Stressors Impacting Coastal and Ocean Ecosystem Services and Human Health

Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research, and Medicine; Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice; Institute of Medicine

3Stressors Impacting Coastal and Ocean Ecosystem Services and Human Health

This chapter provides a summary of presentations outlining stressors that can impact coastal and ocean ecosystem services and possible management decisions and prevention strategies. The first presentation describes how ecosystem stressors—focusing on rising temperatures, eutrophication, ocean acidification, habitat destruction and loss of biodiversity, and extreme weather events—can modify ecosystem services and impact human health. The second presentation describes a framework to allow decision makers to optimize interventions for managing stressors to marine ecosystems in order to maximize the services that will positively impact human well-being. The third presentation provides an agency perspective (U.S. Geological Survey [USGS]) on the role of science in resource management decisions related to ecosystem services. The presentations are followed by a summary of the discussion that ensued.

RELATIONSHIPS AMONG STRESSORS, ECOSYSTEM SERVICES, AND HUMAN HEALTH

Editors

Paul A. Sandifer, Ph.D., Chief Science Advisor¹.

Affiliations

¹ National Ocean Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Paul A. Sandifer prefaced his remarks by reiterating the four types of ecosystem services described in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA, 2005): supporting, provisioning, regulating, and cultural services. All of these services impact human well-being. Health is one specific component of well-being; other components are security, material, and social relations. Together, these contribute to human health and well-being.

Sandifer explained that his presentation is on ecosystem stressors and how those stressors impact changes in ecosystem services, and the ultimate impacts on human health. Health effects, Sandifer said, can be the result of a single stressor, but typically stressors tend to have interacting effects, some antagonistic and some synergistic. However, the greatest likelihood is for stressors to have negative effects on services and ultimately on health outcomes. He pointed out that the presentation would consider the effects of five interacting stressors: rising temperatures, nutrient enrichment, ocean acidification, habitat destruction and its accompanying loss of biodiversity, and extreme weather events and their potential impacts on human health.

Rising Temperatures

Sandifer began the discussion of rising temperatures by suggesting that as the earth's climate warms, heat stress would become a more serious human health problem (see Figure 3-1). Already, health impacts, especially among the elderly, have been seen with more frequent and intense heat waves. In addition to the direct impacts of heat on humans, there are additional impacts of rising temperatures on ecosystems and on the ecosystem services associated with them.

FIGURE 3-1

Anticipated impacts of rising temperatures on ecosystem services and human health. SOURCE: Sandifer, 2012.

Sandifer described research by Cheung and colleagues (2013), who conducted theoretical studies on more than 600 species of marine fish to evaluate the likely effects of increasing temperatures associated with climate change. Based on the results of their work, the authors suggest that with rising water temperatures, fish populations change in distribution, phenology, and productivity. Average fish body size is also likely to be reduced. According to the study, fish are likely to decrease in size on average by 14 to 24 percent by 2050. This is because global warming will reduce the amount of oxygen in the oceans, and this may also result in dwindling fish catches. Together with overfishing, pollution, and other stresses, these effects may spell additional trouble for the global protein supply in a time of growing need, Sandifer said.

Another impact of rising temperatures relates to food safety. Seafood poisonings are estimated to be underreported, often misdiagnosed, and may be increasing. Pathogenic Vibrio is one cause of seafood poisoning. A number of outbreaks in oyster beds in the Gulf of Mexico, New York, Oregon, and Washington have been associated with Vibrio parahaemolyticus. During a period of unusually warm waters in 2004, oyster farms in Prince William Sound, Alaska were devastated by an outbreak of highly virulent V. parahaemolyticus. The outbreak resulted in 62 confirmed human cases McLaughlin et al., 2005) plus others in marine mammals. In the Gulf of Mexico, V. vulnificus is a main cause of wound infections among seafood workers. An estimated 200 deaths were attributed to V. vulnificus from 1989 to 2004. Illnesses associated with these Vibrio species were not required to be reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on a national basis until 2007; thus, it is estimated that the number of infections is likely higher than the CDC annually reports (CDC, 2012). Shellfish beds are typically closed when there is evidence of contamination by Vibrio or other infectious organisms. Such closures can seriously undermine public trust in the safety and healthful qualities of seafood.

