5 February 2014

Article by Katy Orford, National Assembly for Wales Research Service

Image from Flickr bt Shari Hindman. Licensed under the Creative Commons.

The term ecosystem service is commonly used in discussions of sustainable land management. This blog post aims to gives a brief overview of its meaning and discusses the economic value and conservation of ecosystem services.

Definitions

Ecosystem

An ecosystem is a community of plants, animals and smaller organisms that live, feed, reproduce and interact in the same area or environment.

Ecosystem service

The UK National Ecosystem Assessment states that ecosystem services are the benefits provided by ecosystems that contribute to making human life both possible and worth living.

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and UK National Ecosystem Assessment distinguishes four categories of ecosystem services which are commonly used, where the supporting services are regarded as the basis for the services of the other three categories;

Read more from the original source:

What are ecosystem services? | In Brief