Ecosystem services are the different benefits that people get from ecosystems. The living and non-living parts of the natural environment provide advantages such as pollinating crops, keeping air and water clean, breaking down waste, and controlling floods. These services are important for human health and happiness. They offer direct and indirect benefits from nature, including clean water, food, and managing the climate.

Ecosystem services are divided into groups of services, which was introduced in the early 2000s by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) project, which was started by the United Nations. How these groups are described depends on the classification system used. The MA divides services into four main categories. These include provisioning services, such as producing food and water; regulating services, such as controlling climate and disease; supporting services, such as nutrient cycles and oxygen production; and cultural services, such as recreation, tourism, and spiritual satisfaction.

For example, estuarine and coastal ecosystems are types of marine ecosystems that provide all four types of ecosystem services in different ways. First, their provisioning services include resources from the ocean and genetic materials. Second, their supporting services include nutrient cycling and the creation of energy through plants. Third, their regulating services include carbon sequestration (which helps reduce climate change) and flood control. Lastly, their cultural services include recreation and tourism. Sometimes, people give ecosystem services a money value to understand their worth.

Definition

Ecosystem services are the goods and services that ecosystems provide to humans. According to the 2006 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA), ecosystem services are "the benefits people obtain from ecosystems."

Gretchen Daily's original definition separated ecosystem goods and ecosystem services. However, later work by Robert Costanza and others, as well as the MA, grouped all of these together under the term "ecosystem services."

Categories

Ecosystem services are grouped differently based on the classification system used. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) divides services into four groups: regulating services, provisioning services, cultural services, and supporting services. Supporting services are considered the foundation for the other three groups.

An ecosystem may not offer all four types of services at the same time. However, because ecosystems are complex, people usually benefit from a mix of these services. Different ecosystems, such as forests, oceans, coral reefs, and mangroves, provide services that vary in type and impact. Some services directly affect people’s lives, like providing clean water, food, or beauty. Others indirectly affect humans by influencing the environment, such as controlling climate change, reducing erosion, or managing natural disasters.

By 2010, many definitions of ecosystem services had been developed. To avoid counting the same service twice, the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity replaced "Supporting Services" in the MA with "Habitat Services." It also defined "ecosystem functions" as interactions between an ecosystem’s structure and processes that help it provide goods and services. The Common International Classification for Ecosystem Services later grouped services into Cultural, Provisioning, and a combined category called Regulation and Maintenance Services, which includes both Regulatory and Habitat services.

Provisioning services are products obtained from ecosystems. These include:
– Food (such as seafood, crops, wild plants, and spices)
– Raw materials (like wood, fuel, and fertilizer)
– Genetic resources (such as genes for improving crops or medicine)
– Biogenic minerals
– Medicinal resources (like drugs and test organisms)
– Energy (such as hydropower and biomass)
– Ornamental resources (like jewelry, pets, and souvenirs)

Forests and their management produce many wood products, including timber, paper, and engineered wood. In 2018, global production of wood-based products reached record levels. The fastest growth occurred in the Asia-Pacific, North America, and Europe, likely because of strong economic growth in these areas. Over 40% of the European Union’s land is covered by forests. However, only about 60% of the new trees grown each year are harvested.

Forests also provide non-wood products, such as medicinal plants, fodder, and wild foods. Around 1 billion people rely on wild foods like meat, insects, mushrooms, and fish, which are rich in nutrients. More than 100 million people in the European Union eat wild food regularly. Over 2.4 billion people use wood-based energy for cooking.

Regulating services are benefits from the way ecosystems manage natural processes. These include:
– Cleaning water and air
– Storing carbon to reduce climate change
– Breaking down waste and toxins
– Controlling animal populations through predation
– Managing pests and diseases
– Pollinating plants
– Reducing the impact of floods and storms

For example, in New York City, officials restored the Catskill Watershed to improve water quality after pollution made it unsafe. This natural solution cost about $1–1.5 billion, which was much less than building a water filtration plant, which would have cost $6–8 billion plus $300 million yearly to operate.

Pollination by bees is essential for 15–30% of U.S. food production. Many farmers bring in non-native honeybees for this task. A study in California found that wild bees can help pollinate crops or improve honeybee pollination. However, farming practices that harm wildlife can reduce pollination services. Keeping habitats like chaparral and oak woodlands near farms helps wild bees provide stable pollination. Planting native flowers in urban areas or on farms can also support pollination.