The distribution and occurrence of zoonotic diseases may also be influenced by temperature and other climate-related factors. Sandifer described two recent examples related to the fungal diseases lacaziosis (previously called lobomycosis) and Cryptococcus gattii.¹ Both of these diseases have been found in marine mammals, as well as humans, and appear to be moving northward. Whether this distributional shift is related to climate change is at present unknown, but the diseases are serious and now appear in places and species where they had not been previously seen.

Another zoonotic case of concern Sandifer described was reported by Anthony and colleagues (2012). This case involved harbor seals and avian flu. Between September and December 2011, 162 New England harbor seals died from pneumonia. Postmortem analysis showed the presence of avian influenza virus (H3N8) that was similar to a strain known to be circulating in North American waterfowl since about 2002. The case resulted in a federally recognized unusual mortality event (UME).² The authors noted that the outbreak was significant, not only because of the disease it caused in seals, but also because the virus had naturally acquired mutations known to increase transmissibility and virulence in mammals. They emphasized that monitoring the spillover and adaptation of avian viruses in mammalian species is critically important for understanding the factors that lead to both epizootic and zoonotic emergence.

Nutrient Pollution

Sandifer discussed nutrient pollution, another important stressor that causes many problems for coastal and marine environments, including hypoxia and harmful algal blooms (HABs), also known as red tides. Red tides are perhaps the most commonly known HAB, but there are others. Eutrophication, or the overenrichment of water by nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus, leads to hypoxia and may increase the occurrence of HABs. These environmental conditions are growing problems worldwide and pose significant human and environmental health risks and can have significant economic impacts, Sandifer said.

Although HABs are most common in coastal and ocean waters, some HABs can occur in the Great Lakes and a variety of other freshwater lakes and ponds. HABs produce potent neurotoxins that can cause a variety of serious illnesses and even death among marine organisms. HABs are also toxic to humans, causing a number of illnesses (gastrointestinal, respiratory, neurological, cognitive) and even death. HABs are associated with amnesic shellfish poisoning, ciguatera fish poisoning, diarrheic shellfish poisoning, neurotoxic shellfish poisoning, and paralytic shellfish poisoning. Exposure to HAB toxins can occur via water, seafood (especially filter-feeding molluscan shellfish and some fish), and through aerosols in sea spray. Aerosolized toxins of the Florida red tide Karenia brevis have been known to be carried onto beaches and several miles inland where they can cause respiratory system irritation and distress for people, especially those with asthma.

The economic cost of HABs over the past decade has been conservatively estimated at about $1 billion (Jewett et al., 2008). However, the unknown costs in illness, lost productivity, recreational, and other impacts are probably much, much greater, Sandifer said.

HABs pose risks not only for marine life and humans but also for birds and nonmarine mammals. For example, sea birds may be affected by eating HAB-contaminated shellfish or fish (Landsberg et al., 2009). At one point during 2009, officials recommended that visitors not bring dogs to the Padre Island National Seashore as dogs and coyotes had become ill or died possibly as a result of consuming fish that had been killed by a red tide, Sandifer said.

Sandifer noted that there is growing evidence for multiple species of HABs and geographic areas, suggesting that a warming climate will result in increased frequency, duration, and geographic extent of HABs (Gilbert et al., 2005; Van Dolah, 2000). For example, Moore and colleagues (2008, 2011) estimated that the window of opportunity for blooms of the toxic alga Alexandrium catanella, which produces saxitoxin, a paralytic toxin, will increase by 13 days on average, begin up to 2 months earlier, and will persist for up to an additional month by the end of the century. In other work, Sun and colleagues (2011) found that increases in dissolved carbon dioxide and reduced phosphate levels, as observed in ocean waters, can increase growth of the toxic diatom Pseudo-nitzschia and production of its toxin, domoic acid, which causes amnesic shellfish poisoning in humans.

Sandifer noted that recent coastal surveys of the United States and Europe found that 78 percent of the assessed continental U.S. coastal area and approximately 65 percent of Europe's Atlantic coast exhibit symptoms of eutrophication and the problem is growing at alarming rates (Diaz and Rosenberg, 2008). In the United States the three largest hypoxic zones are the Gulf of Mexico, the Chesapeake Bay, and Lake Erie. In general, nutrient pollution of coastal areas is an important issue and may impact coastal ecosystems services in many ways, including decreases in clean water, safe food, breathable air, and coastal recreational opportunities, Sandifer said.

