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Topic: Ecosystem services

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	Ecosystem Services
		Ecosystem services are the natural processes that are responsible for clean air, clean water, healthy uncontaminated food and a host of other environmental goods that we tend to take for granted.
		Ecosystem services can be damaged through ignorance, mismanagement or simply because there are no markets in which to trade particular services or their products.
		The ecosystem services approach proposed in this study is an explicit attempt to measure both the biophysical and the economic implications of alternative management systems and to quantify trade-offs.
	www.ecoman.une.edu.au /gesp/geninfo.htm (1125 words)

	Ecosystem Change : Level 1 - Summary of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment
		Ecosystems are particularly affected by large-scale fishing, freshwater use, and agriculture.
		Degradation of ecosystem services is harming many of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people, and is sometimes the main factor causing poverty.
		The importance of ecosystem services for human well-being around the world was investigated at local, national, and regional levels.
	www.greenfacts.org /ecosystems (2145 words)

	Valuation of Ecosystem Services
		Ecosystem functions are the physical, chemical, and biological processes or attributes that contribute to the self-maintenance of an ecosystem; in other words, what the ecosystem does.
		Market failures related to ecosystems include the facts that: (i) many ecosystems provide services that are public goods; (ii) many ecosystem services are affected by externalities; and (iii) property rights related to ecosystems and their services are often not clearly defined.
		Ecosystem services are often public goods, which means that they may be enjoyed by any number of people without affecting other peoples’ enjoyment.
	www.ecosystemvaluation.org /1-02.htm (1442 words)

	"Ecosystem Services: A Primer" from the Ecological Society of America (ESA)
		Ecosystem Services are the processes by which the environment produces resources that we often take for granted such as clean water, timber, and habitat for fisheries, and pollination of native and agricultural plants.
		An ecosystem is a community of animals and plants interacting with one another and with their physical environment.
		Ecosystem services are so fundamental to life that they are easy to take for granted and so large in scale that it is hard to imagine that human activities could destroy them.
	www.actionbioscience.org /environment/esa.html (1942 words)

	Ecosystems
		Ecosystem services are the transformation of a set of natural assets (soil, plants and animals, air and water) into things that we value.
		Some other examples of ecosystem services that come from nature can be viewed in Chapter 7 of the Natural Assets Inventory Report.
		Ecosystem services are little understood and too sophisticated for us to reproduce even with the most advanced technology, yet the important roles of these natural services are not being recognised adequately in economic markets, government policies or land management practices.
	www.ecosystemservicesproject.org /html/overview (194 words)

	USATODAY.com - Extinctions threaten 'ecosystem services' (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-04)
		Ecosystems have a cast of characters – plants, mammals, reptiles, birds, fungi, bacteria, and other living things – each of which interact, or cooperate, antagonize, and help each other, the way people do.
		The services that members of ecosystems provide also vary from place to place, be they the food we eat, medicines we discover, bats that curb mosquitoes, insects that pollinate fruit trees and crops, or trees that prevent soil from washing away.
		Ecosystem services also include water purification and the regulation of the exchange of crucial elements between the ground, air, and water.
	www.usatoday.com /news/science/aaas/2002-05-02-mammals.htm (773 words)

	Valuing Ecosystem Services
		Some critics believe the effort to assign prices to ecosystem services is fundamentally flawed since these services can never be traded in open commerce, which is how prices of conventional goods and services are determined (Sagoff 1997).
		The problem is that the value of services provided by the Earth's ecological infrastructure does not fit into current economic equations, partly because most of the benefits fall outside the marketplace.
		Although the average value of wetland services may not be the same per hectare in Brazil, Indonesia, or Uganda, the very existence of the global estimates calculated in the study should broaden the context of local decision making (Pimm 1997:232).
	earthtrends.wri.org /text/economics-business/feature-15.html (1072 words)

	CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems - Ecosystem Services
		Some examples of ecosystem services include; pollination of crops and native vegetation, shade and shelter, maintenance of fertile soil, clean water and climate regulation.
		Ecosystem services help to sustain and fulfill human life and CSE is examining new ways to measure and value ecosystem services.
		Ecosystem Services Project - the aim of this project is for scientists and communities to learn together about how to deliver the right information to decision makers to move towards more sustainable land management practices.
	www.cse.csiro.au /research/ecosystemservices.htm (193 words)

	Science NetLinks: Ecosystem Services - Water Purification
		Ecosystem services are valuable for many reasons, including economic benefits, protection of human health and safety, and support of recreational or aesthetic enjoyment.
		These services are so fundamental to life that they are easy to take for granted, and so large in scale that it is hard to imagine that human activities could irreparably disrupt them.
		Ecosystem services are essential to life as we know it.
	www.sciencenetlinks.com /lessons.cfm?DocID=275 (3508 words)