Coastal and estuarine ecosystems protect against natural disasters like floods, cyclones, and storms. Wetlands and mangrove forests absorb water and reduce erosion. After a 1999 cyclone in India, villages with mangroves suffered less damage than those without.

Supporting services are the foundation for all other ecosystem services. They include processes like nutrient cycling, soil formation, and habitat creation. These services indirectly benefit humans over long periods. Some services can be classified as both supporting services and other types, such as regulating, cultural, or provisioning services.

Estuarine and coastal ecosystem services

Estuarine and marine coastal ecosystems are both types of marine ecosystems. These ecosystems provide four types of ecosystem services in different ways. Provisioning services include resources such as forest products, marine life, fresh water, raw materials, biochemical substances, and genetic resources. Regulating services involve absorbing carbon dioxide to help reduce climate change, treating waste, controlling diseases, and creating protective areas. Supporting services include processes like nutrient cycling, habitats formed by living organisms, and the production of energy-rich materials through plants. Cultural services include inspiration, opportunities for recreation and tourism, and activities related to science and education.

Coasts and the areas near them, both on land and in the ocean, are important parts of local ecosystems. Estuaries, where fresh water mixes with salt water to form brackish water, provide many nutrients that support marine life. Salt marshes, mangroves, and beaches also support a wide variety of plants, animals, and insects that are important for the food chain. The high level of biodiversity leads to a lot of biological activity, which has drawn human activity for thousands of years. Coasts also provide essential living conditions for many organisms, including estuaries, wetlands, seagrass beds, coral reefs, and mangroves. These areas offer homes to migratory birds, sea turtles, marine mammals, and coral reefs.

Economics

There are questions about the environmental and economic value of ecosystem services. Some people may not fully understand the environment or how humans are connected to it, which can lead to misunderstandings. Even though environmental awareness is growing, many people still do not understand how ecosystem services work, how they are affected by threats, or how to avoid the "tragedy of the commons," where shared resources are overused. Efforts to help decision-makers compare the costs and benefits of choices now include translating scientific information into economic terms. This helps explain the effects of decisions in ways that relate to human well-being. One challenge is that information about ecosystems collected in one place or time may not apply to another. Understanding how ecosystems function is important for making economic decisions. Factors like how replaceable a service is or how services are grouped together can help assign economic value more effectively.

Valuing ecosystem services also involves communication and sharing information, which is difficult and a focus of many researchers. In general, people make choices for many reasons, but overall patterns show what a society values. These patterns can help determine the economic value of services. The six main methods for assigning monetary value to ecosystem services are:

• Avoided cost: Services help society avoid costs that would happen without them (e.g., wetlands reduce health costs by filtering waste).
• Replacement cost: Services can be replaced by human-made systems (e.g., restoring the Catskill Watershed cost less than building a water purification plant).
• Factor income: Services improve incomes (e.g., better water quality increases fishery profits).
• Travel cost: The cost of traveling to use a service can show its value (e.g., ecotourism visitors pay for their trips).
• Hedonic pricing: Service value may be shown in prices for related goods (e.g., coastal homes cost more than inland homes).
• Contingent valuation: Service value is estimated by asking people about hypothetical scenarios (e.g., how much people would pay to visit national parks).

A study published in 1997 estimated the value of ecosystem services and natural capital worldwide to be between $16 and $54 trillion each year, with an average of $33 trillion. However, Salles (2011) noted that biodiversity has infinite value, so debating its total worth is not meaningful because humans cannot live without it.

By 2012, many companies did not fully understand how dependent they were on ecosystems or the effects of their actions. Environmental management tools are better at addressing traditional issues like pollution and resource use, but they often focus on impacts, not on how businesses rely on ecosystems. Tools like Our Ecosystem, the 2008 Corporate Ecosystem Services Review, the ARIES project (2007), the Natural Value Initiative (2012), and InVEST (2012) help businesses value and assess ecosystem services.

For example, the United States Department of Defense’s land provides ecosystem services such as carbon storage, climate resilience, and habitat for endangered species. As of 2020, the Eglin Air Force Base was estimated to provide about $110 million in ecosystem services each year, $40 million more than if the base did not exist.

