COS 216-2 - Monitoring ecosystem services with Essential Ecosystem Service Variables

Abstract: Background/Question/Methods

Ecosystems worldwide are changing due to anthropogenic pressures and climate change. As ecosystem structure and function change, so does their capacity to support human wellbeing. Understanding how this change is affecting ecosystem services requires monitoring the state of human-nature interactions. However, an agreed upon methodology to monitor ecosystem services is not yet available. To support the need for monitoring of ecosystem services, the Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network recently proposed the use of Essential Ecosystem Service Variables (EESVs). These variables capture the multiple facets of an ecosystem service and are organised into six classes: ecological supply, use, demand, anthropogenic contribution, instrumental value and relational value. Yet, EESVs have only been proposed as a conceptual framework and lack use cases. We analysed EESVs for three interlinked ecosystem services in British Columbia (Canada): water quality regulation (regulating), wild Chinook commercial fisheries (provisioning) and orca whale-watching (cultural). We focused on EESV classes with readily available data from public and private sources for all three services. Using trend and intervention analysis, we show how EESVs are changing and affected by policy. Furthermore, we discuss key challenges and solutions, while providing guidance on using EESVs to monitor ecosystem service change and to provide decision support.



Results/Conclusions

Analysis of ecological supply and demand EESVs for water quality regulation highlighted the need to report metrics at the finest spatiotemporal scale possible to capture variability in ecosystem services across seasons and space. Trend analysis for the ecological supply of Chinook fisheries revealed changing patterns in significance depending on the level of aggregation (local, regional, provincial). It also showed the importance of using expert-derived start years to account for changing methods and data quality over time. Intervention analysis showed that although a new policy limited vessel approach distances to orca populations, the policy had little effect on use, but it reduced another driver (boat collisions). We found that the EESV framework can (1) account for multiple dimensions of ecosystem services, (2) provide a valuable pathway for linking data to monitoring and decision support, and (3) encourage comparisons and interconnections among ecosystem service indicators adopted by the monitoring frameworks of different policy agendas and conventions. We highlight key challenges in the operationalisation of EESVs and suggest improvements for the framework to effectively support policy. Next steps will require tool development, method harmonization, and continued consideration of the role of EESVs in the decision-making process.