Ecosystem services and environmental decision making: Seeking order in complexity

Abstract

The Ecosystem Service Paradigm (EsSP) is increasingly a component or even an underlying principle of environmental policy, legislation and management internationally. The EsSP can be used to define links between human activities and ecosystems, and ecosystems and the services that in turn support and sustain those and other activities; this information can then be used to evaluate, justify or optimize decisions. However, how EsS within various practical applications and frameworks are applied, defined, quantified, modelled, valued and communicated ranges widely, potentially hindering their roles as cross-sectoral tools. For this paradigm to be useful for cross-disciplinary integration, it is important that practitioners in different fields are clear about what is meant and assumed when terms are used, and within what context assessments are being carried out. The logic behind practical applications of the EsSP can be explained by the EsS Decision Cascade, a three-part, iterative conceptual framework. Within the decision cascade, Ecosystem Service Decision Analysis (EsSD) defines the proposed policies or actions (scenarios), and the changes/pressures under consideration in different scenarios. Within the context laid out by EsSD, Ecosystem Service Assessment (EsSA) will then evaluate how such changes affect biophysical structure, and thus ecosystem function and services; Ecosystem Service Valuation (EsSV) then takes the results from these analyses and generates valuations to inform decisions; linking back to EsSD. EsS-based evaluations can expand the current risk-focused thinking behind ecological risk assessment (ERA) to consider trade-offs between a range of desirable and undesirable responses of a variety of ecosystem endpoints; such an assessment can be termed an Ecosystem Response Assessment (EcoResA), or if applied in a spatially explicit manner, an Ecosystem Regional Assessment (EcoRegA); understanding of such trade-offs is essential to inform decisions about more sustainable remediation, regulation and management of landscapes and resources. This paper describes "taxonomies" of various aspects of EsSP applications, based upon their decision context, perspective and assessment approach. It then examines, with a focus on European issues, a range of current and emerging regulatory and management applications to which the EsSP can be applied in light of this taxonomy. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2013;9:214-230.

Integration of Chlorpyrifos Acetylcholinesterase Inhibition, Water Temperature, and Dissolved Oxygen Concentration into a Regional Scale Multiple Stressor Risk Assessment Estimating Risk to Chinook Salmon

“…The original relative risk model (RRM) was developed to address ecological risks associated with multiple stressors acting on diverse endpoints over larger spatial and longer temporal scales (Colnar and Landis ; Landis and Wiegers ) and has been applied worldwide (Bartolo et al ; Chen et al ; Apitz ; Kanwar et al ). In the RRM the formation of the conceptual model uses the source–stressor–habitat–effect–impact framework that incorporates spatial relationships to indicate causal interactions (Landis and Wiegers ; Wiegers et al ).…”

Environmental Reviews and Case Studies: Mapping Landscape Values: Issues, Challenges and Lessons Learned from Field Work on the Olympic Peninsula, Washington

“…Other classification schemes, for example, focus on land use, productive potential, biophysical characteristics, or ecosystem services (Apitz, 2013;Higgins et al, 1987;Rindfuss et al, 2004). This predefined list aids in coding and aggregating the spatial data and, if used consistently, allows for cross-study comparisons.…”

Assessment and mapping the dynamics of soil properties in selected forest stands from the region of Central Balkan National Park in the context of ecosystem services

“…Likewise, an integrated ecological approach that considers changes in both vegetation and soil should be applied to develop an understanding of how use and management affect the ecosystem functions and the overall forest health status. There is a large body of literature and research on the identification and evaluation of ecosystem goods and services -an approach that is currently gaining more implication in the development of decision support tools that integrate ecological, geographical and socioeconomic methods (Apitz 2013, Bagstad et al 2013, Maes and Jacobs 2015. The ecosystem services (ES) concept outlines a framework of nature-explicit values that people benefit from and sets the scene for prioritisation of environmental management and development options.…”