The lack of a clear framework identifying data to link ecosystems to analyses of human well‐being has been highlighted in numerous studies. To address this issue, we applied a recently developed economic theory termed “final” ecosystem goods and services – the biophysical features and qualities that people perceive as being directly related to their well‐being. The six‐step process presented here enabled us to identify metrics associated with streams that can be used in the analysis of human well‐being; we illustrate these steps with data from a regional stream survey. Continued refinement and application of this framework will require ongoing collaboration between natural and social scientists. Framework application could result in more useful and relevant data, leading to more informed decisions in the management of ecosystems.

We used calcium concentration data from over 3000 stream and river sites across the contiguous United States to classify ecoregions relative to their risk for Dreissena species invasion. We defined risk based on calcium concentrations as: very low (< 12 mg L−1), low (12–20 mg L−1), moderate (20–28 mg L−1), and high (> 28 mg L−1). Ecoregions comprising 9.4% and 11.3% of land area were classified as very low risk and low risk, respectively. These areas included New England, most of the southeast, and western portions of the Pacific Northwest. High‐risk ecoregions comprised 58.9% of land area. Ecoregions with highly variable calcium concentrations comprised 19.8% of land area; none could be classified as moderate risk. The majority of Dreissena occurrences (excluding the Great Lakes) were located in high‐risk ecoregions, and most exceptions occurred in highly variable ecoregions. In low‐risk ecoregions, mussels occurred in large rivers flowing from high‐calcium regions. Our map provides guidance for the allocation of management resources.

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Lakes provide recreational benefits related to water quality. Using data from the 2007 and 2012 United States National Lake Assessments (N=2067 lake visits), we developed indicators for three benefits: swimming, general recreational value, and aesthetic appeal. For two combined ecoregions ("Mountains" and "Plains") we related objective measures of water clarity, including Secchi depth, turbidity, and water-column chlorophyll-a concentration to subjective visual assessments of recreational benefit quality. There were significant associations between water clarity measures and visual assessments from which we derived water-clarity based thresholds between benefit quality classes (exceptional, high, low, marginal) for each benefit type. More variation in Secchi depth and turbidity was explained by benefit quality than was variation in chlorophyll-a. Threshold values were different between combined ecoregions. Compared to lakes in the Mountains ecoregion, recreational users of Plains lakes have lower expectations for water clarity. Thresholds were generally in accord with water clarity thresholds and guidance derived from published regional studies. Including indicators of the quality of benefits humans receive from lakes in assessments of lake conditions can increase public participation in decision-making and reveal changes in benefit quality over time.