Jackson Chloe A, Hernandez Connie L, Yee Susan H, Nash Maliha S, Diefenderfer Heida L, Borde Amy B, Harwell Matthew C, DeWitt Theodore H
Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, Newport, OR, United States.
Gulf Ecosystem Measurement and Modeling Division, Office of Research and Development, Center for Environmental Measurement and Modeling, US Environmental Protection Agency, Gulf Breeze, FL, United States.
Front Ecol Evol. 2024 Jul 7;12:1-22. doi: 10.3389/fevo.2024.1260447.
Classification systems can be an important tool for identifying and quantifying the importance of relationships, assessing spatial patterns in a standardized way, and forecasting alternative decision scenarios to characterize the potential benefits (e.g., ecosystem services) from ecosystem restoration that improve human health and well-being. We present a top-down approach that systematically leverages ecosystem services classification systems to identify potential services relevant for ecosystem restoration decisions. We demonstrate this approach using the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's National Ecosystem Service Classification System Plus (NESCS Plus) to identify those ecosystem services that are relevant to restoration of tidal wetlands. We selected tidal wetland management documents from federal agencies, state agencies, wetland conservation organizations, and land stewards across three regions of the continental United States (northern Gulf of Mexico, Mid-Atlantic, and Pacific Northwest) to examine regional and organizational differences in identified potential benefits of tidal wetland restoration activities and the potential user groups who may benefit. We used an automated document analysis to quantify the frequencies at which different wetland types were mentioned in the management documents along with their associated beneficiary groups and the ecological end products (EEPs) those beneficiaries care about, as defined by NESCS Plus. Results showed that a top combination across all three regions, all four organizations, and all four tidal wetland types was the EEP naturalness paired with the beneficiary people who care (existence). Overall, the Mid-Atlantic region and the land steward organizations mentioned ecosystem services more than the others, and EEPs were mentioned in combination with tidal wetlands as a high-level, more general category than the other more specific tidal wetland types. Certain regional and organizations differences were statistically significant. Those results may be useful in identifying ecosystem services-related goals for tidal wetland restoration. This approach for identifying and comparing ecosystem service priorities is broadly transferrable to other ecosystems or decision-making contexts.
分类系统可以成为一种重要工具，用于识别和量化关系的重要性、以标准化方式评估空间格局，以及预测替代决策情景，以描述生态系统恢复带来的潜在益处（如生态系统服务），这些益处能够改善人类健康和福祉。我们提出一种自上而下的方法，该方法系统地利用生态系统服务分类系统来识别与生态系统恢复决策相关的潜在服务。我们使用美国环境保护局的国家生态系统服务分类系统升级版（NESCS Plus）来展示这种方法，以识别与潮汐湿地恢复相关的那些生态系统服务。我们从美国大陆三个地区（墨西哥湾北部、大西洋中部和太平洋西北部）的联邦机构、州机构、湿地保护组织和土地管理者那里选取了潮汐湿地管理文件，以研究在已识别的潮汐湿地恢复活动潜在益处方面的区域和组织差异，以及可能受益的潜在用户群体。我们使用自动文档分析来量化管理文件中提及不同湿地类型的频率，以及与之相关的受益群体和那些受益者所关心的生态终产物（EEPs），这些EEPs由NESCS Plus定义。结果表明，在所有三个地区、所有四个组织以及所有四种潮汐湿地类型中，最常见的组合是生态终产物自然性与关心的受益者群体（存在）。总体而言，大西洋中部地区和土地管理者组织比其他地区和组织更多地提及生态系统服务，并且与其他更具体的潮汐湿地类型相比，EEPs与潮汐湿地一起被作为一个更高级、更宽泛的类别提及。某些区域和组织差异具有统计学意义。这些结果可能有助于确定潮汐湿地恢复的与生态系统服务相关的目标。这种识别和比较生态系统服务优先级的方法可广泛应用于其他生态系统或决策背景。
