Ecosystem service delivery in restoration projects: the effect of ecological succession on the benefits of tidal marsh restoration

Long-term assessment of ecosystem restoration projects is complex because of ecological processes such as succession, particularly in highly dynamic ecosystems such as estuaries. Restoration of intertidal flats and marshes on formerly embanked land, often called managed coastal realignment (MR), bec...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ecology and society 2016-01, Vol.21 (2), p.10, Article art10
Main Authors: Boerema, Annelies, Geerts, Lindsay, Oosterlee, Lotte, Temmerman, Stijn, Meire, Patrick
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Brackish
Ecological succession
Economic benefits
Economic value
Ecosystem services
Estuaries
Habitats
long-term benefits
Maintenance costs
managed coastal realignment (MR)
marsh succession
Marshes
monetary valuation
Mud flats
Salt marshes
temporal scale
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Summary:Long-term assessment of ecosystem restoration projects is complex because of ecological processes such as succession, particularly in highly dynamic ecosystems such as estuaries. Restoration of intertidal flats and marshes on formerly embanked land, often called managed coastal realignment (MR), became popular in estuarine management. In our study, biophysical and monetary data were collected to calculate the value of 15 (sub)ecosystem services (ES) delivered by a large tidal marsh restoration project in the Schelde estuary in Belgium and the Netherlands. We hypothesized that ES delivery changes over time due to ecological succession and hence the long-term benefits are subject to this phenomenon and need to be taken into consideration. A marsh sediment accretion model (MARSED) was used to simulate potential marsh succession scenarios. In this way, the temporal evolution of ES delivery caused by ecological succession could be evaluated. Our study shows that benefits during successional marsh stages could actually be higher than for marshes in equilibrium. This finding does not suggest that ecosystems in transition always have a higher value than systems in equilibrium, but emphasizes the need to consider long-term ecological dynamics, such as succession, in a benefit assessment for restoration projects.
ISSN:1708-3087
1708-3087
DOI:10.5751/ES-08372-210210