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Ecosystem Services Benefits of Estuarine Restoration and Water Quality Management
Citation:
Yee, S. Ecosystem Services Benefits of Estuarine Restoration and Water Quality Management. Healthy and Resilient Communities Research Webinar Series, Gulf Breeze, FL, October 10, 2023.
Impact/Purpose:
Ecosystem restoration aims to recover ecological integrity and biodiversity of degraded ecosystems while providing the ecosystem services that humans want and need. To effectively achieve this, resource managers need methods to assess what levels of restored biological condition are needed to achieve desired beneficial uses; identify ecosystems of high potential value where restoration might be targeted; and communicate the potential benefits of restoration to inspire action and gain public support. The steps to assessing ecosystem services include: i) identifying relevant ecosystem services for the specific management context, ii) identifying metrics and indicators describing ecosystem services provisioning, iii) using monitoring data and production function models to quantitatively describe levels of ecosystem services production along a gradient of changing condition, and iv) evaluating potential co-occuring benefits or tradeoffs across ecosystem services under different levels of biological condition. The final ecosystem goods and services approach is demonstrated for two case studies to demonstrate how ecosystem services can be used as a measure of restoration effectiveness by 1) identifying metrics that are directly relevant to human beneficiaries, 2) applying quantitative models to link changing condition to changes in ecosystem services, 3) understanding the levels of restoration that are needed to achieve desired levels of ecosystem services, 4) considering the potential tradeoffs across restoration alternatives, and 5) monitoring the progress of restoration.
Description:
This presentation will highlight approaches to assess ecosystem services benefits of restored biological condition to support goal setting, inspire action, and communicate and track relevant outcomes. Case studies illustrate a transferable and adaptable framework to i) identify relevant benefits of environmental restoration to communities, ii) identify relevant metrics and indicators of ecosystem services, iii) apply quantitative models to link changing biological condition to ecosystem services, and iv) compare and evaluate management options.