Linking the Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS) to ecosystem services: An application to the US Gulf of Mexico

Abstract

At the first Gulf of Mexico Ecosystem Services Workshop (2010), ecosystem services were linked to the Gulf of Mexico habitat types as defined in the Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS), recently endorsed as the first US standard for classifying coastal and marine ecosystems. Participants identified and classified the Gulf habitat types based on CMECS, linked ecosystem services to habitat types, and prioritized services using expert opinion. Only three categories of ecosystem services were considered: regulating, provisioning, and cultural. However, supporting services, such as biological interactions, were considered as part of reclassified services. Highly ranked services were distributed across all the three service categories for each Gulf habitat, except for mangroves and dune/beach (only regulating and cultural services). Predictably, the majority of the habitat types were linked to the service of food. The importance of this exercise lies in the utility of the results for resource managers conducting activities within the Gulf of Mexico coastal and marine environments and can be informative to other regions wishing to conduct a similar exercise. This is, as far as the authors are aware, the first inventory of habitat types and their associated ecosystem services within the Gulf of Mexico region. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.