services and Livelihoods: Lessons from Bangladesh

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Allan, A.; Lim, M. M. L.; Islam, N.; Salehin, M.; Rahman, M. M.

2014-12-01

National legal, policy and decision-making frameworks often undervalue or ignore ecosystem services (ES) and the ways in which they can affect livelihoods, and research projects may under-estimate the role of governance in translating research effectively into practice. Better coordination of ES and livelihoods can be fatally undermined by existing institutional frameworks and through poor implementation and follow-up of policy decisions. This can have drastic impacts on resilience as the reality may be very different from the policy intentions. The ESPA Deltas project integrates physical modelling, a multi-season social survey, scenario development and stakeholder engagement, and a governance analysis component has been incorporated into each. The project has comprehensively assessed the legal, policy and institutional context in the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna Delta in Bangladesh, identifying barriers to legal and policy implementation through intensive stakeholder engagement and desk study at local, national and international levels. There has been a high degree of agreement in the findings from each of these independent processes and across the districts assessed. This presentation illustrates how the governance research has been incorporated into the development of qualitative scenarios. It also demonstrates the extent to which policy implementation considerations have been factored into the biophysical modelling and social survey work. It identifies the challenges for adaptation strategies in Bangladesh, and draws on successful examples of policy implementation there (e.g. disaster management) to propose governance interventions that might enhance the resilience of delta inhabitants, especially in the light of the informal governance context. This research facilitates implementation of targeted governance interventions and supports the development of tools that can aid policy-makers in evaluating the impact of policy decisions on ecosystem services and livelihoods.

The Role of Governance in Connecting Ecosystem Services and Livelihoods: Lessons from Bangladesh

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Allan, Andrew; Lim, Michelle; Islam, Nabiul; Salehin, Mashfiqus; Munsur Rahman, Md.

2015-04-01

National legal, policy and decision-making frameworks often undervalue or ignore ecosystem services (ES) and the ways in which they can affect livelihoods, and research projects may under-estimate the role of governance in translating research effectively into practice. Better coordination of ES and livelihoods can be fatally undermined by existing institutional frameworks and through poor implementation and follow-up of policy decisions. This can have drastic impacts on resilience as the reality may be very different from the policy intentions. The ESPA Deltas project integrates physical modelling, a multi-season social survey, scenario development and stakeholder engagement, and a governance analysis component has been incorporated into each. The project has comprehensively assessed the legal, policy and institutional context in Bangladesh, identifying barriers to legal and policy implementation through intensive stakeholder engagement and desk study at local, national and international levels. There has been a high degree of agreement in the findings from each of these independent processes and across the districts assessed. This presentation illustrates how the governance research has been incorporated into the development of qualitative scenarios. It also demonstrates the extent to which policy implementation considerations have been factored into the biophysical modelling and social survey work. It identifies the challenges for adaptation strategies in Bangladesh, and draws on successful examples of policy implementation there (e.g. disaster management) to propose governance interventions that might enhance the resilience of delta inhabitants, especially in the light of the informal governance context. This research facilitates implementation of targeted governance interventions and supports the development of tools that can aid policy-makers in evaluating the impact of policy decisions on ecosystem services and livelihoods.

Monitoring and evaluating citizen-agency interactions: a framework developed for adaptive management.

Treesearch

Bruce Shindler; Kristin Aldred Cheek; George H. Stankey

1999-01-01

As the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management turn toward ecosystem and adaptive models of forest stewardship, they are being called on to develop meaningful and lasting relations with citizens. These new management styles require not only improved strategies for public involvement but also methods to examine the interactions between citizens and agencies in...

Status of the interior Columbia Basin: summary of scientific findings.

Treesearch

Forest Service. U.S. Department of Agriculture

1996-01-01

The Status of the Interior Columbia Basin is a summary of the scientific findings from the Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Project. The Interior Columbia Basin includes some 145 million acres within the northwestern United Stales. Over 75 million acres of this area are managed by the USDA Forest Service or the USDI Bureau of Land Management. A framework...

Making decisions in complex landscapes: Headwater stream management across multiple federal agencies

USGS Publications Warehouse

Katz, Rachel; Grant, Evan H. Campbell; Runge, Michael C.; Connery, Bruce; Crockett, Marquette; Herland, Libby; Johnson, Sheela; Kirk, Dawn; Wofford, Jeb; Bennett, Rick; Nislow, Keith; Norris, Marian; Hocking, Daniel; Letcher, Benjamin; Roy, Allison

2014-01-01

Headwater stream ecosystems are vulnerable to numerous threats associated with climate and land use change. In the northeastern US, many headwater stream species (e.g., brook trout and stream salamanders) are of special conservation concern and may be vulnerable to climate change influences, such as changes in stream temperature and streamflow. Federal land management agencies (e.g., US Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, USDA Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and Department of Defense) are required to adopt policies that respond to climate change and may have longer-term institutional support to enforce such policies compared to state, local, non-governmental, or private land managers. However, federal agencies largely make management decisions in regards to headwater stream ecosystems independently. This fragmentation of management resources and responsibilities across the landscape may significantly impede the efficiency and effectiveness of conservation actions, and higher degrees of collaboration may be required to achieve conservation goals. This project seeks to provide an example of cooperative landscape decision-making to address the conservation of headwater stream ecosystems. We identified shared and contrasting objectives of each federal agency and potential collaboration opportunities that may increase efficient and effective management of headwater stream ecosystems in two northeastern US watersheds. These workshops provided useful insights into the adaptive capacity of federal institutions to address threats to headwater stream ecosystems. Our ultimate goal is to provide a decision-making framework and analysis that addresses large-scale conservation threats across multiple stakeholders, as a demonstration of cooperative landscape conservation for aquatic ecosystems. Additionally, we aim to provide new scientific knowledge and a regional perspective to resource managers to help inform local management decisions.

Decoding ecosystem services using a DSRP approach ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Remediation to Restoration to Revitalization (R2R2R) is a place-based practice that requires ongoing communication amongst agencies, local governments, and citizens. One of the challenges is that each of these entities have different relationships with and responsibilities to sites where R2R2R unfolds. Sediment remediation and habitat restoration project goals, community planning, and lived experiences diverge in scale, focus, and interaction depending on the agency or individual. A DSRP approach can be useful to identify and explain how different individuals and organizations value a space. We applied some Distinctions-Systems-Relationships-Perspectives (DSRP) approach (Cabrera et al., 2015) to develop a framework to sort and classify data and identify ecosystem services collected through inductive methods like participant observation and document analysis. The framework that emerged from the analysis includes neighborhood components that individuals, organizations, and local governments may discuss in the context of their community. The characteristics are a mix of built environment types, structural dimensions, personal experiences, and human-environment relationships and include: parks/open spaces, trails or connections, housing, schools, infrastructure, local businesses, macro-economy, natural features, governmental rules or regulations, demographics/crime statistics/health care facilities, safety, self-determination or participation, identity, social coh

Using Spatial Subsidies to Account for Telecoupling in the Ecosystem Services of Transboundary Migratory Species in North America

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lopez-Hoffman, L.; Semmens, D. J.; Diffendorfer, J.; Thogmartin, W.

2016-12-01

In complex coupled natural-human systems, drivers of change in one location can have profound effects on human well-being in distant locations, often across international borders. While the conceptual framework of telecoupling describes these interactions across space, the ability to quantify feedbacks between ecosystem change in one area and societal benefits in other areas requires quantitative analytical approaches. We use a new approach—spatial subsidies—to operationalize the concept of telecoupling by measuring the degree to which a migratory species' ability to provide services in one location depends on habitat in another location. Spatial subsidies can be use identify critical features of telecoupled systems such as sending and receiving areas and to measure the strength of coupling between areas. We present spatial subsidies analyses for the telecoupled natural-human systems of three North American migratory species: Monarch butterflies, Mexican free-tailed bats and Northern Pintails (a dabbling duck). Spatial subsidies and the telecoupling conceptual framework have potential to be the foundation for new policies related to migratory species, such as the strategic direction of Duck Stamp revenues and the development of similar programs for other migratory species.

Urban ecosystem services and decision making for a green Philadelphia

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hogan, Dianna M.; Shapiro, Carl D.; Karp, David N.; Wachter, Susan M.

2014-01-01

Traditional approaches to urban development often do not account for, or recognize, the role of ecosystem services and the benefits these services provide to the health and well-being of city residents. Without such accounting, urban ecosystem services are likely to be degraded over time, with negative consequences for the sustainability of cities and the well-being of their residents (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005; Hirsch, 2008). On May 23, 2013, the Spatial Integration Laboratory for Urban Systems (SILUS), a collaboration between the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Science and Decisions Center and the Wharton GIS Lab, convened a one-day symposium—Urban Ecosystem Services and Decision Making: A Green Philadelphia—at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to examine the role of green infrastructure in the environmental, economic, and social well-being of cities. Cosponsored by the USGS and the Penn Institute for Urban Research (Penn IUR), the symposium brought together policymakers, practitioners, and researchers from a range of disciplines to advance a research agenda on the use of science in public decision making to inform investment in green infrastructure and ecosystem services in urban areas. The city of Philadelphia has recently implemented a program designed to sustain urban ecosystem services and advance the use of green infrastructure. In 2009, the Philadelphia Mayor’s Office of Sustainability launched its Greenworks plan, establishing a citywide sustainability strategy. Major contributions towards its goals are being implemented in coordination with the Philadelphia Water Department (PWD). The Green City, Clean Waters initiative, the city’s nationally recognized stormwater management plan, was signed into action with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in April 2012. The plan outlines a 25-year strategy to use green infrastructure to protect and improve the city’s watershed. Widespread support for the plan marks a citywide effort to factor environmental quality concerns into the city’s strategic planning, choosing to replace expensive and aging grey infrastructure, with innovative and resilient green infrastructure. The symposium focused on these city of Philadelphia initiatives and also on two new Federal- local partnership programs: America’s Great Outdoors, initiated to promote conservation and recreation, and the Urban Waters Federal Partnership, a multiagency effort to reconnect urban communities to their waterways. A second goal of the symposium was to advance a research agenda on urban ecosystem services. While there has been considerable work on ecosystem services, the discussion of the benefits provided by urban ecosystems is not as developed. Benefits range from improved water and air quality to quality of life gains, including aesthetic and recreational considerations. There is also need for additional focused research toward furthering the understanding of the multiple indirect benefits provided by urban ecosystem services (Bolund and Hunhammar, 1999). Moreover, there is a need for a greater understanding of how best to inform local decision making in this area, as local decision makers in cities across the country are increasingly recognizing the importance of developing sustainability measures for their immediate and long-term planning (United States Conference of Mayors, 2005). Approaching these local and regional plans from a holistic perspective has become a guiding principle of sustainability and resiliency. Therefore, there is a need to better understand the gains that have been achieved and to advance a research agenda on ecosystem services going forward. The day’s program included presentations on greening initiatives from the Philadelphia’s Mayor’s Office of Sustainability, as well as discussion about using an urban ecosystem services framework to evaluate these initiatives. Panel sessions included discussion of the Green City, Clean Waters initiative; a dialogue about the management of urban trees and green space; and a conversation addressing the needs for future research.

Identifying governance strategies that effectively support ecosystem services, resource sustainability, and biodiversity

PubMed Central

Kenward, R. E.; Whittingham, M. J.; Arampatzis, S.; Manos, B. D.; Hahn, T.; Terry, A.; Simoncini, R.; Alcorn, J.; Bastian, O.; Donlan, M.; Elowe, K.; Franzén, F.; Karacsonyi, Z.; Larsson, M.; Manou, D.; Navodaru, I.; Papadopoulou, O.; Papathanasiou, J.; von Raggamby, A.; Sharp, R. J. A.; Söderqvist, T.; Soutukorva, Å.; Vavrova, L.; Aebischer, N. J.; Leader-Williams, N.; Rutz, C.

2011-01-01

Conservation scientists, national governments, and international conservation groups seek to devise, and implement, governance strategies that mitigate human impact on the environment. However, few studies to date have systematically investigated the performance of different systems of governance in achieving successful conservation outcomes. Here, we use a newly-developed analytic framework to conduct analyses of a suite of case studies, linking different governance strategies to standardized scores for delivering ecosystem services, achieving sustainable use of natural resources, and conserving biodiversity, at both local and international levels. Our results: (i) confirm the benefits of adaptive management; and (ii) reveal strong associations for the role of leadership. Our work provides a critical step toward implementing empirically justified governance strategies that are capable of improving the management of human-altered environments, with benefits for both biodiversity and people. PMID:21402916

Conservation of soil organic carbon, biodiversity and the provision of other ecosystem services along climatic gradients in West Africa

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marks, E.; Aflakpui, G. K. S.; Nkem, J.; Poch, R. M.; Khouma, M.; Kokou, K.; Sagoe, R.; Sebastiã, M.-T.

2008-11-01

Terrestrial carbon resources are major drivers of development in West Africa. The distribution of these resources co-varies with ecosystem type and rainfall along a strong Northeast-Southwest climatic gradient. Soil organic carbon, a strong indicator of soil quality, has been severely depleted in some areas by human activities, which leads to issues of soil erosion and desertification, but this trend can be altered via appropriate management. There is significant potential to enhance existing soil carbon stores in West Africa, with benefits at the global and local scales, for atmospheric CO2 mitigation and supporting, and provisioning ecosystem services, respectively. Three key factors impacting carbon stocks are addressed in this review: climate, biotic factors, and human activities. Climate risks must be considered in a framework of global change, especially in West Africa, where landscape managers have few resources available to adapt to climatic perturbations. Among biotic factors, biodiversity conservation paired with carbon conservation may provide a pathway to sustainable development, as evidence suggests that both may be inter-linked, and biodiversity conservation is also a global priority with local benefits for ecosystem resilience, biomass productivity, and provisioning services such as foodstuffs. Finally, human management has largely been responsible for reduced carbon stocks, but this trend can be reversed through the implementation of appropriate carbon conservation strategies in the agricultural sector, as shown by multiple studies. Owing to the strong regional climatic gradient, country-level initiatives will need to consider carbon sequestration approaches for multiple ecosystem types. Given the diversity of environments, global policies must be adapted and strategised at the national or sub-national levels to improve C storage above and belowground. Initiatives of this sort must act locally at farmer scale, and focus on ecosystem services rather than on carbon sequestration solely.

