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Ecological Services
Nature provides ecological life-support systems that sustain life on earth. Ecosystem services and functions contribute to human welfare on this planet. The economies of the Earth would grind to a halt without these services.
Ecological services are the goods and services—the benefits people obtain from ecosystems. Ecosystem functions refer to the biological processes of ecosystems.
There are four types of ecosystem services:
Ecosystem goods (such as food) and services (such as waste assimilation) represent the benefits human populations derive, directly from ecosystem functions.
Services have dynamic interactions. They influence each other and are influenced by each other.
The types of services which an ecosystem provides are determined by:
- climate – humidity and temperature
- substrate, the chemical makeup of rock or soil, the properties of elements and compounds found in an ecological zone
- types of plants and animals that have adapted to an ecological zone, the biological legacy of current species (genetic resources) that have come to inhabit an ecological zone
- physical geography – whether the ecosystem is on land, at a high or low elevation, or is a river, lake, wetland, or ocean.
The main classes of ecological systems are:
- forests, taiga
- tundra (northern or alpine)
- grasslands – farms
- wetlands – marsh, swamp, bog, fens, vernal pools which may be fresh water, salt water or brackish
- oceans, lakes, rivers, and coral reefs
Within British Columbia, forests have been divided into 16 major biogeoclimatic zones (see Biogeoclimatic Zones of BC)
The use of Cascades (eco service charts) assists in the identification of the benefits of ecological services. Below is a Cascade—a list of ecosystem processes and services with the corresponding benefits.
Cultural Services
Cultural services meet the recreational, aesthetic and spiritual needs of humans. Key ecological sites and the resources they supply are the foci of scientific inquiry.
The use of Cascades (eco service charts) assists in the identification of the benefits of ecological services.
Provisioning Services
Provisioning services are the goods produced by ecosystems. They are the benefits consumed by humans. Provisioning services are therefore the ecosystem properties that receive most direct attention from managers and the public.
Provisioning services include:
- food
- fiber
- clothing
- wood – construction materials
- and water
Wildlife management, agricultural, fishing and forestry practices have developed to harness nature for the benefit of earth’s human population.
Regulating Services
Regulating services are the benefits obtained from self-regulation of ecosystem processes. Regulating services are also largely invisible to society and can also be ignored.
Regulating services include:
- climate regulation – the carbon cycle regulates climate by regulating the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere
- erosion control – vegetation growth regulates erosion of soil by wind and water
- regulation of water quality and control of pollution
- pest and disease control
Failures to sustain regulating services often have devastating consequences.
Support Services
Support services are fundamental ecological processes that control the structure and functioning of ecosystems and sustain provisioning services. Support services provide natural resource inputs and environmental services needed for economic production.
Support services include:
- soil and maintenance of soil resources providing the substrate for growing vegetation
- the water cycle : runoff leads to evaporation from streams, lakes and oceans. Transpiration and evaporation provide humidity and lead to precipitation
- the carbon cycle : plants remove CO2 from the atmosphere, absorbing CO2 through photosynthesis and act as a carbon sink
- the nitrogen cycle
- the nutrient cycle : plants absorb nutrients. When they die and decay the nutrients are recycled. Similarly, when plants and animals are eaten, the nutrients they contain are recycled.
- biodiversity : retaining a diversity of similar organisms allows species which are better adapted to replace species on the decline as a result of climate change and other disturbances
- waste management
- pollination : maintenance of the variety of pollinators (insects, birds, and bats) allows for the development of fruits and seeds, providing food and the next generation of organisms
Because of the fundamental dependence of all ecological services on support services, the integrity of ecological services needs to be maintained. Support services sustain the provisioning services that are valued more directly by humanity. Support services are not immediately valued by humanity because they are not consumed directly and their effect is not immediately noticed.
Degradation of key support services erodes ecosystem resilience, leading to loss of provisioning services.
