Ecosystem Services 101: Mutual Benefits With Nature

Have you heard the phrase “Ecosystem Services,” and are you curious about what it means? Ecosystem services are essentially the benefits people, nature, and our planet get when we balance conservation with sustainably managing natural spaces, considering industry and the people who rely on them. While some argue we shouldn’t need to commodify nature to protect it, the reality is many don’t understand the vital role that healthy wetlands play in providing clean air and water. By learning about ecosystem services, we can appreciate the interconnected role between humans and nature and how we can enter a mutually beneficial relationship for happy and healthy people, plants, and animals by taking care of nature.

Have you ever walked into a dense forest with trees looming overhead, reaching toward the sky? At first, you think the forest is quiet. You explore deeper as your feet trod across the ground, full of decaying leaves and lush moss. That’s when you start to hear the explosion of sounds. Birds engaging in private conversations, alerting their friends you’ve arrived. A pristine stream rushes full of salmon, surfacing to snack on tasty insects. You take a deep breath, filling your lungs with some refreshing air. Suddenly, a wave of happiness washes over you as you admire the beauty of nature. You bend down to sip cool water before grabbing a handful of wild raspberries and continuing along the trail.

The forest ecosystem is one of the most valuable on the planet, providing clear air, clean water, food, shelter, nutrient cycling, storm protection, and mental and physical health benefits.

Ecosystems worldwide ensure that we have access to life-sustaining resources and benefits. In return, we must care for global ecosystems sustainably so they continue providing for us for years.

Humans are part of the ecosystem, too, and their social and economic well-being cannot be excluded from the equation. The path to a healthy planet and population requires balance and input from diverse local voices, Indigenous stewardship, environmental experts, and governing bodies. In doing so, we can have resources for generations to come.

Quick Look

There are four primary ecosystem services:

• Provisioning services provide us with basic needs such as food, water, fuel, and textiles. IE: Wild salmon
• Regulating services regulate natural processes such as water and air filtration, decomposition, and pollination. IE Bees that pollinate our crops and native plants.   
• Cultural services are tied to our cultural identity and mental and physical health as humans. IE Polar bear for Inuit culture—parks for recreation.
• Supporting services support natural functions to ensure we receive the benefits above, such as photosynthesis and soil formation. IE Burrowing animals that stimulate organic weathering to create soil.

When thinking about ecosystem services, we look at entire functioning systems. We can not simply focus on salmon conservation without considering the trees that regulate water temperature, rising ocean temperatures, the plants that prevent erosion into the stream, and the insects the salmon eat.

Humans are part of ecosystems as well. Our health and well-being are critical to ecosystem management. We can not exclude people from accessing life-sustaining resources in the ecosystem nor allow humans to exploit resources.

We should strive for a balanced approach that considers the social and economic well-being of residents, Indigenous Peoples, and humanity as a whole, as well as what is best for the natural environment as recommended by scientists. In doing so, we can have healthy ecosystems and a healthy population for years.

What Are Ecosystems?

An ecosystem is a collection of living (biotic) organisms, such as plants and animals, and nonliving (abiotic) factors, such as weather, geology, and landscapes, that exist and interact within a defined region. 

Biotic and abiotic factors stimulate nutrient cycles, such as fungi decomposing fallen leaves, and energy cycles, such as plants photosynthesizing sunlight. 

Ecosystems can be as small as a single tide pool or as large as the Amazon rainforest. The borders are flexible, and scientists studying a region, conservation management groups, or the people who rely on the ecosystem may have different definitions.  One thing is clear, though: everything is interconnected, as evident from the sands of the Sahara that give life to the Amazon.

Ecosystems can be aquatic (freshwater systems), marine (saltwater systems), or terrestrial (land systems). 

Healthy ecosystems provide us with services such as food, water, carbon capturing, soil creation, and other things important to human health.

Ecosystems with similar characteristics nearby that rely on each other are Ecoregions. For example, the Alaska-Canada Pacific Coastal Ecoregion is a large grouping of coniferous forests and freshwater rivers in Canada and Alaska. 

Biomes are similar ecosystems found around the world but might not be connected. For example, boreal forest biomes are found in Alaska, Canada, Scandinavia, and Russia.