Focusing Conservation Efforts on Ecosystem Service Supply May Increase Vulnerability of Socio-Ecological Systems

PubMed Central

Barral, Paula; Carmona, Alejandra; Nahuelhual, Laura

2016-01-01

Growing concern about the loss of ecosystem services (ES) promotes their spatial representation as a key tool for the internalization of the ES framework into land use policies. Paradoxically, mapping approaches meant to inform policy decisions focus on the magnitude and spatial distribution of the biophysical supply of ES, largely ignoring the social mechanisms by which these services influence human wellbeing. If social mechanisms affecting ES demand, enhancing it or reducing it, are taken more into account, then policies are more effective. By developing and applying a new mapping routine to two distinct socio-ecological systems, we show a strong spatial uncoupling between ES supply and socio-ecological vulnerability to the loss of ES, under scenarios of land use and cover change. Public policies based on ES supply might not only fail at detecting priority conservation areas for the wellbeing of human societies, but may also increase their vulnerability by neglecting areas of currently low, but highly valued ES supply. PMID:27167737

Focusing Conservation Efforts on Ecosystem Service Supply May Increase Vulnerability of Socio-Ecological Systems.

PubMed

Laterra, Pedro; Barral, Paula; Carmona, Alejandra; Nahuelhual, Laura

2016-01-01

Growing concern about the loss of ecosystem services (ES) promotes their spatial representation as a key tool for the internalization of the ES framework into land use policies. Paradoxically, mapping approaches meant to inform policy decisions focus on the magnitude and spatial distribution of the biophysical supply of ES, largely ignoring the social mechanisms by which these services influence human wellbeing. If social mechanisms affecting ES demand, enhancing it or reducing it, are taken more into account, then policies are more effective. By developing and applying a new mapping routine to two distinct socio-ecological systems, we show a strong spatial uncoupling between ES supply and socio-ecological vulnerability to the loss of ES, under scenarios of land use and cover change. Public policies based on ES supply might not only fail at detecting priority conservation areas for the wellbeing of human societies, but may also increase their vulnerability by neglecting areas of currently low, but highly valued ES supply.

Evaluating the hydrological functioning and the supply of water provisioning services to support the ecosystem-water-food-energy nexus in the Arno river basin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pacetti, Tommaso; Willaarts, Barbara; Caporali, Enrica; Schroeder Esselbach, Boris

2017-04-01

Water, flowing in a basin, underpins key provisioning ecosystem services like freshwater supply, food and energy production. River basin management largely determines the type of water-related ecosystem services (WES) that are provided and the extent to which trade-offs and synergies might arise. Gaining insights on the ecohydrological behavior of a basin and on the conflicting anthropic pressures on the available water resources allows to identify the most important WES, as well as the existence of WES supply and demand hotspots. This information is crucial for water resources management and, in the context of the European Union, also required to comply with the requirements of the Water Framework Directive (WFD). The purpose of this research is to quantify the provisioning WES in the upstream part of the Arno river basin (Central Italy) and identify WES hotspots and fluxes. Current information on how water is allocated in the Arno basin remains scarce, despite the increasing water demand by some sectors, particularly irrigation, and a number of emerging conflicts among users. It is expected that research outputs can support the improvement of the existing management framework, moving from the classical DPSIR (Driving forces, Pressure, State, Impact e Response) approach, where impacts must be reduced or mitigated, to a more proactive framework to support the sustainability of the Arno basin and meet the different policy goals. The eco-hydrological model SWAT (Soil Water Assessment Tool) is applied to spatially quantify the provision of WES. The preliminary results of this research indicate that the highest amount of water yield, i.e. net amount of water that contributes to streamflow and represents the main blue water fund, originates in the northern part of the basin, characterized by forest areas. In contrast, the southern part of the basin, which is mainly agriculturally used, gives a minor contribution to the overall water yield, in direct proportion to the precipitation. In order to highlight the role of green water in irrigated land, potential green water funds are also estimated on the basis of the available soil water content simulated by SWAT. The water provisioning for the different sectorial uses, which represent the actual flow of the ecosystem services, have been estimated for every sector at the subbasin or municipality scale: agriculture is the most water intensive sector followed by industrial, domestic and hydropower water use. Comparing the water withdrawals and the water yield, WES supply (mainly located in the northern part of the basin) and demand hotspots (mainly in the central and southern part of the basin) are identified. This analysis framework highlights WES fluxes that connect supply and demand areas and supports the understanding of the tradeoffs between different water users, aiming at the improvement of the WES provision within the water resources system.

The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES): Enhancing Collaboration to Support Science-Based Decision-Making

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Duke, C. S.; Quach, K.; Jackson, S. T.

2015-12-01

The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) offers major opportunities to enhance scientific collaboration and advance global environmental sustainability. IPBES was established in 2012 as an independent intergovernmental body dedicated to assessing the state of the planet's biodiversity, its ecosystems, and the essential services they provide to society. IPBES has four functions: 1) identify and prioritize key scientific information needed for policymakers and catalyze efforts to generate new knowledge by engaging relevant scientific, policy and funding organizations; 2) perform regular and timely assessments of knowledge on biodiversity and ecosystem services and their interlinkages; 3) support policy formulation and implementation by identifying policy-relevant tools and methodologies; and 4) prioritize key capacity-building needs to improve the science-policy interface and catalyze related financing. To date, IPBES has brought together representatives of 124 countries at three annual plenary meetings and numerous panel meetings about specific assessments. This presentation will summarize IPBES' opportunities and achievements to date. These include a conceptual framework for IPBES processes and products, an assessment of the status of pollination and pollinators associated with food production, draft reports on scenario analyses and capacity building, and scoping for assessments of land degradation and restoration and of biodiversity in five regions of the world. IPBES provides natural and social scientists and other experts with important opportunities to support collaborative, science-based environmental decision-making at global to local scales. The presentation will conclude by describing opportunities to participate as expert panel members, contributors to assessments, and reviewers.

The deep ocean under climate change

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Levin, Lisa A.; Le Bris, Nadine

2015-11-01

The deep ocean absorbs vast amounts of heat and carbon dioxide, providing a critical buffer to climate change but exposing vulnerable ecosystems to combined stresses of warming, ocean acidification, deoxygenation, and altered food inputs. Resulting changes may threaten biodiversity and compromise key ocean services that maintain a healthy planet and human livelihoods. There exist large gaps in understanding of the physical and ecological feedbacks that will occur. Explicit recognition of deep-ocean climate mitigation and inclusion in adaptation planning by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) could help to expand deep-ocean research and observation and to protect the integrity and functions of deep-ocean ecosystems.

Identifying priority areas for ecosystem service management in South African grasslands.

PubMed

Egoh, Benis N; Reyers, Belinda; Rouget, Mathieu; Richardson, David M

2011-06-01

Grasslands provide many ecosystem services required to support human well-being and are home to a diverse fauna and flora. Degradation of grasslands due to agriculture and other forms of land use threaten biodiversity and ecosystem services. Various efforts are underway around the world to stem these declines. The Grassland Programme in South Africa is one such initiative and is aimed at safeguarding both biodiversity and ecosystem services. As part of this developing programme, we identified spatial priority areas for ecosystem services, tested the effect of different target levels of ecosystem services used to identify priority areas, and evaluated whether biodiversity priority areas can be aligned with those for ecosystem services. We mapped five ecosystem services (below ground carbon storage, surface water supply, water flow regulation, soil accumulation and soil retention) and identified priority areas for individual ecosystem services and for all five services at the scale of quaternary catchments. Planning for individual ecosystem services showed that, depending on the ecosystem service of interest, between 4% and 13% of the grassland biome was required to conserve at least 40% of the soil and water services. Thirty-four percent of the biome was needed to conserve 40% of the carbon service in the grassland. Priority areas identified for five ecosystem services under three target levels (20%, 40%, 60% of the total amount) showed that between 17% and 56% of the grassland biome was needed to conserve these ecosystem services. There was moderate to high overlap between priority areas selected for ecosystem services and already-identified terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity priority areas. This level of overlap coupled with low irreplaceability values obtained when planning for individual ecosystem services makes it possible to combine biodiversity and ecosystem services in one plan using systematic conservation planning. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Ecosystem Vulnerability Review: Proposal of an Interdisciplinary Ecosystem Assessment Approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Weißhuhn, Peter; Müller, Felix; Wiggering, Hubert

2018-06-01

To safeguard the sustainable use of ecosystems and their services, early detection of potentially damaging changes in functional capabilities is needed. To support a proper ecosystem management, the analysis of an ecosystem's vulnerability provide information on its weaknesses as well as on its capacity to recover after suffering an impact. However, the application of the vulnerability concept to ecosystems is still an emerging topic. After providing background on the vulnerability concept, we summarize existing ecosystem vulnerability research on the basis of a systematic literature review with a special focus on ecosystem type, disciplinary background, and more detailed definition of the ecosystem vulnerability components. Using the Web of ScienceTM Core Collection, we overviewed the literature from 1991 onwards but used the 5 years from 2011 to 2015 for an in-depth analysis, including 129 articles. We found that ecosystem vulnerability analysis has been applied most notably in conservation biology, climate change research, and ecological risk assessments, pinpointing a limited spreading across the environmental sciences. It occurred primarily within marine and freshwater ecosystems. To avoid confusion, we recommend using the unambiguous term ecosystem vulnerability rather than ecological, environmental, population, or community vulnerability. Further, common ground has been identified, on which to define the ecosystem vulnerability components exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity. We propose a framework for ecosystem assessments that coherently connects the concepts of vulnerability, resilience, and adaptability as different ecosystem responses. A short outlook on the possible operationalization of the concept by ecosystem vulnerabilty indices, and a conclusion section complete the review.

Ecosystem Vulnerability Review: Proposal of an Interdisciplinary Ecosystem Assessment Approach.

PubMed

Weißhuhn, Peter; Müller, Felix; Wiggering, Hubert

2018-06-01

To safeguard the sustainable use of ecosystems and their services, early detection of potentially damaging changes in functional capabilities is needed. To support a proper ecosystem management, the analysis of an ecosystem's vulnerability provide information on its weaknesses as well as on its capacity to recover after suffering an impact. However, the application of the vulnerability concept to ecosystems is still an emerging topic. After providing background on the vulnerability concept, we summarize existing ecosystem vulnerability research on the basis of a systematic literature review with a special focus on ecosystem type, disciplinary background, and more detailed definition of the ecosystem vulnerability components. Using the Web of Science TM Core Collection, we overviewed the literature from 1991 onwards but used the 5 years from 2011 to 2015 for an in-depth analysis, including 129 articles. We found that ecosystem vulnerability analysis has been applied most notably in conservation biology, climate change research, and ecological risk assessments, pinpointing a limited spreading across the environmental sciences. It occurred primarily within marine and freshwater ecosystems. To avoid confusion, we recommend using the unambiguous term ecosystem vulnerability rather than ecological, environmental, population, or community vulnerability. Further, common ground has been identified, on which to define the ecosystem vulnerability components exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity. We propose a framework for ecosystem assessments that coherently connects the concepts of vulnerability, resilience, and adaptability as different ecosystem responses. A short outlook on the possible operationalization of the concept by ecosystem vulnerabilty indices, and a conclusion section complete the review.

Poverty, development, and Himalayan ecosystems.

PubMed

Sandhu, Harpinder; Sandhu, Sukhbir

2015-05-01

The Himalayas are rich in biodiversity but vulnerable to anthropogenic pressures. They are also host to growing number of rural poor who are dependent on forest and ecosystem services for their livelihood. Local and global efforts to integrate poverty alleviation and biodiversity conservation in the Himalayas remain elusive so far. In this work, we highlight two key impediments in achieving sustainable development in the Himalayas. On the positive side, we also highlight the work of Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), a research organization based in India that seeks to integrate biodiversity concerns with livelihood security. For impediments, we draw on two examples from the Darjeeling district, India, in Eastern Himalayan region to illustrate how development organizations are failing to simultaneously address poverty and environmental issues. Based on the success of ATREE, we then propose a conceptual framework to integrate livelihood generating activities with sustainable and equitable development agenda. We recommend developing a Hindu-Kush Himalayan Ecosystem Services Network in the region to formulate a strategy for further action. We conclude by offering measures to address the challenge of integrating livelihood and environment issues through this network.

Uncovering ecosystem service bundles through social preferences.

PubMed

Martín-López, Berta; Iniesta-Arandia, Irene; García-Llorente, Marina; Palomo, Ignacio; Casado-Arzuaga, Izaskun; Amo, David García Del; Gómez-Baggethun, Erik; Oteros-Rozas, Elisa; Palacios-Agundez, Igone; Willaarts, Bárbara; González, José A; Santos-Martín, Fernando; Onaindia, Miren; López-Santiago, Cesar; Montes, Carlos

2012-01-01

Ecosystem service assessments have increasingly been used to support environmental management policies, mainly based on biophysical and economic indicators. However, few studies have coped with the social-cultural dimension of ecosystem services, despite being considered a research priority. We examined how ecosystem service bundles and trade-offs emerge from diverging social preferences toward ecosystem services delivered by various types of ecosystems in Spain. We conducted 3,379 direct face-to-face questionnaires in eight different case study sites from 2007 to 2011. Overall, 90.5% of the sampled population recognized the ecosystem's capacity to deliver services. Formal studies, environmental behavior, and gender variables influenced the probability of people recognizing the ecosystem's capacity to provide services. The ecosystem services most frequently perceived by people were regulating services; of those, air purification held the greatest importance. However, statistical analysis showed that socio-cultural factors and the conservation management strategy of ecosystems (i.e., National Park, Natural Park, or a non-protected area) have an effect on social preferences toward ecosystem services. Ecosystem service trade-offs and bundles were identified by analyzing social preferences through multivariate analysis (redundancy analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis). We found a clear trade-off among provisioning services (and recreational hunting) versus regulating services and almost all cultural services. We identified three ecosystem service bundles associated with the conservation management strategy and the rural-urban gradient. We conclude that socio-cultural preferences toward ecosystem services can serve as a tool to identify relevant services for people, the factors underlying these social preferences, and emerging ecosystem service bundles and trade-offs.

Ecosystem services capacity across heterogeneous forest types: understanding the interactions and suggesting pathways for sustaining multiple ecosystem services.

