ecosystem service

A service that is provided by an ecosystem as an intrinsic property of its functionality (e.g. pollination, nutrient cycling, nitrogen fixation, fruit and seed dispersal). The benefits (and occasionally disbenefits) that people obtain from ecosystems. These include provisioning services such as food and water; regulating services such as flood and disease control; and cultural services such as recreation and sense of place. In the original definition of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment the concept of ecosystem goods and services is synonymous with ecosystem services.

The benefits people obtain from ecosystems. In the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, ecosystem services can be divided into supporting, regulating, provisioning and cultural. This classification, however, is superseded in IPBES assessments by the system used under “Nature’s contributions to people”. This is because IPBES recognizes that many services fit into more than one of the four categories. For example, food is both a provisioning service and also, emphatically, a cultural service, in many cultures.

The benefits (and occasionally disbenefits or losses) that people obtain from ecosystems. These include provisioning services such as food and water; regulating services such as flood and disease control; and cultural services such as recreation, ethical and spiritual, educational and sense of place. In the original definition of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment the concept of ecosystem goods and services is synonymous with ecosystem services. Other approaches distinguish final ecosystem services that directly deliver welfare gains and/or losses to people through goods from this general term that includes the whole pathway from ecological processes through to final ecosystem services, goods and anthropocentric values to people.

The benefits people obtain from ecosystems. In the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, ecosystem services can be divided into supporting, regulating, provisioning and cultural.

The benefits people obtain from ecosystems. In the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, ecosystem services can be divided into supporting, regulating, provisioning and cultural. This classification, however, is superseded in IPBES assessments by the system used under nature's contributions to people. This is because IPBES recognises that many services fit into more than one of the four categories. For example, food is both a provisioning service and also, emphatically, a cultural service, in many cultures.

The benefits people obtain from ecosystems. These include provisioning services such as food and water; regulating services such as flood and disease control; cultural services such as spiritual, recreational, and cultural benefits; and supporting services such as nutrient cycling that maintain the conditions for life on Earth. The concept ‘‘ecosystem goods and services'’ is synonymous with ecosystem services.

The benefits people obtain from nature (MEA, 2003; Diaz et al., 2005). This is the original IPBES definition, inherited from the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and the literature which preceded it, and is the one most widely used in the research and policy community and the technical literature. IPCC defines ecosystem services as “ecological processes or functions which have value to individuals or society”, which is consistent with, and slightly more precise than, the IPBES definition, but is less widely used in the community. Within IPBES, the term “ecosystem services” and its subtypes have since 2018 been superseded by the terminology associated with the conceptual framework referred to as “nature’s contributions to people” (see Natures Contributions to People for explanation of the logic of the change). This includes most - but not all -of the specific components previously under ecosystem services. What were formerly known as supporting services are excluded, largely to avoid double-accounting.

The benefits people obtain from ecosystems. In the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, ecosystem services can be divided into supporting, regulating, provisioning and cultural. This classification, however, is superseded in IPBES assessments by the system used under “nature’s contributions to people”. This is because IPBES recognises that many services fit into more than one of the four categories. For example, food is both a provisioning service and also, emphatically, a cultural service, in many cultures.