Marine ecosystem services: Linking indicators to their classification

Abstract

A B S T R A C TThere is a multitude of ecosystem service classifications available within the literature, each with its own advantages and drawbacks. Elements of them have been used to tailor a generic ecosystem service classification for the marine environment and then for a case study site within the North Sea: the Dogger Bank. Indicators for each of the ecosystem services, deemed relevant to the case study site, were identified. Each indicator was then assessed against a set of agreed criteria to ensure its relevance and applicability to environmental management. This paper identifies the need to distinguish between indicators of ecosystem services that are entirely ecological in nature (and largely reveal the potential of an ecosystem to provide ecosystem services), indicators for the ecological processes contributing to the delivery of these services, and indicators of benefits that reveal the realized human use or enjoyment of an ecosystem service. It highlights some of the difficulties faced in selecting meaningful indicators, such as problems of specificity, spatial disconnect and the considerable uncertainty about marine species, habitats and the processes, functions and services they contribute to.

Multi-objective spatial tools to inform maritime spatial planning in the Adriatic Sea

“…water purification and mass transport of water) associated to river plume especially in coastal areas of the NAd (e.g. Po and Adige river), the CAd (Neretva river) and SAd (Drin river), 2) waste treatment and assimilation, due to dilution and dispersal of toxicants through hydrodynamics processes (Hattam et al, 2015) and 3) through the coupling of biogeochemical model for the generation of indicators for microbial reduction and cycling of excess nutrients (Liquete et al, 2013). The presented MES capacity model is a rapid screening methodology for the analysis and mapping of marine ES on large spatial scale.…”

Economic Valuation of Marine and Coastal Ecosystems: Is it currently fit for purpose?

“…One interesting avenue for future work is to link indicators of marine ecosystem condition to the attributes used in stated preference choice modelling. Hattam et al (2015) provide a comprehensive account of how indicators reflecting changes in ecosystem function can be linked to ES and the benefits from these services. As they say: An alternative approach would be to relate the attributes used in choice experiment design to possible descriptors of the environmental targets of legislation and international treaties.…”

The cost of degradation of the Dutch North Sea environment : a study into the costs of avoiding degradation and the applicability of the Ecosystem Services approach

“…In most definitions, ecosystem services are defined as being ecological in nature and provided by the living components of the ecosystem. The question whether abiotic components of the ecosystems has to be included into ecosystem services has been debated, because including is problematic (Hattam et al, 2015).…”

“…In Table 3.2, 3.3, 3.4 abiotic processes are included as well (at the right hand side). Gómez et al, 2016, Hattam et al, 2015 As is explained in Section 3.2.1, to avoid double counting in an economic-valuation approach, only final services should be included. In Figure 3.4, the different types of ecosystem services are categorised as final or intermediate services.…”