The Montérégie Connection: linking landscapes, biodiversity, and ecosystem services to improve decision making
Matthew G. E. Mitchell,
Department of Natural Resource Sciences, McGill University; Department of Biology, McGill University; School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Management, University of QueenslandElena M Bennett,
Department of Natural Resource Sciences, McGill University; McGill School of Environment, McGill UniversityAndrew Gonzalez,
Department of Biology, McGill University; Québec Centre for Biodiversity ScienceMartin J Lechowicz,
Department of Biology, McGill UniversityJeanine M. Rhemtulla,
Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences, University of British ColumbiaJeffrey A Cardille,
Department of Natural Resource Sciences, McGill University; McGill School of Environment, McGill UniversityKees Vanderheyden,
Centre de la Nature Mont Saint-HilaireGeneviève Poirier-Ghys,
Centre de la Nature Mont Saint-HilaireDelphine Renard,
Department of Natural Resource Sciences, McGill University; Department of Geography, McGill UniversitySylvestre Delmotte,
Department of Natural Resource Sciences, McGill UniversityCécile H Albert,
Department of Biology, McGill University; Aix Marseille Université, CNRS, IRD, Avignon Université, Institut Méditerranéen de Biodiversité et d'Écologie (IMBE)Bronwyn Rayfield,
Department of Biology, McGill UniversityMaria Dumitru,
Department of Biology, McGill UniversityHsin-Hui Huang,
Department of Bioresource Engineering, McGill UniversityMartine Larouche,
Department of Geography, McGill UniversityKate N Liss,
Department of Natural Resource Sciences, McGill UniversityDorothy Y Maguire,
Department of Natural Resource Sciences, McGill UniversityKyle T Martins,
Department of Biology, McGill UniversityMarta Terrado,
Department of Natural Resource Sciences, McGill University;
Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA)Carly Ziter,
Department of Natural Resource Sciences, McGill University; Department of Biology, McGill UniversityLucie Taliana,
Department of Natural Resource Sciences, McGill UniversityKarine Dancose,
Department of Natural Resource Sciences, McGill University
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-07927-200415
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Abstract
To maximize specific ecosystem services (ES) such as food production, people alter landscape structure, i.e., the types of ecosystems present, their relative proportions, and their spatial arrangement across landscapes. This can have significant, and sometimes unexpected, effects on biodiversity and ES. Communities need information about how land-use activities and changes to landscape structure are likely to affect biodiversity and ES, but current scientific understanding of these effects is incomplete. The Montérégie Connection (MC) project has used the rapidly suburbanizing agricultural Montérégien landscape just east of Montreal, Québec, Canada, to investigate how current and historic landscape structure influences ES provision. Our results highlight the importance of forest connectivity and functional diversity on ES provision, and show that ES provision can vary significantly even within single land-use types in response to changes in landscape structure. Our historical analysis reveals that levels of ES provision, as well as relationships among individual ES, can change dramatically through time. We are using these results to build quantitative ES-landscape structure models to assess four future landscape scenarios for the region: Periurban Development, Demand for Energy, Whole-System Crisis, and Green Development. These scenarios integrate empirical and historical data on ES provision with local stakeholder input about global and local social and ecological drivers to explore how land-use decisions could affect ES provision and human well-being across the region to the year 2045. By integrating empirical data, quantitative models, and scenarios we have achieved the central goals of the MC project: (1) increasing understanding of the effects of landscape structure on biodiversity and ES provision, (2) effectively linking this knowledge to decision making to better manage for biodiversity and ES, and (3) creating a vision for a more sustainable social-ecological system in the region.
Key words
biodiversity; ecosystem services; landscape connectivity; landscape structure; Montérégie; Québec; periurban; scenarios
Copyright © 2015 by the author(s). Published here under license by The Resilience Alliance. This article is under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. You may share and adapt the work for noncommercial purposes provided the original author and source are credited, you indicate whether any changes were made, and you include a link to the license.