Ecosystem services of Lake Erie: Spatial distribution and concordance of multiple services

The Laurentian Great Lakes provide a wide range of ecosystem services (ES) whose spatial distribution and extent are largely unquantified, thus limiting our understanding of ES co-occurrence, magnitude of ES supply, and the incorporation of ES into environmental planning. We mapped the spatial distribution of twelve ES in the Lake Erie Basin, including three supporting, three provisioning and six recreational/cultural services at three scales of analysis: sub-basins, counties and natural or urban focal areas. Whether ES are quantified by number of service sites or service delivery, the concordance of services varied among locations. Some ES were found to be spatially correlated, likely due to common function, such as sport fishing, boat launches and marinas, and other ES were co-located according to shared 'human habitat' in or near urban centers, as seen with municipal parks and municipal water supply. Most ES were spatially uncorrelated, and significant associations were almost exclusively positive. Total service delivery varied significantly among locations at both the county and focal area scales, indicating that areas of both high and low overall service delivery were common. Managers may benefit from awareness of the extent of ES delivery for different services in their area of interest, including co-benefit opportunities to improve delivery of multiple services.