Question

What are the four ecosystem services?

Answer 1

Ecosystem services:

1. Ecosystems provide many of the essential functions that allow humanity to live. Plants filter the air and water, microorganisms decompose trash, pollinators pollinate flowers, and tree roots stabilize the soil, which helps to avoid erosion.
2. The advantages that ecosystems deliver are referred to as ecosystem services.

Provisioning Services:

1. Most people consider food when asked to name a service offered by nature.
2. We have access to a variety of ecosystem-produced foods, including fruits, vegetables, plants, fish, and cattle.
3. Any kind of human advantage that can be derived from nature is referred to as a provisioning service.
4. In addition to providing food, provisioning services also provide drinking water, timber, wood fuel, natural gas, oils, plants that can be used to make clothing and other textiles, and therapeutic advantages.

Regulating Services:

1. Many of the essential services that enable people to live their lives are provided by ecosystems.
2. Plants purify the air and water, microbes break down pollutants, bees pollinate flowers, and tree roots stabilize the soil to stop soil erosion.
3. Together, these processes enable ecosystems to be healthy, sustainable, useful, and adaptable to change.
4. The advantage offered by ecosystem processes that control natural phenomena is referred to as a regulatory service. Pollination, decay, water filtration, erosion and flood management, carbon sequestration, and climate regulation are all examples of regulating services.

Cultural Services:

1. As we interact with and change the natural environment, we have also changed it.
2. It has acted as a continual influence in our lives, guiding our cultural, intellectual, and social growth. Since the dawn of civilization, when depictions of animals, plants, and weather patterns were painted on cave walls, humans have recognized the value of ecosystems.
3. A cultural service is a non-material benefit that helps people grow and advance culturally.
4. Examples of cultural services include the role ecosystems play in local, national, and international cultures, the development of knowledge and the dissemination of ideas, and the creation of art, music, and architecture as a result of interactions with nature, and recreation.

Supporting Services:

1. As we interact with and change the natural environment, we have also changed it.
2. It has acted as a continual influence in our lives, guiding our cultural, intellectual, and social growth.
3. Since the dawn of civilization, when depictions of animals, plants, and weather patterns were painted on cave walls, humans have recognized the value of ecosystems. A cultural service is a non-material benefit that helps people grow and advance culturally.
4. Examples of cultural services include the role ecosystems play in local, national, and international cultures, the development of knowledge and the dissemination of ideas, and the creation of art, music, and architecture as a result of interactions with nature, and recreation.