PubMed

Alamgir, Mohammed; Turton, Stephen M; Macgregor, Colin J; Pert, Petina L

2016-10-01

As ecosystem services supply from tropical forests is declining due to deforestation and forest degradation, much effort is essential to sustain ecosystem services supply from tropical forested landscapes, because tropical forests provide the largest flow of multiple ecosystem services among the terrestrial ecosystems. In order to sustain multiple ecosystem services, understanding ecosystem services capacity across heterogeneous forest types and identifying certain ecosystem services that could be managed to leverage positive effects across the wider bundle of ecosystem services are required. We sampled three forest types, tropical rainforests, sclerophyll forests, and rehabilitated plantation forests, over an area of 32,000m(2) from Wet Tropics bioregion, Australia, aiming to compare supply and evaluate interactions and patterns of eight ecosystem services (global climate regulation, air quality regulation, erosion regulation, nutrient regulation, cyclone protection, habitat provision, energy provision, and timber provision). On average, multiple ecosystem services were highest in the rainforests, lowest in sclerophyll forests, and intermediate in rehabilitated plantation forests. However, a wide variation was apparent among the plots across the three forest types. Global climate regulation service had a synergistic impact on the supply of multiple ecosystem services, while nutrient regulation service was found to have a trade-off impact. Considering multiple ecosystem services, most of the rehabilitated plantation forest plots shared the same ordination space with rainforest plots in the ordination analysis, indicating that rehabilitated plantation forests may supply certain ecosystem services nearly equivalent to rainforests. Two synergy groups and one trade-off group were identified. Apart from conserving rainforests and sclerophyll forests, our findings suggest two additional integrated pathways to sustain the supply of multiple ecosystem services from a heterogeneous tropical forest landscape: (i) rehabilitation of degraded forests aiming to provide global climate regulation and habitat provision ecosystem services and (ii) management intervention to sustain global climate regulation and habitat provision ecosystem services. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Attempts for an integrative (ecological) assessment of groundwater ecosystems status

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Griebler, Christian; Kellermann, Claudia; Jürgen Hahn, Hans; Stein, Heide; Brielmann, Heike; Berkhoff, Sven; Fuchs, Andreas

2014-05-01

Today the assessment of the ecological status of surface waters is routine and made its way into national and international (e.g. European Water Framework Directive) regulations. For groundwater and aquifers a comparable approach, considering ecological aspects, is still missing. In contrast, groundwater monitoring and management schemes follow exclusively physical-chemical and quantitative criteria. However, groundwater systems are, although persistently neglected, ecosystems harboring diverse communities of microorganisms and invertebrates. Directly linked to the biological components, groundwater systems provide various ecosystem services of societal relevance (natural production of clean drinking water). In the recent past, we developed a first concept of an ecologically sound assessment scheme for groundwater systems. Work included (1) the selection of appropriate biological/ecological criteria, (2) set-up of a groundwater ecosystem typology, (3) deduction of natural biological groundwater background values and definition of reference conditions for selected sites, and (4) a first evaluation model. Groundwater has been analyzed repeatedly of more than 100 wells distributed over five investigation areas spread all over Germany. The investigated sites could be assigned to different natural regions, geological regions, hydrogeological units, and aquifer types. The mismatch of groundwater faunal communities with the established classification schemes led to the proposal of 'stygoregions' for Germany. The presentation introduces a number of microbial and faunistic assessment criteria, which have been tested and natural background values which have been deduced. Finally, a tiered framework for assessing groundwater ecosystem status which allows an easy and fast evaluation is introduced.

[Ecosystem services supply and consumption and their relationships with human well-being].

PubMed

Wang, Da-Shang; Zheng, Hua; Ouyang, Zhi-Yun

2013-06-01

Sustainable ecosystem services supply is the basis of regional sustainable development, and human beings can satisfy and improve their well-being through ecosystem services consumption. To understand the relationships between ecosystem services supply and consumption and human well-being is of vital importance for coordinating the relationships between the conservation of ecosystem services and the improvement of human well-being. This paper summarized the diversity, complexity, and regionality of ecosystem services supply, the diversity and indispensability of ecosystem services consumption, and the multi-dimension, regionality, and various evaluation indices of human well-being, analyzed the uncertainty and multi-scale correlations between ecosystem services supply and consumption, and elaborated the feedback and asynchronous relationships between ecosystem services and human well-being. Some further research directions for the relationships between ecosystem services supply and consumption and human well-being were recommended.

Achievable future conditions as a framework for guiding forest conservation and management

Treesearch

S.W. Golladay; K.L. Martin; J. M. Vose; D. N. Wear; A.P. Covich; R.J. Hobbs; Kier Klepzig; G.E. Likens; R.J. Naiman; A.W. Shearer

2016-01-01

We contend that traditional approaches to forest conservation and management will be inadequate given the predicted scale of social-economic and biophysical changes in the 21st century. New approaches, focused on anticipating and guiding ecological responses to change, are urgently needed to ensure the full value of forest ecosystem services for future generations....

Using an agent-based model to examine forest management outcomes in a fire-prone landscape in Oregon, USA

Treesearch

Thomas A. Spies; Eric White; Alan Ager; Jeffrey D. Kline; John P. Bolte; Emily K. Platt; Keith A. Olsen; Robert J. Pabst; Ana M. G. Barros; John D. Bailey; Susan Charnley; Anita T. Morzillo; Jennifer Koch; Michelle M. Steen-Adams; Peter H. Singleton; James Sulzman; Cynthia Schwartz; Blair Csuti

2017-01-01

Fire-prone landscapes present many challenges for both managers and policy makers in developing adaptive behaviors and institutions. We used a coupled human and natural systems framework and an agent-based landscape model to examine how alternative management scenarios affect fire and ecosystem services metrics in a fire-prone multiownership landscape in the eastern...

Effects of climatic variability and change on forest ecosystems: a comprehensive science synthesis for the U.S

Treesearch

James M. Vose; David L. Peterson; Toral Patel-Weynand

2012-01-01

This report is a scientific assessment of the current condition and likely future condition of forest resources in the United States relative to climatic variability and change. It serves as the U.S. Forest Service forest sector technical report for the National Climate Assessment and includes descriptions of key regional issues and examples of a risk-based framework...

The Legacy Ecosystem Management Framework: From Theory to Application in the Detention Pond Case Study

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Coty, J; Stevenson, M; Vogt, K A

The Detention Pond is a constructed and lined storm water treatment basin at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory that serves multiple stakeholder objectives and programmatic goals. This paper examines the process and outcome involved in the development of a new management plan for the Detention Pond. The plan was created using a new ecosystem management tool, the Legacy Framework. This stakeholder-driven conceptual framework provides an interdisciplinary methodology for determining ecosystem health, appropriate management strategies, and sensitive indicators. The conceptual framework, the Detention Ponds project, and the use of the framework in the context of the project, are described and evaluated, andmore » evaluative criteria for this and other ecosystem management frameworks are offered. The project benefited in several ways from use of the Legacy Framework, although refinements to the framework are suggested. The stakeholder process created a context and environment in which team members became receptive to using an ecosystem management approach to evaluate and support management alternatives previously not considered. This allowed for the unanimous agreement to pursue support from upper management and organizational funding to implement a progressive management strategy. The greatly improved stakeholder relations resulted in upper management support for the project.« less

Whole system analysis of second generation bioenergy production and Ecosystem Services in Europe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Henner, Dagmar; Smith, Pete; Davies, Christian; McNamara, Niall

2017-04-01

Bioenergy crops are an important source of renewable energy and are a possible mechanism to mitigate global climate warming, by replacing fossil fuel energy that has higher greenhouse gas emissions. There is, however, uncertainty about the impacts of the growth of bioenergy crops on ecosystem services. This uncertainty is further enhanced by current climate change. It is important to establish how second generation bioenergy crops (Miscanthus, SRC willow and poplar) can contribute by closing the gap between reducing fossil fuel use and increasing the use of other renewable sources in a sustainable way. The project builds on models of energy crop production, biodiversity, soil impacts, greenhouse gas emissions and other ecosystem services, and on work undertaken in the UK on the ETI-funded ELUM project (www.elum.ac.uk). We will present estimated yields for the above named crops in Europe using the ECOSSE, DayCent, SalixFor and MiscanFor models. These yields will be brought into context with a whole system analysis, detailing trade-offs and synergies for land use change, food security, GHG emissions and soil and water security. Methods like water footprint tools, tourism value maps and ecosystem valuation tools and models (e.g. InVest, TEEB database, GREET LCA Model, World Business Council for Sustainable Development corporate ecosystem valuation, Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and the Ecosystem Services Framework) will be used to estimate and visualise the impacts of increased use of second generation bioenergy crops on the above named ecosystem services. The results will be linked to potential yields to generate "inclusion or exclusion areas" in Europe in order to establish suitable areas for bioenergy crop production and the extent of use possible. Policy is an important factor for using second generation bioenergy crops in a sustainable way. We will present how whole system analysis can be used to create scenarios for countries or on a continental scale. As an example, we will present two scenarios for the whole system on a country basis, based on current renewable energy policy, to visualise the impact of changing policy on the use of bioenergy crops. This will include the economic implications which are directly linked to renewable energy policy, best practice management recommendations, impacts on land use change and food security as well as synergies and trade-offs on other ecosystem services (GHG emission, soil C, nitrogen, water and air security). The aim is to show how second generation bioenergy crops can be used sustainably and what is needed to do this successfully on a large scale. The results can form a basis for future policy development in order to reach the goals of the Paris 2015 agreement.

Functional Classification of Natural Resources for Valuing Natural Resources in Korea

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Choi, H.; Lee, W.; Kwak, H.

2013-12-01

The ecosystem services concept emphasizes not only regulating services, but also supporting, provisioning, and cultural/social services according to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA). While the spatial and quantifying of ecosystem services is becoming increasingly recognized for natural resources conservation, however, due to methodological challenges, ecosystem services quantification is rarely considered in Republic of Korea (ROK). This study matches appropriate indicators, data and mapping for describing respective states, quantification and ecosystem valuation. The results were analyzed with statistical and GIS-based techniques. We classified the ecosystem services function based on reference to the literature, interviews and a modified approach compared to the MA, the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB). For quantifying values, we subdivided land cover types using ecological features and normalized numerical information of provisioning services, regulating services and cultural services. Resulting hotspots of ecosystem services are related to landscape features and land cover types in ROK. The mapping results show hotspots of ecosystem services where high level of ecosystem services is distributed - around Baekdudaegan protected area (Gangwon, Gyeongbuk Province, Chungbuk, Jeonam Province). n addition, the results of our study show that ecosystem services function - especially, fostering water resources, erosion control, air quality and pollution control in terrestrial ecosystems - can contribute to planning management policy for ecosystem based management at regional scale.

An integrated approach to monitoring ecosystem services and agriculture: implications for sustainable agricultural intensification in Rwanda.

PubMed

Rosa, Melissa F; Bonham, Curan A; Dempewolf, Jan; Arakwiye, Bernadette

2017-01-01

Maintaining the long-term sustainability of human and natural systems across agricultural landscapes requires an integrated, systematic monitoring system that can track crop productivity and the impacts of agricultural intensification on natural resources. This study presents the design and practical implementation of a monitoring framework that combines satellite observations with ground-based biophysical measurements and household surveys to provide metrics on ecosystem services and agricultural production at multiple spatial scales, reaching from individual households and plots owned by smallholder farmers to 100-km 2 landscapes. We developed a set of protocols for monitoring and analyzing ecological and agricultural household parameters within two 10 × 10-km landscapes in Rwanda, including soil fertility, crop yield, water availability, and fuelwood sustainability. Initial results suggest providing households that rely on rainfall for crop irrigation with timely climate information and improved technical inputs pre-harvest could help increase crop productivity in the short term. The value of the monitoring system is discussed as an effective tool for establishing a baseline of ecosystem services and agriculture before further change in land use and climate, identifying limitations in crop production and soil fertility, and evaluating food security, economic development, and environmental sustainability goals set forth by the Rwandan government.

Scaling participation in payments for ecosystem services programs

PubMed Central

Donlan, C. Josh; Boyle, Kevin J.; Xu, Weibin; Gelcich, Stefan

2018-01-01

Payments for ecosystem services programs have become common tools but most have failed to achieve wide-ranging conservation outcomes. The capacity for scale and impact increases when PES programs are designed through the lens of the potential participants, yet this has received little attention in research or practice. Our work with small-scale marine fisheries integrates the social science of PES programs and provides a framework for designing programs that focus a priori on scaling. In addition to payments, desirable non-monetary program attributes and ecological feedbacks attract a wider range of potential participants into PES programs, including those who have more negative attitudes and lower trust. Designing programs that draw individuals into participating in PES programs is likely the most strategic path to reaching scale. Research should engage in new models of participatory research to understand these dynamics and to design programs that explicitly integrate a broad range of needs, values, and modes of implementation. PMID:29522554

A General Business Model for Marine Reserves

PubMed Central

Sala, Enric; Costello, Christopher; Dougherty, Dawn; Heal, Geoffrey; Kelleher, Kieran; Murray, Jason H.; Rosenberg, Andrew A.; Sumaila, Rashid

2013-01-01

Marine reserves are an effective tool for protecting biodiversity locally, with potential economic benefits including enhancement of local fisheries, increased tourism, and maintenance of ecosystem services. However, fishing communities often fear short-term income losses associated with closures, and thus may oppose marine reserves. Here we review empirical data and develop bioeconomic models to show that the value of marine reserves (enhanced adjacent fishing + tourism) may often exceed the pre-reserve value, and that economic benefits can offset the costs in as little as five years. These results suggest the need for a new business model for creating and managing reserves, which could pay for themselves and turn a profit for stakeholder groups. Our model could be expanded to include ecosystem services and other benefits, and it provides a general framework to estimate costs and benefits of reserves and to develop such business models. PMID:23573192

A revised framework for coupled human and natural systems, propagating thresholds, and managing environmental problems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stevenson, R. Jan

Frameworks for solving environmental problems have been presented over the past 40 years from many organizations and disciplines, often with a strong focus on their own discipline. This paper describes a modification of an existing framework that can be better applied to manage environmental problems. Human well being, environmental policy, human activities, stressors (contaminants and habitat alterations), and ecosystem services are highlighted as five elements of the coupled human and natural system in the proposed framework. Thresholds in relationships among elements in coupled human and natural systems are key attributes of couplings because of their use in development of environmental criteria by facilitating stakeholder consensus and preventing catastrophic changes. Propagation of thresholds through coupled human and natural systems is hypothesized to be a significant driver of policy development. The application of the framework is related to managing eutrophication and algal bloom problems.

