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Development of US EPA's Ecological Production Function Library
Citation:
BRUINS, R. J., L. Wainger, S. Sifleet, AND T. H. DEWITT. Development of US EPA's Ecological Production Function Library. Presented at EcoSummit 2012, Columbus, OH, September 30 - October 05, 2012.
Impact/Purpose:
US EPA is developing a library of ecological production functions (EPFs) to help communities plan for sustainable access to ecosystem goods and services (EGS).
Description:
US EPA is developing a library of ecological production functions (EPFs) to help communities plan for sustainable access to ecosystem goods and services (EGS). Several databases already compile information about the value of EGS. However, they focus on static representations of value (i.e., annual economic value of EGS provided by a given kind of wetland) without examining the underlying ecological processes (i.e., the EPFs) that govern the quality or quantity of the good or service that is provided. In contrast, EPFs reveal how the characteristics of ecosystems (e.g., different kinds of wetlands, or wetlands in different landscape settings) produce goods and services with different beneficiaries, different values and different responses to stress or to restoration efforts. The intent of the EPF Library is to promote greater precision in EPF descriptions, to provide EPFs to a broad user community (e.g., planters, stakeholders, researchers, etc.) leading to more consistent and effective modeling and measurement of EGS. By focusing on EPFs, the Library will provide more insight into the dynamics of the EGS production process. Special attention will be given to the transferability of EPFs between locations, habitats, and ecosystems; the up- and down-scaling of EPFs within the landscapes; and the propagation of error in the modeling of EPFs, their responses to stressors, and the valuation of EGS. The initial version of the Library is essentially an annotated bibliography of EPFs, identifying the drivers and stressors that affect specific biotic and abiotic ecological attributes in ecosystems, the contribution of those attributes to the production of EGS, and their value and use by beneficiaries in or adjacent to those ecosystems. A web-accessible version of the Library is expected to be available by 2014. We will present the current version of the Library and our vision for its future evolution