Marc Russell

Accounting for Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability: Linking Ecosystem Services to Human Well-Being

One of societys greatest challenges is to sustain natural resources while promoting economic growth and quality of life. In the face of this challenge, society must measure the effectiveness of programs established to safeguard the environment. The impetus for demonstrating positive results from government-sponsored research and regulation in the United States comes from Congress (General Accountability Office; GAO) and the Executive Branch (Office of Management and Budget; OMB). The message is: regulatory and research programs must demonstrate outcomes that justify their costs. Although the concept is simple, it is a complex problem to demonstrate that environmental research, policies, and regulations cause measurable changes in environmental quality. Even where changes in environmental quality can be tracked reliably, the connections between government actions and environmental outcomes seldom are direct or straightforward. In this article, we describe emerging efforts (with emphasis on the role of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; EPA) to frame and measure environmental outcomes in terms of ecosystem services and values-societally and ecologically meaningful metrics for gauging how well we manage environmental resources. As examples of accounting for outcomes and values, we present a novel, low-cost method for determining relative values of multiple ecosystem services, and describe emerging research on indicators of human well-being.

Classifying the biological condition of small streams: an example using benthic macroinvertebrates

Abstract The ability to classify the biological condition of unsurveyed streams accurately would be an asset to the conservation and management of streams. We compared the ability of 5 modeling methods (classification and regression trees, conditional inference trees, random forests [RF], conditional random forests [cRF], and ordinal logistic regression) to predict stream biological condition (very poor, poor, fair, or good) based on benthic macroinvertebrate Index of Biotic Integrity data taken from the Maryland Biological Stream Survey. Predictor variables included land use and land cover (e.g., impervious surface, row-crop agriculture, and population density) and landscape measures (annual precipitation and watershed area). We included 1561 sites on small nontidal streams in the Maryland portion of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. We used 1248 sites (80%) as a training data set to build models and 313 sites (20%) as an independent evaluation data set. RF and cRF models most accurately predicted observed integrity scores in the evaluation data set, but we selected the cRF as the best model because of weaknesses in the RF model (e.g., biased variable selection). Percent impervious surface was the most important variable in the cRF model, and the probability that a site was in very poor or poor biological condition increased rapidly as % impervious cover increased up to 20%. When applied to predict stream biological conditions in all 7908 small nontidal stream reaches in the study area, the cRF model predicted that 33.8% were in fair, 29.9% in good, 22.7% in poor, and 13.6% in very poor biological condition. Our analyses can be used to manage and conserve freshwater and estuarine resources of Maryland and the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Model predictions for unsurveyed streams can help target field studies to identify high-quality streams deserving of conservation and impaired streams in need of restoration.

Human Dimensions of Our Estuaries and Coasts

The connection between humans and the sea via the coastal margin is well understood. Many of our major cities are built in the coastal zone, and 44 % of the world’s population lives within 150 km of the coast (United Nations 2014a). This tight connection is driven by the benefits of commerce and the natural environment in the form of ecosystem goods and services. Our relationship with our coastal areas, however, is a delicate one. We receive numerous benefits but also have significant impacts on the systems providing these benefits. Quite simply, we often dominate our coasts, thus making the issue of governance even more relevant (Weinstein et al. 2007). Anthropogenic impacts, thus, eventually feedback and impact our well-being (MEA 2005; Cardinale, et al. 2012). Like many complex biogeochemical reactions, multiple ecosystem, economic, and social–cultural reagents combine in multiple ways to influence the end result. We propose here that the reagents of human well-being can be broken down to their elemental form. In autumn of 2011, the Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation held its 21st biennial meeting. The theme of that conference was Societies, Estuaries, and Coasts: Adapting to Change. A unique aspect of this particular convening was the emphasis placed upon the interaction of humans with coastal environments, both as beneficiaries and sources of problems. The substantial number of presentations focusing on human dimensions demonstrated an expertise not traditionally a part of biophysical scientist gatherings. The success of that assemblage spurred the idea for a special theme section of the Federation’s journal, Estuaries and Coasts. This paper introduces that special section.