Uncovering Ecosystem Service Bundles through Social Preferences

PubMed Central

Martín-López, Berta; Iniesta-Arandia, Irene; García-Llorente, Marina; Palomo, Ignacio; Casado-Arzuaga, Izaskun; Amo, David García Del; Gómez-Baggethun, Erik; Oteros-Rozas, Elisa; Palacios-Agundez, Igone; Willaarts, Bárbara; González, José A.; Santos-Martín, Fernando; Onaindia, Miren; López-Santiago, Cesar; Montes, Carlos

2012-01-01

Ecosystem service assessments have increasingly been used to support environmental management policies, mainly based on biophysical and economic indicators. However, few studies have coped with the social-cultural dimension of ecosystem services, despite being considered a research priority. We examined how ecosystem service bundles and trade-offs emerge from diverging social preferences toward ecosystem services delivered by various types of ecosystems in Spain. We conducted 3,379 direct face-to-face questionnaires in eight different case study sites from 2007 to 2011. Overall, 90.5% of the sampled population recognized the ecosystem’s capacity to deliver services. Formal studies, environmental behavior, and gender variables influenced the probability of people recognizing the ecosystem’s capacity to provide services. The ecosystem services most frequently perceived by people were regulating services; of those, air purification held the greatest importance. However, statistical analysis showed that socio-cultural factors and the conservation management strategy of ecosystems (i.e., National Park, Natural Park, or a non-protected area) have an effect on social preferences toward ecosystem services. Ecosystem service trade-offs and bundles were identified by analyzing social preferences through multivariate analysis (redundancy analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis). We found a clear trade-off among provisioning services (and recreational hunting) versus regulating services and almost all cultural services. We identified three ecosystem service bundles associated with the conservation management strategy and the rural-urban gradient. We conclude that socio-cultural preferences toward ecosystem services can serve as a tool to identify relevant services for people, the factors underlying these social preferences, and emerging ecosystem service bundles and trade-offs. PMID:22720006

Evaluating natural flood management measures using an ecosystem based adaptation framework: a meta-analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Iacob, Oana; Rowan, John; Brown, Iain; Ellis, Chris

2014-05-01

Climate change is projected to alter river flows and the magnitude/frequency characteristics of floods and droughts. As a result flood risk is expected to increase with environmental, social and economic impacts. Traditionally flood risk management has been heavily relying on engineering measures, however with climate change their capacity to provide protection is expected to decrease. Ecosystem-based adaptation highlights the interdependence of human and natural systems, and the potential to buffer the impacts of climate change by maintaining functioning ecosystems that continue to provide multiple societal benefits. Natural flood management measures have the potential to provide a greater adaptive capacity to negate the impacts of climate change and provide ancillary benefits. To understand the impacts of different NFM measures on ecosystem services a meta-analysis was undertaken. Twenty five studies from across the world were pulled together to assess their effectiveness on reducing the flood risk but also on other ecosystems services as defined by the UK National Ecosystem Assessment, which distinguishes between provisioning, regulating, cultural and supporting services. Four categories of NFM measures were considered: (i) afforestation measures, (ii) drainage and blocking the drains, (iii) wetland restoration and (iv) combined measures. Woodland expansion measures provide significant benefits for flood protection more pronounced for low magnitude events, but also for other services such as carbon sequestration and water quality. These measures however will come at a cost for livestock and crop provisioning services as a result of land use changes. Drainage operations and blocking the drains have mixed impacts on carbon sequestration and water quality depending on soil type, landscape settings and local characteristics. Wetland and floodplain restoration measures have generally a few disbenefits and provide improvements for regulating and supporting services. Mixed measures are expected to have cumulative benefits which are likely to outweigh disbenefits and packages of actions are recommended rather than individual or localised actions for an integrated catchment management approach. NFM measures have the potential to provide significant environmental gains, however the time lags between the moment these measures are set in place until they become effective must be considered especially in flood vulnerable communities where there is already a stakeholders demand to decrease the risk of flooding even for the current level of exposure.

From theoretical to actual ecosystem services: mapping beneficiaries and spatial flows in ecosystem service assessments

USGS Publications Warehouse

Bagstad, Kenneth J.; Villa, Ferdinando; Batker, David; Harrison-Cox, Jennifer; Voigt, Brian; Johnson, Gary W.

2014-01-01

Ecosystem services mapping and modeling has focused more on supply than demand, until recently. Whereas the potential provision of economic benefits from ecosystems to people is often quantified through ecological production functions, the use of and demand for ecosystem services has received less attention, as have the spatial flows of services from ecosystems to people. However, new modeling approaches that map and quantify service-specific sources (ecosystem capacity to provide a service), sinks (biophysical or anthropogenic features that deplete or alter service flows), users (user locations and level of demand), and spatial flows can provide a more complete understanding of ecosystem services. Through a case study in Puget Sound, Washington State, USA, we quantify and differentiate between the theoretical or in situ provision of services, i.e., ecosystems’ capacity to supply services, and their actual provision when accounting for the location of beneficiaries and the spatial connections that mediate service flows between people and ecosystems. Our analysis includes five ecosystem services: carbon sequestration and storage, riverine flood regulation, sediment regulation for reservoirs, open space proximity, and scenic viewsheds. Each ecosystem service is characterized by different beneficiary groups and means of service flow. Using the ARtificial Intelligence for Ecosystem Services (ARIES) methodology we map service supply, demand, and flow, extending on simpler approaches used by past studies to map service provision and use. With the exception of the carbon sequestration service, regions that actually provided services to people, i.e., connected to beneficiaries via flow paths, amounted to 16-66% of those theoretically capable of supplying services, i.e., all ecosystems across the landscape. These results offer a more complete understanding of the spatial dynamics of ecosystem services and their effects, and may provide a sounder basis for economic valuation and policy applications than studies that consider only theoretical service provision and/or use.

Ecosystem services of boreal forests - Carbon budget mapping at high resolution.

PubMed

Akujärvi, Anu; Lehtonen, Aleksi; Liski, Jari

2016-10-01

The carbon (C) cycle of forests produces ecosystem services (ES) such as climate regulation and timber production. Mapping these ES using simple land cover -based proxies might add remarkable inaccuracy to the estimates. A framework to map the current status of the C budget of boreal forested landscapes was developed. The C stocks of biomass and soil and the annual change in these stocks were quantified in a 20 × 20 m resolution at the regional level on mineral soils in southern Finland. The fine-scale variation of the estimates was analyzed geo-statistically. The reliability of the estimates was evaluated by comparing them to measurements from the national multi-source forest inventory. The C stocks of forests increased slightly from the south coast to inland whereas the changes in these stocks were more uniform. The spatial patches of C stocks were larger than those of C stock changes. The patch size of the C stocks reflected the spatial variation in the environmental conditions, and that of the C stock changes the typical area of forest management compartments. The simulated estimates agreed well with the measurements indicating a good mapping framework performance. The mapping framework is the basis for evaluating the effects of forest management alternatives on C budget at high resolution across large spatial scales. It will be coupled with the assessment of other ES and biodiversity to study their relationships. The framework integrated a wide suite of simulation models and extensive inventory data. It provided reliable estimates of the human influence on C cycle in forested landscapes. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Spatial interactions among ecosystem services in an urbanizing agricultural watershed

PubMed Central

Qiu, Jiangxiao; Turner, Monica G.

2013-01-01

Understanding spatial distributions, synergies, and tradeoffs of multiple ecosystem services (benefits people derive from ecosystems) remains challenging. We analyzed the supply of 10 ecosystem services for 2006 across a large urbanizing agricultural watershed in the Upper Midwest of the United States, and asked the following: (i) Where are areas of high and low supply of individual ecosystem services, and are these areas spatially concordant across services? (ii) Where on the landscape are the strongest tradeoffs and synergies among ecosystem services located? (iii) For ecosystem service pairs that experience tradeoffs, what distinguishes locations that are “win–win” exceptions from other locations? Spatial patterns of high supply for multiple ecosystem services often were not coincident; locations where six or more services were produced at high levels (upper 20th percentile) occupied only 3.3% of the landscape. Most relationships among ecosystem services were synergies, but tradeoffs occurred between crop production and water quality. Ecosystem services related to water quality and quantity separated into three different groups, indicating that management to sustain freshwater services along with other ecosystem services will not be simple. Despite overall tradeoffs between crop production and water quality, some locations were positive for both, suggesting that tradeoffs are not inevitable everywhere and might be ameliorated in some locations. Overall, we found that different areas of the landscape supplied different suites of ecosystem services, and their lack of spatial concordance suggests the importance of managing over large areas to sustain multiple ecosystem services. PMID:23818612

Spatial interactions among ecosystem services in an urbanizing agricultural watershed.

PubMed

Qiu, Jiangxiao; Turner, Monica G

2013-07-16

Understanding spatial distributions, synergies, and tradeoffs of multiple ecosystem services (benefits people derive from ecosystems) remains challenging. We analyzed the supply of 10 ecosystem services for 2006 across a large urbanizing agricultural watershed in the Upper Midwest of the United States, and asked the following: (i) Where are areas of high and low supply of individual ecosystem services, and are these areas spatially concordant across services? (ii) Where on the landscape are the strongest tradeoffs and synergies among ecosystem services located? (iii) For ecosystem service pairs that experience tradeoffs, what distinguishes locations that are "win-win" exceptions from other locations? Spatial patterns of high supply for multiple ecosystem services often were not coincident; locations where six or more services were produced at high levels (upper 20th percentile) occupied only 3.3% of the landscape. Most relationships among ecosystem services were synergies, but tradeoffs occurred between crop production and water quality. Ecosystem services related to water quality and quantity separated into three different groups, indicating that management to sustain freshwater services along with other ecosystem services will not be simple. Despite overall tradeoffs between crop production and water quality, some locations were positive for both, suggesting that tradeoffs are not inevitable everywhere and might be ameliorated in some locations. Overall, we found that different areas of the landscape supplied different suites of ecosystem services, and their lack of spatial concordance suggests the importance of managing over large areas to sustain multiple ecosystem services.

Forest Ecosystem Processes at the Watershed Scale: Ecosystem services, feedback and evolution in developing mountainous catchments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Band, Larry

2010-05-01

Mountain watersheds provide significant ecosystem services both locally and for surrounding regions, including the provision of freshwater, hydropower, carbon sequestration, habitat, forest products and recreational/aesthetic opportunities. The hydrologic connectivity along hillslopes in sloping terrain provides an upslope subsidy of water and nutrients to downslope ecosystem patches, producing characteristic ecosystem patterns of vegetation density and type, and soil biogeochemical cycling. Recent work suggests that optimal patterns of forest cover evolve along these flowpaths which maximize net primary productivity and carbon sequestration at the hillslope to catchment scale. These watersheds are under significant pressure from potential climate change, changes in forest management, increasing population and development, and increasing demand for water export. As water balance and flowpaths are altered by shifting weather patterns and new development, the spatial distribution and coupling of water, carbon and nutrient cycling will spur the evolution of different ecosystem patterns. These issues have both theoretical and practical implications for the coupling of water, carbon and nutrient cycling at the landscape level, and the potential to manage watersheds for bundled ecosystem services. If the spatial structure of the ecosystem spontaneously adjusts to maximize landscape level use of limiting resources, there may be trade-offs in the level of services provided. The well known carbon-for-water tradeoff reflects the growth of forests to maximize carbon uptake, but also transpiration which limits freshwater availability in many biomes. We provide examples of the response of bundled ecosystem services to climate and land use change in the Southern Appalachian Mountains of the United States. These mountains have very high net primary productivity, biodiversity and water yields, and provide significant freshwater resources to surrounding regions. There has been a significant increase in population in the Southern Appalachians, with new building of second homes in steep headwaters, requiring significant expansion in high altitude roads, in contrast with traditional valley bottom development. With additional increases in hydrologic extremes (heavy precipitation and drought), and progressive changes in forest composition there has been increases in hazard from flash flooding, landslide activity and degraded water quality. The evaluation of integrated watershed impacts of the expected changes in climate and land management requires an interdisciplinary approach including direct feedbacks between ecological, hydrological, geomorphic and atmospheric processes within the framework of an adapting social system. Advances in this type of interdisciplinary research require a network of ecohydrologic observatories generating long term, multi-dimensional data, and a science community working across the interface of multiple fields. Adding individual and institutional behavior as an input or interactive component of watershed ecosystems remains a challenge that spans ecological, hydrological and social science.

Using plant traits to evaluate the resistance and resilience of ecosystem service provision

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kohler, Marina; Devaux, Caroline; Fontana, Veronika; Grigulis, Karl; Lavorel, Sandra; Leitinger, Georg; Schirpke, Uta; Tasser, Erich; Tappeiner, Ulrike

2015-04-01

Mountain grassland ecosystems are a hotspot of biodiversity and deliver a multiplicity of ecosystem services. Due to a long history of well adapted agricultural use and specific environmental conditions (e.g. slope, altitude, or climate), various types of grassland ecosystems have developed. Each of them shows specific attributes in forms of plant communities and abiotic characteristics, which lead to particular ranges of ecosystem service provision. However, ongoing climate and societal changes thread plant community composition and may lead to changes in plant traits, and therefore, the provision of ecosystem services. Currently it is not clear how vulnerable these ecosystems are to disturbances, or whether they have developed a high resilience over time. Thus, it is essential to know the ranges of resistance and resilience of an ecosystem service. We, therefore, developed a static approach based on community weighted mean plant traits and abiotic parameters to measure the boundaries of resistance and resilience of each ecosystem service separately. By calculating actual minimum and maximum amounts of ecosystem services, we define the range of resistance of an ecosystem service. We then calculate the potential amount of an ecosystem services (via simulated plant communities) by assuming that no species is lost or added to the system. By comparing actual and potential values, we can estimate whether an ecosystem service is in danger to lose its resilience. We selected different ecosystem services related to mountain grassland ecosystems, e.g. carbon storage, forage quality, forage quantity, and soil fertility. We analysed each ecosystem service for different grassland management types, covering meadows and pastures of very low land-use intensity through to grasslands of high land-use intensity. Results indicate that certain ecosystem services have a higher resilience than others (e.g. carbon storage) for all management types. The ecosystem may provide steady amounts of ecosystem services also in future when facing environmental or societal disturbances. In contrary, other services are very depending on actual conditions and are, therefore, less stable (e.g. forage quantity). When comparing ranges of resistance and resilience, the actual amount lies very close to the boundaries of the potential provision. This gives us a hint that the ecosystem service is in danger to lose its resilience and amount of ecosystem service provision when facing disturbances in future.

A conceptual framework for the study of human ecosystems in urban areas

Treesearch

Steward T.A. Pickett; William R. Burch; Shawn E. Dalton; Timothy W. Foresman; J. Morgan Grove; Rowan Rowntree

1997-01-01

The need for integrated concepts, capable of satisfying natural and social scientists and supporting integrated research, motivates a conceptual framework for understanding the role of humans in ecosystems. The question is how to add humans to the ecological models used to understand urban ecosystems. The ecosystem concept can serve as the basis, but specific social...

Ecosystem services science, practice, and policy: Perspectives from ACES, A Community on Ecosystem Services

USGS Publications Warehouse

Shapiro, Carl D.; Arthaud, Greg; Casey, Frank; Hogan, Dianna M.

2015-01-01

Ecosystem services are at a crossroad. The natural capital needed to produce them is diminishing (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005). At the same time, the science relating to their identification, production, and valuation is advancing. Examples of ecosystem services applications are abundant in the literature. In addition, the concept of ecosystem services and its applications are attracting attention and are becoming more visible. The concept of ecosystem services, however, is still not routinely applied to many natural resource management decisions.

