Reprint:Examining the ecosystem service of nutrient removal in a coastal watershed

Abstract

a b s t r a c tGlobally, managers are trying to prevent or halt the eutrophication of valuable estuaries and bays by reducing nutrient inputs, but justifying the cost of conservation or processing facility upgrades often proves challenging. We focus on a coastal watershed in Maine and New Hampshire struggling with the financial burdens of nitrogen pollution mandates due to the eutrophication of the Great Bay estuary. After creating two future watershed land cover scenarios comparing plausible extremes, we ran them through two models, the Natural Capital Project's InVEST (Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs) and a detailed hydrologic and biogeochemical river network model FrAMES (Framework for Aquatic Modeling of the Earth System). Through this work, we both evaluated and valued the ecosystem service of nitrogen retention. We find that both models provide numerical arguments for conservation efforts, and decision makers would benefit from using either an ecosystem services model or a biogeochemical model when dealing with complex issues like nutrient overenrichment. According to both our modeling results, modest watershed conservation efforts as defined by our expert stakeholders, ie: protecting wetlands and forests, could reduce the amount of total nitrogen entering the Great Bay estuary in the range of 3-28 metric tons per year.

Linking people to coastal habitats: A meta-analysis of final ecosystem goods and services on the coast

“…Over the last decade, several models and tools have been developed to help communities evaluate ecosystem service tradeoffs in the context of land-management decisions (Tallis and Polasky, 2009;Arkema et al, 2013;Bagstad et al, 2013;Martín-López et al, 2014;Villa et al, 2014;Cabral et al, 2015;Berg et al, 2016;Zank et al, 2016;Owuor et al, 2017). Mapping flows of EGS from ecosystems, and related habitats, to groups of human users can help build consensus within communities in the context of local priorities (Crossman et al, 2013;Carmen et al, 2018), and there are numerous methodologies.…”