USEPA ORDs Ecosystem Services Research Project Overview

1
USEPA ORDsEcosystem Services Research
ProjectOverview
Presented at the Partnership for the Delaware
Estuarys Natural Capital Team Meeting 4/20/09
Presenter Irene Purdy, EPA Region 2
2
Presentation Outline

• Goal of ORD (Office of Research and Development)
  Ecosystem Services Research Project (ESRP)
• Areas of Focus
• Partners
• Opportunities for interaction

3
ESRP Program Goal

• To transform the way we understand and respond
  to environmental issues by making clear the ways
  in which our choices affect the type, quality and
  magnitude of the services we receive from
  ecosystems -- such as clean air, clean water,
  productive soils and generation of food and fiber.

Suzanne Marcy, OE Team Lead
4
How will ORD do this?
Building on information from over a decade of
ecological research in

• Monitoring
• Diagnostics
• Modeling
• Restoration
• Indicators

• Addressing the knowledge gaps in understanding
  and measuring ecosystem services
• ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH PROGRAM MULTI-YEAR PLAN
  (2008-2014)
• conducting innovative ecological research
• providing the methods, models and tools needed
  by policy decision-makers

5
EPAs Strategic Goals and ORDs ESRP

• Goal 1 Clean Air
• Goal 2 Clean Water
• Goal 3 Land Preservation and Restoration
• Goal 4 Healthy Communities and Ecosystems
• -Ecosystem Services Research Project
• -Human Health Research Program
• -Global Change Research Program
• -Mercury Research Program
• .
• Goal 5 Compliance and Environmental Stewardship

6
Focus Areas for ESRP research

• Pollutant-based research
• How does a regulated pollutant affect, positively
  and/or negatively, the suite of ecosystem
  services at multiple scales? Nitrogen
• Ecosystem-based research
• How does the suite of ecosystem services provided
  by a single ecosystem type change under
  alternative management options at multiple
  scales? Wetlands, Coral Reefs
• Place-driven research
• How does the suite of ecosystem services within a
  defined area change under alternative management
  options/drivers? Tampa Bay, Coastal Carolinas,
  Midwest, Willamette Valley, Southwest (new)

7
Focus Area PollutantWhy Nitrogen?

• Increasing use (for instance fertilizer use)
• Existing database for mining of information
• Multiple time factors and scales of influence
• (what are the changes in ES affected by changes
  in N loads)
• Multimedia interactions (air, water, land)

8
Focus Area EcosystemWhy Wetlands?

• Key services provided by wetlands
• Regulatory/environmental importance
• ORD expertise
• Trading interest

9
Focus Area EcosystemWhy Coral Reefs?

• Coral reefs are in serious decline
• partly from pollutants in watershed runoff
• partly from global change factors such as high
  seawater temperatures
• Coral reef ecosystems provide valuable services
  
• food, coastal protection, fishing, recreation,
  education, and water quality, as well as cultural
  and aesthetic enjoyment

• Initial research will examine four services
• Shoreline protection Tourism Fish
  production Biodiversity

10
Focus Area Place-based

• Willamette Ecosystem Services Study Objectives

• Develop a decision tool that predicts responses
  of ecosystem services to probable future
  conditions
• Quantify ecosystem services, and their status
  and response to current and projected future
  conditions
• Evaluate net benefit of bundled ecosystem
  services under alternative management options

11
Alternative Futures Analysis
Willamette Valley, Oregon
Source Steve Polasky, et al. Applied
Economics, Univ. of Minn. Conservation of
working landscapes. Unpublished data.
12
Focus Area Place-based

• Tampa Bay, FL
• Scientists are partnering with local governments,
  planning organizations, and citizen and business
  groups to identify and assess the ecosystem
  services in Tampa Bay.
• Focus - how current and proposed population
  growth and development may impact ecosystem
  services.
• Research objectives
• Delineate and quantify ecosystem services
  provided by the Tampa Bay ecosystem
• Assess the likely changes in environmental
  stressors and land use patterns through 2050
• Model the relationships among stressors,
  ecosystem structure and functioning, and
  ecosystem services
• Develop a Web-based tool to characterize effects
  of land use changes on ecosystem services and
  human well-being

13
Focus Area Place-based

• Coastal Carolinas
• Identify and characterize coastal ecosystems
  services, with an emphasis on wetlands ecosystems
  
• Identify the impacts of global, national,
  regional, and locally interacting actions and
  decisions on coastal ecosystems services, with
  emphasis on nitrogen sources and cycles
• Develop information and decision tools (including
  the ability to visualize alternative future
  scenarios) and make these available to managers
  and citizens for use in assessing the full cost
  of land-use decisions

14
Focus Area Place-based

• Future Midwestern Landscapes
• Biofuels production and effects on ecosystem
  services
• Carbon balance (affects climate)
• Soil productivity (affects food and energy
  security)
• Hydrology and water quality (affect water supply,
  flooding, downstream aquatic ecosystems,
  recreation)
• Wildlife habitat and other natural areas (affect
  biodiversity and recreation)
• Air quality (affects health)

15
Focus Area Place-based
Southwest Ecosystem Service Project (SwESP)

• Research Questions
• How to identify, characterize, quantify and map
  the ecosystem services or ecosystem services
  indicators of arid and semi-arid regions?
• What drivers are dominant?

• How to quantify the responses of the services
  to current and projected conditions and drivers ?
• How to model the responses of services?
• How to assign value?
• What are the tools that are most suitable for
  decision makers to analyze the outcomes of their
  decisions?

From Nita Tallent-Halsell, Ph.D.
16
Other ESRP Program Elements

• Ecosystem Services and Human HealthInventory and
  Monitoring of Ecosystem ServicesModelingValuatio
  n of Ecosystem ServicesDecision Support
  FrameworkOutreach and Education

17
Partner Collaborations

• Memorandum of Understanding with
• World Resources Institute
• --linking emerging scientific data about the
  health and economic value of ecosystem services
  with WRIs various projects on water quality,
  biofuels, coral reefs and business
  sustainability.
• The collaboration will also yield improved
  science and practical tools to address climate
  change.
• Gund Institute at the Univ. of Vermont
• --conduct innovative research on information
  and methods needed by decision-makers to assess
  the benefits of ecosystem services at multiple
  spatial and temporal scales.
• National Geographic Society
• --develop methods to map ecosystem services and
  to create maps to display these services at
  multiple scales.

18
ESRP Web Site www.epa.gov/ord/esrp
19
ESRPs Seminar Series on Ecosystem Services and
other resources

• http//portal.epa.gov/
• willing sponsor-- purdy.irene_at_epa.gov,
  212-637-3845

20
Thanks to ..

• ORD ESRP Teams for an incredible learning
  experience
• Special thanks to ..
• Suzanne Marcy, PhD, Lead, Outreach and Education
  Team

21
Thats All from NYC!
Thank You!