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APPLYING THE ECOSYSTEM SERVICES CONCEPT FOR ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT IN THE UPPER SAN PEDRO BASIN, ARIZONA
Citation:
SEMMENS, D. J., W. G. KEPNER, D. C. Goodrich, L. M. Norman, J. B. Callegary, AND C. van Riper, III. APPLYING THE ECOSYSTEM SERVICES CONCEPT FOR ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT IN THE UPPER SAN PEDRO BASIN, ARIZONA. Presented at Ecosystem Services Conference, Naples, FL, December 08 - 11, 2008.
Impact/Purpose:
Presentation
Description:
The Upper San Pedro River flows intermittently north from Sonora, Mexico into southeastern Arizona and is one of the last few large unimpounded rivers in the American Southwest. The remaining perennial reaches support a desert riparian ecosystem that is a rare remnant of what was once an extensive network of similar riparian systems throughout the Southwest, and is thus of critical ecological and cultural importance. The river serves as a corridor between the sky islands of the Madrean Archipelago in Sonora and Arizona’s Central Highlands that is the most significant migratory flyway in the Southwest. The riparian corridor provides habitat for nearly 70% of the currently known avian species in the U.S. and has the highest mammalian diversity of anywhere in the U.S. The San Pedro River is threatened on numerous fronts by landscape change resulting from climate change, mining activities, the border fence, rapid human population growth and associated urban development, and unsustainable water use. These threats collectively require systematic analysis to fully understand the implications of management and policy actions for the basin’s communities and ecosystems. A comprehensive approach based on applying the conceptual framework of an ecosystem services assessment has been adopted to identify the costs and benefits associated with scenarios based on different combinations of stressors.