Assessment of Ecosystem Services & Biodiversity Alberta Innovates – Bio Solutions Information Session Edmonton, November 27, 2013 It’s Our Nature to Know Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute

Early days Few people Lots of land & water Fewer limits to growth

Water filtration & storage Abundant ecosystem services Crop production Forage production Wood production Provisioning Carbon storage CO2 Pollination Water filtration & storage Regulating Inspiration Recreation Cultural Replace Peregrine photo: Bison? Key ecosystem services in Alberta

Modern era More people Little unallocated land & water More land uses Replace Jasper Ave photo

Time to take stock Growing population Finite land base Modern environmental challenges Growing population Finite land base Multiple land uses Social license to operate Engaged consumers

Time to take stock State-of-the-environment Changes over time Modern knowledge requirements State-of-the-environment Changes over time Consistent across Alberta Reliable

Part of the Roadmap Assessment of ecosystem services & biodiversity Information management Market design

Reviewing our options Traditional approaches Transformational systems Static inventories Limited field verification Proprietary Dynamic monitoring systems Investment in new data Open access

ABMI Consistent since 2007 Core mandate is monitoring Not-for-profit corporation Board includes gov’t & non-gov’t Province-wide database of biodiversity data, development & land cover Build on traditional inventory & monitoring approaches Incorporate new technology

ABMI Application Centre Demonstrate relevance to environmental management Information products from raw data Identify & fill (some) gaps Dedicated business unit (2011) Projects Oil sands monitoring Climate change adaptation Assessment of ecosystem services & biodiversity Ecological recovery after reclamation Raw data Scientific knowledge Information products

Assessment of Ecosystem Services & Biodiversity Build from biodiversity core Increase user base Leverage ABMI brand Independent governance Credible science Open access mandate Provincial scope

How we got here…. Riparian assessment protocols for ES Payments 2013 2012 Review of ecosystem service assessment examples Economic evaluation of conservation offsets 2011 IAFE report on ecosystem service assessment 2010 Policy support for market-based instruments 2008 2009 Province-wide environmental monitoring system 2007

Project Goals Map ecosystem services & biodiversity Timber Forage Water purification Carbon Pollination Biodiversity Demonstrate environmental management applications Stewardship reporting Market-based instruments Regional / watershed planning

Collaborators

Mapping Alberta’s Ecosystem Services Carbon storage Water purification Pollination Timber production Rangeland forage production Biodiversity This is being done for multiple ecosystem services across Alberta; Maps of all of these services will help us understand where trade-offs among services exist. We are using data like… Landcover – Carbon Waterbodies, elevation – Water Purification Canola field & bee habitat – Pollination Forest cover – Timber Grassland & Pasture – Forage Production Biodiversity Intactness

Example: Water Purification Track water flow using DEM Water picks up sediment based on landcover/ land-use Track sediment deposition Determine important upslope source areas for points of interest (e.g. cities, recreational lakes) Water flow model, based on digital elevation model. Water rains down based on precipitation data, flows downhill. Sediment generation (erosion) is based on universal soil loss equation, influenced by landcover (i.e. ABMI HF and veg maps) Sediment is deposited as water continues to move downstream Pick points of interest (in this case, Edmonton) and you can trace the upslope areas where sediment came from (i.e. where you want to target management). In the zoomed-in map, darker red = places supplying Edmonton with more sediment.

Ecosystem Service Trade-offs When maps & models have been developed, it will help us understand trade-offs between the provision of different services on a given parcel of land. Foley et al. 2005. Science 309:570

Ecosystem Service Scorecards ES provision for specific regions or industries Marketing of natural resource products Biodiversity Timber Forage Water purification Carbon Pollination Goal of all applications is to provide an economic incentive for stewardship & conservation. ES scorecards can be used as a form of environmental reporting.

MBI`s - Conservation Offsets Link land management to changes in ES ES info can be incorporated into conservation offsets; i.e. mandating that developers compensate for ecological elements lost through developing land. Usually done for things like wetlands, endangered species habitat, fish habitat (DFO), but could also be done for ES. First step is understanding how much a given development (e.g. new well-site, gravel pit, road, subdivision) decreases ES, and how much conservation actions (e.g. BMPs, restoration) increase ES.

Scenario Modelling Future ES provision under potential land-use policies Payment for ecosystem services (PES) Conservation offsets Carbon tax/cap & trade Use completed models to predict how ES (and socioeconomic indicators) respond through time under different policies. Example map of predicted songbird intactness under business-as-usual oil sands rollout in the Lower Athabasca.

Opportunity Province-wide maps of ecosystem services & biodiversity Improve Alberta’s environment by enabling new ways to pay for conservation & reclamation Province-wide maps of ecosystem services & biodiversity Open source models (Mostly) publicly available inputs Beta release March 2014 Demonstrate applications to environmental management Stewardship reporting Market-based instruments Regional / watershed planning

Thank You Find us online at www.abmi.ca Images abmi.ca arkive.org wikipedia.org