With rapid economic and population growths, the increasing separation between where ecosystem services are needed and from where they are supplied makes managing multiple ecosystem services difficult. It is also challenging to strengthen the synergies between such ecosystem service flows and conservation activities as conservation activities can enhance human well-being through the improvements of ecosystem services. Increasing the demands for ecosystem services across regions may accelerate ecosystem service flows yet also damage the basic ability to provide ecosystem services in supply areas. However, little research has holistically examined the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of increasing separation between the supplies of and demands for ecosystem services. To fill these gaps in knowledge, the overall objectives of this dissertation are to examine the intricate interconnections among ecosystem service flows, natural systems, human well-being, and conservation policies simultaneously. This dissertation research applies the integrated framework of telecoupling (socioeconomic and environmental interactions over distances) to systematically uncover the agents, causes, and effects of dynamic ecosystem service flows across multiple coupled human and natural systems.This research explores telecoupling processes regarding nature-based tourism (cultural service, Chapter 2 and 3), food (provisioning service, Chapter 4), and fresh water (provisioning and regulating service, Chapter 5) as well their interactions with biodiversity, human demands, and conservation policies. The spatial scale of this research is at the global level, as flows of tourists, food, and fresh water occur across national and regional boundaries. Chapter 2 shows that protected areas managed strictly for biodiversity conservation have more visitors and species than those managed for mixed use. High population density surrounding protected areas and national income levels are also major socioeconomic factors related to nature-based tourism. Chapter 3 indicates that global tourism networks have become highly consolidated over time and that reduced transaction costs (e.g., language, distance, and visa policies) are more important in attracting international tourists than natural and cultural attractions. Furthermore, cost of living differences between countries decreased in importance over time. International tourist flows are resilient to political instability and terrorism risks. Chapter 4 investigates the effects of international food trade on biodiversity hotspots between developed and developing countries. My results show that international food trade may benefit global biodiversity due to the increasingly important role of developing countries without biodiversity hotspots in food exports. Chapter 5 explores how to integrate watershed conservation activities with built infrastructure approaches to sustain freshwater ecosystem services for global cities. My results indicate that wetlands in protected areas contribute to sustaining freshwater provisions to global cities. Forests in protected areas complement large dams for sediment reduction and hydropower production for cities, but cities mainly depend on dams for flood mitigation.By assessing ecosystem service flows to people over distances, this research identifies how multiple ecosystem services are managed in order to provide benefits for distant beneficiaries and to whom subsidies (or payments) are paid for biodiversity and ecosystem service conservation. The integration of the telecoupling framework with ecosystem services provides new perspectives on global sustainability that help with the development of proactive strategies for biodiversity and ecosystem service conservation.
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