	Biodiversity and Human Health: Benefits of Ecosystem Services
		Ecosystem services operate on such a grand scale and in such intricate and little-explored ways that most could not be replaced by technology.
		Ecosystem services and the systems that supply them are so interconnected that any classification of them is necessarily rather arbitrary.
		Ecosystem services are being impaired and destroyed by a wide variety of human activities.
	www.ecology.org /biod/value/EcosystemServices.html (8460 words)

	ConservationEconomy.net Pattern Browser (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-04)
		Ecosystem services are those valuable, ongoing streams of benefits provided by thriving ecosystems.
		Of course, ecosystem services are also beyond price, providing a source of cultural identity, of kinship with life, of learning, of evolutionary processes, and of soil, air, water, and Biodiversity which as yet have no engineering substitutes.
		Ecosystem services are ultimately dependent on a system of Ecological Land-Use that maintains the integrity of the entire landscape.
	www.conservationeconomy.net /content.cfm?PatternID=34 (385 words)

	Natural Ecosystem Services
		The goods, or products, these ecosystems provide—such as fish, wood products, and food—can be counted, and a monetary value often placed upon them (key ecosystem products are described in the production of food, fiber and water witdrawals indicator).
		Some services, such as recreation, are also fairly easily quantified (see the national, farmlands, forest, fresh water, and grasslands and shrublands recreation indicators).
		Since many ecosystem services are lost or exchanged for other, different, services when natural ecosystems are converted to farmland or urban/suburban use, or when wetlands are filled, tracking changes in ecosystem extent is the best way we currently have of quantifying changes in ecosystem services.
	www.heinzctr.org /ecosystems/national/nat_svcs.shtml (508 words)

	Ecosystem Services (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-04)
		National scale aggregate indicators of ecosystem services are useful for stimulating and supporting a broad public discussion about trends in the provision of these services.
		Quantification of ecosystem services and dissemination of information to decision makers and the public is critical for the responsible and sustainable management of natural resources.
		From these, the Forest Service hopes to identify some of the opportunities the Agency might focus on to advance ecosystem service markets and gain an understanding of the challenges that may be met along the way.
	www.ecosystemservices.usda.gov (837 words)

	Ecosystem services
		Ecosystem services maintain the atmosphere, provide clean water, control soil erosion, pollution and pests, pollinate plants, and much more.
		The scale of most of these services is so large that it would be impossible to find technological substitutes.
		Consequently, we need to protect ecosystems and their natural services for future generations.
	www.austmus.gov.au /factsheets/ecosystem_services.htm (341 words)

	ecosystem on Encyclopedia.com (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-04)
		Ecosystem management and moose: creating a coherent concept with functional management strategies.
		Before more than 7,000 square miles were drained, Iraq's marshes were a thriving ecosystem supporting hundreds of thousands o.
		At sunset in summer, when the river is low, elk cross the Queets River, an intricate, self-sustaining ecosystem of water, woods and wildlife in Washington state.
	www.encyclopedia.com /html/X/X-ecosyste.asp (573 words)

	Glossary: Ecosystem services
		These include provisioning services such as food and water; regulating services such as flood and disease control; cultural services such as spiritual, recreational, and cultural benefits; and supporting services such as nutrient cycling that maintain the conditions for life on Earth.
		The non-material benefits people obtain from ecosystems through spiritual enrichment, cognitive development, reflection, recreation, and aesthetic experience, including, e.g., knowledge systems, social relations, and aesthetic values.
		Ecosystem services that are necessary for the production of all other ecosystem services.
	www.greenfacts.org /glossary/def/ecosystem-services.htm (181 words)

	Ecosystem Services
		The researchers came up with annual per hectare values and total global values for all ecosystems, including open oceans; coastal estuaries, seagrass/algae beds, coral reefs and shelf; tropical and temperate/boreal forests; grass and rangelands; wetland tidal marshes, swamps and floodplains; lakes and rivers; tundra; desert; ice/rock.
		Of course some timber companies and some landowners are guilty of ecosystem destruction, but even they are probably doing less long-term damage than a pesticide company for example, because the ecosystem recovers in time whereas many pesticides persist in the environment practically forever.
		There would be a baseline ecosystem service value for even a clearcut forest.
	www.daviesand.com /Papers/Politics/Ecosystem_Services (731 words)

	Sustained Yield - Ecosystem Services
		The study emphasizes that ecological services and natural capital are essential to human economies which could not exist without them, but the study also moves forward to develop an economic appreciation of ecosystem services to existing economies.
		Their preliminary calculation of global value of ecosystem services is between 16 and 54 trillion dollars US per year (most of which is not accounted for by markets).
		As economic valuation of full ecosystem services is developed and refined, the relative values of tree crop services versus old growth supplied services will be quantified.
	www.pacificfringe.net /sustainedyield/value.htm (672 words)

