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Ecosystem
Services
Ecosystems are responsible
for regulating the Earth's atmosphere, supplying essential
components for life, such as nutrients, water and energy,
and otherwise supporting all life on Earth. The supporting
roles that healthy, thriving ecosystems play can be
called ecosystem services.
Ecosystem services are vital processes provided to us
by natural systems. They support healthy biological
communities and their physical surroundings by creating
conditions essential to the health and vitality of all
living things. These air, land, water and biodiversity
based services are renewable, yet require care to supply
an enduring flow of sustenance and support for all living
things. Over the past decade, the importance of healthy
ecosystem services has grown in tandem with our combined
interest in sustainability, ecological health and economic
productivity.
Ecosystem Services
are responsible for:*
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The Best Way to Learn
About Ecosystem Services…
…is to see them in action. Click on the
links to the right to see first-hand the dynamic, interdependent
character of air, water, land and biodiversity eco-services
working together to maintain the productive balance upon which
all life depends.
These looping images of total photosynthesis,
a three year summary of satellite data, were created for the
NASA Earth Observatory and are available from the agency’s
News
Archive.
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Eco-Services Information Resources
Please browse the following resource lists
for more information about key institutions and personalities
in the movement towards ecosystem service value, environmental
markets and an ecological economy.
Leading
Personalities
Colleges
and Universities
Institutions
and Associations
On to Eco-asset
Value
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* Source: Gretchen Daily, Nature's Services
(Island Press, 1997)
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regulating air and water quality
