Mapping the functional connectivity of ecosystem services supply across a regional landscape.

Rachel D Field,Lael Parrott

doi:10.7554/elife.69395

Abstract

Sustainably managing multifunctional landscapes for production of multiple ecosystem services (ES) requires thorough understanding of the interactions between ES and the ecological processes that drive them. We build upon landscape connectivity theory to present a spatial approach for assessing functional connections between multiple ES at the landscape scale, and take a closer look at the concept of ES interactions by explicitly representing the mechanisms behind the relationships between ES. We demonstrate application of the approach using existing ES supply mapping data for plant agriculture, waterflow regulation, and landscape aesthetics and map the functional connectivity between them. We find that, when weights of all linkages were amalgamated, areas of high-value connectivity are revealed that are not present on any individual ES supply area or pairwise link maps, which suggests that the spatial focus of planning for optimal service provisioning may shift when functional relationships between several ES are considered. From water flow supply areas, our modeling maps several functional connections that operate over both short and long distances, which highlights the importance of managing ES flows both locally and across jurisdictions. We also found that different land use and land cover types than those associated with ES supply areas may be serving as critical corridors connecting interdependent ES. By providing spatial information on ES connectivity, our approach enables local and regional environmental planning and management to take full consideration of the complex, multi-scale interactions between ecological processes, land use and land cover, and ecosystem service supply on a landscape.

Highlights

Rapid human-driven modification of wilderness is placing increasing demands on landscapes to deliver nature’s contributions to people, or ‘ecosystem services’ (ES; Carpenter et al, 2009)
Our results suggest that the highest-value Landscape Aesthetics (LA) supplies were associated with large areas of upland forests, rivers, lakes, and protected parkland in the southwest and northeast, with relatively lower cumulative LA values in the more heavily-populated valley bottom
Our study provides a new approach for the assessment of multiple ES and provides important information on the spatial interconnectivity of a variety of divergent types of ES across a diverse temperate landscape in southern interior British Columbia

Summary

Introduction

Rapid human-driven modification of wilderness is placing increasing demands on landscapes to deliver nature’s contributions to people, or ‘ecosystem services’ (ES; Carpenter et al, 2009). These juxtaposing forces highlight an urgent need for incorporating both biodiversity and ES in land use planning, with recent research calling for consideration of landscape structure and connectivity in order to optimize environmental management objectives To optimize ES provisioning while minimizing potential negative effects on human well-b eing in the face of increased development pressures, it is critical to understand the dynamics of multi-E S supply (Lorilla et al, 2018). Note that ES flows are not equivalent to ES connectivity, the latter of which we are defining by the functional ecological interrelationships between different supply areas

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Conclusion