Ecosystem Services Flashcards
Ecosystem Services
The Processes by which life-supporting resources such as clean water, timber, fisheries, and agricultural crops are produced.
What are the four categories of ecosystem services?
Ecosystem services include provisions, regulating services, support systems, and cultural services.
Provisions
A good produced by an ecosystem that humans can use directly.
Examples of provisions include:
Lumber, food crops, medicinal plants, natural rubber, and furs.
Regulating Services
Help maintain the stability of the human environment
Examples of regulating services include:
Air quality regulation, pollination, water purification, climate regulation.
Support Systems
Underlying natural processes within an ecosystem that are essential for its continued function.
Examples of support systems include:
Seed dispersal, soil formation, water cycling, decomposition.
Cultural Services
Non-material benefits that humans obtain from ecosystems, contributing to society’s cultural, emotional, and spiritual well-being.
Examples of cultural services include:
Recreation and sports, tourism, national parks, spiritual and religious sites, etc.
How can human activities disrupt ecosystem services?
Humans can disrupt ecosystem services with economic and ecological consequences.
Aquaculture
The farming of fish, shellfish, and seaweed.
