A new method for assessing river ecosystem services and its application to rivers in Scotland with and without nature conservation designations

Abstract

Based on a paired analysis, we describe a method for evaluating the potential of rivers with different physical characteristics to provide ecosystem services. Scores based on an extensive scientific literature review and expert opinion were applied to four sets of rivers in Scotland, with each pair comprising one river with a statutory nature conservation designation and one where such designations were largely absent. Data on physical habitat features and land cover were extracted manually from Google Earth™, based upon a previously published method expanded here to take account of cultural ecosystem services. Twenty physical habitat features and land‐cover types and 13 ecosystem services (four provisioning, three regulating, and six cultural) were used in the analysis. Notable developments on the earlier approach included the full integration of cultural ecosystem services alongside provisioning, regulating, and supporting services; introduction of confidence levels to river feature–ecosystem service linkages; and incorporation of valley floor surface area into one of the two scoring systems. Ecosystem scores for 500 m reaches along each river from source to mouth were calculated using Microsoft Excel, with results showing high reach‐to‐reach variability within individual rivers and significant differences between paired rivers. The four rivers with statutory nature conservation designations provided a greater range and typically higher ecosystem service scores than those with little or no designation, a result that has significant implications for river conservation and for framing catchment‐level conservation policy.

Ecosystem services of temporary streams differ between wet and dry phases in regions with contrasting climates and economies

“…In the United States, the Navigable Waters Protection Rule came into effect in 2020, removing the legal protection of many temporary streams and thus risking reductions in their delivery of ES including water supply (Marshall et al., 2018; US EPA, 2020). Without legal protection, the ES provision of temporary streams may be lower than at designated sites (Keele, Gilvear, Large, Tree, & Boon, 2019). By advancing our understanding of the ES provided by temporary streams, in particular during dry phases and wet–dry shifts, we support calls to enhance their protection using mechanisms from local restoration to international legislation.…”

Anthropogenic Modifications and River Ecosystem Services: A Landscape Perspective

“…These structures influence the habitat template of rivers and thus the number of functional micro-and macro-habitats [43]. These habitat templates assimilate the biota, and biological interactions, including physical and chemical processes, that collectively determine production of ecosystem services like species diversity, climate regulation, and food production [41,44,45]. An overview of linkage between ecosystem services and landscape features is given in Table 3.…”

“…The matrix linking ecosystem services with river landscap ecosystem services with river landscape features. Source: adapted from Keele et al[45].…”

Professor Geoffrey Petts (1953–2018): An outstanding interdisciplinary river scientist

“…White et al () explore how the use of new macroinvertebrate biomonitoring tools can be used to examine the short‐temporal response of the community to flow intermittence and the transitioning between flowing and channel drying conditions. Keele, Gilvear, Large, Tree, and Boon () take a broader view of river ecosystems, presenting a new method for assessing their ecosystem services. Lastly, recent years have seen the rise of citizen science, and so Gurnell, England, Shuker, and Wharton () review the contribution of citizen science volunteers to river monitoring and management and present a new multi‐scale tool that citizen scientists are applying to characterise the physical and vegetation habitat structure of rivers.…”