AnalysisEconomic returns of groundwater management sustaining an ecosystem service of dust suppression by alkali meadow in Owens Valley, California
Introduction
In many arid mountain basins worldwide, groundwater is managed as a dynamic reservoir, providing additional water supply during years of insufficient surface runoff. In the Great Basin of the western United States, groundwater is often shallow and recharged annually to within the root zone of native plants. In such systems, groundwater withdrawal and recharge has potential to replace surface reservoirs and associated water losses through evaporation. However, shallow groundwater supports facultative wetland species, which provide important ecosystem services such as dust suppression, soil stability and air quality. Research into the hydroecology of these systems at our field site in the Owens Valley, California, has led to sufficient understanding to develop empirical relationships between snowpack runoff, groundwater depth, and vegetative cover within the native ‘alkali meadow’ plant community (see Fig. 1). Alkali meadow supports rare, threatened and endangered species, helps to maintain soil stability and enhanced air quality, is extensive throughout the Owens Valley and to a lesser extent in other valleys of the Great Basin and Range, and is the target of conservation due to its dependence on shallow groundwater that is pumped for human use throughout most of its range.
Valuation of market and non-market ecosystem services and the incorporation of these values into natural resource decision-making have increased over the last two decades (Daily, 1997, deGroot et al., 2002, Polasky, 2008, deGroot et al., 2010, Wratten et al., 2013). Extensive valuation studies have been conducted on an array of ecosystem services such as, but not limited to, carbon sequestration, water supply and purification, flood and drought buffering and biodiversity (Van Wilgen et al., 1996, Daily, 1997, Gutrich and Howarth, 2007, deGroot et al., 2010, Wratten et al., 2013). Yet few studies have addressed the ecosystem service of dust suppression by plant communities and the links to hydrology and water management (Krieger, 2001, deGroot et al., 2002, deGroot et al., 2010). This study contributes significantly to efforts to capture the non-market value of ecosystem services in natural resource decision-making by articulating the non-market value of dust suppression by native alkali meadow plant communities and utilizing it to inform groundwater management strategies.
A dynamic ecological economic simulation model was created to assess which groundwater management strategy in the Taboose–Aberdeen well-field of Owens Valley maximizes the net gains of groundwater production (i.e., economic rent) while sustaining or restoring native alkali meadow. In consideration of over $1 billion dollars in outlays thus far for restoration of dry Owens Lake and the continued degradation of meadows to the north of the playa, this study analyzed the costs of restoration of alkali meadow, temporal loss of ecosystem services from meadow degradation, and compared these costs to net revenues generated from groundwater extraction by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP). Restoration costs are relevant to analysis of the economic rents derived by DWP from groundwater pumping because historic agreements have required maintenance of alkali meadow and federal law requires a specified level of air quality. Los Angeles DWP is constrained by the Inyo-LA Long Term Water Agreement (LTWA; Los Angeles and County of Inyo, 1991) to avoid adverse impacts to native plant communities and is required to meet the particulate matter PM-10 standard of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) under the Clean Air Act. Los Angeles DWP is required to manage groundwater resources in Owens Valley without causing significant ecological effects that cannot be successfully mitigated and to avoid causing decreases in vegetation cover or changes in vegetation community structure (Los Angeles and County of Inyo, 1991). Thus, an analysis of how groundwater can be managed to maximize economic rents while sustaining native alkali meadow and the ecosystem service of dust suppression in Owens Valley is imperative.
Section snippets
Site Description
The Owens Valley extends roughly north-south in eastern California between the Sierra Nevada and the White-Inyo Range. It is a broad, relatively flat mountain valley with an elevation of approximately 1000 m, bordered on both sides by mountains reaching well above 4000 m. Runoff and snowmelt primarily from the Sierra Nevada, supports numerous streams entering the valley and recharging groundwater enroute to the Owens River. Shallow groundwater aquifers are found within 5 m of the surface across
Results and Discussion
Fig. 6, Fig. 7 display model results for depth-to-water and live percent cover in alkali meadow over 50 years in the Taboose–Aberdeen well-field for a representative model run. Results are displayed for four of the five management strategies to provide clarity in the figures (see Table 1 for constrained management results). Status quo management based upon historic action results in depth-to-water levels beyond the root zones of native alkali meadow with live percent cover dropping below 10%
Conclusion
Findings of this study suggest that changing to an adaptive water management strategy in Owens Valley provides greater net benefits of production (i.e., economic rent) while supplying water, maintaining native alkali meadow, and ensuring air quality than status quo groundwater management strategies. Adaptive management generated higher economic rents while pumping less annual groundwater at respective levels of 72% (baseline = 6830 acre-ft) and 56% (climate change scenario = 4952 acre-ft) of average
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to acknowledge the efforts of Lance Woods and Jacob King of Southern Oregon University for their help with model formulation and field data collection. The authors wish to thank three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and feedback on the manuscript. We also acknowledge the financial support of the National Science Foundation for funding this project through a Research Opportunity Award (award #EAR0719793).
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