Mapping the functional connectivity of ecosystem services supply across a regional landscape

Sustainably managing multifunctional landscapes for production of multiple ecosystem services (ES) requires thorough understanding of the interactions between ES and the ecological processes that drive them. We build upon landscape connectivity theory to present a spatial approach for assessing functional connections between multiple ES at the landscape scale. We demonstrate application of the approach using existing ES supply mapping data for plant agriculture, waterflow regulation, and landscape aesthetics. The connections we observed between these three ES revealed high-value multifunctional linkages on the landscape that were not necessarily predictable from supply area mapping, nor from land use or land cover data. By providing spatial information on ES connectivity, our approach enables local and regional environmental planning and management that takes full consideration of the complex, multi-scale interactions between ecological processes, land use and land cover, and ecosystem service supply on a landscape.