- Success Stories
- Environmental Resource Assessment & Management
Developing a Database for Ecosystem Service Models
CSS scientists have been major developers and contributors to the online U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s EcoService Models Library (ESML) database since its inception in 2012. The ESML database contains detailed but concise descriptions of ecosystem service models to facilitate the selection of models by ecosystem scientists for a variety of management and research applications. The database contains over 290 ecosystem service models, with additional entries for specific model runs. CSS employee owners helped design the database and the framework for summarizing models. In addition, CSS has selected models from the database for generating scenarios of remediation options for specific Superfund sites to identify the ecosystem services they could provide. Models that have been applied include pollinator (e.g., bumblebee), carbon sequestration, and bird ecosystem services. The database can be accessed at www.epa.gov/eco-research/ecoservice-models-library/.
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Remediating Soil Surrounding Abandoned Mines
CSS employees have been providing field, lab, and horticultural support for the Environmental Protection Agency’s efforts to develop and test methods for the remediation and revegetation of contaminated soils around selected abandoned mines in the western United States. One of the promising approaches is to incorporate biochar into the soil. Using biochar helps effectively adsorb trace metals and reduce their…
Expanding a Popular Flood Exposure Tool
We recently assisted our client, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Office for Coastal Management, with updating one of their most popular tools, the Coastal Flood Exposure Mapper.
Organizing Teams to Monitor Coastal Contaminants
For nearly 40 years NOAA’s National Mussel Watch Program has been monitoring contaminants in coastal waters in over 400 sites around the U.S. by testing sediment and bivalves, such as oysters and mussels. A CSS employee owner organizes and coordinates the regional missions to collect and test samples. This includes developing a schedule and coordinating…