Ocean Acidification

Sandifer observed that ocean waters are now 30 percent more acidic than preindustrial levels (NOAA, 2013). This increased acidity is having negative effects on ocean organisms. Sandifer described a recent meta-analysis (Kroeker et al., 2010) that found ocean acidification to have negative effects on survival, calcification, growth, and reproduction of a variety of marine organisms. The study also found significant variation in the sensitivity of marine organisms. Calcifying organisms (e.g., corals, mussels, phytoplankton) generally exhibited larger negative responses than noncalcifying organisms across numerous response variables, with the exception of crustaceans, which calcify but were not negatively affected. Corals, in particular, are negatively affected by ocean acidification. Molluscan shellfish also exhibit a negative response to ocean acidification, which threatens the availability and economic benefit of this type of seafood. The aesthetic benefits of coral reefs and the ecotourism opportunities are also affected by ocean acidification.

Sandifer provided an example of the impact of ocean acidification on a specific ecosystem service, the production of farmed oysters in the Pacific Northwest. Oyster hatcheries in this area that were on the verge of collapse a few years ago are now again major contributors to the West Coast shellfish industry, he said. Beginning in 2005, production at some Pacific Northwest oyster hatcheries began declining at an alarming rate, posing a severe economic impact and challenging a way of life held by shellfish growers for more than 130 years (Washington State Blue Ribbon Panel on Ocean Acidification, 2012). Oyster production represents about $84 million of the West Coast shellfish industry and supports more than 3,000 jobs. A $500,000 congressional investment in monitoring the pH of coastal seawater, which enables hatchery managers to schedule production when water quality is good, is helping to restore commercial hatcheries.³ However, much more work, including continued monitoring, is needed to help safeguard the ongoing contribution of this important industry to coastal communities in Oregon and Washington. This example highlights the urgency of this problem and the value of ocean acidification research and monitoring (Barton et al., 2012).

Sandifer highlighted that, in addition to negative effects on shellfish production, the health of coral reefs, and potentially food and economic security, the stress of dealing with ocean acidification means that coastal ecosystems may become less resilient to other stressors, including extreme weather, nutrient pollution, or overfishing, becoming less able to recover from these types of challenges.

Habitat Destruction and Biodiversity Loss

The fourth example Sandifer discussed was habitat destruction and biodiversity loss. Coastal habitats are some of the most threatened in the world. Most of this loss is due to sea-level rise or coastal development, Sandifer said. As these systems are lost, biodiversity and many ecosystem services are lost. For example, oyster reefs provide many services, including seafood, filtration services, and water quality benefits, as well as shoreline protection and stabilization. Similarly, coral reefs provide many ecosystem services, including food, medicines and other products, nursery habitat for other species, and recreational opportunities. Healthy dunes and beaches confer storm protection for shorelines and human habitations, among other services.

Degradation and loss of natural coastal habitats and biodiversity results in diminished storm surge protection, seafood supply, nutrient processing, and recreational and aesthetic values and generally decreases the resilience of coastal ecosystems to other stressors. The cumulative effect is greater risk of property damage and loss of life during storms, less seafood, fewer jobs and reduced food security, more risks of water-related illness, and impacts to mental health, Sandifer said.

Extreme Weather Events

Sandifer noted that degraded coastal habitats often exacerbate impacts of extreme weather, and extreme events often degrade or destroy coastal habitats and the ecosystem services they produce. Such effects were seen with Hurricane Katrina, in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and with posttropical storm Sandy, Sandifer said. He reminded the audience that in 2011 the United States experienced 14 weather and climate disasters, each of which exceeded $1 billion in losses (Smith and Katz, 2013). These ranged from winter blizzards that affected two-thirds of the United States (from Texas and Oklahoma to New England) early in the year, to a record number of tornadoes in the spring in the Midwest and Southeast (including the deadliest one to date, which killed 160 people), spring flooding in the Mississippi, record wildfires in the West, and Hurricane Irene late in the summer, which produced flooding. The flooding in the Mississippi produced near-record hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico as well (NOAA, 2011).

In addition to the lives that are lost due to storms and other extreme weather events, these events also often have a number of impacts on ecosystems and on their ability to provide ecosystem services. For example, storms may damage coastal habitats, causing a loss of coastal habitats and loss of future storm surge protection. Storms also frequently overwhelm sewer systems (particularly combined sewer systems with sewage and stormwater in the same system), resulting in contamination of drinking water and affecting recreational water use (Patz et al., 2010; Portier et al., 2010).

