Wednesday, June 6, 2007 - 3:45 PM
313

The indication of freshwater ecosystem services and related service providers

Christian K. Feld and Daniel Hering. Applied Zoology/Hydrobiology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Universitaetsstrasse 2, Essen, 45141, Germany

Quality assessment and monitoring of freshwater ecosystems is typically based either on physical-chemical measures or on biological attributes, the latter addressing the structure and function of biological quality elements (algae, benthic macroinvertebrates, fish, etc.). It is especially the functional component that can be linked to ecosystem services. River insects that mince organic matter and, thus, aid on decomposing it, can be assigned to the functional feeding type ‘shredder’. Being shredders, they provide a service in that they support nutrient spiralling sensu the River Continuum Concept. Numerous services are detectable, many of which serve men, such as water quality improvement by riparian buffer vegetation or food provision by fish stock.

Yet, do we have indicators at hand to assess freshwater ecosystem services and its status? Who or which attribute is the service provider? Is the service provision related to biodiversity and at what spatial scales? Do existing policies account for these questions?

The questions are addressed by the European coordinated action RUBICODE (www.rubicode.net). We present the outcome of a recent workshop on assessing and monitoring ecosystems with special emphasis on indicators for river ecosystem quality and services. This may also contribute to the operationalisation of global biodiversity indicators.



Web Page: www.rubicode.net/rubicode/index.html

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