	Ecosystem services (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-04)
		Assessing ecosystem services is a method of interpreting ecosystems in terms of the specific bundle of services that each provides to humans.
		Humans can maximize the benefits that they accrue from the ecosystem services, provided that they base their management decisions on the likely tradeoffs.
		Our justification for assessing these three services is as follows: there is ample research available and their assessment was feasible.
	www.mcgill.ca /mse/ug_research/2003-04/ecoservices (322 words)

	GESPhome
		The Gwydir Ecosystem Services Project (GESP) is a collaborative effort between the Australian Cotton Cooperative Research Centre (Cotton CRC), the University of New England (UNE), the Centre for Agricultural and Regional Economics (CARE), the Cotton Research and Development Corporation (Cotton RDC), the NSW Department of Land and Water Conservation (DLWC) and CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems.
		Weeds and dieback threaten the survival of existing native vegetation stands and slow the establishment of replacement native vegetation.
		to identify biological and economic tradeoffs in the supply of ecosystem services.
	www.ecoman.une.edu.au /gesp (418 words)

	Ecosystem Services (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-04)
		Economic markets could be created for ecosystem services provided by forests to generate wealth by protecting the environment.
		Forest ecosystems provide a broad array of services to the public, including: water filtration, flood protection, soil stabilization, air purification, pollution remediation, wind protection, biodiversity, pollinators, carbon sequestration, recreation, and spiritual connections.
		ES are often under-produced because landowners bear the costs of restoring, preserving, and managing their lands to benefit society.
	www.srs.fs.usda.gov /cc/ecosystemservices.htm (181 words)

	MODELING ECOSYSTEM SERVICES
		The course will cover the theoretical basis of assessing ecosystem health and ecosystem services, including economic, social, physical and biological components of the environment, as well as practical ways for building models with available data.
		Students must have a B.A. with a 3.0GPA, and either be employed as an educator, or be a graduate student at UMBC.
		The first day will be an introduction to STELLA modeling, and to key ideas concerning regional hydrology, ecosystem health and ecosystem services.
	www.ecostudies.org /bes/frame5-page_2b_6a.html (521 words)

	American Forests: Trees and Ecosystem Services
		The greater the tree cover and the less the impervious surface, the more ecosystem services are produced in terms of reducing stormwater runoff, increasing air and water quality, storing and sequestering atmospheric carbon and reducing energy consumption due to direct shading of residential buildings.
		David Nowak, Ph.D., of the USDA Forest Service conducted research in 55 U.S. cities and developed a methodology to assess the air pollution removal capacity of urban forests with respect to the above pollutants.
		Gregory McPherson, USDA Forest Service, American Forests has developed a method for estimating the energy conservation benefits of trees from direct shading of one and two-story residential buildings.
	www.americanforests.org /resources/urbanforests/naturevalue.php (1071 words)

	Applied Ecosystem Services, Inc.
		If you are spending too much money and time on impact assessments, contact us to learn how to make the next assessment more comprehensive, increase the prospects that it will be quickly accepted by regulatory agencies, decision makers and stakeholders and still be technically sound and legally defensible.
		Applied Ecosystem Services, Inc. has developed a unique approach to the conduct of environmental impact assessments (EIAs).
		"Applied Ecosystem Services came very highly recommended to us by a variety of referrals and has not only proven to be a fruitful decision, but has shown us that your services have met their reputation."
	www.appl-ecosys.com (429 words)

	The Katoomba Group's Ecosystem Marketplace
		On May 11, 2005, in Cologne, Germany, the Ecosystem Marketplace, in conjunction with its various partners, held the second in a series of "Katoomba Dialogues" on markets for ecosystem services.
		The Ecosystem Marketplace will be holding more dialogues in the months and years to come; always around a contentious or controversial issue surrounding markets for ecosystem services.
		From Mexico to Malaysia, payments for watershed service schemes are at a critical juncture right now as watershed managers work to transform them from publicly funded pilot programs into privately funded markets.
	www.ecosystemmarketplace.com (1253 words)

	Communicating Ecosystem Services (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-04)
		Our goal is to increase public awareness of the importance of ecosystem services, and, by extension, of our country's biological resources.
		Each tool kit focuses on a specific ecosystem service, such as water purification.
		Although designed for people with a scientific background, no special expertise in a particular ecosystem service is required to use any of the materials.
	www.ucsusa.org /global_environment/biodiversity/page.cfm?pageID=556 (335 words)

	Center for Conservation Biology
		Ecosystem services: Benefits supplied to human societies by natural ecosystems.
		Countryside biogeography and the provision of ecosystem services.
		Various versions of an op-ed on the value of natural ecosystems were published, as follows: As Earth Day nears, look at value of ecosystems.
	www.stanford.edu /group/CCB/Staff/gretchenpubs.html (2013 words)

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