Interdisciplinary and interscalar modelling of riverine ecosystem services to support cumulative impact assessment in Canadian watersheds

要实现从碳密集型经济转型的公正和绿色，需要大量关键的地球矿物来支持锂电池和太阳能电池板等新技术。加拿大在支持这一绿色转型方面具有独特的优势，因为目前有大量尚未开发的矿产资源。然而，为了可持续地开采这些资源，需要考虑自然资源开发对社会环境系统的跨学科和累积影响。生态系统服务（ES）为这些考虑提供了一个相关的方法，因为生态系统科学提供了工具和概念框架来调查从自然到社区的商品和服务的提供。正如新的2019年《影响评估法》所述，区域评估提供了一种新的、及时的政策工具，以确保在影响评估中考虑跨学科的累积影响。然而，根据目前的生态系统科学状况，科学文献中缺乏现成的科学信息来支持区域评估，特别是关于高价值生态系统和相关基线数据的大规模评估。了解累积影响背景下ES供应的差距对于支持加拿大自然资源的可持续发展至关重要。根据我作为高级影响评估官员和大型淡水可持续性研究员的经验，我想通过调查与自然资源开发相关的累积影响如何在不同尺度上影响加拿大流域ES的能力、需求和压力，来启动我在纪念大学的研究项目。我的工作将侧重于河流服务，如社区供水、休闲和自给渔业、休闲划船、防洪、文化和精神意义以及营养循环。我将在加拿大、地区（加拿大大西洋和魁北克）和地方（纽芬兰西海岸）进行研究。接下来的五年，我的研究计划将集中在跨学科的整合上，通过建模确定高价值的河流生态系统，并通过比较地方和国家尺度的生态系统建模方法和结果来实现可扩展性。更具体地说，我想通过确定权衡（一种服务的增加与其他服务的下降相关），通过评估自然资源开发项目对ES供应的累积影响，以及通过更好地理解评估规模对产生的ES相互作用的影响，来调查当前对ES科学理解的差距。总的来说，在区域和加拿大尺度上结合ES和累积影响模型是确保大尺度上社会环境系统可持续管理的一个有前途的新途径。

A just and green transition away from carbon-intensive economy will require large amount of critical earth mineral to support new technologies such as lithium battery and solar panels. Canada is uniquely positioned to support this green transition because of the vast number of mineral resources that are currently untapped. However, for these resources to be extracted sustainably, there is a need to consider the interdisciplinary, and cumulative impacts of natural resources development on socio-environmental system. Ecosystem services (ES) provide a pertinent approach to these considerations, as ES science provide tools and conceptual frameworks to investigate the provision of goods and services from nature to communities. Regional assessments, as described in the new 2019 Impact Assessment Act, provide a new, timely policy tool to ensure that interdisciplinary cumulative impacts are considered in impact assessments. Yet, based on the current states of ES science, there is a gap in the scientific literature for readily available scientific information to support regional assessments, especially regarding large-scale assessments of highly valued ES and associated baseline data. Understanding the gaps in ES provisioning in the context of cumulative impacts is crucial to support the sustainable development of natural resources in Canada. Drawing from my experience as a senior impact assessment officer and as a large-scale freshwater sustainability researcher, I want to initiate my research program at Memorial University by investigating how cumulative impacts related to natural resources developments affect the capacity of, demand for, and pressures on ES of Canadian watersheds at various scales. My work will focus on riverine services such as water provision for communities, recreational and subsistence fishing, recreational boating, flood protection, cultural and spiritual significance, and nutrient cycling. I will undertake research at the Canadian, regional (Atlantic Canada and Quebec), and local (Western Coast of Newfoundland) scales. The next five years of my research program will focus on the integration of interdisciplinarity by modelling identified highly valued riverine ES and on interscalability by comparing local and national scales ES modelling approaches and results. More specifically, I want to investigate current gaps in understanding in ES science by identifying tradeoffs (an increase in one service linked to declines in others), by assessing the cumulative impacts of natural resources development projects on ES provisioning, and by better understanding the influence of the scale of assessment on resulting ES interactions. Overall, combining ES and cumulative impacts modelling at regional and Canadian scales is a promising and novel avenue to ensure the sustainable management of socio-environmental systems at large scales.