Ecosystemservices

ECOSYSTEM SERVICES
Have you ever considered that the cereal you eat is brought to you each morning by
the wind, or that the glass of clear, cold, clean water drawn from you faucet may have
been purified for you by a wetland or perhaps the root system of an entire forest?
Trees in your front yard work to trap dust, dirt, and harmful gases from the air you
breathe. The bright fire of oak logs you light to keep warm on cold nights and the Ecological Society of America
medicine you take to ease the pain of an ailment come to you from Nature’s warehouse
of services. Natural ecosystems perform fundamental life-support services upon which
human civilization depends. Unless human activities are carefully planned and
managed, valuable ecosystems will continue to be impaired or destroyed.
WHAT ARE ECOSYSTEM SERVICES?

Ecosystem Services are the processes by which the environment produces resources that
we often take for granted such as clean water, timber, and habitat for fisheries, and
pollination of native and agricultural plants. Whether we find ourselves in the city or a rural
area, the ecosystems in which humans live provide goods and services that are very
familiar to us.
Ecosystems provide “services” that:

Courtesy of David Inouye
 moderate weather extremes and their  control agricultural pests

impacts  maintain biodiversity
 disperse seeds
 mitigate drought and floods  generate and preserve soils and
 protect people from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays renew their fertility
 cycle and move nutrients  contribute to climate stability
 protect stream and river channels and  purify the air and water
coastal shores from erosion  regulate disease carrying organisms
 detoxify and decompose wastes  pollinate crops and natural vegetation
WHAT IS AN
ECOSYSTEM?
An ecosystem is a community of animals and plants interacting with one another and with their physical
environment. Ecosystems include physical and chemical components, such as soils, water, and nutrients that
support the organisms living within them. These organisms may range from large animals and plants to microscopic
bacteria. Ecosystems inlcude the interactions among all organisms in a given habitat. People are part of
ecosystems. The health and well- being of human populations depends upon the services provided by ecosystems
and their components - organisms, soil, water, and nutrients.
WHAT ARE ECOSYSTEM SERVICES
WORTH?
Natural ecosystems and the plants and animals within them provide humans with services that would be very difficult to
duplicate. While it is often impossible to place an accurate monetary amount on ecosystem services, we can calculate
some of the financial values. Many of these services are performed seemingly for “free”, yet are worth many trillions of
dollars, for example:
 Much of the Mississippi River Valley’s natural flood protection services were destroyed when adjacent wetlands
were drained and channels altered. As a result, the 1993 floods resulted in property damages estimated at twelve
billion dollars partially from the inability of the Valley to lessen the impacts of the high volumes of water.
 Eighty percent of the world’s population relies upon natural medicinal products. Of the top 150 prescription drugs used
in the U.S., 118 originate from natural sources: 74 percent from plants, 18 percent from fungi, 5 percent from bacteria,
and 3 percent from one vertebrate (snake species). Nine of the top 10 drugs originate from natural plant products.
 Over 100,000 different animal species - including bats, bees, flies, moths, beetles, birds, and butterflies - provide free
pollination services. One third of human food comes from plants pollinated by wild pollinators. The value of pollination
services from wild pollinators in the U.S. alone is estimated at four to six billion dollars per year.
Before it became overwhelmed by agricultural and sewage runoff, thewatershed of the Catskill Mountains
provided NewYork Cwityith water ranked among the best in the Nation by Consumer Reports. When the water fell
below quality standards, the City investtigeda what it would cost to install an artificial filtration plant. The
estimated price tag for this new facility was six toeightibllion dollars, plus annual operating costs of 300 million
dollars - a high price to pay for what once was free. New York City decided instead tnoviest a fraction of that cost
($660M) in restoring the natural capital it had in the Catskill’s watershed. In 1997, the City raised aEnnvironmental
Bond Issue and is currently using the funds to purchase land and halt development in the watershed, to
compensate property orwsne for development restrictions on their land, and to subsidize the improvement of
HOW ARE ECOSYSTEM SERVICES “CUT OFF” ?
Ecosystem services are so fundamental to life that
they are easy to take for granted and so large in
scale that it is hard to imagine that human activities
could destroy them. Nevertheless, ecosystem
services are severely threatened through (1) growth
in the scale of human enterprise (population size, per-
capita consumption, and effects of technologies to
produce goods for consumption) and (2) a
mismatch between short-term needs and long-term
societal well-being.
Many human activities disrupt, impair, or reengineer

ecosystems every day including:
 runoff of pesticides, fertilizers, and animal wastes ECOLOGY AND ECOSYSTEM SERVICES
 pollution of land, water, and air resources
Ecologists work to help us understand the
 introduction of non-native species interconnection and interdependence of the many
 overharvesting fisheries plant and animal communities within ecosystems.
Although substantial understanding of many
 destruction of wetlands ecosystem services and the scientific principles
 erosion of soils underlying them already exists, there is still much to
learn. The tradeoffs among different services within
 deforestation
an ecosystem, the role of biodiversity in maintaining
 urban sprawl services, and the effects of long and short-term
perturbations are just some of the questions that
need to be further explored. The answers to such
questions will provide information critical to the
development of management strategies that will
protect ecosystems and help maintain the
provisions of the services upon which we depend.
The choices we make today in how we use land and water resources will have enormous consequences on the
future sustainability of earth’s ecosystems and the services they provide.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Issues in Ecology, “Ecosystem Services: Benefits Supplied to Human Societies by Natural Ecosystems, No. 2, Spring, 1997, Ecological
Society of America. http://www.esa.org/sbi/issue2.htm.
Nature’s Services, Societal Dependence on Natural Ecosystems, Gretchen C. Daily, Editor, Island Press, 1997.
Communicating Ecosystem Services: Tools for Scientists to Engage the Public, a Project of the Ecological Society of America and
the Union of Concerned Scientists. http://www.esa.org/ecoservices.htm.
Prepared by the Ecological Society of America

1707 H Street, NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20006
phone 202-833-8773 · fax 202-833-8775
http://www.esa.org · [email protected]
Summer 2000

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ECOSYSTEM SERVICES

WHAT ARE ECOSYSTEM SERVICES?

Ecosystems provide “services” that:

 moderate weather extremes and their  control agricultural pests

Many human activities disrupt, impair, or reengineer

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Prepared by the Ecological Society of America

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