Landscape 2 - Quebec - NSERC ResNet

LANDSCAPE OVERVIEW

The Québec landscape is characterized by the need to conciliate urban, agriculture, tourism, forestry and peat extraction development with the sustainable provision of ecosystem services. ResNet will investigate the economic values of ecosystem services, the relationships between economical drivers and ecosystem services, and methods to plan the conservation and restoration of ecosystem services. This landscape has been split into three sub-landscapes:

Côte-Nord, with intense peat harvesting and forestry logging
Ville de Québec, an urban area
Mont-Hillaire and surrounding hills, with intense agricultural production. Each sub-landscape will be used as a model system to develop new ideas for the management of ecosystem services in Québec

CHALLENGES FACING THE WORKING LANDSCAPES OF QUEBEC

To keep the consistency among research questions through the three sub-landscapes (m)
To develop a framework to consider the balance between the demand and supply of ecosystem services (r)

To develop approaches for establishing conservation networks that take into consideration the surrounding matrix and associated ecosystem services (r)
To get good estimates of ecosystem services (r) and develop our abilities to extrapolate them to other sites.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

To develop methodological frameworks to improve ecosystem services conservation and restoration planning, adding knowledge on how landscape management can ensure long-term sustainability of ecosystem services provision
To investigate the trade-offs between the current demand, future demand, accessibility and supply of ecosystem services, understanding how these features interfere with the development of conservation plans
To compare the efficiency of the systematic conservation planning in delimiting areas for peatland harvesting and conservation while evaluating costs of postponing ecosystem services conservation considering future peat industry development in the Côte-Nord sub-landscape
To assess the cost and benefits of planting white spruce, tamarack or yellow birch after tree harvesting in the Côte-Nord sub-landscape regarding their effect on albedo and thereby on climate regulation
To improve the selection of areas for potential restoration based in the demand and supply of ecosystem services, indicating how and where ecosystem services could be restored in existing vacating lots around the urban area of Ville de Québec
To develop a framework to plan the conservation of sustainable wetlands considering their drainage zones and potential to attenuate floods in the face of current and future development of the urban area of Ville de Québec
To investigate the impacts of tourism in the maintenance of biodiversity and ecosystem services in protected and non-protected areas in the Mont-Hillarie and surrounding hills, suggesting management actions that could guarantee the sustainability of touristic activities, such as hiking and biking
To use benefit-transfer, market price and replacement cost methods to estimate ecosystem services supply and demand, working along with stakeholders to understand how ecosystem services demand can be met

EXPECTED OUTCOMES
We will offer a large body of knowledge on ecosystem services provision, management, conservation and restoration in Québec that will help our partners to plan for the sustainability of ecosystem services extraction by industry along with the conservation of other ecosystem services, such as cultural and regulating ecosystem services.