Mapping and Assessing Ecosystem Services Provided by the Weddell Sea Area
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Mapping and Assessing Ecosystem Services provided by the Weddell Sea Area by Michaela Deininger, M.A. Global Change Ecology Master Program (M.Sc.) Matriculation Number: 1291070 University of Bayreuth Bayreuth 2015 Supervisors: Main Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Thomas Koellner Professorship for Ecological Services (PES) Faculty of Biology, Chemistry and Geosciences University of Bayreuth Bayreuth, Germany Co-Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Thomas Brey Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), Division Biosciences/ Functional Ecology University of Bremen Bremen, Germany Co-Supervisor: Dr. Katharina Teschke Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), Division Biosciences/ Functional Ecology 2 Declaration of originality Hereby, I declare that this master thesis was written by me and that I did not use any other sources and means than specified. This master thesis was not submitted at any other university for acquiring an academic degree. Bayreuth, 30th of July 2015 3 ABSTRACT The purpose of ecosystem services (ES) research is to integrate conservation and natural resource management into resource and land-use decision making. Investments in conservation should be recognized as profitable decisions both in regard to the economy and human well-being. However, for this to happen, and for policy and finance mechanisms to be established, a scientific basis is needed (Daily et al., 2009). For this reason, the main objective of this master thesis was to quantitatively assess and map three main ES provided by the Weddell Sea region: genetic resources, carbon sequestration and tourism. Additionally, synergies and trade-offs between the ES were explored. Another target pursued was to examine the influence of sea ice cover on the service delivery. This is the first time the Weddell Sea is subject to a detailed regional ES assessment. The present study should contribute to the proposal for a Weddell Sea marine protected area (MPA) expected for consideration in October 2015 at the earliest. The analyses conducted during this study covered both spatial and temporal correlations between pairs of ES, and between individual ES and sea ice coverage. The outcome shows that there are indeed areas where multiple benefits are provided simultaneously (“super hotspots”). In general, though, service delivery in the studied seacape is distinctively heterogeneous. This result calls for cautiousness in relation to expectations that small-scaled conservation efforts achieve their intended goals. The results also show that particularly tourism is closely connected to sea ice cover, which is the reason why this sector could experience strong growth in view of global warming. Key words: Ecosystem services, Weddell Sea, trade-offs, synergies, sea ice, Geographic information system 4 Acknowledgements I would like to express my very great appreciation to Thomas Koellner for allowing me the freedom to do my master thesis in the marine field and for supervising me. I very much appreciated the helpful feedback and the scientific inspirations. Furthermore, I thank Thomas Brey and Katharina Teschke for giving me the opportunity to work in the MPA Weddell Sea project and to be able to use these excellent data as research material for my thesis. Advice given has been a great help in the process of this thesis. Then, I want to mention Hendrik Pehlke who provided me with continuous support. 5 Table of Content Abbreviations ............................................................................................................................ 7 List of Figures ........................................................................................................................... 9 List of Tables ........................................................................................................................... 11 1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 12 The Ecosystem Service Framework ................................................................................................. 13 Antarctica and ES .......................................................................................................................................... 14 2. RESEARCH OBJECTIVE AND HYPOTHESES ...................................................... 15 3. MATERIALS AND METHODS ................................................................................... 16 Study Area ........................................................................................................................................ 16 Boundaries and ecosystems ......................................................................................................................... 16 Governance .................................................................................................................................................. 17 ES Assessment ................................................................................................................................. 18 Selecting an ES classification ........................................................................................................................ 18 ES proxies ..................................................................................................................................................... 19 Mapping ES ................................................................................................................................................... 19 Preliminary Data Retrieval ............................................................................................................... 20 Primary data sets .......................................................................................................................................... 20 Secondary data sets ..................................................................................................................................... 22 Analytical Methods .......................................................................................................................... 26 Data transformation ..................................................................................................................................... 26 Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) ............................................................................................................... 26 Hotspots and coldspots ................................................................................................................................ 27 Trade-offs and synergies .............................................................................................................................. 27 4. RESULTS ........................................................................................................................ 28 Production and Spatial Distribution of ES ....................................................................................... 28 Genetic resources ......................................................................................................................................... 28 Carbon sequestration ................................................................................................................................... 30 Tourism ......................................................................................................................................................... 31 Hotspots and coldspots ................................................................................................................................ 36 Trade-offs and synergies between ES .............................................................................................. 41 Relationships between pairs of ES, and between individual ES and sea ice cover....................................... 41 Relationships between hotspots and coldspots of ES .................................................................................. 43 5. DISCUSSION .................................................................................................................. 46 Major Findings ................................................................................................................................. 46 Methodological Issues ...................................................................................................................... 50 Strengths and Limitations of the Study ............................................................................................ 51 6. CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................... 53 7. REFERENCES ................................................................................................................ 54 8. APPENDIX ...................................................................................................................... 62 6 Abbreviations AMSR-EOS Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - Earth Observing System AOA Antarctic Ocean Alliance ArcGIS A proprietary geographic information system (GIS) software platform from ESRI ASI ARTIST Sea Ice ATS Antarctic Treaty System AWI Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), Bremerhaven, Germany BMEL Bundesministerium für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft (Federal Ministry of food and Agriculture, Germany) CBD Convention on Biological Diversity CCAMLR