An Ecosystem Services Approach to Assessing the Impacts of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico (2013) / Chapter Skim
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2 The Ecosystem Services Approach
2 The Ecosystem Services Approach
Pages 21-46
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From page 21... ...
Existing ecosystem models are capable of measuring some, but not all, of the complex and intertwined socialecological impacts of an event such as the DWH oil spill; however, these models might serve as the basis for models that can. The third obstacle relates to the relative values of various ecosystem services.
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From page 22... ...
The first scenario raises concerns that more-difficult-to-price services will be discounted or ignored in decision making; the second highlights an important limitation to any approach to remediation. The committee concludes that the key to feasible application of an ecosystem services approach is the development of tools capable of establishing and quantifying causal links among the event, an injury to an ecosystem, the resulting decrease in goods and services provided by that system, and the cost of that decreased production of goods and services to individual communities and society at large.
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From page 23... ...
Chapter 3 discusses the importance of resilience in natural systems such as the GoM ecosystem and, in particular, its relevance to the DWH oil spill. Third, how do changes in the provisioning of ecosystem services affect human well-being, and if the value of those changes should be estimated, then how should it be estimated (see Figure 2.1)
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From page 24... ...
. Individuals charged with representing the public in an assessment of the damages from an oil spill (the Trustees)
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From page 25... ...
. Since the DWH oil spill, numerous studies conducted under the NRDA process have focused on better understanding the impact of the spill on the GoM ecosystem (NOAA, 2012c)
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Ecological Production Functions An important underpinning of an ecosystem services approach is the ecological production function (Box 2.1)
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From page 27... ...
The Interim Report (NRC, 2011) provided some examples of the data and analyses required to establish ecological production functions for different resource categories, expanding upon the basic NRDA approach to include information about key ecosystem services.
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From page 28... ...
Despite these criticisms and the fact that other approaches to valuation do exist, virtually all valuations of ecosystem services to date have used the economic approach.4 Obstacles to Application of the Ecosystem Services Approach Thus far, this report has focused on discussing the elements of an ecosystem services approach, illustrated in Figure 2.1, and the potential benefits of using this approach to assess damages resulting from an event such as the DWH oil spill. The approach has the potential to capture a more holistic picture of impacts on the ecosystem and on human well-being and thereby provide a more realistic view of the overall range of damages, as well as the potential to increase the number of restoration options.
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From page 29... ...
Under Scenario A, baseline ecological services are produced at a variable rate over time, but that variability falls within a range that is likely dependent on factors that influ FIGURE 2.3 Hypothetical baseline of an ecosystem (salt marsh) service pre- and post-DWH oil spill and possible recovery responses.
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From page 30... ...
Other potential outcomes of the type of stress rendered by Hurricane Katrina and the DWH oil spill include Scenario D, where restoration and response actions enable the system to recover, but not to the baseline condition, and Scenario C, where restoration and response actions are highly beneficial to the extent that the ecosystem services recover to levels similar to those existing prior to the two major stressors. Figure 2.3 illustrates the importance of prestressor monitoring data.
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From page 31... ...
These computer models, or simulations, are needed to better understand the potential impacts of the DWH oil spill on GoM ecosystem services. Ideally, a thorough ecosystem services approach would be based on a mechanistic understanding of, and model for, the complex linkages and interdependencies of the ecosystem being studied, socioeconomic factors, and the linkages of the natural ecosystem processes to sociological processes that represent the local coastal communities and the broader U.S.
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From page 32... ...
These coastline populations receive considerable economic benefit from the GoM, as evidenced by an estimated employment of more than 6.2 million people in the region in 2010.6 Many important ecosystem services are now threatened by multiple stressors on the functions and processes of natural ecosystems. Oil and gas development currently has the greatest economic value in the GoM ecosystem (NOAA, 2011f )
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From page 33... ...