Payments for ecosystem services (PES), also called payments for environmental services, are incentives given to farmers or landowners to manage their land in ways that provide ecological benefits. These programs are defined as "a system that uses conditional payments to encourage voluntary providers to offer environmental services." They help protect natural resources in the marketplace.

Management and policy

Although money is still used to value ecosystem services, managing and putting policies into action is very difficult. Managing shared resources, like forests or water, has been studied a lot by scientists. People need to find practical and lasting solutions to problems, but they often have to work with incomplete information. Current laws are not always enough because they focus more on human health than on protecting nature. In 2000, a plan called the Ecosystem Services Framework (ESF) was suggested to help governments and organizations make better decisions by combining information about nature and society.

By 2005, local and regional groups were working together to manage services like pollination and water resources. In the 1990s, a new idea called "paying for ecosystem services" became popular. People can buy credits for actions like protecting forests or restoring wetlands. Some companies now sell these credits, and some even trade them on stock markets. However, clear land ownership rules are needed for this to work, especially in poor countries where forests are being lost. Conflicts often arise between people who use forests and those who want to protect them. Global efforts to pay for ecosystem services also face problems, like unfair payments or misuse of resources.

In 2001, another idea focused on protecting areas with high biodiversity, such as rainforests. Scientists noticed that saving ecosystems helps protect both nature and human interests, like preserving species. This can be helpful when using networks that connect different areas to share resources and find funding from many investors.

In 2013, scientists studied how shellfish, like oysters, help ecosystems. These small animals filter water and support many other species. They are called "ecosystem engineers" because they change their environment in ways that help other life. Their work also helps humans by improving water quality. However, as of 2018, laws at the international and regional levels had not yet fully included the value of ecosystem services.

The United Nations has a goal to protect and use ecosystem services wisely. These services are worth about $125 trillion to $140 trillion each year, but many are at risk from climate change and human activities. Scientists predict that climate changes could reduce ecosystem services by 9% worldwide by 2100.

Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) is a way to help people deal with climate change by protecting nature. This includes saving forests, wetlands, and other ecosystems to reduce risks from extreme weather. EbA can work alone or with other methods, like building dams or using early warning systems.

Decisions about ecosystem services are complex because they involve science, technology, society, and the economy. People who make these decisions must consider many factors, listen to all groups involved, and use uncertain information. Scientists and decision-makers often combine the best research with people’s opinions to guide choices.

Some studies have used computer models to help with decisions. One looked at water use in New Mexico, while another used math to study land use changes. A third used a system that helps handle uncertain information and includes people’s opinions. Remote sensing, like satellite images, can also help track how ecosystems are changing.

In the Baltic countries, scientists and planners are using a tool based on maps to help manage grasslands. This tool considers both natural and human factors to find the best ways to care for grasslands.

History

The idea that humans rely on Earth's ecosystems has been around since the beginning of human history. However, the term "natural capital" was first used by E. F. Schumacher in 1973 in his book Small is Beautiful. People recognized that ecosystems can provide important services long before this, such as when Plato (around 400 BC) noted that cutting down trees could cause soil erosion and dry up water sources. Modern ideas about ecosystem services began in 1864 when Marsh pointed out that Earth's natural resources are not endless, using examples of changing soil fertility in the Mediterranean. It was not until the late 1940s that three authors—Henry Fairfield Osborn, Jr., William Vogt, and Aldo Leopold—helped people understand the importance of depending on the environment.

In 1956, Paul Sears highlighted the role of ecosystems in breaking down waste and recycling nutrients. In 1970, Paul Ehrlich and Rosa Weigert wrote about "ecological systems" in their textbook and warned that human actions could destroy the systems humans depend on for survival. The term "environmental services" was first used in a 1970 report that listed services such as insect pollination, fishing, climate regulation, and flood control. Over time, variations of this term were used, but "ecosystem services" became the standard term in scientific writing.

In the 1990s, two important books were published: Nature's Service by Gretchen Daily, which influenced discussions about ecosystem services, and The Value of the World's Ecosystem Services and Natural Capital by Costanza et al., which was the first study to estimate the economic value of ecosystem services. The concept of ecosystem services has since grown to include goals related to society, the economy, and protecting nature.