Journal
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS
Volume 14, Issue 6, Pages -Publisher
IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ab1827
Keywords
phosphorus; green infrastructure; ecosystem services; spatial prioritization; TMDL; nature-based solution; pareto-curve
Funding
- The Nature Conservancy [VT063016-01]
- Lintilhac Foundation
- Bay and Paul Foundation
- Highfield Foundation
- Vermont Community Foundation
- Vermont Housing and Conservation Board
- TNC Vermont [VT063016-01]
- National Science Foundation [CBET 1360398]
- USDA McIntire-Stennis [2014-32100-06050]
- National Science Foundation under VT EPSCoR [NSF OIA 1556770]
- NIFA [2014-32100-06050, 687215] Funding Source: Federal RePORTER
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Excessive phosphorus (P) export to aquatic ecosystems can lead to impaired water quality. There is a growing interest among watershed managers in using restored wetlands to retain P from agricultural landscapes and improve water quality. We develop a novel framework for prioritizing wetland restoration at a regional scale. The framework uses an ecosystem service model and an optimization algorithm that maximizes P reduction for given levels of restoration cost. Applying our framework in the Lake Champlain Basin, we find that wetland restoration can reduce P export by 2.6% for a budget of $50 M and 5.1% for a budget of $200 M. Sensitivity analysis shows that using finer spatial resolution data for P sources results in twice the P reduction benefits at a similar cost by capturing hot-spots on the landscape. We identify 890 wetlands that occur in more than 75% of all optimal scenarios and represent priorities for restoration. Most of these wetlands are smaller than 7 ha with contributing area less than 100 ha and are located within 200 m of streams. Our approach provides a simple yet robust tool for targeting restoration efforts at regional scales and is readily adaptable to other restoration strategies.
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