Ecosystem Services Lecture Review

Vocabulary flashcards covering key concepts from lecture notes on ecosystem services, their value, human impact, and specific examples like water availability and pollination.

Ecosystem Services

The benefits that humans receive from ecosystems, categorized into provisions, regulating services, support systems, and cultural services.

Cultural Services

Ecosystems provide cultural or aesthetic benefits to people, such as the beauty of nature and intellectual gain from scientific research, which have instrumental value.

Instrumental Value

The value an ecosystem has because it provides a benefit to humans and can be assigned a monetary value.

Replacement Value

The estimated cost to replace the services provided by natural ecosystems, used by economists to assign monetary value to these services.

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment

A global assessment conducted by scientists examining trends in 24 ecosystem functions, finding that many are declining or used unsustainably.

Food Production (as an ecosystem service)

An ecosystem service that has increased globally faster than human population growth, but often at the cost of other ecosystem functions due to practices like increased irrigation and synthetic fertilizer use.

Fish and Shellfish Production (as an ecosystem service)

An ecosystem service derived from both the capture of wild marine animals and the farming of fish, shellfish, and seaweed (aquaculture).

Aquaculture

The farming of fish, shellfish, and seaweed.

Support Systems (ecosystem services)

Natural ecosystem services that would be extremely costly for humans to generate, such as pollination of food crops and natural pest control.

Pollination Services

A critical ecosystem support system provided by insects, hummingbirds, and bats, essential for human food production and the sexual reproduction of plants in nature.

Natural Pest Control

An ecosystem service where healthy ecosystems provide habitat for predators that prey on agricultural pests, benefiting crop production.

Water Filtering Services

A support system provided by healthy ecosystems that filter harmful pathogens and chemicals from water, reducing the need for extensive human treatment prior to drinking.

Global Decline in Bees

A concerning trend in bee populations, attributed to a combination of habitat loss, parasites, and pesticide use, which threatens pollination services.

Intrinsic Value

The value an ecosystem has independent of any benefit or use to humans.

Water Availability (as an ecosystem service)

The supply of fresh water for humans, which in many regions is being used faster than it can be naturally replenished, leading to declines in reservoirs and water quality issues from agricultural pollutants.