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USEPA ORD’s Ecosystem Services Research Project Overview

USEPA ORD’s Ecosystem Services Research Project Overview. Presented at the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary’s Natural Capital Team Meeting 4/20/09. Presenter: Irene Purdy, EPA Region 2. Presentation Outline.

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USEPA ORD’s Ecosystem Services Research Project Overview

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  1. USEPA ORD’sEcosystem Services Research ProjectOverview Presented at the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary’s 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, O&E 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. EPA’s Strategic Goals and ORD’s 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 – 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

  8. 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

  9. Alternative Futures Analysis Willamette Valley, Oregon Source: Steve Polasky, et al. Applied Economics, Univ. of Minn. “Conservation of working landscapes.” Unpublished data.

  10. 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

  11. 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

  12. 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)

  13. 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.

  14. Other ESRP Program Elements Ecosystem Services and Human HealthInventory and Monitoring of Ecosystem ServicesModelingValuation of Ecosystem ServicesDecision Support FrameworkOutreach and Education

  15. Partner Collaborations Memorandum of Understanding with: • World Resources Institute --linking emerging scientific data about the health and economic value of ecosystem services with WRI’s 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.

  16. ESRP Web Site www.epa.gov/ord/esrp

  17. ESRP’s Seminar Series on Ecosystem Services and other resources • http://portal.epa.gov/ ‘willing sponsor’-- purdy.irene@epa.gov, 212-637-3845

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

  19. That’s All from NYC! Thank You!

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