Created mangrove wetlands store belowground carbon and surface elevation change enables them to adjust to sea-level rise

Mangrove wetlands provide ecosystem services for millions of people, most prominently by providing storm protection, food and fodder. Mangrove wetlands are also valuable ecosystems for promoting carbon (C) sequestration and storage. However, loss of mangrove wetlands and these ecosystem services are a global concern, prompting the restoration and creation of mangrove wetlands as a potential solution. Here, we investigate soil surface elevation change, and its components, in created mangrove wetlands over a 25 year developmental gradient. All created mangrove wetlands were exceeding current relative sea-level rise rates (2.6 mm yr−1), with surface elevation change of 4.2–11.0 mm yr−1 compared with 1.5–7.2 mm yr−1 for nearby reference mangroves. While mangrove wetlands store C persistently in roots/soils, storage capacity is most valuable if maintained with future sea-level rise. Through empirical modeling, we discovered that properly designed creation projects may not only yield enhanced C storage, but also can facilitate wetland persistence perennially under current rates of sea-level rise and, for most sites, for over a century with projected medium accelerations in sea-level rise (IPCC RCP 6.0). Only the fastest projected accelerations in sea-level rise (IPCC RCP 8.5) led to widespread submergence and potential loss of stored C for created mangrove wetlands before 2100.

Habitat Restoration from an Ecosystem Goods and Services Perspective: Application of a Spatially Explicit Individual-Based Model

Estuarine ecosystems provide many services to humans, but these ecosystems are also under pressure from human development, which has led to large investments in habitat protection and restoration. Restoration in estuaries is typically focused on emergent and submerged vegetation with the goal of achieving target areal coverage based on historic conditions. Such restoration targets assume no spatial heterogeneity in habitat value and bypass the functional target of restoring or maintaining delivery of ecosystem goods and services (EGS). We have developed a spatially explicit individual-based behavioral model intended to explore the functional role of habitat restoration on EGS delivery in an index system (Tampa Bay, FL) and for an index EGS (recreational fishing). Model scenarios are based on interaction of inter-annual differences in salinity/temperature patterns (wet, dry, average) with hindcasted “increases” in coverage and distribution of seagrass. Model predictions indicated that the effect of seagrass restoration to historic (1950s) levels on both fish and fishery production is dependent on salinity and temperature. This dependence is based on predicted fish response both to habitat changes and the effective spatial scale of different habitat components. Overall, average salinity/temperature conditions facilitated the highest positive functional response to seagrass restoration with extreme wet/dry years yielding lower or even negative functional responses, but these responses were localized and not homogenous about the estuary. The results of this study provide a methodology for using functional targets in restoration planning and highlight the importance of considering the entire habitat mosaic in valuing restored habitat from an EGS perspective.

Erratum to: Estimating Benefits in a Recovering Estuary: Tampa Bay, Florida

The last two paragraphs beginning on page s13 and ending on page s14 of the original article are revised as follows to account for the molecular weight difference between carbon and carbon dioxide: Valuation of carbon and nitrogen removal for mitigating climate change and maintaining good water quality helps translate gains in the production of several different ecosystem goods into a weighted indicator of overall gains based on beneficiary perceptions of value at a given time. On a perunit basis, denitrification is currently of much higher value than carbon sequestration, and its potential benefits are more localized. The annual production values of salt marsh and mangrove habitat’s ability to sequester carbon increased by

An operational structure for clarity in ecosystem service values

15 thousand and

Net anthropogenic phosphorus inputs: spatial and temporal variability in the Chesapeake Bay region

87 thousand, respectively, between 1990 and 2007/2008 (Fig. 2). These same habitats gained

Ecosystem development after mangrove wetland creation : plant–soil change across a 20-year chronosequence

66 thousand and

Prioritization of Ecosystem Services Research: Tampa Bay Demonstration Project

94 thousand worth of additional annual nitrogen removal capability (Fig. 2). Seagrass habitat’s value for annual carbon sequestration and nitrogen removal are estimated to have increased by