What are Ecosystem Services?

Ecosystem services are a way of discussing and understanding how healthy ecosystem functions are vital to our collective well-being. During grad school for environmental sciences, we learned about these services as a way to help people connect themselves to nature. There are four types of services.

Provisioning Services

Provisioning services are the functions of ecosystems that provide us with our most basic needs. These essentials include food, shelter, fuel, water, etc. Without provisioning services, many communities experience water and food insecurity. More people can access clean drinking water by maintaining healthy ecosystems, like wetlands that provide natural water filtration.

Some examples of these provisioning services are:

• Plants for medicinal development
• Groundwater for drinking
• Fish, berries, and vegetables for eating
• Hemp for textiles
• Renewable biomass fuels – like wood

“Salmon that hatch in the watersheds of the Tongass National Forest provide me with food.”

If we destroy the salmon streams through intense deforestation, humans relying on salmon for food or income will suffer.

Regulating Services

Regulating services is the benefit of the natural regulation of ecosystem processes and roles. These processes include the decomposition process that breaks down nutrients to keep soil healthy, and healthy coral reefs can decrease the severity of wind. Without regulating services, we lose many natural protections against storms, flooding, and climate change.

Some examples of regulating services include :

• Plants that store carbon in the ground; kelp storing carbon in marine systems
• Marshes that naturally filter water
• Native pollinator diversity that pollinates wild plants and agricultural plants
• Mushrooms that decompose leaves
• Root systems that prevent erosion
• Mangroves that provide flood protection
• Trees that break winds
• Birds that eat mosquitos that carry disease

“Mangroves provide me with flood control during storm surges by absorbing excess water.”

If we destroy mangroves, coastal areas are more likely to flood. In the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, communities protected behind healthy mangrove systems survived, while those that removed mangroves did not.

Cultural Services

Cultural services are the ecosystem benefits that inspire or foster cultural practices, religion, spirituality, art, and creation. They are the spaces that support recreation and physical and mental health. Without cultural services, we lose access to recreational trails and swimming lakes, and we see a loss of culture and inspiration from nature.

Some examples of cultural services are:

• Polar bears are essential to Inuit cultures
• Urban parks for recreation and mental health
• Maintaining a greenbelt encourages people to get outside of walks
• The Grand Canyon inspires art
• Hiking trails for physical health
• Clean canals offer swimming opportunities
• Sustainable ecotourism
• Koalas are part of Australian cultural identity

“Polar bears and their habitat should be conserved because they are part of Inuit cultural identity.”

Declines in Arctic ecosystems and species devastate the Inuit people who have relied on these species for subsistence and cultural heritage.

Supporting Services

Supporting services are the ecosystem functions that support the foundation of all life, such as the water cycle, photosynthesis, and the nutrient cycle. Without supporting services, we lose the fundamental processes that keep our planet ticking.

Some examples include:

• Plants photosynthesizing
• The water cycle
• Nutrient cycling to create soil for farming
• Healthy ecosystems that provide space for biodiversity

“Entire working ecosystems host a variety of plants and animals that keep processes going that provide the foundation of all life.”

Holistic approach

These services are all interconnected and play a significant role in managing ecosystems. Suppose we want to protect the endangered Iberian lynx. This lynx often hunts livestock, putting it at risk from human-wildlife conflict.

In this case, we must consider protecting the lynx’s favorite food, the hare. Continuing down this train, we can instead think of protecting the entire working ecosystem that considers the hare’s food and spaces for lynx to hunt, all while being mindful of farmers and agriculture systems. Solutions can benefit nature and agriculture.

Healthy Ecosystems = Healthy Humans: Why we can’t have one without the other

Humans are part of ecosystems and can not be excluded from the equation. The UN considers human health one of the highest priorities for ecosystem management. You can’t have healthy humans without healthy ecosystems; they are intertwined.

The cautionary tale of strict preservation

We must manage ecosystems while considering the socio-economic well-being of locals. Suppose we prioritize setting aside vast areas of the wilderness without considering the subsistence and cultural needs of Indigenous Peoples and locals. In that case, we deny certain groups access to the ecosystem services they need. 