Storms also damage human infrastructure, leading to leaks of pollutants which contaminate ecosystems. For example, there was concern over the potential for seafood contaminated by radiation from the Fukushima nuclear power plant that was damaged by the major March 2011 earthquake and tsunami (Reardon, 2011). Contamination of coastal ecosystems with pollutants can decrease water quality, affect seafood safety (radiation, oil, sewage), and contribute to losses of wildlife, and recreational opportunities.

Sandifer also noted that, in addition to the direct impacts of weather events on human health, the aftermath of such occurrences may include delayed effects on human and environmental health. For example, infections, illnesses, and mental health issues may arise following weather events, and dealing with these may be complicated by an inability to get medications or medical care due to storm damage to medical or transportation infrastructure.

Sandifer noted that the five environmental stressors he discussed are interrelated and all have effects on the provision of ecosystem services, which in turn can have a broad range of effects on human health (see Figure 3-2). He suggested several steps that could be taken to address the stressors and sustain marine and coastal ecosystem services. These include the following:

FIGURE 3-2

Interactions among five environmental stressors, delivery of ecosystem services, and impacts on human health. SOURCE: Sandifer, 2012.

explicitly account for ecosystem services in policies and decision making;
protect and restore coastal “green infrastructure” (i.e., intact coastal habitat) to provide natural storm surge protection, food security, and climate adaptation benefits;
conduct research to understand the effects of environmental stressors on species, habitats and systems, and humans so we can determine how best to mitigate and adapt; and
implement better monitoring and health warning systems.

In concluding his presentation, Sandifer said that the complex interactions among multiple stressors, ecosystem services, and human health highlight the need to more fully understand the connections among these factors and their ultimate human health impact so that the impacts can be minimized. He provided an example of the time scales at which climate and weather effects are considered. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) develops long-term outlooks for climate and weather and then refines these to finer and finer time scales, down to days, hours, and minutes of actual forecasts of impending events, so that preventive or protective actions can be taken with the greatest lead time possible (see Figure 3-3).

FIGURE 3-3

Time scales and types of climate and weather forecasts. SOURCE: Sandifer, 2012.

NOAA is now extending this type of approach in an agency-wide effort to improve ecological forecasts. Initially, the agency is focusing on harmful algal blooms, hypoxia, and pathogens (particularly naturally occurring Vibrio bacteria) in coastal and marine environments. Sandifer noted that capabil ty and resources (including those for disease and health surveillance and epidemiological studies—to monitor, integrate data, model, and forecast impacts to coastal and ocean ecosystem services and the resulting human health threats) are needed in order to provide timely warnings that would enable better preparation and mitiga ion, implementation of control and prevention strategies, reduction of impacts, and shortened recovery times.

FRAMEWORK FOR ASSESSING MARINE ECOSYSTEM SERVICES AND HUMAN HEALTH

Editors

Jonathan Garber, Ph.D., Acting Associate Director for Ecology¹.

Affiliations

¹ National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Jonathan Garber began his presentation by explaining that enhancing and protecting ecosystems and human health are explicitly central to the mission of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and to the National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory. The EPA's efforts in the ecosystem–health connection area of research are a continuing and increasing focus of the agency, he said. The work is supported by both the regulatory and science arms of the agency and is underpinned by a number of statutory authorities such as the Clean Water Act, the Marine Protection Research and Sanctuaries Act, the Ocean Dumping Ban Act, the Shore Protection Act, and others.

Decision Framework

Garber described a process used by the EPA to assess the linkage between ecosystems and human health. The process is based upon a framework that was developed to assist in optimizing management decisions that affect the production of coastal and marine and ocean ecosystem services. The framework explicitly includes linkage to human well-being.

As can be seen in Figure 3-4, the framework begins on the left side with potential stressors on marine systems such as temperature rise, eutrophication, and habitat loss. The next step is to consider the potential management decisions and points of intervention in the delivery of ecosystem services and how they affect the production of these services. At the far right of the schematic is the linkage to the desired outcome of human well-being. Also of note is the understanding that there are important feedbacks loops. This framework allows a decision maker to optimize decisions about potential interventions in order to maximize the production of services that will have a positive impact on human well-being.

FIGURE 3-4

Modified DPSR (drivers, pressures, states, response) decision framework for optimizing management decisions that affect production of coastal marine and ocean ecosystem services. NOTE HABs = harmful algal blooms. SOURCE: Garber, 2012.

