Ecosystems provide services that benefit diverse human users. Identification of the ecosystem features providing these benefits is one of the fundamental prerequisites for wisely monitoring and managing ecosystems and their support for human well being. Because social scientists are practiced in evaluating human well being, it is incumbent upon ecosystem scientists to partner with social scientists to identify these features. Drawing upon social science concepts we have developed a set of practical principles to systematically identify these ecosystem features. The key principles are to 1) identify the major categories of users benefiting from an ecosystem, and 2) identify the biophysical quantities qualities or conditions of direct benefit to each category of user. These biophysical features are final ecosystem services or endpoints. They are quantified in the form of indicators of these final services. We view these indicators as ones that should be quantified in addition to indicators necessary for other purposes including predicting and managing the final services, for policy and regulatory analysis, and for fundamental understanding of ecosystems. We illustrate the application of these principles with stream ecosystems. This illustration is based on a workshop attended by both natural and social scientists.

Results/Conclusions

We identify 27 categories of human uses of streams aggregated into 8 groups of users: Agriculture, Industry, Municipal and Residential, Non-use (e.g existence value), Recreational, Spiritual, Commercial Transportation and Education and Research. For each category we identify indicators of the final ecosystem service provided by streams. For example, for catch and release anglers, we suggest that the indicators are the abundance of native or naturalized recreational fish and the safety and aesthetic features of the stream. For non-users, we suggest that the indicators are the deviation in the biotic assemblage from the desired, expected or undisturbed condition and the presence of charismatic or threatened and endangered species. We offer a full set of these indicators as a working hypothesis of indicators that will enhance the collaboration between natural and social scientists and that should stimulate joint research questions. Examples of those questions are: Are the indicators that we identify the ones that each category of user most directly experiences or values? How do we aggregate these indicators within a user category, across user categories or across ecosystem types to better improve our understanding and management of ecosystems and the human well being they support?