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BUILDING A U.S. NATIONAL ATLAS OF ECOLOGICAL GOODS AND SERVICES
Citation:
NEALE, A. C. AND J. D. WICKHAM. BUILDING A U.S. NATIONAL ATLAS OF ECOLOGICAL GOODS AND SERVICES. Presented at Ecosystem Services: Solutions for Problems or a Problem that Needs Solution, Kiel, GERMANY, May 13 - 15, 2008.
Impact/Purpose:
Presentation
Description:
The Millenium Ecosystem Assessment (2005) has popularized and begun to formalize the long-standing concept of ecological goods and services (e.g., Westman 1977). The US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) is re-organizing its Ecological Research Program around the concept of goods and services in order to more fully communicate the relevance of its ecological research, and provide information that is more useful to decision makers. A planned, near-term product of the Ecological Research Program is a national atlas of ecosystem goods and services. As presently envisioned, the atlas will be nationally representative where possible, and emphasize the landscape and land-cover change. Emphasis will be placed on the landscape because it is an integrator that produces and distributes ecological goods and services, and mitigates stressors (Wickham et al. 2006, Wiens 2007). Land-cover change will also be emphasized because ecological systems are dynamic rather than static, and a focus on temporal change will permit quantification of gain and loss of ecosystem goods and services.