In support of this framework, Garber discussed a critical path for making the connection between ecosystem services and human health outcomes. The first step in the path is to establish inventories of baseline ecosystem services and health conditions. The second step is to translate conditions into quantifiable services. The third step is to link these services to human health outcomes, and the fourth step is to model and predict the impacts of interventions and feedbacks to complete the cycle. As an example, Garber described the use of this path in assessing coastal conditions and human health. The results of the first step to establish inventories of baseline ecosystem services and health conditions are captured in the National Coastal Assessment series of reports.

National Coastal Condition Assessment

The National Coastal Assessment began in 2000 as an integrated comprehensive coastal monitoring program to assess the condition of estuaries at multiple scales (state, regional, and national). The program included all U.S. coastal states. Another important aim was to transfer this technology to the states, tribes, EPA Regions, EPA Office of Water, and others, and to enhance the EPA's ability to make scientifically sound assessments of the condition of U.S. coastal waters. This effort ended in 2006 and was replaced by the National Coastal Condition Assessment (NCCA). Four NCCA reports have been published.

According to Garber, the assessments have evolved over the past 20 years and now include all the coterminous U.S. coastal waters, particularly estuaries, and are now reaching out to the continental shelf and some of the territories and states that are not coterminous. Data contained in the last report, NCCR IV, includes coastal monitoring data, offshore fisheries data, coastal ocean data, and assessment and advisory data related to fish consumption advisories and beach closures. Data included in the report are indicator based; an illustrative set of indicators is shown in Box 3-1.

BOX 3-1

Indicators of Coastal Condition in NCCR IV Report. Water Quality Index: Water clarity

Synthesis of this information allows for a national assessment to be made of the condition of U.S. coastal waters. The NCCR IV assessment results rated U.S. coastal waters as “fair” based on a five-point system, where a score of less than 2.0 is rated poor, and greater than 4.0 is rated good. The water quality, sediment quality, benthic condition, and coastal habitat indices also rated fair. The fish tissue contaminants index rated “good to fair” (>3.7–4.0). Regional chapters of the NCCR IV provide information on indicators for regional coastal areas.

EnviroAtlas and Eco-Health Browser

Garber discussed another EPA tool, the EnviroAtlas,⁴ which is useful in the second step of the framework, translating conditions to quantifiable services. The Web-based tool allows research and analysis to be conducted on the relationships between ecosystem services and human well-being. The tool provides easy-to-use geospatial data and maps that allow users to analyze multiple ecosystem services and health conditions in a specific region. These ecosystem benefits include clean air, clean and plentiful water, natural hazard mitigation, biodiversity conservation, food, fuel, materials, recreational opportunities, and cultural and aesthetic value. EnviroAtlas contains information on the status of these benefits, the ecosystems that provide and protect them, and related health and economic impacts.

Another tool, the eco-health browser,⁵ is particularly useful in conducting step three: linking services to human health outcomes. The interactive tool provides information on major ecosystems (e.g., wetlands and forests), the services they provide, and how those services or their degradation and loss may affect human health (see Figure 3-5).

FIGURE 3-5

Eco-Health Relationship Browser. NOTE: The Eco-Health Relationship Browser is best viewed in interactive format at: http://www.epa.gov/research/healthscience/browser (accessed September 9, 2013). SOURCE: EPA, 2013.

Garber ended his presentation by sharing his view that much progress has been made in establishing the baseline of ecological and human health conditions, in translating conditions to quantifiable services, and in linking services to human health outcomes. However, much more work is needed in step four of the framework: modeling and predicting the impacts of interventions and feedbacks. Progress in this area would allow for completing the cycle of optimizing management decisions that affect the production of coastal marine and ocean ecosystem services.

A U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PERSPECTIVE ON STRESSORS IMPACTING COASTAL AND OCEAN SYSTEMS

Editors

Ione Taylor, Ph.D., Associate Director¹.

