Mapping ecosystem services provided by wetlands at multiple spatiotemporal scales: A case study in Quebec, Canada

Wetlands are affected by climate and anthropogenic changes, which influence the ecosystem services (ES) they provide. This study presents a spatially explicit quantification of wetland ESs. The study site is the Yamaska river watershed located in Quebec, Canada. The proposed approach includes four main steps: (1) statistical selection of function indicators (FI) to build a composite ecosystem service indicator (ESI); (2) temporal land use mapping for past (1984), recent (2011) and future scenarios (2050); (3) mapping and quantification of FIs and ESIs at all temporal and spatial scales; and (4) synthesis of multispatial and multitemporal information using a diagram representation. Results present the spatiotemporal evolution of the ES on maintaining habitat provided by wetlands in the studied watershed. The historical characterization shows a general degradation of this service on the entire study area for the last 30 years. The proposed approach can target priority sectors in which this service has deteriorated or is lacking. Future scenarios show the urgency to act in order to preserve current intact areas, because even the optimistic scenario indicates that the studied ES would not return to its 1984 state. The proposed approach allows a spatiotemporal mapping of ESs combined with a visualization of their ecological, social, and economic components in a context of territorial management scenarios. This multi-scale method is reproducible, robust and can be replicated for other ESs in different territories.