Assessing the current and future status of aquatic and hydrologic ecosystem services in the French Broad River Basin

Abstract

Ecosystem services are the benefits that people receive from nature, and are an increasingly important component in conservation planning. Many of these ecosystem services are threatened, however, by land use change and development, climate change, and pollution. This project assesses the current state of several water-related ecosystem services in western North Carolina’s French Broad River Basin, which includes the city of Asheville, and compares this to a potential future state given predicted changes in development patterns and climate. We identify where sources of water-related ecosystem services are located within the watershed, how many people they serve, where threats to ecosystem services are located, and how ecosystem services and aquatic biodiversity may be affected by future climate and land use changes. Our findings show that climate change and development will have significant implications for the future provisioning and regulation of ecosystem services and the habitat of aquatic biodiversity in western North Carolina.