Applying Benefit Transfer to Improve the Transfer of Ecological Estimates in Ecosystem Services Research and Policy

• Main Authors: Errend, Melissa, DeWitt, Ted, Moon, J. B.
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English; unknown
• Published: North American Association of Fisheries Economists
• Subjects: Fisheries > Economic aspects > Congresses; Sustainable fisheries > Congresses; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/conference_proceedings_or_journals/c821gk98k

Ecosystem services (ES) represent a way to represent and quantify multiple uses, values as well as connectivity between ecosystem processes and human well-being. Ecosystem-based fisheries management approaches may seek to quantify expected trade-offs in ecosystem services due to actions such as restoration and gear restrictions, or due to changes such as climate change and ocean acidification. However, lack of adequate data, time or budget constraints needed to model these scenarios in part creates a demand to directly apply (i.e., transfer) existing models and estimates of ecological production across different geographic, temporal, or spatial scales. Inconsistency and a lack of transparency in how knowledge gaps are filled by transfers can create sources of uncertainty and error that can propagate through and between ecosystem service values and assessments. While production estimate transfer represents a useful tool for research, policy and management to gain ES information when primary research is not available, transparency concerning these values is needed for assessing assumptions, trade-offs, and the need for primary research. While methodologies exist to facilitate and analyze the transfer of economic ES values (e.g., benefit transfer), there is no analogous formalized process to transfer ecological data underlying ES production. Drawing from the benefit transfer literature, we present a framework to similarly improve the transparency and accuracy of transferred ecological and biophysical ES production estimates in coastal ecosystem services assessments, specifically for habitat-fishery linkages.