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Lakes Ecosystem Services Online
Citation:
HOLLISTER, J. W., K. HYCHKA, J. A. KIDDON, W. B. MILSTEAD, H. A. WALKER, J. L. COPELAND, C. CORMIER, D. BENDER, H. BUFFUM, AND M. M. HUGHES. Lakes Ecosystem Services Online. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/C-12/007, 2012.
Impact/Purpose:
The primary purpose of this work is to develop a framework for delivery of data, tools, and geospatial applications. In essence this is a “proof-of-concept” and it has already served this role as we are developing similar decision support tools for many other research projects. We expect that providing access to data and spatial visualization tools will enable decision makers to easily combine disparate datasets to aid in tough decisions related to nutrients and aquatic resources.
Description:
Northeastern lakes provide valuable ecosystem services that benefit residents and visitors and are increasingly important for provisioning of recreational opportunities and amenities. Concurrently, however, population growth threatens lakes by, for instance, increasing nutrient loads. To help provide the background knowledge needed to understand how nutrient loads interact with ecosystem services in lakes, we have developed a website (http://www.epa.gov/aed/lakesecoservices/index.html) that describes how we view ecosystem services in lakes, provides access to water quality and nutrient loading data for lakes in the Northeastern United States, and provides online GIS tools for visualizing the data and conducting some simple geospatial analyses.
URLs/Downloads:
JH LAKES WEBSITE ABSTRACT 2012.PDF (PDF, NA pp, 40 KB, about PDF)Lakes Ecosystem Services Online