Citation:

Fulford, R., Jim Hagy, AND M. Russell. Applying ecological function in environmental decision making. CERF 24th Biennial Conference, Providence, RI, November 05 - 09, 2017.

Impact/Purpose:

This presentation will communicate our research on development of decision support tools for community-level final ecosystem goods and services. We will explain the use of functional targets that focus on final ecosystem goods and services with a case study approach. This presentation parallels with a peer review publication on Functional equivalency to be submitted later this year. This presentation will be a part of our hosted special session on FEGS in decision making.

Description:

The Final ecosystem goods and services (FEGS) concept has become increasingly valuable for identifying and evaluating important trade-offs in estuarine management, yet the translation of FEGS science into policy is limited by a need for meaningful reference points. A research priority for the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is to develop methods for incorporation of FEGS into decision making to protect human health and the environment. Here we present a case study application of methods to translate available science into decision thresholds based on important FEGS in three well-studied estuarine systems. Thresholds in function delivery are a necessary part of making scientific information useful to decision makers. Such thresholds can be defined based on functional equivalency (FE) of ecosystem components. For any given FEGS, we can identify ecosystem components that contribute to its production and then define that contribution as a target function. When ecosystem changes result in change in FEGS production, the function has changed. A threshold can be defined beyond which a change in function results in a loss of FEGS production sufficient to say the ecosystem is no longer functionally equivalent to the undisturbed state. Decision makers need both a measure of the reduction in function, as well as the meaningful reference point in order to make use of scientific information. This approach to linking ecosystem attributes to functional equivalency is well established in fishery management and has been linked implicitly to resource sustainability. In the broader case of FEGS, the FE paradigm is used but not well defined as an operational concept, particularly for evaluating sustainability of decisions. Our goal is to provide a conceptual map for the FE paradigm to questions of habitat management and nutrient load management, and in so doing indicate meaningful and measurable thresholds for decision making in coastal estuaries.

Record Details: