ECOSYSTEM SERVICES

Ecosystem Services



Ecosystem Services

Although technological advances over recent centuries have surpassed unfathomable expectations, those services most essential to the survival of mankind are provided for, freely, by natural occurring events taking place regularly in our ecosystems. The purification of air and water, protection against droughts and floods, reduction of greenhouse gases, decomposition of organic matter, preservation and recycling of soils and the nutrients therein are just a few examples of the many. These ecosystem services are defined as any function of natural origin providing some benefit to human society (Pomeroy and Alberts 1988). Unfortunately, many of these technological advancements come ...