Ecosystem services

Treesearch

Trista Patterson

2014-01-01

Since its inception, the ecosystem service approach has stimulated interest from numerous planning, management, and partnership perspectives. To date, however, research that quantifies ecosystem services in the study area (in the form of explicit ecosystem service studies) has been limited. This chapter reviews and synthesizes the concept of ecosystem services,...

Quantifying the "So what?" of Restoration: A Framework for Evaluating the Ecological and Socio-economic Outcomes of Restoration Activities in the Gulf of Mexico

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Henkel, J. R.; Dausman, A.; Cowan, J.; Sutter, B.

2017-12-01

Healthy and sustainable ecosystems are essential for thriving and resilient coastal communities. As a result of settlements following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council (Council) and other funding entities, will receive billions of dollars over the next 15 years for restoration projects and programs. These and future restoration efforts present an opportunity to improve the function of coastal wetlands in the Gulf of Mexico, and potentially address long-standing barriers to ecosystem health and resilience in the region. In its Comprehensive Plans, the Council has committed to science-based decision-making, collaboration among its eleven state and federal members, and close coordination with other Gulf restoration and conservation funding efforts including NRDA, NFWF and other federal programs to leverage resources and integrate complementary restoration efforts. To help fulfill these commitments the Council is exploring methods and tools to collect and assess data to evaluate and report on both ecological and socio-economic outcomes of restoration projects. Application of these tools in coordination with restoration partners, will demonstrate the cascading benefits of ecosystem restoration in a quantifiable way, and can help decision-makers increase investments in ecosystem restoration that will support the long-term sustainability of coastal systems. An understanding of ecosystem function and services can also provide a transparent lens for communicating the results of successful ecosystem restoration projects to the public (helping answer the "So what?" of ecosystem restoration). As the Council moves forward making decisions based on the best available science, improving ecosystem functioning and services will play a role in project and program selection and will result in more resilient ecosystems. This will enable the Council to help communities enhance their ability to recover from natural and manmade disasters and thrive in the face of changing environmental conditions.

Impacts of land-use management on ecosystem services and biodiversity: an agent-based modelling approach

PubMed Central

Heckbert, Scott; Wilson, Jeffrey J.; Vandenbroeck, Andrew J. K.; Cranston, Jerome; Farr, Daniel R.

2016-01-01

The science of ecosystem service (ES) mapping has become increasingly sophisticated over the past 20 years, and examples of successfully integrating ES into management decisions at national and sub-national scales have begun to emerge. However, increasing model sophistication and accuracy—and therefore complexity—may trade-off with ease of use and applicability to real-world decision-making contexts, so it is vital to incorporate the lessons learned from implementation efforts into new model development. Using successful implementation efforts for guidance, we developed an integrated ES modelling system to quantify several ecosystem services: forest timber production and carbon storage, water purification, pollination, and biodiversity. The system is designed to facilitate uptake of ES information into land-use decisions through three principal considerations: (1) using relatively straightforward models that can be readily deployed and interpreted without specialized expertise; (2) using an agent-based modelling framework to enable the incorporation of human decision-making directly within the model; and (3) integration among all ES models to simultaneously demonstrate the effects of a single land-use decision on multiple ES. We present an implementation of the model for a major watershed in Alberta, Canada, and highlight the system’s capabilities to assess a suite of ES under future management decisions, including forestry activities under two alternative timber harvest strategies, and through a scenario modelling analysis exploring different intensities of hypothetical agricultural expansion. By using a modular approach, the modelling system can be readily expanded to evaluate additional ecosystem services or management questions of interest in order to guide land-use decisions to achieve socioeconomic and environmental objectives. PMID:28028479

Decoding ecosystem services in the neighborhood through ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Remediation to Restoration to Revitalization (R2R2R) is a place-based practice that requires ongoing communication amongst agencies, local governments, and citizens. One of the challenges is that each of these entities have different relationships with and responsibilities to sites where R2R2R unfolds. Sediment remediation and habitat restoration project goals, community planning, and lived experiences diverge in scale, focus, and interaction depending on the agency or individual. In order to address this disconnect, we developed a framework to sort and classify data and identify ecosystem services collected through inductive methods like participant observation and document analysis. Data were collected between June 2015 and December 2016 and analyzed through content analysis as a first step. Participant observation was conducted in relation to the City of Duluth St. Louis River Corridor planning process at park planning public meetings, community group meetings, and City of Duluth technical advisory meetings. Document analysis was conducted on a variety of City of Duluth plans. The framework that emerged from the analysis includes neighborhood components that individuals, organizations, and local governments may discuss in the context of their community. The characteristics are a mix of built environment types, structural dimensions, personal experiences, and human-environment relationships and include: parks/open spaces, trails or connections, housing, schoo

Southwest Ecosystem Services Project (SwESP): Identifying Ecosystems Services Based on Tribal Values

EPA Science Inventory

USEPA Office of Research Development (ORD) new strategic focus is the measurement of benefits and services of ecosystem. The primary objective of the Ecosystem Services Research Program (ESRP) is to identify, measure, monitor, model and map ecosystem services and to enable their ...

The National Atlas of Ecosystem Services: Spatially Explicit Characterization of Ecosystem Services

EPA Science Inventory

The US EPA’s Ecosystem Services Research Program (ESRP) is conducting transdisciplinary research to develop tools to enable decision-makers at all levels of governance to proactively conserve ecosystem services. One of these tools is a National Atlas of Ecosystem Services which ...

Ecosystem services and economic theory: integration for policy-relevant research.

PubMed

Fisher, Brendan; Turner, Kerry; Zylstra, Matthew; Brouwer, Roy; de Groot, Rudolf; Farber, Stephen; Ferraro, Paul; Green, Rhys; Hadley, David; Harlow, Julian; Jefferiss, Paul; Kirkby, Chris; Morling, Paul; Mowatt, Shaun; Naidoo, Robin; Paavola, Jouni; Strassburg, Bernardo; Yu, Doug; Balmford, Andrew

2008-12-01

It has become essential in policy and decision-making circles to think about the economic benefits (in addition to moral and scientific motivations) humans derive from well-functioning ecosystems. The concept of ecosystem services has been developed to address this link between ecosystems and human welfare. Since policy decisions are often evaluated through cost-benefit assessments, an economic analysis can help make ecosystem service research operational. In this paper we provide some simple economic analyses to discuss key concepts involved in formalizing ecosystem service research. These include the distinction between services and benefits, understanding the importance of marginal ecosystem changes, formalizing the idea of a safe minimum standard for ecosystem service provision, and discussing how to capture the public benefits of ecosystem services. We discuss how the integration of economic concepts and ecosystem services can provide policy and decision makers with a fuller spectrum of information for making conservation-conversion trade-offs. We include the results from a survey of the literature and a questionnaire of researchers regarding how ecosystem service research can be integrated into the policy process. We feel this discussion of economic concepts will be a practical aid for ecosystem service research to become more immediately policy relevant.

N-dimensional hypervolumes to study stability of complex ecosystems

PubMed Central

Barros, Ceres; Thuiller, Wilfried; Georges, Damien; Boulangeat, Isabelle; Münkemüller, Tamara

2016-01-01

Although our knowledge on the stabilising role of biodiversity and on how it is affected by perturbations has greatly improved, we still lack a comprehensive view on ecosystem stability that is transversal to different habitats and perturbations. Hence, we propose a framework that takes advantage of the multiplicity of components of an ecosystem and their contribution to stability. Ecosystem components can range from species or functional groups, to different functional traits, or even the cover of different habitats in a landscape mosaic. We make use of n-dimensional hypervolumes to define ecosystem states and assess how much they shift after environmental changes have occurred. We demonstrate the value of this framework with a study case on the effects of environmental change on Alpine ecosystems. Our results highlight the importance of a multidimensional approach when studying ecosystem stability and show that our framework is flexible enough to be applied to different types of ecosystem components, which can have important implications for the study of ecosystem stability and transient dynamics. PMID:27282314

An Alternative Futures Analysis of Ecosystem Service Trade-offs in Agricultural Production, Water Quality and Water Yield from the Soyang Lake Watershed in South Korea

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tenhunen, J. D.; Kang, S.; Huwe, B.; Kim, B.; Koellner, T.; Ok, Y.; Nguyen, T.

2009-12-01

The international consortium project TERRECO (Complex Terrain and Ecological Heterogeneity) applies a transdisciplinary modelling approach to examine current and potential future natural resource use within the largest reservoir system of South Korea, Soyang Lake Watershed. Due to intensive fertilization, small catchments within the watershed export some of the world’s highest levels for N and P, while steep terrain and monsoon rains result in extremely high material transport. To consider alternative future management, integrated modelling approaches are required for land surface processes and production, for hydrological phenomena and transport, for economic evaluation of ecosystem services, and for management and decision-making. These in turn are supported by ground-based studies of ecosystem physiology and agricultural yield, of soil properties and erosion, of runoff and stream transport and flows, of groundwater exchange, of farm economic balances, of county and provincial statistical data bases, and of individual preferences in decision-making within a particular regulatory and economic framework. Experimental design and intial results from these project components are reported. A required partnership with agencies that currently have the mission to carry out land use planning and to advise in policy making is described. A common interest among project participants and agency planners exists, since scenarios should quantify the effects of land use decisions that are in tune with stakeholder demands. Additional evaluations go beyond stakeholder desires to consider land use contributing to sustainable ecosystem services. Progress is reported in addressing the scaling issues critical to transdisciplinary integration, which over the long-term will allow assessments of alternative futures in resource use and in ecosystem services. Information flows and bridging undertaken and planned within the TERRECO project which examines trade-offs in agricultural production versus water quality and water yield in the Soyang Lake watershed of South Korea.

The use of a new ecosystem services assessment tool, EPA H2O, for identifying, quantifying, and valuing ecosystem services production.

EPA Science Inventory

The task of estimating ecosystem service production and delivery deserves special attention. Assessment tools that incorporate both supply and delivery of ecosystem services are needed to better understand how ecosystem services production becomes realized benefits. Here, we de...

The deep ocean under climate change.

PubMed

Levin, Lisa A; Le Bris, Nadine

2015-11-13

The deep ocean absorbs vast amounts of heat and carbon dioxide, providing a critical buffer to climate change but exposing vulnerable ecosystems to combined stresses of warming, ocean acidification, deoxygenation, and altered food inputs. Resulting changes may threaten biodiversity and compromise key ocean services that maintain a healthy planet and human livelihoods. There exist large gaps in understanding of the physical and ecological feedbacks that will occur. Explicit recognition of deep-ocean climate mitigation and inclusion in adaptation planning by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) could help to expand deep-ocean research and observation and to protect the integrity and functions of deep-ocean ecosystems. Copyright © 2015, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

An Operational Structure for Clarity in Ecosystem Service Values

EPA Science Inventory

Analyses used to value ecosystem services often confuse final ecosystem services with ecological functions that provide only indirect benefit. Extant categorizations of ecosystem services, such as that developed by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, do not ameliorate these cha...

Strategic Science for Coral Ecosystems 2007-2011

USGS Publications Warehouse

,

2010-01-01

Shallow and deep coral ecosystems are being imperiled by a combination of stressors. Climate change, unsustainable fishing practices, and disease are transforming coral communities at regional to global scales. At local levels, excessive amounts of sediments, nutrients, and contaminants are also impacting the many benefits that healthy coral ecosystems provide. This Plan, Strategic Science for Coral Ecosystems, describes the information needs of resource managers and summarizes current research being conducted by U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists and partners. It outlines important research actions that need to be undertaken over the next five years to achieve more accurate forecasting of future conditions and develop more effective decision-support tools to adaptively manage coral ecosystems. The overarching outcome of this Plan, if fully implemented, would be in transferring relevant knowledge to decision-makers, enabling them to better protect and sustain coral ecosystem services. These services include sources of food, essential habitat for fisheries and protected species, protection of coastlines from wave damage and erosion, recreation, and cultural values for indigenous communities. The USGS has a long history of research and monitoring experience in studying ancient and living coral communities and serving many stakeholders. The research actions in this Plan build on the USGS legacy of conducting integrated multidisciplinary science to address complex environmental issues. This Plan is responsive to Federal legislation and authorities and a variety of external and internal drivers that include the President's Ocean Action Plan, the recommendations of the Coral Reef Task Force, the information needs of Bureaus in the Department of Interior, the USGS Bureau Science Strategy (USGS 2007) and the formal plans of several USGS Programs. To achieve this Plan's desired outcomes will require increased funding and more effective coordination and collaboration among USGS managers and scientists within a national and international framework of partnerships in coral ecosystem science.

An integrated multi-criteria scenario evaluation web tool for participatory land-use planning in urbanized areas: The Ecosystem Portfolio Model

USGS Publications Warehouse

Labiosa, Bill; Forney, William M.; Hearn,, Paul P.; Hogan, Dianna M.; Strong, David R.; Swain, Eric D.; Esnard, Ann-Margaret; Mitsova-Boneva, D.; Bernknopf, R.; Pearlstine, Leonard; Gladwin, Hugh

2013-01-01

Land-use land-cover change is one of the most important and direct drivers of changes in ecosystem functions and services. Given the complexity of the decision-making, there is a need for Internet-based decision support systems with scenario evaluation capabilities to help planners, resource managers and communities visualize, compare and consider trade-offs among the many values at stake in land use planning. This article presents details on an Ecosystem Portfolio Model (EPM) prototype that integrates ecological, socio-economic information and associated values of relevance to decision-makers and stakeholders. The EPM uses a multi-criteria scenario evaluation framework, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) analysis and spatially-explicit land-use/land-cover change-sensitive models to characterize changes in important land-cover related ecosystem values related to ecosystem services and functions, land parcel prices, and community quality-of-life (QoL) metrics. Parameters in the underlying models can be modified through the interface, allowing users in a facilitated group setting to explore simultaneously issues of scientific uncertainty and divergence in the preferences of stakeholders. One application of the South Florida EPM prototype reported in this article shows the modeled changes (which are significant) in aggregate ecological value, landscape patterns and fragmentation, biodiversity potential and ecological restoration potential for current land uses compared to the 2050 land-use scenario. Ongoing refinements to EPM, and future work especially in regard to modifiable sea level rise scenarios are also discussed.

A Biophysical Modeling Framework for Assessing the Environmental Impact of Biofuel Production

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, X.; Izaurradle, C.; Manowitz, D.; West, T. O.; Post, W. M.; Thomson, A. M.; Nichols, J.; Bandaru, V.; Williams, J. R.