The mountain gorilla population in Rwanda is endangered. If Rwanda sets aside the gorilla ecosystem as a preserved wilderness region that no one can access, residents will lose access to provisioning resources in the area they need to survive. Locals may exploit resources, including poaching, to make ends meet.

Sustainable ecotourism and land management allow sustainable and slow development in the region, asking locals to engage as gorilla trekking guides. Tourists can enter the gorilla habitat with guides. Allowing people sustainable access to this ecosystem has increased the gorilla population, the quality of life for Rwandan villagers, and environmental education for tourists.

The Alaska National Interest Land Conservation Act set aside areas of Alaska for ecological conservation, including new wildlife refuges, national parks, and national preserves. However, sustainable subsistence for Alaska’s Indigenous communities was included in the act. So many Alaskans rely on subsistence hunting, fishing, and foraging. If all of Alaskan lands were locked away in wilderness areas inaccessible to humans, many communities would face food shortages and loss of culture.

The state of Alaska does have a history of denying our Indigenous population land rights, but slowly, over time, by working with Native corporations and biologists, sustainable subsistence rights are being reintroduced. This method embodies the principle of sustainable conservation, considering the socio-economic well-being of locals.

Read this story about how Native women revitalized an old tradition after limited subsistence rights to certain species were carefully considered.

Canada has begun entering states of co-management with many of their First Nations, with many national and provincial parks cared for by traditional custodians that balance subsistence needs with conservation in healthy, sustainable ways.

The dangers of exploitation

On the flip side, we can not exploit one resource from an ecosystem for short-term economic gain and expect the rest of the system to remain healthy.

For example, logging in the Tongass may provide provisioning benefits such as economic gain, fuel, and shelter. However, unsustainable logging cripples the forest’s ability to offer other services such as water regulation, carbon sequestration, healthy salmon populations, and cultural benefits. The result is a decline in human health from rising sea levels, increasing temperatures, loss of food security, and long-term loss of ALL ecosystem services, including timber.  

Listen to this podcast about the complexity of managing the Tongass and ensuring locals have access to income while guaranteeing the planet continues receiving vast benefits from the old-growth forest.

I love this podcast because it features the Tribal president from the village of Kake, a wildlife biologist, a local timber company, an Alaska politician, and a resident. After listening, leave a comment about something you learned. 

The right path forward will take effort from Tribal members, state and federal governments, ecologists, locals, fishing companies, and small-scale timber companies working together for a sustainable future. 

An Economic Shift

There is an economic divide between the global north and south and developed and developing countries, adding to this issue’s complexity. While economically developed countries enjoy preservation and conservation, they usually do so at the cost of resource exploitation in developing economies while claiming all the economic benefits. This mindset of economic wealth rather than natural wealth is rooted in colonial and harmful narratives.

As seen in the Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreements, the ideal solution is a cohesive effort to support developing countries on a path to sustainable economic prosperity. At the same time, developed nations should focus on reducing carbon output. But even that isn’t enough.

To truly achieve global sustainability of ecosystem management, we would need to restructure our economy, moving away from a carbon-based economy that relies on oil and resource exploitation. There are efforts to create a nonmarket economy for carbon sequestration rather than timber, but we still have a long way to go before it is accepted globally.

This is a bit uncomfortable for many to think about. But, as yourself, why should we place such a high value on dead trees (timber), an industry that is losing money and contributing to climate change, and not put a value on keeping carbon in the ground, which is critical to human survival?

Discussions, Critical Thinking, Additional Learning

Homework & Enhanced Learning

• Find the ecoregion of where you currently live. Share in the comments what the ecoregion is and some of its characteristics.
• Find an ecosystem near you. It could be a city park, a backyard, a national park, a beach, or a marshland. What are some of the benefits you receive from this ecosystem? Share your findings in the comments. 

Additional Resources

I mentioned carbon sequestration a few times: learn more about this process.

Read the fun infographic I made for school about Ecosystem Services in the Cook Inlet Basin Ecoregion – my home ecosystem.

If you want to dig in, read the Millennium Ecosystems Assessment by the UN, which discusses ecosystem services and why human health is a priority. 

This Ecosystem Ecology overview from Crash Course is a great video for the general outline of ecosystems, function, and basic ecology.