The goods and services that ecosystems provide to humanity are known as ecosystem services. Identify and explain the four categories of ecosystem services, and describe an example of each
What will be an ideal response?
The four categories of ecosystem services are provisioning services, cultural services, regulating services, and supporting services. Provisioning services include the food that ecosystems provide for our nutritional needs, including crops, livestock, fish, and game animals. Cultural services are the spiritual, aesthetic, recreational, and educational benefits humans receive from ecosystems. Cultural services include economic benefits from ecotourism and such intangibles as the enjoyment of the outdoors. Regulating services are basic functions of ecosystems that are relevant to human life, such as purifying water, reducing the spread of disease, regulating floods, and stabilizing climate via the regulation of concentrations of greenhouse gases. Supporting services are long-term ecological processes that contribute to the broader functioning of ecosystems and the various services they provide. The naturally occurring cycling of nutrients and water, the presence of habitat for organisms, and the production of organic matter and essential gases such as oxygen are all examples of supporting services, without which ecosystems and life itself could not survive.
You might also like to view...
At the same time an ice cube drops vertically another ice cube slides off the edge of a table. Which ice cube hits the floor first?
A. The sliding one. B. The dropped one. C. both hit at the same time D. none of the above
The major cause of the deep world recession in 1974-1975 was the OPEC oil embargo of 1973
Indicate whether the statement is true or false
Countries that are beginning to make the transition from an agrarian society to an industrial society are known as ________ ________ ________
Fill in the blank(s) with correct word
Structure of the atmosphere
What will be an ideal response?