2009-12-01

Long-term sustainability of a biofuel economy necessitates environmentally friendly biofuel production systems. We describe a biophysical modeling framework developed to understand and quantify the environmental value and impact (e.g. water balance, nutrients balance, carbon balance, and soil quality) of different biomass cropping systems. This modeling framework consists of three major components: 1) a Geographic Information System (GIS) based data processing system, 2) a spatially-explicit biophysical modeling approach, and 3) a user friendly information distribution system. First, we developed a GIS to manage the large amount of geospatial data (e.g. climate, land use, soil, and hydrograhy) and extract input information for the biophysical model. Second, the Environmental Policy Integrated Climate (EPIC) biophysical model is used to predict the impact of various cropping systems and management intensities on productivity, water balance, and biogeochemical variables. Finally, a geo-database is developed to distribute the results of ecosystem service variables (e.g. net primary productivity, soil carbon balance, soil erosion, nitrogen and phosphorus losses, and N2O fluxes) simulated by EPIC for each spatial modeling unit online using PostgreSQL. We applied this framework in a Regional Intensive Management Area (RIMA) of 9 counties in Michigan. A total of 4,833 spatial units with relatively homogeneous biophysical properties were derived using SSURGO, Crop Data Layer, County, and 10-digit watershed boundaries. For each unit, EPIC was executed from 1980 to 2003 under 54 cropping scenarios (eg. corn, switchgrass, and hybrid poplar). The simulation results were compared with historical crop yields from USDA NASS. Spatial mapping of the results show high variability among different cropping scenarios in terms of the simulated ecosystem services variables. Overall, the framework developed in this study enables the incorporation of environmental factors into economic and life-cycle analysis in order to optimize biomass cropping production scenarios.

What is Novel About Novel Ecosystems: Managing Change in an Ever-Changing World

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Truitt, Amy M.; Granek, Elise F.; Duveneck, Matthew J.; Goldsmith, Kaitlin A.; Jordan, Meredith P.; Yazzie, Kimberly C.

2015-06-01

Influenced by natural climatic, geological, and evolutionary changes, landscapes and the ecosystems within are continuously changing. In addition to these natural pressures, anthropogenic drivers have increasingly influenced ecosystems. Whether affected by natural or anthropogenic processes, ecosystems, ecological communities, and ecosystem functioning are dynamic and can lead to "novel" or "emerging" ecosystems. Current literature identifies several definitions of these ecosystems but lacks an unambiguous definition and framework for categorizing what constitutes a novel ecosystem and for informing decisions around best management practices. Here we explore the various definitions used for novel ecosystems, present an unambiguous definition, and propose a framework for identifying the most appropriate management option. We identify and discuss three approaches for managing novel ecosystems: managing against, tolerating, and managing for these systems, and we provide real-world examples of each approach. We suggest that this framework will allow managers to make thoughtful decisions about which strategy is most appropriate for each unique situation, to determine whether the strategy is working, and to facilitate decision-making when it is time to modify the management approach.

What is Novel About Novel Ecosystems: Managing Change in an Ever-Changing World.

PubMed

Truitt, Amy M; Granek, Elise F; Duveneck, Matthew J; Goldsmith, Kaitlin A; Jordan, Meredith P; Yazzie, Kimberly C

2015-06-01

Influenced by natural climatic, geological, and evolutionary changes, landscapes and the ecosystems within are continuously changing. In addition to these natural pressures, anthropogenic drivers have increasingly influenced ecosystems. Whether affected by natural or anthropogenic processes, ecosystems, ecological communities, and ecosystem functioning are dynamic and can lead to "novel" or "emerging" ecosystems. Current literature identifies several definitions of these ecosystems but lacks an unambiguous definition and framework for categorizing what constitutes a novel ecosystem and for informing decisions around best management practices. Here we explore the various definitions used for novel ecosystems, present an unambiguous definition, and propose a framework for identifying the most appropriate management option. We identify and discuss three approaches for managing novel ecosystems: managing against, tolerating, and managing for these systems, and we provide real-world examples of each approach. We suggest that this framework will allow managers to make thoughtful decisions about which strategy is most appropriate for each unique situation, to determine whether the strategy is working, and to facilitate decision-making when it is time to modify the management approach.

Climate Compatible Development in the Mongolia Steppe: analysis of vulnerability and adaptation response to global changes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ojima, D. S.; Togtokh, C.; Galvin, K. A.

2015-12-01

INTRODUCTION: Climate change and variability, market and policy changes are shaping pastoral communities' decisions on what pathways their future livelihoods will take and how the steppe landscapes and river basins, are managed. Recent droughts and damaging winter storms (zuds) of the past two decades have exacerbated the situation and undermined the natural capital on which the pastoral livelihoods depend upon. River basins are critical natural resources well-being of social-ecological systems in Mongolia. River basins provide the ecosystem services which support pastoral communities and industrial and urban development. Green development strategies are strongly dependent on water resources. Consequently, integrated planning of river basin management is needed to maintain these critical ecosystem services to meet the multiple needs of livelihoods of communities in these basins and to support sustainable development activities within the basins. For this study our team worked in nine sums (i.e., county level administrative areas) in three river basins in two provinces (aimags) to collect household data from 144 households. We also collected census data from the aimags and national level to understand trends at the level of ecosystems and river basins. We have selected 3 sums in each river basis, representing forest steppe, steppe and desert steppe regions for comparison across river basins and ecological zones. FINDINGS: Integrated planning efforts would be enhanced through, one, use of a social-ecological framework and, two, the development of a cross-ministerial working group to address natural resource considerations. Across the three basins agriculture, pastoral, industrial, and urban needs vie for similar ecosystem services. The natural capital and ecosystem services of these basins need to be assessed to understand the vulnerability and capacity of the resources. The most frequently listed "best coping strategy" across all ecosystem types was for herders to have better cooperation, both among themselves and with administrators. They frequently expressed the idea that people working alone can't accomplish anything in comparison to when they work together. Development of cross ministry and cross-sectoral working groups were viewed as one such mechanism.

EPA's Southwest Ecosystem Services Research Program

EPA Science Inventory

EPA's Ecosystem Services Research Program (ESRP) in the Office of Research and Development (ORD) is studying ecosystem services and the benefits to human well-being provided by ecological services. As part of this research effort, the Southwest Ecosystem Services Research Progra...

Spatial Assessment of Forest Ecosystem Functions and Services using Human Relating Factors for SDG

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Song, C.; Lee, W. K.; Jeon, S. W.; Kim, T.; Lim, C. H.

2015-12-01

Application of ecosystem service concept in environmental related decision making could be numerical and objective standard for policy maker between preserving and developing perspective of environment. However, pursuing maximum benefit from natural capital through ecosystem services caused failure by losing ecosystem functions through its trade-offs. Therefore, difference between ecosystem functions and services were demonstrated and would apply human relating perspectives. Assessment results of ecosystem functions and services can be divided 3 parts. Tree growth per year set as the ecosystem function factor and indicated through so called pure function map. After that, relating functions can be driven such as water conservation, air pollutant purification, climate change regulation, and timber production. Overall process and amount are numerically quantified. These functional results can be transferred to ecosystem services by multiplying economic unit value, so function reflecting service maps can be generated. On the other hand, above services, to implement more reliable human demand, human reflecting service maps are also be developed. As the validation, quantified ecosystem functions are compared with former results through pixel based analysis. Three maps are compared, and through comparing difference between ecosystem function and services and inversed trends in function based and human based service are analysed. In this study, we could find differences in PF, FRS, and HRS in relation to based ecosystem conditions. This study suggests that the differences in PF, FRS, and HRS should be understood in the decision making process for sustainable management of ecosystem services. Although the analysis is based on in sort existing process separation, it is important to consider the possibility of different usage of ecosystem function assessment results and ecosystem service assessment results in SDG policy making. Furthermore, process based functional approach can suggest environmental information which is reflected the other kinds of perspective.

The provision of ecosystem services in response to global change: Evidences and applications.

PubMed

Lafortezza, Raffaele; Chen, Jiquan

2016-05-01

As a consequence of the global increase in economic and societal prosperity, ecosystems and natural resources have been substantially exploited, degraded, or even destroyed in the last century. To prevent further deprivation of the quality of ecosystems, the ecosystem services concept has become a central issue in environmental studies. A growing number of environmental agencies and organizations worldwide are now embracing integrated approaches to plan and manage ecosystems, sharing a goal to maintain the long-term provision of ecosystem services for sustainability. A daunting challenge in this process is to move from general pronouncements about the tremendous benefits that ecosystems provide to society to defensible assessments of their services. In other words, we must move beyond the scientific evidences of the ecosystem services concept to its practical applications. In this work, we discuss the theoretical foundations and applications of ecosystem services with a focus on the assessment of ecosystem service trade-offs and synergies at various spatial and temporal scales. Here, we offer examples of the main factors related to land use management that may affect the provision of ecosystem services and provide direction for future research on ecosystem services and related nature-based solutions. We also provide a briefing on the major topics covered in this Special Issue, which focuses on the provision of ecosystem services in the context of global change. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Extinction vulnerability of coral reef fishes.

PubMed

Graham, Nicholas A J; Chabanet, Pascale; Evans, Richard D; Jennings, Simon; Letourneur, Yves; Aaron Macneil, M; McClanahan, Tim R; Ohman, Marcus C; Polunin, Nicholas V C; Wilson, Shaun K

2011-04-01

With rapidly increasing rates of contemporary extinction, predicting extinction vulnerability and identifying how multiple stressors drive non-random species loss have become key challenges in ecology. These assessments are crucial for avoiding the loss of key functional groups that sustain ecosystem processes and services. We developed a novel predictive framework of species extinction vulnerability and applied it to coral reef fishes. Although relatively few coral reef fishes are at risk of global extinction from climate disturbances, a negative convex relationship between fish species locally vulnerable to climate change vs. fisheries exploitation indicates that the entire community is vulnerable on the many reefs where both stressors co-occur. Fishes involved in maintaining key ecosystem functions are more at risk from fishing than climate disturbances. This finding is encouraging as local and regional commitment to fisheries management action can maintain reef ecosystem functions pending progress towards the more complex global problem of stabilizing the climate. © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd/CNRS.

Extinction vulnerability of coral reef fishes

PubMed Central

Graham, Nicholas A J; Chabanet, Pascale; Evans, Richard D; Jennings, Simon; Letourneur, Yves; Aaron MacNeil, M; McClanahan, Tim R; Öhman, Marcus C; Polunin, Nicholas V C; Wilson, Shaun K

2011-01-01

With rapidly increasing rates of contemporary extinction, predicting extinction vulnerability and identifying how multiple stressors drive non-random species loss have become key challenges in ecology. These assessments are crucial for avoiding the loss of key functional groups that sustain ecosystem processes and services. We developed a novel predictive framework of species extinction vulnerability and applied it to coral reef fishes. Although relatively few coral reef fishes are at risk of global extinction from climate disturbances, a negative convex relationship between fish species locally vulnerable to climate change vs. fisheries exploitation indicates that the entire community is vulnerable on the many reefs where both stressors co-occur. Fishes involved in maintaining key ecosystem functions are more at risk from fishing than climate disturbances. This finding is encouraging as local and regional commitment to fisheries management action can maintain reef ecosystem functions pending progress towards the more complex global problem of stabilizing the climate. PMID:21320260

Freshwater Ecosystem Service Flow Model To Evaluate Regional Water Security: A Case Study In Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region, China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, D.; Li, S.

2016-12-01

Freshwater service, as the most important support ecosystem service, is essential to human survival and development. Many studies have evidenced the spatial differences in the supply and demand of ecosystem services and raised the concept of ecosystem service flow. However, rather few studies quantitatively characterize the freshwater service flow. This paper aims to quantify the effect of freshwater ecosystem service flow on downstream areas in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region, China over 2000, 2005 and 2010. We computed the freshwater ecosystem service provision with InVEST model. We calculated freshwater ecosystem service consumption with water quota method. We simulated the freshwater ecosystem service flow using our simplified flow model and assessed the regional water security with the improved freshwater security index. The freshwater provision service mainly depends on climatic factors that cannot be influenced by management, while the freshwater consumption service is constrained by human activities. Furthermore, the decrease of water quota for agricultural, domestic and industrial water counteracts the impact of increasing freshwater demand. The analysis of freshwater ecosystem service flow reveals that the majority area of the BTH (69.2%) is affected by upstream freshwater. If freshwater ecosystem service flow is considered, the water safety areas of the whole BTH account for 66.9%, 66.1%, 71.3%, which increase 6.4%, 6.8% and 5.7% in 2000, 2005 and 2010, respectively. These results highlight the need to understand the teleconnections between distant freshwater ecosystem service provision and local freshwater ecosystem service use. This approach therefore helps managers choose specific management and investment strategies for critical upstream freshwater provisions across different regions.

Public participation GIS: a method for identifying ecosystems services

USGS Publications Warehouse

Brown, Greg; Montag, Jessica; Lyon, Katie

2012-01-01

This study evaluated the use of an Internet-based public participation geographic information system (PPGIS) to identify ecosystem services in Grand County, Colorado. Specific research objectives were to examine the distribution of ecosystem services, identify the characteristics of participants in the study, explore potential relationships between ecosystem services and land use and land cover (LULC) classifications, and assess the methodological strengths and weakness of the PPGIS approach for identifying ecosystem services. Key findings include: (1) Cultural ecosystem service opportunities were easiest to identify while supporting and regulatory services most challenging, (2) participants were highly educated, knowledgeable about nature and science, and have a strong connection to the outdoors, (3) some LULC classifications were logically and spatially associated with ecosystem services, and (4) despite limitations, the PPGIS method demonstrates potential for identifying ecosystem services to augment expert judgment and to inform public or environmental policy decisions regarding land use trade-offs.

Assessment of the Ecosystem Services Capacity in Natural Protected Areas for Biodiversity Conservation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ronchi, Silvia; Salata, Stefano

2017-10-01

Recently, in Italy, a legislative proposal has been set to reform the role and the functions of natural protected areas promoting their aggregation (or the abolition) pursuing a better efficiency for their administration and economic saving. The system of natural protected areas is composed of different conservation levels: there are the Natural parks, established in the ‘80 by national or regional institution for the safeguard of natural elements, the Natura 2000 -Habitat 92/43/CEE promoted by European Union, with conservation measures for maintaining or restoring habitats and species of Communitarian interest, and the local parks of supra-municipal interest (namely PLIS) created by single municipalities or their aggregation aimed at limiting the soil sealing process. The hierarchical level of protection has determined differences in the management of the areas which leads to various approaches and strategies for biodiversity conservation and integrity. In order to assess strengths and weaknesses of the legislative initiative, the new management framework should be designed, considering the ecosystem characteristics of each natural protected area to define the future opportunities and critics, rather than, in the extreme case, remove the level of protection due to the absence of valuable ecosystem conditions. The paper provides an operative support to better apply the legislative proposal investigating the dynamics that affect all protected areas using the land take process as a major threat to biodiversity conservation in natural zones. The land take process is explored using the Land Use Change analysis (LUCa) as a possible way to determine the impact and the environmental effects of land transitions. LUCa is also useful to determine the loss of protected zones capacity to support Ecosystem Services. Finally, the assessment of the Ecosystem Services Capacity (ESC) index expresses the ability of each LULC to provide ES and, in particular, the Ecological Integrity, Regulating Services and Provisioning Services. The efficacy of the proposal is tested in the Lombardy Region (Northwest of Italy) where the natural protected areas are more than 500 with a territorial extension of 740 thousand hectares that correspond to 31% of the regional surface.

