Ecosystem Services (UNIT 1)

Determine which category of ecosystem service each of these falls into. Then read the scenario where the ecosystem is disrupted by humans, and describe the consequences to that disruption.

A community well for freshwater

Which?

• Provisioning

• Regulating

• Cultural

• Supporting

Provisioning

The Amazon Rainforest absorbs 2 billion tons of CO2 per year

Which?

• Provisioning

• Regulating

• Cultural

• Supporting

Supporting

The Catskills watershed purifies water for NY City

Which?

• Provisioning

• Regulating

• Cultural

• Supporting

Regulating

Ladybugs eat aphids from a field of crops

Which?

• Provisioning

• Regulating

• Cultural

• Supporting

Regulating

A woman catches a swordfish for dinner

Which?

• Provisioning

• Regulating

• Cultural

• Supporting

Provisioning

A class of AP Environmental Science students takes a field trip to enjoy and learn about the mountains.

Which?

• Provisioning

• Regulating

• Cultural

• Supporting

Cultural

The septic tank of a nearby neighbor is faulty and leaking waste into the groundwater

Water is now unsafe - extra money needed to clean or buy water

Since 1978 over 750,000 square kilometers of Amazon rainforest has been destroyed.

Fewer frees to absorb CO2 - CO2 is a greenhouse gas - also less O2

Farms in the Catskills over-fertilize their fields.

Fertilizer washes into watershed causing algae blooms

Pesticides the framers use to kill the pests also kill the ladybugs

Fewer ladybugs to regulate pest population, increases chance of pests resistance as well (larger population)

An iron mine leaches mercury into the water.

Mercury may build in organisms + food chain

Nearby coal burning power plants emit sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides that combine with water vapor to make acid rain.

Trees may be impacted as well as aquatic life in streams.