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Final ecosystem services for stream ecosystems and the metrics, methods and challenges to apply them in a national monitoring context
Citation:
LANDERS, D. H. AND P. L. RINGOLD. Final ecosystem services for stream ecosystems and the metrics, methods and challenges to apply them in a national monitoring context. Presented at INTECOL Conference, Brisbane, AUSTRALIA, August 16 - 21, 2009.
Impact/Purpose:
The challenge of translating notions of ecosystem services from the theoretical arena to practical application at large scales (e.g. national) requires an interdisciplinary approach.
Description:
The challenge of translating notions of ecosystem services from the theoretical arena to practical application at large scales (e.g. national) requires an interdisciplinary approach. To meet this challenge, we convened a workshop involving a broad suite of natural and social scientists. The focus was on how the concept of final ecosystems services (Boyd and Banzhaf 2007) could be used to structure the metrics and methods necessary to quantify and evaluate environmental performance. Final ecosystem services are defined as components of nature, directly enjoyed, consumed or used to yield human well-being. We chose to restrict our efforts to stream ecosystem services to provide further focus. Other ecosystem services, of no less importance, are “intermediate” ecosystem services. These are essential to understanding, predicting and managing the final ecosystem services. In terms of the Millennium Assessment (2005), final services are typically the provisioning and cultural/aesthetic services and generally exclude the regulating and supporting services. For streams, some examples of final ecosystem services are: the quantity of water suitable for drinking, the quantity of water suitable for irrigation during the growing season, and the presence of desirable groups of fish in desirable locations. Spatial and temporal aspects of these and other final ecosystem services promise to be extremely important to their quantification and valuation and are therefore of considerable importance in designing a national program. The key outcomes and potential impacts of this workshop will be presented and discussed as will be the next steps that the USEPA is taking to incorporate ecosystem service thinking in how we monitor, assess and manage the nation’s natural capital.