Benefits Ecosystems Provide
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Octavio Aburto 2007/Marine Photobank
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An integrated management approach can benefit large predators like this giant sea bass in a Marine Reserve off of La Jolla, California, by insuring that aspects of ecosystem complexity, including predator-prey relationships and abiotic interactions, are incorporated into management decisions.
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Ecosystem services is a term that describes the benefits humans derive from ecosystem processes. The value of a few of these services can be measured in monetary terms, but many of these services are invaluable and priceless. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment defines four types of ecosystem services—provisioning, regulating, cultural and supporting.
Provisioning: These are natural resources, including products that humans get from ecosystems, such as
- Alternative energy resources (derived from wind, waves, tides, algae)
- Fiber (seaweeds)
- Food (fish, shellfish, seaweeds)
- Fresh water
- Genetic resources (for drugs and other uses)
- Mineral resources (oil, gas, diamonds, salt, sand)
Regulating: These are benefits to humans that arise from how the ocean regulates processes, resources and ecological systems, such as
- Controlling levels and incidence of human and animal disease
- Regulating the world's climate
- Supplying the world with fresh water
Cultural: These are non-material benefits that humans enjoy, including
- Cognitive development
- Culture
- Economic growth
- Recreation
- Reflection
- Spiritual enrichment
Supporting: These are processes in the ocean that are required to provide the other three services to humans and all other life on earth, including
- Biomass production (the production of fish, shellfish, algae and all other organisms in the food web)
- Formation and maintenance of habitats (reefs, beaches, kelp beds and more)
- Nutrient cycling (carbon, nitrogen and others)
- Production of the oxygen we breathe
- Resilience to human impacts, including climate change
- Water cycling
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ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies/Marine Photobank
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By occasionally fishing locally managed areas for ceremonial feasts after customary periods of closure, fishermen in Papua New Guinea provide direct economic benefits back to their communities while using a time-honored traditional approach that is analogous to ecosystem-based management.
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