Article Summary: Protecting Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity in the World's Watersheds

Becca Madsen on August 24, 2009 Comment

Gary W. Luck, Kai M.A. Chan, John P. Fay. Conservation Letters, Vol 2, issue 4, August 2009, p. 179-188. Accessed online in August 2009.

Where do watersheds of global importance for biodiversity (Hotspots, Global 200 ecoregions, or endemic bird areas) and human needs (water provisioning, flood mitigation) coincide? Southeast Asia and East Africa. Luck et al. create the first scheme to prioritize protection of ecosystem services in the world's watersheds.

Figure 2 Global priorities for the protection of ecosystem services and biodiversity. Map shows all ecosystem-service indices combined and all biodiversity indices combined (Hotspots, Global 200, and EBA). Watersheds are split into four categories: mutual-high priorities (MHP; red) for protection of both ecosystem services and biodiversity; high priorities for protecting ecosystem services (ESP; blue); high priorities for protecting biodiversity (BCP; green); and mutual-low priorities (MLP; gray/black) for protecting both ecosystem services and biodiversity. White areas are not included in our analysis. Color intensity varies in each category to reflect the quartiles of values in that category with dark-light corresponding with the top-bottom quartiles (Supporting Information).