Title
Joint analysis of stressors and ecosystem services to enhance restoration effectiveness
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2012
Publication Title
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Volume
110
Issue
1
First Page
372
Last Page
377
Abstract
With increasing pressure placed on natural systems by growing human populations, both scientists and resource managers need a better understanding of the relationships between cumulative stress from human activities and valued ecosystem services. Societies often seek to mitigate threats to these services through large-scale, costly restoration projects, such as the over one billion dollar Great Lakes Restoration Initiative currently underway. To help inform these efforts, we merged high-resolution spatial analyses of environmental stressors with mapping of ecosystem services for all five Great Lakes. Cumulative ecosystem stress is highest in near-shore habitats, but also extends offshore in Lakes Erie, Ontario, and Michigan. Variation in cumulative stress is driven largely by spatial concordance among multiple stressors, indicating the importance of considering all stressors when planning restoration activities. In addition, highly stressed areas reflect numerous different combinations of stressors rather than a single suite of problems, suggesting that a detailed understanding of the stressors needing alleviation could improve restoration planning. We also find that many important areas for fisheries and recreation are subject to high stress, indicating that ecosystem degradation could be threatening key services. Current restoration efforts have targeted high-stress sites almost exclusively, but generally without knowledge of the full range of stressors affecting these locations or differences among sites in service provisioning. Our results demonstrate that joint spatial analysis of stressors and ecosystem services can provide a critical foundation for maximizing social and ecological benefits from restoration investments.
DOI
10.1073/pnas.1213841110
Recommended Citation
Allan, J. D.; McIntyre, P. B.; Smith, S. D.P.; Halpern, B. S.; Boyer, G. L.; Buchsbaum, A.; Burton, G. A.; Campbell, L. M.; Chadderton, W. L.; Ciborowski, Jan J.H.; Doran, P. J.; Eder, T.; Infante, D. M.; Johnson, L. B.; Joseph, C. A.; Marino, A. L.; Prusevich, A.; Read, Jennifer G.; Rose, Joan B.; Rutherford, Edward S.; Sowa, Scott P.; and Stienman, Alan D., "Joint analysis of stressors and ecosystem services to enhance restoration effectiveness" (2012). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110, 1, 372-377.
https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/biologypub/1093