Affiliations

¹ Energy and Minerals, and Environmental Health, U.S. Geological Survey

Ione Taylor began her presentation by describing the mission of the USGS and how the agency's work addresses ecosystem services and its impact on health. The USGS is a science agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior. The USGS was founded in the late 1800s to classify the public lands and examine the geological structure, mineral resources, and products of the national domain. The mission of the agency is to provide reliable scientific information to describe and understand the Earth; minimize the loss of life and property due to natural disasters; manage water, biological, energy, and mineral resources; and enhance and protect quality of life. Taylor noted that 2 years ago the USGS underwent a reorganization to move from a long history of functioning as a discipline-based organization with an academic structure to an issue-based structure of Mission Areas. Ecosystem services is now a crosscutting issue across all Mission Areas. One area of USGS focus on ecosystem services is on valuation and how USGS biophysical science can contribute to understanding value, particularly in the discussion of trade-offs for natural resource management and land management.

Ecosystem Responsibilities of the Department of the Interior

As background, Taylor described ecosystem responsibilities of the Department of the Interior. The Department is responsible for managing 35,000 miles of coastline, 80 billion acres of the seabed and continental shelf and subsurface minerals, 177 island coastal refuges, and a fish and wildlife refuge system. The Department is also responsible for 74 marine or island national parks and 92 million acres of coral reef ecosystems. The Department thus has an important role in coastal and marine oversight for the nation.

The Role of Science in USGS Resource Management Decisions

Taylor also noted that the USGS is not a regulatory agency. It brings unbiased science research to the Department's land management responsibilities. She pointed out that the usefulness of science to decision makers for making high-level land management decisions is related to the degree of synthesis and interpretation of the science. Figure 3-6 shows how science informs resource management decisions. As the figure shows, there is greater value to the decision maker as biophysical data are transformed to information that can be used to make predictions and present potential options within an ecosystems services framework.

FIGURE 3-6

How science informs resource management decisions. SOURCE: Taylor, 2012.

To support this effort, the USGS is expanding its basic core capabilities in science to develop a capacity to better integrate information to inform complex trade-offs and decisions, Taylor said. Figure 3-7 shows the USGS's approach to move from the traditional core capabilities to emerging capabilities. The Energy and Mineral Resources Mission Area is a traditional USGS core capability and is shown on the left. The core capability of energy and mineral appraisal is assessed for the nation and globally because the future supply of minerals, and to a great extent energy, is in the global import arena. The USGS has long-standing capability in economic modeling and the ability to conduct appraisals and valuation for these commodities. Over the past 10 to 15 years the USGS has begun to bring environmental impacts, particularly of energy and minerals and water resources, to bear for a broader picture of environ-mental impact for resource appraisal, potential extraction scenarios, and transport and use. Most recently an emerging capability is the development of biophysical models in an ecosystems services framework. Ultimately the goal is to move toward building the capability to generate scenarios for vulnerability and risk optimization in complex natural resource and land management decisions. This requires taking core capabilities in the biophysical sciences, building in what is known about economic appraisals and services in the energy and mineral area, and bringing a similar perspective into a consideration of the value of biologic components and hydrologic components, which typically have not had a commodity or price. Expanding the core capabilities will require more synthesis and more partnership efforts with other agencies such as the EPA and NOAA.

FIGURE 3-7

A developing USGS approach: integrating traditional and emerging capabilities. SOURCE: Taylor, 2012.

The Role of the USGS in Addressing Sea-Level Rise, Methylmercury, and Natural Hazards

Taylor provided a brief overview of three stressors that impact coastal and ocean ecosystem services: (1) sea-level rise related to climate and coastal erosion; (2) environmental health related to water quality, disease, mercury contamination, and ocean acidification; and (3) natural hazards such as earthquake, tsunami, and landslide hazard stressors.

In the area of sea-level rise the USGS is taking current knowledge based on the geologic and geoscience perspective and the hydrologic perspective to develop high-level national and sometimes international assessments. It is also conducting research on sea-level rise, coastal erosion, fragile shorelines in coastal areas, and wetland vulnerabilities. The USGS is bringing the science to bear to understanding the interplay of sea-level rise, coastal erosion, and a host of other drivers that impact coastal vulnerability and is developing different scenarios of sea-level change to assess impact. Communicating these assessments to the public is a challenge.

Taylor turned to the issue of environmental health and described the USGS's work on methylmercury. The first national map of methylmercury based on a model of surface waters was recently completed by the USGS. In the United States the primary source of mercury over the land mass comes from deposition of ash from coal-fired power plants. Mercury becomes a problem for human environmental health because it becomes toxic through methylation of the mercury, which is a biomediated process. That is, it is the combination of the microbes in the water and mercury that results in toxicity. The USGS is looking at the problem of methylmercury from a regional perspective. One region that has received attention is an area from Honolulu, Hawaii, to Kodiak, Alaska, in the Pacific Ocean. Results of work on this topic in the Pacific indicate concerns for a large plume of methylmercury in the oceans. That plume is associated with atmospheric deposition from coal-fired power plants in Asia which is being deposited into the water due to interactions at the land–sea interface.

