Ecosystem Service Concept and Classification

Agroecosystems, forest ecosystems, grassland ecosystems, and aquatic ecosystems are examples of such ecosystems. These ecosystems, when in good working order, provide benefits such as natural crop pollination, clean air, extreme weather mitigation, and human mental and physical well-being. These advantages are collectively known as ‘ecosystem services,’ and they are often critical to the provision of safe drinking water, waste decomposition, and the resilience and productivity of food ecosystems.

What are ecosystem services?

Ecosystem services, also known as ‘ecoservices,’ are the goods and services that ecosystems provide to humans. Ecosystem services, according to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA), are “the benefits people obtain from ecosystems.” The MA also defined the four types of ecosystem services discussed below: supporting, provisioning, regulating, and cultural.

By 2010, the literature had developed a number of working definitions and descriptions of ecosystem services.

The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) replaced “Supporting Services” in the MA with “Habitat Services” and “ecosystem functions,” defined as “a subset of the interactions between ecosystem structure and processes that underpin an ecosystem’s capacity to provide goods and services” to avoid double counting in ecosystem services audits.

Categories of ecosystem services:

The scientific body has identified four types of ecosystem services: regulating services, provisioning services, cultural services, and supporting services. Although an ecosystem may not provide all four types of services at the same time, given the complexity of any ecosystem, it is generally assumed that humans benefit from a combination of these services. The services provided by various ecosystems (forests, seas, coral reefs, mangroves, and so on) vary in nature and as a result. In fact, some services have a direct impact on the livelihood of nearby human populations (such as fresh water, food, or aesthetic value), while others have an indirect impact on general environmental conditions (such as climate change, erosion regulation or natural hazard regulation, etc.).Ecosystem services are defined as benefits people obtain from ecosystems by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment report of 2005, which divides them into four categories, with supporting services serving as the foundation for the other three categories.

Regulating services:

• Water and air purification
• Climate regulation and carbon sequestration
• Decomposition and detoxification of waste
• Predation keeps prey populations in check.

Provisioning services:

• Crops, wild foods, and spices (including seafood and game).
• Natural resources (including lumber, skins, fuelwood, organic matter, fodder, and fertilizer).
• Resources genetic (including crop improvement genes, and health care).
• Mineral biogenesis
• Resources for medicine (including pharmaceuticals, chemical models, and test and assay organisms).

Cultural  services:

• Societal (including use of nature as motif in books, film, painting, folklore, national symbols, advertising, etc.).
• Spiritual and historical significance (including use of nature for religious or heritage value or natural).
• Recreational activities (including ecotourism, outdoor sports, and recreation).
• Education and science (including use of natural systems for school excursions, and scientific discovery).
• Physiotherapy (including Ecotherapy, social forestry and animal assisted therapy).

Supporting  services:

These services may overlap with regulating services in some categories, but they include things like nutrient cycling, primary production, soil formation, and habitat provision. These services allow ecosystems to continue providing services like food production, flood control, and water purification.

Classification of ecosystem services:

Natural resource decisions do not adequately account for ecosystem values. The concept of ecosystem services provides an important opportunity to develop a framework to support the wise use of biodiversity and other natural resources in this context. Although the value of using ecosystem services to frame biodiversity assessments has been demonstrated, the classification systems used within the same classification category mixed processes (means) for achieving services and the services themselves (ends). This limits their ability to influence biodiversity decisions. The situation is made worse by ambiguity in the definitions of key terms like ecosystem processes, functions, and services. The classification of ecosystem services that provides a framework for natural resource management decisions is developed after clarifying definitions and discussing the basic components of an effective typology.

Importance of ecosystem services:

The benefits that nature provides to human well-being are known as ecosystem services.Ecosystem Services tries to put the benefits we get from nature into economic terms so that we can better understand the trade-offs we’re making between nature and industrial development. This leads us to the reasons why we believe Ecosystem Services are critical for everyone:

Boundless benefits:

While not perfect, understanding nature in economic terms allows us to compare everything in the same way. Despite the fact that nature is such an important part of human life, it is sometimes overlooked in today’s economy. Because nature and money are frequently at odds, environmental economists have attempted to close the gap by assigning a monetary value to the benefits that nature provides.

According to a recent study, people benefit from nature in excess of $100 trillion per year. To put this in context, the top 50 most profitable companies in the world collectively earn just under $10 trillion USD per year.

The foundation for sustainable development:

The scientific body has identified four types of ecosystem services: regulating services, provisioning services, cultural services, and supporting services. Although an ecosystem may not provide all four types of services at the same time, given the complexity of any ecosystem, it is generally assumed that humans benefit from a combination of these services. The services provided by various ecosystems (forests, seas, coral reefs, mangroves, and so on) vary in nature and as a result. In fact, some services have a direct impact on the livelihood of nearby human populations (such as fresh water, food, or aesthetic value), while others have an indirect impact on general environmental conditions (such as climate change, erosion regulation or natural hazard regulation, etc.).

Essential for  survival:

Whether you live in rural Newfoundland or the heart of downtown Los Angeles, you rely on Ecosystem Services. As a society, we rely on healthy ecosystems to do a variety of things, including purifying the air so we can breathe properly, sequestering carbon for climate regulation, cycling nutrients so we can have clean drinking water without the need for expensive infrastructure, and pollinating our crops so we don’t go hungry. As the world’s population grows, so does our reliance on healthy ecosystems to provide the basic necessities for our survival.

Conclusion:

Marine ecosystems include estuarine and coastal ecosystems. These ecosystems work together to provide the four types of ecosystem services in a variety of ways: Climate regulation, waste treatment, disease regulation, and buffer zones are examples of “regulating services.” Forest products, marine products, fresh water, raw materials, biochemical and genetic resources are among the “provisioning services.” Inspirational aspects, recreation and tourism, science and education are all examples of “cultural services” provided by coastal ecosystems. Nutrient cycling, biologically mediated habitats, and primary production are examples of “supporting services” provided by coastal ecosystems.