Enhancing the role of geodiversity and geoheritage in environmental management and policy in a changing world: challenges for geoscience research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gordon, John

2013-04-01

Geodiversity delivers or underpins many key ecosystem processes and services that deliver valuable benefits for society. With a growing recognition of the wider economic, social and environmental relevance of geodiversity, it is timely to consider the research requirements and priorities that are necessary to underpin a broader interdisciplinary approach to geodiversity that incorporates the links between natural and human systems in a changing world. A key challenge is to develop the scientific framework of geodiversity and at the same time to enhance the protection of geoheritage. Research that helps to support environmental policy and meet the wider needs of society for sustainable development and improved human wellbeing is fundamental both to improve the recognition of geodiversity and to demonstrate the wider relevance and value of geoheritage and geoconservation. Within this wider context, priorities for research include: 1) assessment of geoheritage and best-practice management of geosites for multiple uses including science, education and tourism; 2) evaluation of geodiversity and the ecosystem services it provides, both in economic and non-economic terms, to help build policy support and public awareness; 3) understanding the functional links between geodiversity and biodiversity across a range of spatial and temporal scales to help assess ecosystem sensitivity and inform management adaptations to climate change, particularly in dynamic environments such as the coast, river catchments and mountain areas; 4) providing a longer time perspective on ecosystem trends and services from palaeoenvironmental records; 5) applications of geodiversity in terrestrial and marine spatial planning.

Natural and human impacts on ecosystem services in Guanzhong - Tianshui economic region of China.

PubMed

Li, Jing; Zhou, Z X

2016-04-01

Due to the accelerated growth of society, the gaps between the capacity of ecosystems to provide services and human needs are steadily widening. Natural, semi-natural, or managed ecosystems had been able to provide ecosystem services to meet the needs of social development. Four agricultural ecosystem services (net primary production (NPP), carbon sequestration and oxygen production (CSOP), water interception, soil conservation and agriculture production) were quantified in Guanzhong-Tianshui economic region. Estimates of ecosystem services were obtained from the analysis of satellite imagery and the use of well-known models. Based on the ecological services in Guanzhong-Tianshui economic region, this study mainly analysed the driving mechanism of the changes from the two aspects of natural drivers and human drivers. Natural drivers (climate, soil, elevation, land cover) had incentive to the ecological services. Human activity was quantified by an integrated human activity index (HAI) based on population density, farmland ratio, and the influence of road networks and residential areas. We found relationships between ecosystem services, human activities and many natural factors, however these varied according to the service studied. Human activities were mostly negatively related to each ecosystem services, while population and residential land ware positively related to agricultural production. Land use change had made a contribution to ecosystem services. Based on the selected ecosystem services and HAI, we provided sustainable ecosystem management suggestions.

Balancing trade-offs between ecosystem services in Germany’s forests under climate change

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gutsch, Martin; Lasch-Born, Petra; Kollas, Chris; Suckow, Felicitas; Reyer, Christopher P. O.

2018-04-01

Germany’s forests provide a variety of ecosystem services. Sustainable forest management aims to optimize the provision of these services at regional level. However, climate change will impact forest ecosystems and subsequently ecosystem services. The objective of this study is to quantify the effects of two alternative management scenarios and climate impacts on forest variables indicative of ecosystem services related to timber, habitat, water, and carbon. The ecosystem services are represented through nine model output variables (timber harvest, above and belowground biomass, net ecosystem production, soil carbon, percolation, nitrogen leaching, deadwood, tree dimension, broadleaf tree proportion) from the process-based forest model 4C. We simulated forest growth, carbon and water cycling until 2045 with 4C set-up for the whole German forest area based on National Forest Inventory data and driven by three management strategies (nature protection, biomass production and a baseline management) and an ensemble of regional climate scenarios (RCP2.6, RCP 4.5, RCP 8.5). We provide results as relative changes compared to the baseline management and observed climate. Forest management measures have the strongest effects on ecosystem services inducing positive or negative changes of up to 40% depending on the ecosystem service in question, whereas climate change only slightly alters ecosystem services averaged over the whole forest area. The ecosystem services ‘carbon’ and ‘timber’ benefit from climate change, while ‘water’ and ‘habitat’ lose. We detect clear trade-offs between ‘timber’ and all other ecosystem services, as well as synergies between ‘habitat’ and ‘carbon’. When evaluating all ecosystem services simultaneously, our results reveal certain interrelations between climate and management scenarios. North-eastern and western forest regions are more suitable to provide timber (while minimizing the negative impacts on remaining ecosystem services) whereas southern and central forest regions are more suitable to fulfil ‘habitat’ and ‘carbon’ services. The results provide the base for future forest management optimizations at the regional scale in order to maximize ecosystem services and forest ecosystem sustainability at the national scale.

Going Beyond the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment: An Index System of Human Dependence on Ecosystem Services

PubMed Central

Yang, Wu; Dietz, Thomas; Liu, Wei; Luo, Junyan; Liu, Jianguo

2013-01-01

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) estimated that two thirds of ecosystem services on the earth have degraded or are in decline due to the unprecedented scale of human activities during recent decades. These changes will have tremendous consequences for human well-being, and offer both risks and opportunities for a wide range of stakeholders. Yet these risks and opportunities have not been well managed due in part to the lack of quantitative understanding of human dependence on ecosystem services. Here, we propose an index of dependence on ecosystem services (IDES) system to quantify human dependence on ecosystem services. We demonstrate the construction of the IDES system using household survey data. We show that the overall index and sub-indices can reflect the general pattern of households' dependences on ecosystem services, and their variations across time, space, and different forms of capital (i.e., natural, human, financial, manufactured, and social capitals). We support the proposition that the poor are more dependent on ecosystem services and further generalize this proposition by arguing that those disadvantaged groups who possess low levels of any form of capital except for natural capital are more dependent on ecosystem services than those with greater control of capital. The higher value of the overall IDES or sub-index represents the higher dependence on the corresponding ecosystem services, and thus the higher vulnerability to the degradation or decline of corresponding ecosystem services. The IDES system improves our understanding of human dependence on ecosystem services. It also provides insights into strategies for alleviating poverty, for targeting priority groups of conservation programs, and for managing risks and opportunities due to changes of ecosystem services at multiple scales. PMID:23717634

Going beyond the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment: an index system of human dependence on ecosystem services.

PubMed

Yang, Wu; Dietz, Thomas; Liu, Wei; Luo, Junyan; Liu, Jianguo

2013-01-01

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) estimated that two thirds of ecosystem services on the earth have degraded or are in decline due to the unprecedented scale of human activities during recent decades. These changes will have tremendous consequences for human well-being, and offer both risks and opportunities for a wide range of stakeholders. Yet these risks and opportunities have not been well managed due in part to the lack of quantitative understanding of human dependence on ecosystem services. Here, we propose an index of dependence on ecosystem services (IDES) system to quantify human dependence on ecosystem services. We demonstrate the construction of the IDES system using household survey data. We show that the overall index and sub-indices can reflect the general pattern of households' dependences on ecosystem services, and their variations across time, space, and different forms of capital (i.e., natural, human, financial, manufactured, and social capitals). We support the proposition that the poor are more dependent on ecosystem services and further generalize this proposition by arguing that those disadvantaged groups who possess low levels of any form of capital except for natural capital are more dependent on ecosystem services than those with greater control of capital. The higher value of the overall IDES or sub-index represents the higher dependence on the corresponding ecosystem services, and thus the higher vulnerability to the degradation or decline of corresponding ecosystem services. The IDES system improves our understanding of human dependence on ecosystem services. It also provides insights into strategies for alleviating poverty, for targeting priority groups of conservation programs, and for managing risks and opportunities due to changes of ecosystem services at multiple scales.

Transient traceability analysis of land carbon storage dynamics: procedures and its application to two forest ecosystems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jiang, L.; Shi, Z.; Xia, J.; Liang, J.; Lu, X.; Wang, Y.; Luo, Y.

2017-12-01

Uptake of anthropogenically emitted carbon (C) dioxide by terrestrial ecosystem is critical for determining future climate. However, Earth system models project large uncertainties in future C storage. To help identify sources of uncertainties in model predictions, this study develops a transient traceability framework to trace components of C storage dynamics. Transient C storage (X) can be decomposed into two components, C storage capacity (Xc) and C storage potential (Xp). Xc is the maximum C amount that an ecosystem can potentially store and Xp represents the internal capacity of an ecosystem to equilibrate C input and output for a network of pools. Xc is co-determined by net primary production (NPP) and residence time (𝜏N), with the latter being determined by allocation coefficients, transfer coefficients, environmental scalar, and exit rate. Xp is the product of redistribution matrix (𝜏ch) and net ecosystem exchange. We applied this framework to two contrasting ecosystems, Duke Forest and Harvard Forest with an ecosystem model. This framework helps identify the mechanisms underlying the responses of carbon cycling in the two forests to climate change. The temporal trajectories of X are similar between the two ecosystems. Using this framework, we found that two different mechanisms leading to the similar trajectory. This framework has potential to reveal mechanisms behind transient C storage in response to various global change factors. It can also identify sources of uncertainties in predicted transient C storage across models and can therefore be useful for model intercomparison.

Optimal Management of DoD Lands for Military Training, Ecosystem Services, and Renewable Energy Generation: Framework and Data Requirements

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-01-01

by at least 25% by 2025. To achieve this ambitious goal, DoD is considering a diverse energy portfolio that includes wind , solar, geothermal...generated power (bioenergy). wind , solar, and bioenergy sources each have significant land-management implications, so this third land-use re- quirement...production, the adverse impacts of conflicting requirements can be minimized. The regional differences in wind , solar, and bioenergy potential

A technical framework for implementing aquatic ecosystem loading limits (TMDLs) to reduce selenium pollution from phosphate mining wastes on Caribou National Forest, Idaho

Treesearch

A. Dennis Lemly

2001-01-01

Beginning in 1996, selenium associated with phosphate mining on Caribou National Forest (CNF) was implicated as the cause of death to horses and sheep grazing on private land adjacent to the national forest. In response to these concerns, the Forest Service began a monitoring study to determine selenium concentrations in and around the mine sites. By 1998, the study...

Ecosystem service tradeoff analysis reveals the value of marine spatial planning for multiple ocean uses

PubMed Central

White, Crow; Halpern, Benjamin S.; Kappel, Carrie V.

2012-01-01

Marine spatial planning (MSP) is an emerging responsibility of resource managers around the United States and elsewhere. A key proposed advantage of MSP is that it makes tradeoffs in resource use and sector (stakeholder group) values explicit, but doing so requires tools to assess tradeoffs. We extended tradeoff analyses from economics to simultaneously assess multiple ecosystem services and the values they provide to sectors using a robust, quantitative, and transparent framework. We used the framework to assess potential conflicts among offshore wind energy, commercial fishing, and whale-watching sectors in Massachusetts and identify and quantify the value from choosing optimal wind farm designs that minimize conflicts among these sectors. Most notably, we show that using MSP over conventional planning could prevent >$1 million dollars in losses to the incumbent fishery and whale-watching sectors and could generate >$10 billion in extra value to the energy sector. The value of MSP increased with the greater the number of sectors considered and the larger the area under management. Importantly, the framework can be applied even when sectors are not measured in dollars (e.g., conservation). Making tradeoffs explicit improves transparency in decision-making, helps avoid unnecessary conflicts attributable to perceived but weak tradeoffs, and focuses debate on finding the most efficient solutions to mitigate real tradeoffs and maximize sector values. Our analysis demonstrates the utility, feasibility, and value of MSP and provides timely support for the management transitions needed for society to address the challenges of an increasingly crowded ocean environment. PMID:22392996

Global mapping of ecosystem services and conservation priorities

PubMed Central

Naidoo, R.; Balmford, A.; Costanza, R.; Fisher, B.; Green, R. E.; Lehner, B.; Malcolm, T. R.; Ricketts, T. H.

2008-01-01

Global efforts to conserve biodiversity have the potential to deliver economic benefits to people (i.e., “ecosystem services”). However, regions for which conservation benefits both biodiversity and ecosystem services cannot be identified unless ecosystem services can be quantified and valued and their areas of production mapped. Here we review the theory, data, and analyses needed to produce such maps and find that data availability allows us to quantify imperfect global proxies for only four ecosystem services. Using this incomplete set as an illustration, we compare ecosystem service maps with the global distributions of conventional targets for biodiversity conservation. Our preliminary results show that regions selected to maximize biodiversity provide no more ecosystem services than regions chosen randomly. Furthermore, spatial concordance among different services, and between ecosystem services and established conservation priorities, varies widely. Despite this lack of general concordance, “win–win” areas—regions important for both ecosystem services and biodiversity—can be usefully identified, both among ecoregions and at finer scales within them. An ambitious interdisciplinary research effort is needed to move beyond these preliminary and illustrative analyses to fully assess synergies and trade-offs in conserving biodiversity and ecosystem services. PMID:18621701

Ecosystem services and agriculture: tradeoffs and synergies

PubMed Central

Power, Alison G.

2010-01-01

Agricultural ecosystems provide humans with food, forage, bioenergy and pharmaceuticals and are essential to human wellbeing. These systems rely on ecosystem services provided by natural ecosystems, including pollination, biological pest control, maintenance of soil structure and fertility, nutrient cycling and hydrological services. Preliminary assessments indicate that the value of these ecosystem services to agriculture is enormous and often underappreciated. Agroecosystems also produce a variety of ecosystem services, such as regulation of soil and water quality, carbon sequestration, support for biodiversity and cultural services. Depending on management practices, agriculture can also be the source of numerous disservices, including loss of wildlife habitat, nutrient runoff, sedimentation of waterways, greenhouse gas emissions, and pesticide poisoning of humans and non-target species. The tradeoffs that may occur between provisioning services and other ecosystem services and disservices should be evaluated in terms of spatial scale, temporal scale and reversibility. As more effective methods for valuing ecosystem services become available, the potential for ‘win–win’ scenarios increases. Under all scenarios, appropriate agricultural management practices are critical to realizing the benefits of ecosystem services and reducing disservices from agricultural activities. PMID:20713396

Industrial Internet of Things-Based Collaborative Sensing Intelligence: Framework and Research Challenges.