An episodic impact, such as the loss of 5 acres of salt marsh and its ecosystem services, is more easily quantifiable, and the baseline more obvious, than is a suite of interacting chronic impacts amid a shifting set of baselines further influenced by global market forces. As noted in this section, baseline conditions within the GoM, or any ecosystem for that matter, change over time, which presents a challenge to individuals attempting to parse out the natural variability in a system from the potential impacts associated with stressors originating from the DWH oil spill.
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From page 34... ...
. Although designed as a FEM, EwE has been used to address many aspects of marine ecosystem dynamics, including the impacts of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in the Prince William Sound ecosystem (Okey and Pauly, 1999)
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Marine InVEST is designed primarily for use with coastal ecosystems and does not yet model deep-sea ecosystem services. The model currently includes the ability to assess habitat susceptibility to various environmental stressors, but also includes wave energy, aquaculture, coastal protection, coastal erosion, aesthetic quality, and a simple fisheries model.
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From page 36... ...
Application of Marine Ecosystem Models to GoM Services Although each of the models described above offers some potential for providing critical insight into the impact of an event such as the DWH oil spill on GoM ecosystem services, the ability of a model to accurately predict outcomes is a function of the degree to which the model captures the physics and complex interactions of a particular ecosystem, including human communities, and the accuracy of the data used to parameterize the model. Data needed to parameterize ecosystem models to the GoM typically come from published data (e.g., Collins and Wlosinski, 1983; Leidy and Jenkins, 1977; Leidy and Plosky, 1980)
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From page 37... ...
Lack of a comprehensive model for the GoM ecosystem remains a major challenge to the ecosystem services approach as well as to fuller application of the NRDA process to the DWH oil spill. The models presented above, however, are appropriate for the evaluation of the impacts of the spill on various subsets of ecosystem services.
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From page 38... ...
Policymakers should be clear that using such substitutes is not an objective of the ecosystem services approach, but rather a last resort -- that is, an option to be employed only when there is no other way to make the public whole. Indirect Benefits Economic metrics can be used to evaluate many types of ecosystem services, but they are not effective at measuring the value of important services such as the contribution of a healthy 38
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From page 39... ...
. Disturbances to ecosystems such as the DWH oil spill lead to changes in ecosystems and the provision of at least some services in some locations for some period of time.
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From page 40... ...
Bergeron also reported that the market for Gulf seafood has remained depressed since the DWH oil spill because of low demand due to public perception that Gulf seafood is not safe. She concluded by emphasizing that the spill's impacts compounded existing stressors on the communities such as limited access to employment, adequate housing, health care, and education.
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From page 41... ...
Facing these difficulties and others, many Vietnamese-American fishermen have reiterated their commitment to see their children acquire better education and new opportunities in different fields. In contrast to the other presentations, which focused on the loss of coastal and marine ecosystem services and subsequent community impacts, the presentation by Jackie Antalan, Director of Building Lasting Organizations in Communities, Inc., and a family services advocate on behalf of rural AfricanAmerican communities, focused on the impacts of the DWH oil spill response and cleanup on inland communities.
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From page 42... ...
As discussed above, baseline conditions may not have been accurately measured or may be continually changing, which complicates the setting of restoration goals. Restoration efforts may then aim to restore proximal ecosystem conditions such as equivalent amounts of "healthy marsh habitat" under the hypothesis that restoring such conditions will lead to full restoration of pre-disturbance services.
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From page 43... ...
. Tradeoffs will be inevitable when decisions are made about which ecosystem services to restore or make more resilient, even with the influx of research and resources of the scope committed to the GoM region since the DWH oil spill.
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From page 44... ...
Summary An ecosystem services approach to evaluating the impact of events such as the DWH oil spill involves measuring the impact of the event on the structure and function of the socialecological system (typically through comparisons to baseline data) , understanding how changes in the structure and function affect the provision of ecosystem services (typically through modeling)
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From page 45... ...
Despite these challenges, the ecosystem services approach, when used prudently, can offer an enhanced opportunity to more fully achieve the goal of making the public whole in response to an event such as the DWH oil spill because it may provide otherwise unavailable information on the value of lost goods and services.
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