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Factsheet – Impacts of urban ecosystem services on human health and water quantity and quality in Northwestern Indiana communities: An unexplored opportunity to study service accessibility

A research project funded by the Indiana Water Resources Research Center through the U.S. Geological Survey’s 104B annual base grants (section 104 of the Water Resources Research Act of 1984, as amended).

Start Date: 2019-06-01 

End Date: 2020-05-31

Total Federal Funds: $15,000

Total Non-Federal Funds: $33,200

Ecosystem services include benefits from the goods and services that humans obtain from nature. Accessibility to ecosystem services is not well understood due to the complex factors influencing dynamic linkages between service provisioning and consumption. To more robustly characterize accessibility, we studied the influence of terrestrial ecosystem processes on hydrologic systems (e.g. flooding prevention and street stormwater purification), along services provided by urban vegetation. Vegetation losses can impair the supply of ecosystem services, impacting the health and wellbeing of local communities. Urban communities like those in Northwestern Indiana, part of the third largest metropolitan region in the country (the Chicago metropolitan region), are especially vulnerable to losses of urban ecosystem services. Assessment of service delivery in these communities is incomplete, particularly the social dimensions of accessibility. We addressed this need using a mixed methods approach to assessing accessibility: combining findings from an ongoing spatial study looking at service distribution in the Chicago region (including three Northwestern Indiana counties) with survey results on community feedbacks and ecosystem service accessibility.

Research Objectives

  1. Leverage a prior study examining the spatial distribution and accessibility of multiple ecosystem services throughout the Chicago metro region. The prior study provided context on the distribution of various ecosystem services, including hydrologic, across three Northwestern Indiana counties (Lake, Porter, and LaPorte) and (2) produced a spatial assessment of accessibility that accounted for local demographics and spatial factors that enable accessibility. 

2. Learn about perceptions, attitudes and awareness of ecosystem services and identify additional factors that might influence provisioning-consumption dynamics within these communities. We administered a online survey to ecosystem service beneficiaries of urban areas (by sharing the survey link through community organizations’ social media) and by targeted sampling (using a third-party data collection platform).

NWI Chicago Metro
Northwestern Indiana (NWI) and the Illinois portion of the Chicago metropolitan area.

Researcher Profile

Brady Hardiman

Principal Investigator Dr. Brady Hardiman is an Assistant Professor of Urban Ecology in the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources at Purdue University.

Mayra Rodriguez Gonzalez

Co-Principal Investigator Dr. Mayra Rodriguez Gonzalez recently completed her Ph.D. in the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources at Purdue University and will continue this research as a post doctoral researcher.

Major Conclusions & Significance

  • This project produced a short informative video entitled, “Tiny Plastics, Big Problem?” available at https://iwrrc.org//projects/.
  • Microplastics were found in all river systems sampled and land use did not significantly influence microplastic concentration or types in Indiana waterways.
  • Microplastic fibers are dominant and ubiquitous across sampling sites, suggesting that microplastics may predominantly be transported through atmospheric deposition.
  • When results from this study were compared to results of similar studies in the Great Lakes and their tributaries, microplastics in the Great Lakes are typically larger pieces, whereas tributaries are dominated by fibers.

What Does This Mean For Indiana?

The sources, pathways, and transport of microplastics remain poorly understood. Our study suggests that atmospheric transport and deposition of fibers may be a hidden source of particulate pollution for inland waters. Further, an emerging public health concern is contaminants that adsorb (hold as a thin layer) to the surface of microplastics that may be transferred up the food web (and potentially to humans via fish consumption) or degrade municipal water quality. While recent legislation has banned the use of plastic microbeads in cosmetics (Microbead-Free Waters Act of 2015, H.R. 1321), microplastics will continue to exist in and impact our waterways due to their multiple sources, mobility, and persistence.

Training The Next Generation

One of the missions of the Indiana Water Resources Research Center, and all Water Centers, is to train the next generation of water scientists. This project successfully funded research for one Ph.D. student within Dr. Hardiman’s lab and trained five undergraduate research students.

 

Contact Laura Esman, Managing Director, to request a printed copy of this factsheet.

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