PubMed

Chen, Yuanfang; Lee, Gyu Myoung; Shu, Lei; Crespi, Noel

2016-02-06

The development of an efficient and cost-effective solution to solve a complex problem (e.g., dynamic detection of toxic gases) is an important research issue in the industrial applications of the Internet of Things (IoT). An industrial intelligent ecosystem enables the collection of massive data from the various devices (e.g., sensor-embedded wireless devices) dynamically collaborating with humans. Effectively collaborative analytics based on the collected massive data from humans and devices is quite essential to improve the efficiency of industrial production/service. In this study, we propose a collaborative sensing intelligence (CSI) framework, combining collaborative intelligence and industrial sensing intelligence. The proposed CSI facilitates the cooperativity of analytics with integrating massive spatio-temporal data from different sources and time points. To deploy the CSI for achieving intelligent and efficient industrial production/service, the key challenges and open issues are discussed, as well.

Industrial Internet of Things-Based Collaborative Sensing Intelligence: Framework and Research Challenges

PubMed Central

Chen, Yuanfang; Lee, Gyu Myoung; Shu, Lei; Crespi, Noel

2016-01-01

The development of an efficient and cost-effective solution to solve a complex problem (e.g., dynamic detection of toxic gases) is an important research issue in the industrial applications of the Internet of Things (IoT). An industrial intelligent ecosystem enables the collection of massive data from the various devices (e.g., sensor-embedded wireless devices) dynamically collaborating with humans. Effectively collaborative analytics based on the collected massive data from humans and devices is quite essential to improve the efficiency of industrial production/service. In this study, we propose a collaborative sensing intelligence (CSI) framework, combining collaborative intelligence and industrial sensing intelligence. The proposed CSI facilitates the cooperativity of analytics with integrating massive spatio-temporal data from different sources and time points. To deploy the CSI for achieving intelligent and efficient industrial production/service, the key challenges and open issues are discussed, as well. PMID:26861345

Rethinking Soils: an under-investigated commons?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Short, Chrisopher; Mills, Jane; Ingram, Julie

2015-04-01

In a number of global contexts there is a re-awakening of interest in soils in both increasing the resilience of complex social-ecological systems (SES) and as a result of the threats to them, as shown by the UN International Year of Soils in 2015. Consequently the management of soils and their wider role within property regimes and natural resource management might need to be reassessed. At the heart of this is the rise in awareness regarding the connectedness of SES, and in frameworks such as the Ecosystem Approach and the identification and analysis of Ecosystem Services. Whilst not new to some, it has widened the understanding among many, that soils have a valuable role to play in complex SES because they are a slow variable crucial to underlying structure of the SES. The conventional approach that soils are linked to the ecosystem services category of provisioning services (production of food, timber and fibre) remains valid. Not surprisingly this link is strong within natural resource management and property rights regimes but soils remain at risk for a range of threats, for example soil erosion and compaction, salinization, sealing, desertification, loss of organic matter and biodiversity and contamination. However, soils are increasingly seen as a slow variable that can lead to increased resilience within a SES and have a profound importance to human life through a range of regulating services including water quality and purification, water flow and attenuation and , pest and disease control. Given the long-standing importance of soil as a natural resource there are also accompanying legal systems, property regimes, societal values, knowledge, custom and traditions. However, in the light of the wider understanding soil functions are these social frameworks appropriate and fit for purpose or would a shared resource of commons approach be more appropriate. To some extent this examination would also extend to the presence of soils within the cultural services category of ecosystem services. As a result of the increasing evidence regarding soil threats, there is concern that the knowledge relating to soils is fragmented and incomplete. This is particular true regarding the complexity and functioning of soil systems and their interaction with human activities and the effectiveness of governance arrangements to promote resilience in the management of soils. Therefore discussions concerning soils needs to be taken from an interdisciplinary perspectives that embraces both natural and social sciences. This paper will seek to examine soils from a multi-scale governance/complex commons perspective. It will also consider how a commons perspective might be useful in reducing soil threats and in the development of effective prevention, remediation and restoration measures. This often requires a change in thinking about soil, perhaps considering it as a 'slow variable', able to drive long-term change or as a 'cultural asset' and 'knowledge resource'.

N-dimensional hypervolumes to study stability of complex ecosystems.

PubMed

Barros, Ceres; Thuiller, Wilfried; Georges, Damien; Boulangeat, Isabelle; Münkemüller, Tamara

2016-07-01

Although our knowledge on the stabilising role of biodiversity and on how it is affected by perturbations has greatly improved, we still lack a comprehensive view on ecosystem stability that is transversal to different habitats and perturbations. Hence, we propose a framework that takes advantage of the multiplicity of components of an ecosystem and their contribution to stability. Ecosystem components can range from species or functional groups, to different functional traits, or even the cover of different habitats in a landscape mosaic. We make use of n-dimensional hypervolumes to define ecosystem states and assess how much they shift after environmental changes have occurred. We demonstrate the value of this framework with a study case on the effects of environmental change on Alpine ecosystems. Our results highlight the importance of a multidimensional approach when studying ecosystem stability and show that our framework is flexible enough to be applied to different types of ecosystem components, which can have important implications for the study of ecosystem stability and transient dynamics. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd/CNRS.

Health and climate related ecosystem services provided by street trees in the urban environment.

PubMed

Salmond, Jennifer A; Tadaki, Marc; Vardoulakis, Sotiris; Arbuthnott, Katherine; Coutts, Andrew; Demuzere, Matthias; Dirks, Kim N; Heaviside, Clare; Lim, Shanon; Macintyre, Helen; McInnes, Rachel N; Wheeler, Benedict W

2016-03-08

Urban tree planting initiatives are being actively promoted as a planning tool to enable urban areas to adapt to and mitigate against climate change, enhance urban sustainability and improve human health and well-being. However, opportunities for creating new areas of green space within cities are often limited and tree planting initiatives may be constrained to kerbside locations. At this scale, the net impact of trees on human health and the local environment is less clear, and generalised approaches for evaluating their impact are not well developed.In this review, we use an urban ecosystems services framework to evaluate the direct, and locally-generated, ecosystems services and disservices provided by street trees. We focus our review on the services of major importance to human health and well-being which include 'climate regulation', 'air quality regulation' and 'aesthetics and cultural services'. These are themes that are commonly used to justify new street tree or street tree retention initiatives. We argue that current scientific understanding of the impact of street trees on human health and the urban environment has been limited by predominantly regional-scale reductionist approaches which consider vegetation generally and/or single out individual services or impacts without considering the wider synergistic impacts of street trees on urban ecosystems. This can lead planners and policymakers towards decision making based on single parameter optimisation strategies which may be problematic when a single intervention offers different outcomes and has multiple effects and potential trade-offs in different places.We suggest that a holistic approach is required to evaluate the services and disservices provided by street trees at different scales. We provide information to guide decision makers and planners in their attempts to evaluate the value of vegetation in their local setting. We show that by ensuring that the specific aim of the intervention, the scale of the desired biophysical effect and an awareness of a range of impacts guide the choice of i) tree species, ii) location and iii) density of tree placement, street trees can be an important tool for urban planners and designers in developing resilient and resourceful cities in an era of climatic change.

The biodiversity-dependent ecosystem service debt.

PubMed

Isbell, Forest; Tilman, David; Polasky, Stephen; Loreau, Michel

2015-02-01

Habitat destruction is driving biodiversity loss in remaining ecosystems, and ecosystem functioning and services often directly depend on biodiversity. Thus, biodiversity loss is likely creating an ecosystem service debt: a gradual loss of biodiversity-dependent benefits that people obtain from remaining fragments of natural ecosystems. Here, we develop an approach for quantifying ecosystem service debts, and illustrate its use to estimate how one anthropogenic driver, habitat destruction, could indirectly diminish one ecosystem service, carbon storage, by creating an extinction debt. We estimate that c. 2-21 Pg C could be gradually emitted globally in remaining ecosystem fragments because of plant species loss caused by nearby habitat destruction. The wide range for this estimate reflects substantial uncertainties in how many plant species will be lost, how much species loss will impact ecosystem functioning and whether plant species loss will decrease soil carbon. Our exploratory analysis suggests that biodiversity-dependent ecosystem service debts can be globally substantial, even when locally small, if they occur diffusely across vast areas of remaining ecosystems. There is substantial value in conserving not only the quantity (area), but also the quality (biodiversity) of natural ecosystems for the sustainable provision of ecosystem services. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd/CNRS.

Trends in ecosystem service research: early steps and current drivers.

PubMed

Vihervaara, Petteri; Rönkä, Mia; Walls, Mari

2010-06-01

Over the past 50 years, human beings have influenced ecosystems more rapidly than at any similar time in human history, drastically altering ecosystem functioning. Along with ecosystem transformation and degradation, a number of studies have addressed the functioning, assessment and management of ecosystems. The concept of ecosystem services has been developed in the scientific literature since the end of the 1970s. However, ecosystem service research has focused on certain service categories, ecosystem types, and geographical areas, while substantial knowledge gaps remain concerning several aspects. We assess the development and current status of ecosystem service research on the basis of publications collected from the Web of Science. The material consists of (1) articles (n = 353) from all the years included in the Web of Science down to the completion of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and (2) more recent articles (n = 687) published between 2006 and 2008. We also assess the importance of international processes, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Kyoto Protocol and the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, as drivers of ecosystem service research. Finally, we identify future prospects and research needs concerning the assessment and management of ecosystem services.

Assessment of Ecosystem Services in a Semi-arid Agriculture-dominant Area: Framework and Case Study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dhungel, R.; Chen, Y.; Maltos, R.; Sivakumaran, K.; Aguilar, A.; Harmon, T. C.

2015-12-01

California's Central Valley (CV) water crisis has increased in severity due to a prolonged drought. The drought is directly contributing to the overexploitation of groundwater, along with deficiency in agricultural, recreational and aesthetic water services. The population of the CV, home to about 6.5 million people, is projected to be 12 million by 2040. Balancing water demand between municipal use, agricultural supply, and other ecosystem services, will be challenging for this region in perpetuity. In the heart of CV lies the San Joaquin River (SJR) where Friant Dam is the main low-elevation reservoir regulating water release. The Friant Dam's reservoir fulfills agricultural, municipal and industrial water needs through the Friant-Kern and Madera canals, as well as through the mainstem SJR. The SJR restoration project (SJRRP) is a recent development that is imposing additional demands on water releases in order to restore sustainable aquatic habitat for Chinook salmon and other species on the mainstem below the Friant Dam. The Chinook require adequate flow to moderate river temperature, particularly during hot summer and fall months. Temperatures on CV rivers exhibit strong diurnal and seasonal patterns, and can rise to harmful levels when flows are inadequate. In this study, we developed a framework that allows for assessing the effectiveness and implied costs of ecosystem services provided by a restored SJR in a semi-arid agriculture-dominant area. This is done by explicitly linking economics-based farmers' model with a reduced-form hydrological model that is loosely coupled to a physical-based stream-temperature model, specifically CE-QUAL-W2. The farmers' model is based on positive mathematical program approach calibrated with twenty proxy crops for year 2005. The river-hydrology is simulated by a vector autoregression model that incorporates daily flow variability. We study the mandated release policies by the SJR restoration project, along with hypothetical policies aimed at moderating river temperatures while enhancing groundwater recharge along the river corridor. We hypothesize that agricultural losses in terms of flow diverted to the SJR restoration can be offset by gains in groundwater resources in a long run, which is important to reduce pumping costs and insure against future.

Implementing the optimal provision of ecosystem services

PubMed Central

Polasky, Stephen; Lewis, David J.; Plantinga, Andrew J.; Nelson, Erik

2014-01-01

Many ecosystem services are public goods whose provision depends on the spatial pattern of land use. The pattern of land use is often determined by the decisions of multiple private landowners. Increasing the provision of ecosystem services, though beneficial for society as a whole, may be costly to private landowners. A regulator interested in providing incentives to landowners for increased provision of ecosystem services often lacks complete information on landowners’ costs. The combination of spatially dependent benefits and asymmetric cost information means that the optimal provision of ecosystem services cannot be achieved using standard regulatory or payment for ecosystem services approaches. Here we show that an auction that sets payments between landowners and the regulator for the increased value of ecosystem services with conservation provides incentives for landowners to truthfully reveal cost information, and allows the regulator to implement the optimal provision of ecosystem services, even in the case with spatially dependent benefits and asymmetric information. PMID:24722635

Implementing the optimal provision of ecosystem services.

PubMed

Polasky, Stephen; Lewis, David J; Plantinga, Andrew J; Nelson, Erik

2014-04-29

Many ecosystem services are public goods whose provision depends on the spatial pattern of land use. The pattern of land use is often determined by the decisions of multiple private landowners. Increasing the provision of ecosystem services, though beneficial for society as a whole, may be costly to private landowners. A regulator interested in providing incentives to landowners for increased provision of ecosystem services often lacks complete information on landowners' costs. The combination of spatially dependent benefits and asymmetric cost information means that the optimal provision of ecosystem services cannot be achieved using standard regulatory or payment for ecosystem services approaches. Here we show that an auction that sets payments between landowners and the regulator for the increased value of ecosystem services with conservation provides incentives for landowners to truthfully reveal cost information, and allows the regulator to implement the optimal provision of ecosystem services, even in the case with spatially dependent benefits and asymmetric information.

[Evaluation of ecosystem service and emergy of Wanshan Waters in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province, China].

PubMed

Qin, Chuan-xin; Chen, Pi-mao; Zhang, An-kai; Yuan, Hua; Li, Guo-ying; Shu, Li-ming; Zhou, Yan-bo; Li, Xiao-guo

2015-06-01

The method for monetary value and emergy value analysis of ecosystem service was used in this paper to analyze the change in value of marine ecosystem service of Wanshan District, Zhuhai from 2007 to 2012. The result showed that the monetary value and emergy value of marine ecosystem service of Wanshan District, Zhuhai rose to 11512840000 yuan and 1.97 x 10(22) sej from 7721630000 yuan and 1.04 x 10(22) sej, respectively. Both monetary value and emergy value could forecast the change in the value of marine ecosystem service, but they reflected different value structures and ecological energy, which could be used to more objectively evaluate the ecosystem service. Ecological civilization development, as an inherent driving force to impel the development of marine ecosystem service structure, was important for rational exploitation of marine resources and optimization of marine ecosystem service.