New Approach for Evaluation of a Watershed Ecosystem Service for Avoiding Reservoir Sedimentation and Its Economic Value: A Case Study from Ertan Reservoir in Yalong River, China

A model was established to simulate an ecosystem service of avoiding reservoir sedimentation and its economic value based on the process of sediment delivery in a watershed. The model included fabricating the watershed of the study reservoir. The sediment retention coefficient of different land cover types were used to simulate the spatial patterns of the annual quantity of the sediment that were prevented from entering the reservoir by the vegetation in each cell followed the flow path in watershed. The economic value of the ecosystem service in this model was determined by the marginal cost of reservoir desilting. This study took the Ertan reservoir as an example. The results showed that most eroded soil was intercepted by different types of ecosystems in the process of sediment delivery in a watershed. The region with a higher quantity of sediment retention was around the reservoir. The absolute quantity of average sediment retention in forestland was lower, so the sediment retention ability of forestland failed to be brought into fullest play in watershed

Climate Change and Shifts in Water Related Ecosystem Services in the Tualatin and Yamhill River Basins

Water related ecosystem services (WES), such as flow regulation, drinking water supply, temperature regulation, and water recreational activities, are affected by anthropogenic climate change. Forecasting potential shifts in such WES is critical to identifying the form and magnitude of likely impacts. We quantified the levels and values of WES under multiple climate change scenarios in the two watersheds located in the Portland metropolitan area, Oregon, USA using the combination of a hydrologic model Better Assessment Science Integrating point and Non-point Sources - Soil and Water Assessment Tool (BASINS-SWAT) and an ecosystem evaluation model ? Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST). Using the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change?s AR4 climate change simulation results, we found that there is a slight relative increase in annual water yield, sediment yield, and dissolved phosphorus, but storm peak management does not change substantially by the 2050s. Spatial analysis shows that the locations of hot and cold spots remain relatively stable. It is also shown that there are high spatial and temporal uncertainties associated with climate change projections due to variations in precipitation projections toward the middle of the 21st century. The findings of our study provide useful information for water and land managers in identifying target areas for conservation to best sustain WES provision, use, and value under a range of climate change scenarios

Climate Change and Shifts in Water Related Ecosystem Services in the Tualatin and Yamhill River Basins

Water related ecosystem services (WES), such as flow regulation, drinking water supply, temperature regulation, and water recreational activities, are affected by anthropogenic climate change. Forecasting potential shifts in such WES is critical to identifying the form and magnitude of likely impacts. We quantified the levels and values of WES under multiple climate change scenarios in the two watersheds located in the Portland metropolitan area, Oregon, USA using the combination of a hydrologic model Better Assessment Science Integrating point and Non-point Sources - Soil and Water Assessment Tool (BASINS-SWAT) and an ecosystem evaluation model – Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST). Using the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s AR4 climate change simulation results, we found that there is a slight relative increase in annual water yield, sediment yield, and dissolved phosphorus, but storm peak management does not change substantially by the 2050s. Spatial analysis shows that the locations of hot and cold spots remain relatively stable. It is also shown that there are high spatial and temporal uncertainties associated with climate change projections due to variations in precipitation projections toward the middle of the 21st century. The findings of our study provide useful information for water and land managers in identifying target areas for conservation to best sustain WES provision, use, and value under a range of climate change scenarios.Presented at The Oregon Water Conference, May 24-25, 2011, Corvallis, OR

Projecting global land-use change and its effect on ecosystem service provision and biodiversity with simple models.

BACKGROUND: As the global human population grows and its consumption patterns change, additional land will be needed for living space and agricultural production. A critical question facing global society is how to meet growing human demands for living space, food, fuel, and other materials while sustaining ecosystem services and biodiversity [1]. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We spatially allocate two scenarios of 2000 to 2015 global areal change in urban land and cropland at the grid cell-level and measure the impact of this change on the provision of ecosystem services and biodiversity. The models and techniques used to spatially allocate land-use/land-cover (LULC) change and evaluate its impact on ecosystems are relatively simple and transparent [2]. The difference in the magnitude and pattern of cropland expansion across the two scenarios engenders different tradeoffs among crop production, provision of species habitat, and other important ecosystem services such as biomass carbon storage. For example, in one scenario, 5.2 grams of carbon stored in biomass is released for every additional calorie of crop produced across the globe; under the other scenario this tradeoff rate is 13.7. By comparing scenarios and their impacts we can begin to identify the global pattern of cropland and irrigation development that is significant enough to meet future food needs but has less of an impact on ecosystem service and habitat provision. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Urban area and croplands will expand in the future to meet human needs for living space, livelihoods, and food. In order to jointly provide desired levels of urban land, food production, and ecosystem service and species habitat provision the global society will have to become much more strategic in its allocation of intensively managed land uses. Here we illustrate a method for quickly and transparently evaluating the performance of potential global futures