Taylor emphasized that an important finding from this and other work is that assessments must include consideration of the system as a whole and this requires an interdisciplinary approach to science. This approach is difficult because it requires translating across science cultures, science practice, language, data, and how data are collected.

Taylor described the unique role of the USGS with respect to natural hazards. The USGS has delegated responsibility for the federal government to provide notifications and warnings for earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and landslides. The agency also works to support NOAA's flood and severe weather (including hurricane) warnings, as well as seismic networks to support tsunami warnings. The agency's work around natural hazards such as earthquake and tsunami warnings and landslides is also important with respect to work and concerns related to sea-level rise.

Taylor concluded her presentation by presenting six questions and ongoing challenges around the topic of stressors and ecosystem services for coastal and marine ecosystems:

1.: How can ecosystem services and their values be routinely incorporated into sustainable marine resource management decisions so that the impacts of decisions across natural, managed, and human systems are understood?

2.: What scientific information and what level of certainty are needed to provide a foundation for coastal and marine resource management decisions?

3.: How can the value of scientific information be more effectively determined and used to prioritize the science needed to better understand coastal and marine ecosystem services?

4.: What metrics should be developed so that we understand the ability of marine systems to recover from expected and unexpected stressors?

5.: How can the natural and social sciences collaborate to develop integrated understanding of the consequences expected to result from stressors and management decisions?

6.: How can marine ecosystem services be incorporated into adaptive decision making that facilitates the synthesis of learning and management?

DISCUSSION

A brief discussion followed the panelists' presentations. Lynn Goldman stated that there has been much scientific discussion about climate change and the impact of temperature rise, and the role of human activities on greenhouse gases, but yet as a nation we are not managing ecosystems in a holistic fashion, or including humans as a part of that equation, and we are therefore also not preparing for changes related to climate. She asked the panel whether part of the problem with a lack of urgency in better managing ecosystems is that the knowledge available is not being translated, or whether there is missing knowledge, or whether the message of ecosystem change is not well communicated to policy makers and the public.

All of the panelists responded that improving communication to policy makers and the public is critical. Sandifer noted that improved communication also needs to occur among sectors and the public. Sandifer suggested that social media could be harnessed to extend the reach and persistence of messaging on this topic to the public. Garber responded that we need to create an environmental ethic; there are a myriad of steps we can take in our personal lives to protect ecosystems, but we need to create an environmental ethic.

Christopher Portier commented that agencies have their own cultures and they tend to look at issues from their specific perspective. What is needed, Portier said, is a systems perspective. He suggested that perhaps it is time to reassess our policy and regulatory frameworks which were developed decades ago and move toward a holistic, systems perspective.

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Footnotes

1: Lacaziosis a tropical fungal disease typically reported in dolphins and humans. Cryptococcus gattii is an uncommon fungal pathogen that affects the lungs and can result in death.

2: InVEST is available at: http://www.naturalcapitalproject.org/download.html (accessed August 25, 2013).

3: SolVES is available at: http://solves.cr.usgs.gov (accessed August 25, 2013).

4: EnviroAtlas is available at: http://www.epa.gov/research/enviroatlas/index.htm (accessed September 9, 2013).

5: The eco-health browser is available at: http://www.epa.gov/research/healthscience/browser/index.html (accessed September 9, 2013).

2: A UME is defined under the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, Section 404, as a stranding that is unexpected, involves a significant die-off of any marine mammal population, and demands immediate response. See http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/pdfs/laws/mmpa.pdf (accessed September 9, 2013).

3: See http://www.noaa.gov/features/01_economic/pacificoysters.html (accessed September 9, 2013).

Publication Details

Copyright

Publisher

National Academies Press (US), Washington (DC)

NLM Citation

Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research, and Medicine; Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice; Institute of Medicine. Understanding the Connections Between Coastal Waters and Ocean Ecosystem Services and Human Health: Workshop Summary. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2014 Jun 2. 3, Stressors Impacting Coastal and Ocean Ecosystem Services and Human Health.