Integrated ecosystem services assessment: Valuation of changes due to sea level rise in Galveston Bay, Texas, USA

Abstract

The goal of the present study was to identify the potential changes in ecosystem service values provided by wetlands in Galveston Bay, Texas, USA, under the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) A1B max (0.69 m) sea level rise scenario. Built exclusively upon the output produced during the Sea Level Affecting Marshes Model 6 (SLAMM 6) exercise for the Galveston Bay region, this study showed that fresh marsh and salt marsh present a steady decline from 2009 (initial condition) to 2100. Fresh marsh was projected to undergo the biggest changes, with the loss of approximately 21% of its extent between 2009 and 2100 under the A1B max scenario. The percentages of change for salt marsh were less prominent at approximately 12%. This trend was also shown in the values of selected ecosystem services (disturbance regulation, waste regulation, recreation, and aesthetics) provided by these habitats. An ordinary least squares regression was used to calculate the monetary value of the selected ecosystem services provided by salt marsh and fresh marsh in 2009, and in 2050 and 2100 under the A1B max scenario. The value of the selected services showed potential monetary losses in excess of US$40 million annually in 2100, compared to 2009 for fresh marsh and more than $11 million for salt marsh. The estimates provided here are only small portions of what can be lost due to the decrease in habitat extent, and they highlight the need for protecting not only built infrastructure but also natural resources from sea level rise. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2017;13:431-443. © 2016 SETAC.

Coastal wetland adaptation to sea level rise: Quantifying potential for landward migration and coastal squeeze

“…Torio & Chmura, 2015;Traill et al, 2011), while others have examined the implications for certain ecosystem services (e.g. Craft et al, 2009;Feagin, Martinez, Mendoza-Gonzalez, & Costanza, 2010;Runting et al, 2017;Yoskowitz et al, 2017).…”

“…Sea level rise is expected to transform many coastal wetlands and negatively affect some of the goods and services that these ecosystems support (Craft et al., ; Kirwan et al., ; Runting, Lovelock, Beyer, & Rhodes, ; Yoskowitz, Carollo, Pollack, Santos, & Welder, ). Coastal wetlands are highly productive ecosystems that provide many benefits to society, including erosion control, coastal protection during storms, water filtration, flood reduction, carbon sequestration, recreational opportunities and maintenance of productive coastal fisheries (Barbier et al., ; Costanza et al., ; Morgan, Burdick, & Short, ; Sutton‐Grier, Wowk, & Bamford, ).…”

“…More than half of the contiguous United States's coastal wetlands are located along the northern Gulf of Mexico coast (Field, Reyer, Genovese, & Shearer, ) and these wetlands benefit the region's growing coastal communities (Engle, ; Yoskowitz et al., ). Despite valuable county‐level assessments of the potential for landward migration (Doyle et al., ; Enwright et al., ) and widespread recognition that wetlands in this region are highly vulnerable to sea level rise (Day et al., ; Jankowski et al., ; Kirwan & Guntenspergen, ; Williams, Pinzon, Stumpf, & Raabe, ), the relative ability of the region's estuaries to accommodate landward migration has not been assessed.…”

Linking social, ecological, and physical science to advance natural and nature‐based protection for coastal communities

“…For example, actions related to oyster restoration could increase the width or height of the reef, while the cumulative impact of multiple stressors could lead to long‐term degradation . When specifying the effect of management actions on ecosystem structure, important considerations include assumptions about the success of habitat restoration, temporal trajectories for restoration or degradation, and the extent to which the ecosystem services assessment incorporates external drivers, such as sea‐level rise …”

“…87 When specifying the effect of management actions on ecosystem structure, important considerations include assumptions about the success of habitat restoration, 29,66 temporal trajectories for restoration or degradation, 86,88 and the extent to which the ecosystem services assessment incorporates external drivers, such as sea-level rise. [89][90][91] The second step in an ecosystem service assessment relates change in ecosystem structure to an ecological process that provides a service, referred to as an ecological production function. [76][77][78]92 The ecological production function yields the supply of the coastal protection service.…”