OOS 8 - Ecological Condition, Ecosystem Services and Human Well Being

Tuesday, August 4, 2009: 8:00 AM-11:30 AM
La Cienega, Albuquerque Convention Center
Organizer:
J. Kevin Summers, US EPA
Moderator:
J. Kevin Summers, US EPA
The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment produced a compelling synthesis of the global value of ecosystem services to human well-being. While the MEA was a critical, initial step to demonstrate the potential for assessing global trends in ecosystem services, the MEA did not attempt to down-scale such assessments to regional or even national scales of analysis, nor to create methods and tools to support decision-makers at any level of governance, industry, or citizen action. A new research perspective focusing on ecosystem services is needed in which we define ecosystem services as the products of ecological functions or processes that directly or indirectly contribute to human well-being, or have the potential to do so in the future. Building upon indicators linking ecosystem services to human and community health, both ecosystem and placed based information could be used to develop one or more measures of human well-being. Such measure(s) would expand the interpretation of coastal ecosystem service indicators into an overall quality of life measurement for environmental decision support. For this session, we solicit research, theoretical, and case-study papers that contribute to a broader understanding of how the condition or “health” of coastal ecosystems affects ecological processes and services that, in turn, directly or indirectly affect human health and well being and which might help lead to development of measures of human well being.
8:00 AM
 Quality of place in coastal watersheds: Healthy ecosystems, healthy happy people
Susan Lovelace, NOAA Hollings Marine Laboratory; J. Kevin Summers, US EPA
8:40 AM
 Ecosystem services altered by changes in reactive nitrogen: A new perspective for illustrating impacts
Jana E. Compton, US EPA, NHEERL, Western Ecology Division; Tara L. Greaver, US Environmental Protection Agency; Robin L. Dennis, US EPA, ORD-NERL; Brian H. Hill, U.S. EPA, Mid-Continent Ecology Division; Jake J. Beaulieu, US Environmental Protection Agency
9:00 AM
 Fish habitat and biodiversity ecosystem services: A regional modeling approach
Brenda Rashleigh, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; Tom Purucker, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; Lourdes Prieto, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; Luis Suarez, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
9:20 AM
 Ecosystem services: Bridging the gap between science and policy in the National Ambient Air Quality Standard setting process
Anne W. Rea, US EPA; Christine C. Davis, US EPA; Randall G. Waite, US EPA; Ginger M. Tennant, US EPA; Jason A. Lynch, US Environmental Protection Agency; Bryan J. Hubbell, US EPA; Wayne R. Munns Jr., US EPA; George L. Van Houtven, RTI, International
9:40 AM
9:50 AM
 Forest degradation and lyme disease risk
Laura Jackson, US Environmental Protection Agency; Elizabeth D. Hilborn, US Environmental Protection Agency
10:10 AM
 Use of existing measures in the development of an index of well-being for ecosystem services research
Lisa M. Smith, US EPA; J. Kevin Summers, US EPA; Linda C. Harwell, US EPA; George W. Craven, US EPA
10:30 AM
 The human component of the coral reef ecosystem: A framework for sustainability
Susan Harrell Yee, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; William S. Fisher, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; Patricia Bradley, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
10:50 AM
 CANCELLED - Valuation of the ecosystem services provided by mangroves and coral reefs
Nalini S. Rao, Conservation International; Rosimeiry Portela, Conservation International; Leah Bunce Karrer, Conservation International; Jose-Luis Izursa, Conservation International
11:10 AM
 Characterizing riparian and floodplain functions with high-resolution topographic data
Kathleen B. Boomer, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center; Donald E. Weller, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center; Thomas E. Jordan, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
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