What are the goals for EPA´s ecosystem services research?
The Ecosystem Services Research Program is designed to be strategic and interactive. It includes 5 long-term research goals intended to improve our understanding, and promote the protection of ecosystem services at multiple scales and complexity. Planned research outcomes: • New decision support systems and an on-line decision support platform that assists decision makers in using existing and emerging Ecosystem Services Research Program methods, models, and tools, and allows users to explore the outcomes of alternative management options. • A national atlas of ecosystem services, and a design for inventorying those services to define location, condition and value. • A better set of tools, methods, and models for understanding pollutant impacts on ecosystem services using a key example — nitrogen. • A better set of tools, methods, and models for understanding the effects of multiple stresses on ecosystem services using a key ecosystem type — wetlands. • Four place-based examples where
