X. ECOSYSTEM SERVICES

Published and unpublished resources about an ecosystem services approach to forests, conservation and development, with notes (by Rachel Neugarten.)

Back to Annotated Bibliography

Beier, C.M., T.M. Patterson, and F.S. Chapin. 2008. Ecosystem services and emergent vulnerability in managed ecosystems: A geospatial decision-support tool. Ecosystems. 11: 923-938.

• used GIS data to overlay “provision,” “use,” and “disturbance” indicators in SE Alaska
• goal was to identify areas (watersheds) potentially vulnerable to over-exploitation, leading to decrease in provision of ecosystem services
• provision indicators included productive forest land, habitat suitability for deer, brown bear, and black bear, anadromous salmon and trout habitats, fish productivity, and estuaries
• use indicators included sport fishing, shellfish harvest sites, harvest levels of deer and bear, public use cabins and log transfer sites, harbors, hatcheries, and aquaculture
• disturbance indicators included harvested forest, urban land cover, and road-stream crossings
• overlaid using two methods (watershed ranking method and raster interpolation method) to see where provision/use/disturbance values were most tightly coupled (statistical analysis, comparison of two methods) 
• identified certain watersheds as having higher degree of coupling between indicators
• some limitations due to lack of information (rural/subsistence hunting, non-consumptive recreation) and other reasons
• meant as a demonstration, not as a robust analysis of SE Alaska
• potentially helps identify areas for greater research / adaptive management

Patterson, T. M., and D. L. Coelho. 2009. Ecosystem services: Foundations, opportunities, and challenges for the forest products sector. Forest Ecology and Management 257(8): 1637-1646.

• provides a definition of ecosystem services, including a description of some basic economic and valuation principles, and a framework for applying an ecosystem services approach to forests
• different ecosystem service approaches for fostering private markets, managing public lands, or raising awareness – for each situation, resource, and set of goals, different ecosystem services and values might be relevant
• “Data availability is often a principle factor in determining whether it will be feasible to raise awareness, initiate a market, or to incorporate ecosystem service information in to forest and forest product management and decision making"
• Ultimate goal – supporting the continued provision and sustainable consumption of ecosystem services in the long run. “Exceptionally few indicators of success against this goal have been attempted at almost any scale.”
• 2010 National Report on Sustainable Forests – indicator 6.1c “revenue from forest based environmental services” – but growth in revenue (quantitative goal) is not the same as strengthened ecosystem services provision (qualitative goal) (? can be quantitative??)
•  “it may be quite plausible that ecosystem service payments are increasing, while the ecosystem service flows themselves continue to decline” (like increasing $$ for conservation, but still losing species and habitat…)