Linking ecosystem characteristics to final ecosystem services for public policy.

ABSTRACT: Governments worldwide are recognising ecosystem services as an approach to address sustainability challenges. Decision-makers need credible and legitimate measurements of ecosystem services to evaluate decisions for trade-offs to make wise choices. Managers lack these measurements because of a data gap linking ecosystem characteristics to final ecosystem services. The dominant method to address the data gap is benefit transfer using ecological data from one location to estimate ecosystem services at other locations with similar land cover. However, benefit transfer is only valid once the data gap is adequately resolved. Disciplinary frames separating ecology from economics and policy have resulted in confusion on concepts and methods preventing progress on the data gap. In this study, we p

SUBMITTER: Wong CP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4311437 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature