Ecosystem Services in Risk Assessment and Management

Overview

Journal Integr Environ Assess Manag

Publisher Oxford University Press

Date 2016 Jul 28

PMID 27464004

Citations 9

Authors

Wayne R Munns Jr

Veronique Poulsen

William R Gala

Stuart J Marshall

Anne W Rea

Mary T Sorensen

Katherine von Stackelberg

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The ecosystem services (ES) concept holds much promise for environmental decision making. Even so, the concept has yet to gain full traction in the decisions and policies of environmental agencies in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere. In this paper we examine the opportunities for and implications of including ES in risk assessments and the risk management decisions that they inform. We assert that use of ES will: 1) lead to more comprehensive environmental protection; 2) help to articulate the benefits of environmental decisions, policies, and actions; 3) better inform the derivation of environmental quality standards; 4) enable integration of human health and ecological risk assessment; and 5) facilitate horizontal integration of policies, regulations, and programs. We provide the technical basis and supporting rationale for each assertion, relying on examples taken from experiences in the United States and European Union. Specific recommendations are offered for use of ES in risk assessment and risk management, and issues and challenges to advancing use of ES are described together with some of the science needed to improve the value of the ES concept to environmental protection. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2017;13:62-73. © 2016 SETAC.

Citing Articles

The EPA Ecosystem Services Tool Selection Portal.

Harwell M, Sharpe L, Hines K, Schumacher C, Kim S, Ferreira G Sustainability. 2024; 16(5):1-19.

PMID: 38510213 PMC: 10953757. DOI: 10.3390/su16051739.

Synthesis of Two Decades of US EPA's Ecosystem Services Research to Inform Environmental, Community, and Sustainability Decision Making.

Harwell M, Jackson C Sustainability. 2021; 13(15):1-8249.

PMID: 34804601 PMC: 8597581. DOI: 10.3390/su13158249.

Evolving Science and Practice of Risk Assessment.

von Stackelberg K, Williams P Risk Anal. 2020; 41(4):571-583.

PMID: 33295028 PMC: 8257268. DOI: 10.1111/risa.13647.

Applying ecosystem services for pre-market environmental risk assessments of regulated stressors.

Devos Y, Munns Jr W, Forbes V, Maltby L, Stenseke M, Brussaard L EFSA J. 2020; 17(Suppl 1):e170705.

PMID: 32626442 PMC: 7015505. DOI: 10.2903/j.efsa.2019.e170705.

A review of measurements of air-surface exchange of reactive nitrogen in natural ecosystems across North America.

Walker J, Beachley G, Zhang L, Benedict K, Sive B, Schwede D Sci Total Environ. 2019; 698:133975.

PMID: 31499348 PMC: 7032654. DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.133975.

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