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Topic: Ecosystem Services

Ecosystem Services

According to Earth.org, ecosystem services are defined as ecosystems’ direct and indirect contributions to human well-being and impact on our survival and quality of life. The term “ecosystem services” is relatively new and was first used to empower the value of nature to bring attention to environmental degradation. Society’s growing understanding of nature’s innate and increasing worth directly contrasts with the current degradation that ecosystems face. The National Wildlife Federation states that the value of nature to people has long been recognized. However, the term ecosystem services helps put a value on how the natural world enriches our lives.

There are four main types of ecosystem services: provisioning, regulating, cultural, and supporting services. Provisioning services describe the ability of humans to obtain products from ecosystems, such as food, water, wood, oil, genetic resources, and medicines. Regulating services are categorized as any benefit received from ecosystems’ natural processes and functioning. This includes climate regulation, flood regulation, other natural hazard regulation, pollination, water purification, and other methods that occur in nature and positively affect human life. Cultural services include the non-material benefits that people can obtain from ecosystems. Ecosystems can provide spiritual enrichment, intellectual development, recreation, and aesthetic values to humans that positively impact their lives. Lastly, supporting ecosystem services relates to habitat functioning and impacts survival. This ecosystem service includes photosynthesis, water cycle, and nutrient cycles that provide the basis for ecosystems and allow us to support ourselves.

Ecosystem services are essential to human life because they positively empower economic and individual well-being. Ecosystem health is currently threatened by resource extraction that is destroying habitats. Resource industries such as logging, mining, and farming require infrastructure transforming the ecosystem where the resource is being extorted—water, land, and air pollution further impact ecosystem health, directly affecting ecosystem services. Additionally, invasive species threaten ecosystem integrity and health. Introducing invasive species into habitats can occur naturally or be caused by humans. However, once an invasive species enters an ecosystem, it is challenging to remove them.

©2024 ClimateLit (Saralee Reed)

Related Terms: Ecological Civilization, Interconnectedness, Sustainability, Ecosystems Health, Earth Systems

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