Often, the impact industrial development has on the economy and job creation overshadows the cost it will have on surrounding lakes, forests, keystone species, and so on. Assigning a dollar value to these lakes and forests, and the Ecosystem Services they provide, helps adjust the cost benefit analysis by evaluating the negative effects development will have on the natural environment.
Companies have also started to use Ecosystem Services in conservation offset planning, where they can buy and sell credits to offset a development or set aside land to meet a specific offset. Sustainable development supports the maintenance of a healthy economy while also protecting the ecological process for future generations. Whether you live in rural Newfoundland or downtown Los Angeles, your dependence on Ecosystem Services is the same. Ecosystem Services valuation and assessment is one way to help make this happen.
Green spaces potentially remove toxicants, reduce the prevalence of gastrointestinal disease, trap contaminants and mitigate extreme temperatures [ 90 , 91 , 92 , 93 , 94 ].
CCA results showed sufficient evidence for causality for all tested greenspace-EGS pairings heat hazard mitigation, clean air, water hazard mitigation and clean water , three of six EGS-health pairings heat hazard-heat morbidities, water hazard mitigation-gastrointestinal disease and clean water-gastrointestinal disease and two of four direct greenspace-health pairings heat morbidities and cardiovascular disease.
This work indicates that most current literature supports intermediate pathway connections between ecosystems and ecosystem goods and services as well as ecosystem goods and services and health.
However, very few studies support a direct connection between the presence of ecosystems and health outcomes. Of those studies that exist, few simultaneously measure the mediation by ecosystem goods and services Figure 6. Proposed linkages between green spaces, the ecosystem services provided by green spaces and human health conditions from [ 84 ]. As a specific example, ongoing studies in the San Juan Bay Estuary, Puerto Rico are evaluating the role of wetlands on Dengue fever by means of ecosystem services e.
Ecosystem goods and services associated with heat hazard mitigation may help reduce mosquito biting, oviposition rate, and viral load. Clean surface water provides habitat for wildlife and healthier ecosystems, favoring bio-control of mosquitoes [ 96 , 97 , 98 , 99 ]. Preliminary findings suggest that wetlands and wetland services are negatively associated with Dengue cases even after controlling for potentially confounding variables Figure 8.
Wetlands and wetland services were also found to help reduce temperature which is an environmental driver of Dengue transmission [ 98 ]. These findings help support a connection between an important ecosystem in the San Juan Bay area, and an ecosystem service that directly influences human health.
In the future, this and other eco-health research may help inform predictive models to estimate changes in health benefits under different decision scenarios. Hypothesized conceptual model of wetlands and Dengue fever occurrence through wetland ecosystem services adapted from [ 95 ]. Predicted relationship between two wetland types A grassy and B woody and dengue cases in San Juan, Puerto Rico Figure adapted from [ 95 ].
Many obstacles exist in developing useful and informative relationships between ecosystem services and community well-being including cultural differences in the perception of ecosystem services and well-being, lack of consistently available data to demonstrate a causal connection between services and well-being.
This is often the case when combining natural sciences and social sciences data, approaches and interpretations. Even within these disciplines, the integration of data representing indicators to create indices or demonstrate connections is highly contentious. Some policy makers suggest that summary tools e. Others argue that the time is ripe for pushing these concepts into public policy — that the real world is a complex interaction of social, economic, and environmental activities where focus on single issues is insufficient to represent reality [ , , ].
No matter who we are, or where we live, our well-being depends on the way ecosystems function. Defining, classifying and integrating ecosystem services into community decision making [ , ] and, hence, community well-being is necessary for a holistic policy view that minimizes unintended consequences [ 66 ]. The research described in this chapter provides a management roadmap for linking ecosystem services to human wellbeing, but significant work still needs to be accomplished.
The complexity of the relationship between ecosystem services and community well-being signifies an urgent need to develop further the transdisciplinary science of ecosystem management bringing together ecologists, biologists, resource economists, social scientists, and holistic systems specialists. A primary goal of this transdisciplinary research is the development of a valuation system potentially based on well-being and well-being improvement through the provision of goods and service A focus on the underpinning processes is necessary to understand where there are trade-offs and synergies and how these outcomes change with environmental variation.
All members of the transdisciplinary team described above need to build a stronger science for stocks and flows, link this work to natural capital studies and create a stronger socio-ecological science that reflects the fact that ecosystems are coupled human-environmental systems. The information in this chapter has been funded wholly or in part by the U.
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Downloaded: Abstract Natural ecosystems provide services to humans that make life possible. Keywords ecosystem services human well-being indicators community. Smith U. Fulford U. Introduction Natural ecosystems provide innumerable services which make human civilization possible. Much of the catch is exported or shipped directly to Europe, while compensation for access is often low compared with the value of the product landed overseas.
These countries do not necessarily benefit through increased fish supplies or higher government revenues when foreign distant water fleets ply their waters C Diminished human well-being tends to increase immediate dependence on ecosystem services , and the resultant additional pressure can damage the capacity of those ecosystems to deliver services SG2ES. As human well-being declines, the options available to people that allow them to regulate their use of natural resources at sustainable levels decline as well.
