Topic 2.2-ecosystem-services-and-wetlands-ytshorts.savetube.me

Ecosystem Services

Introduction

• Ecosystems provide financial services known as ecosystem services.
• These services help humans make or save money.

Four Main Categories of Ecosystem Services

1. Provisioning Services

• Definition: Direct products that can be harvested and sold or used.
• Examples:
  • Wetland ecosystems providing fish, reducing grocery bills.
  • Forests providing wood for various products.
• Real-World Example: Palm oil fields of Indonesia.
  • A 2020 study found one hectare produced over 4,000 in provisioning services.

2. Regulating Services

• Definition: Ecosystems regulating temperature and climate conditions.
• Examples:
  • Trees sequestering carbon dioxide, reducing climate change costs.
  • Coastal wetlands in Florida absorbing stormwater, lessening property damage.
• Monetary Value: Saving money by reducing repair costs from environmental damage.
• Example Study: A 2008 EPA study found that coastal wetlands in Florida provided over 8,000 per hectare in storm protection value.

3. Supporting Services

• Definition: Ecosystem actions that support financially valuable human activities.
• Examples:
  • Bees pollinating crops, increasing yields/revenue for farmers.
  • Wetlands filtering pollutants and recharging aquifers with clean groundwater, reducing water purification costs.
• Real-World Example: Investment by New York City.
  • New York City paid farmers over 1,000,000,000 to alter farming practices to reduce fertilizer and pesticide runoff.
  • This saved the city from building a 6,000,000,000 water treatment system and 300,000,000 to 500,000,000 annual operating costs.

4. Cultural Ecosystem Services

• Definition: Monetary value derived from human appreciation of ecosystems.
• Examples:
  • Tourist fees in parks like Yellowstone.
  • Hunting licenses.
  • Money spent in local hotels by tourists visiting parks.
  • Salaries of wildlife biologists.

Human Devaluation of Ecosystem Services

• Human activities (driving cars, building resorts, burning coal) degrade ecosystems, decreasing their value.
• Example: Clear-cutting a coastal wetland for a resort eliminates storm protection value.
• Example: Polluting an estuary reduces fish production for fishermen and recreation.

Importance of Holistic Thinking

• Humans need to better consider the overall value of ecosystems versus short-term profits.
• Question: Are resort profits worth more than the storm protection and cultural services provided by a wetland?

Valuation of Wetland Ecosystems

• A 1997 study in the journal Nature estimated the value of the world's wetland ecosystems at 14,000,000,000,000 per year.
• That equals 140,000,000,000 hundred dollar bills.