Ecosystem Services (College Board AP® Environmental Science): Study Guide

What are ecosystem services?

• Ecosystem services are the benefits that ecosystems provide to humans and the environment

• Ecosystem services usually fall into one of four main categories:

  • Supporting services

  • Regulating services

  • Provisioning services

  • Cultural services

Provisioning services

• Includes products or 'goods' directly obtained by humans from ecosystems

• Examples:

  • Food

  • Fibres

  • Fuel

  • Fresh water

  • Timber

  • Medicinal resources

Regulating services

• Includes natural processes that regulate the environment

• Regulating services are a diverse set of services that shape and stabilise ecosystems

• Examples:

  • Climate regulation

  • Flood regulation

  • Water quality regulation (water purification)

  • Air quality regulation

  • Erosion control

  • Disease and pest control

  • Pollination

Cultural services

• Includes non-material benefits

• Cultural services come from humans interacting with nature in a culturally beneficial way

• Examples:

  • Recreation and tourism

  • Education

  • Health benefits

  • Sense of place, national identity and cultural heritage

  • Employment

  • Aesthetic experiences (enjoying the beauty of natural landscapes or wildlife)

  • Spiritual significance

Supporting services

• Includes fundamental processes that sustain ecosystems

• Supporting services provide the essential ecological processes for supporting life

• Examples:

  • Primary productivity (photosynthesis)

  • Soil formation

  • Cycling of nutrients (e.g. carbon cycle, nitrogen cycle)

Human impacts on ecosystem services

Anthropogenic activities disrupting ecosystem services

• Human activities, such as deforestation, urbanization, agriculture, and pollution, can degrade or destroy ecosystems

• This reduces the ability of these services to provide essential services

  • Deforestation:

    • Loss of forests reduces carbon sequestration

    • This increases greenhouse gas levels and contributes to climate change

    • Example: Tropical rainforest deforestation leads to habitat destruction for species and impacts global carbon cycles

  • Urbanization:

    • Expansion of cities replaces natural habitats with manmade infrastructure

    • This reduces habitat diversity

    • Example: Urban sprawl leads to declines in pollinators, which negatively affects agricultural yields

  • Agriculture:

    • Intensive farming practices can deplete soil nutrients and increase pollution from fertilizers and pesticides

    • Example: Runoff from farms causes eutrophication in water bodies, disrupting aquatic ecosystems

  • Pollution:

    • Industrial and plastic pollution damages ecosystems, reducing biodiversity and ecosystem functionality

    • Example: Oil spills harm marine life and disrupt marine and coastal food webs

Consequences of disrupted ecosystem services

Economic consequences

• Loss of provisioning services impacts resources like food, water, and raw materials

• This can impact livelihoods and economies

  • Example: Overfishing collapses fish populations, reducing food supply and income for fishing communities

• Damaged ecosystems reduce tourism and recreation opportunities, leading to economic losses

  • Example: Coral reef degradation from climate change is affecting the tourism industry in places like the Caribbean

Ecological consequences

• Loss of regulating services can destabilize ecosystems and increase vulnerability to environmental changes

  • Example: Deforestation reduces natural flood control provided by forests, leading to more severe floods

• Declines in biodiversity weaken ecosystem resilience, making ecosystems less able to recover from disruptions

  • Example: The removal of mangroves due to coastal development makes inland ecosystems less able to recover from storm surges

  • This is because mangroves act as natural barriers and protect inland habitats from flooding and erosion

Long-term impacts on ecosystem health

• Degraded ecosystems may take decades or longer to recover

  • Some losses of ecosystems and the services they provide may be irreversible

• Disruptions may lead to permanent changes in ecosystem structure and function

  • This will reduce their ability to support human needs in the future