This in turn increases pressure on ecosystem services and can create a downward spiral of increasing poverty and further degradation of ecosystem services. Dryland ecosystems tend to have the lowest levels of human well-being C5.
Drylands have the lowest per capita GDP and the highest infant mortality rates of all of the MA systems Nearly million people live in rural areas in dry and semiarid lands, mostly in Asia and Africa but also in regions of Mexico and northern Brazil C5 Box 5. The small amount of precipitation and its high variability limit the productive potential of drylands for settled farming and nomadic pastoralism, and many ways of expanding production such as reducing fallow periods, overgrazing pasture areas, and cutting trees for fuelwood result in environmental degradation.
The combination of high variability in environmental conditions and relatively high levels of poverty leads to situations where human populations can be extremely sensitive to changes in the ecosystem although the presence of these conditions has led to the development of very resilient land management strategies.
Once rainfall in the Sahel reverted to normal low levels after , following favorable rainfall from the s to the mids that had attracted people to the region, an estimated , people died, along with nearly all their cattle, sheep, and goats C5 Box 5. Although population growth has historically been higher in high- productivity ecosystems or urban areas, during the s it was highest in less productive ecosystems C5.
ES, C5. In that decade dryland systems encompassing both rural and urban regions of drylands experienced the highest, and mountain systems the second highest, population growth rate of any of the systems examined in the MA.
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Languages: English [en]. Home » Ecosystem Change » Level 3 » Question 3. Previous Question. Next Question. How have ecosystem changes affected human well-being and poverty alleviation? The source document for this Digest states: Relationships between Ecosystem Services and Human Well-being Changes in ecosystem services influence all components of human well-being , including the basic material needs for a good life, health , good social relations, security, and freedom of choice and action CF3.
The source document for this Digest states: Ecosystem services contribute significantly to global employment and economic activity. Figure 3. The source document for this Digest states: Ecosystem Services , Millennium Development Goals, and Poverty Reduction The degradation of ecosystem services poses a significant barrier to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and to the MDG targets for In , some 1.
Inequality in income and other measures of human well-being has increased over the past decade C5. A child born in sub-Saharan Africa is 20 times more likely to die before age five than a child born in an industrial country, and this ratio is higher than it was a decade ago. During the s, only four countries experienced declines in their rankings in the Human Development Index an aggregate measure of economic well-being, health , and education ; during the s, 21 countries showed declines, and 14 of them were in sub-Saharan Africa.
Despite the growth in per capita food production in the past four decades, an estimated million people were undernourished in —03, up 37 million from — South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, the regions with the largest numbers of undernourished people, are also the regions where growth in per capita food production has been the slowest.
Most notably, per capita food production has declined in sub-Saharan Africa C Some 1. Water scarcity affects roughly 1—2 billion people worldwide. Human activities are having a negative impact on ecosystems. In fact, according to the famous Millennium Ecosystems Assessment , at the beginning of the 20th century, human activities changed ecosystems more rapidly than ever before. Humaking has been demanding for food, water, food, timber, and other materials like crazy.
And all these demands have been highly contributing to deforestation to grow more crops , the loss of natural pollination bees are disappearing , water pollution from animal excreta and pesticides to plastic , soil exploitation due to intensive agriculture , overfishing and huge biodiversity loss.
But why are humans affecting ecosystems this much? There is no straight-forward answer to this question. As well, the ecological capital is hard to measure. What is its value for the environment? And for the families that go there every day? It says that if an ecosystem service is common and belongs to no one in particular, humans will exploit it until they exhaust it.
This theory where individuals pursue their individual interests is called the tragedy of the commons. Find more info about it in our sustainable development definition. We need to rethink the processes by which we change, take, use and get disposed of natural resources. They need to become more efficient and circular so that ecosystems can be better preserved.
To try and restore the health of ecosystems and their balance, our consumption and extraction processes will need to become more efficient and circular. For this, it is crucial that companies develop sustainability and CSR strategies — that they assess their impact and act upon it. Governments need to create better regulations to encourage companies to follow this path, while at the same time, find ways to measure and include the natural capital in the most famous way not necessarily a good or fair one of accessing progress: GDP.
Log in and interact with engaging content: show how they matter to you, share your experience First Name. Last Name. Simple Ecosystem Definition The simplest definition of an ecosystem is that it is a community or group of living organisms that live in and interact with each other in a specific environment. Ecosystem Scientific Definition An ecosystem is the basic unit of the field of the scientific study of nature.
According to this discipline, an ecosystem is a physically defined environment, made up of two inseparable components: The biotope abiotic : a particular physical environment with specific physical characteristics such as the climate, temperature, humidity, concentration of nutrients or pH.
The biocenosis biotic : a set of living organisms such as animals, plants or micro-organisms, that are in constant interaction and are, therefore, in a situation of interdependence.
Together with freshwater ecosystems, marine ecosystems are also part of the broader category of aquatic ecosystems. Some examples of marine ecosystems are offshore systems like the ocean surface, the deep sea, pelagic oceans or the seafloor. But there are also nearshore systems like coral reefs, mangroves or seagrass meadows.
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