Marine Science Faculty Publications
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-2019
Keywords
Ecosystem benefits, Remote sensing, Monitoring, Research priorities
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.02.150
Abstract
The benefits nature provides to people, called ecosystem services, are increasingly recognized and accounted for in assessments of infrastructure development, agricultural management, conservation prioritization, and sustainable sourcing. These assessments are often limited by data, however, a gap with tremendous potential to be filled through Earth observations (EO), which produce a variety of data across spatial and temporal extents and resolutions. Despite widespread recognition of this potential, in practice few ecosystem service studies use EO. Here, we identify challenges and opportunities to using EO in ecosystem service modeling and assessment. Some challenges are technical, related to data awareness, processing, and access. These challenges require systematic investment in model platforms and data management. Other challenges are more conceptual but still systemic; they are byproducts of the structure of existing ecosystem service models and addressing them requires scientific investment in solutions and tools applicable to a wide range of models and approaches. We also highlight new ways in which EO can be leveraged for ecosystem service assessments, identifying promising new areas of research. More widespread use of EO for ecosystem service assessment will only be achieved if all of these types of challenges are addressed. This will require non-traditional funding and partnering opportunities from private and public agencies to promote data exploration, sharing, and archiving. Investing in this integration will be reflected in better and more accurate ecosystem service assessments worldwide.
Rights Information
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Was this content written or created while at USF?
Yes
Citation / Publisher Attribution
Sciene of the Total Environment, v. 665, pl 1053-1063
Scholar Commons Citation
Muller-Karger, Frank E., "Reimagining the Potential of Earth Observations for Ecosystem Service Assessments" (2019). Marine Science Faculty Publications. 711.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/msc_facpub/711
Comments
Complete list of authors:
Carlos Ramirez-Reyes, Kate A. Brauman, Rebecca Chaplin-Kramer, Gillian L. Galford, Susana B. Adamo, Christopher B. Anderson, Clarissa Anderson, Ginger R. H. Allington, Kenneth J. Bagstad, Michael T. Coe, Anna F. Cord, Laura E. Deek, Rachelle K. Gould, Meha Jain, Virginia A. Kowal, Frank E. Muller-Karger, Jessica Norriss, Pete rPotapov, Jiangxiao Qiu, Jesse T. Rieb, Brian E. Robinson, Leah H. Samberga, Nagendra Singh, Sabrina H. Szeto, Brian Voigt, Keri Watson, T. Maxwell Wright