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EPA's new research focus on ecosystem services, with a study of biofuels expansion in the Midwestern U.S.
Citation:
Impact/Purpose:
The "Future Midwestern Landscapes (FML) Study is one of the four place-based studies currently being planned. Over a 13-state area of the Midwest, for a baseline year and at least two alternative future scenarios, FML will consturct detailed land use/land cover maps and characterize a variety of services. Future scenarios will cotrast the current path (i.e., the incentivized ramp-up of biofuel production, initially emphasizing corn starch ethanol) with an alternative path in which land uses producing a wider range of services are hypotheticall6 incentivized. A web-based decision-support tool is planned that will construct maps showing interscenario comparisons of produced services, according to user-weighted service indices. The tool will highlight opportunities for conservation and will lower service trading-related transaction costs. Challenges to be overcome in project design involve the linkage of multiple ecological models over a large geographic area and the determination of appropriate valuation methods for each ecosystem service.
Description:
EPA's Ecological Research Program is initiating new research to characterize ecosystem services and to enable their routine consideration in environmental management and policy. Research will be organized around two foci: ecosystem type (wetlands and coral reefs will be studied) or geographic place (four place-based studies are being initiated). Research themes cutting across these systems and places will include mapping, monitoring, future-scenario analysis and valuation of services; impaces of reactive nitrogen; relationships to human health; development of appropriate decision support systems; and education. This 5-year thrust will requuire that EPA's ecological researchers develop new partnerships across discipliens (e.g., with economists and other social scientists) and agencies. The research will enable decisions that better account for the full value of ecosystem services and expected changes in service flows.