Biodiversity and ecosystem services

Grab your notebook or computer and write out your answer to each of the following questions. Then compare your answer to the suggested answer found in the “Answers to exploration  questions for ecosystems services” article. Have fun! Hint: the information needed to answer these questions can be found in the video.

1.     What are the three categories of services that humans receive from healthy, biodiverse ecosystems? Provide an example for each category.

2.     Consider the following statement, “Food, shelter, and energy are all examples of indirect services provided by ecosystems.” Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Explain why in 2-3 sentences.

3.     Are coastal mangrove forests and commercial shrimp farms equal in their economic value to humans? Explain your answer in 2-3 sentences.

Hint: the background information that will help you complete these activities is found in the video.

1.     Choose a particular type of ecosystem, do some research on it online or at your library, and then create a list of all the different services that ecosystem provides to humans. Remember that services or benefits can be direct, providing items or products that humans use; they can be indirect, carrying out processes that benefit humans; and they can be aesthetic or ethical in their impact. Try to list several examples of each of these three categories of service.

2.     Get a group of people together to play the roles of different stakeholders at a community debate to decide whether the local wetland area should be drained so that more farmland can be created. Stakeholders might include the owner of a machinery company that would help drain the wetland, a member of an endangered species protection group, an artist who paints pictures of the wetland, a representative of the local farmer’s market, an official from the municipal water plant, a medical researcher who is looking for new drugs to treat human diseases, and so on. Be creative and think of as many different stakeholders as possible. If you can’t gather a group of people to carry out the debate, you can write a list of the various stakeholders and what their main argument would be for or against draining the wetland to create more farmland.

All of the following terms appear in the video for this tutorial section on ecosystem services. The terms are arranged here in alphabetical order, and nouns are given in just their singular form unless the plural of the term is unusual.

**aesthetic**: related to beauty and emotional responses; as applied to services provided by ecosystems, refers to an individual’s or society’s response to the beauty, sense of emotional well-being, and intergenerational value provided by biodiversity and healthy ecosystems; frequently linked with ethical aspects of ecosystems

**biodiversity**: the variety of life on Earth or some other specified geographic region of the planet; the diversity of life occurs at the genetic level, at the species level, at the ecosystem level, and in evolutionary lineages

**direct services**: products such as food, clothing, shelter, and medicine that are derived directly from the biodiversity within an ecosystem

**economic value**: the monetary value of something

**ecosystem services**: the ways in which intact ecosystems benefit humans; these services can be direct, indirect or related to aesthetic and ethical values

**endemic**: a term used to describe a species that occurs in only one specific, restricted geographic area; all endemic species are also native to their area, but not all native species qualify as endemic (see definition below for native)

**ethical**: related to right and wrong, or morality; as applied to services provided by ecosystems, refers to an individual’s or society’s response to the beauty, sense of emotional well-being, and responsibility of present generations to preserve biodiversity and healthy ecosystems for future generations; frequently linked with aesthetic aspects of ecosystems

**genetic diversity**: a measure of how much difference there is in the DNA of the members of a population or species

**hybrid**: an organism that is the offspring of two different species, breeds or varieties

**indirect services**: processes carried out by healthy, biodiverse ecosystems that are part of their normal functioning and are of benefit to humans; examples include mangrove trees protecting against storm surges and coastal erosion or wetlands cleaning water as it passes through the ecosystem

**mangrove**: a general term that refers to a variety of salt-tolerant trees and bushes that grow along many coasts in the tropics and subtropics; a mangrove ecosystem is called a mangrove swamp or mangrove forest, a single tree is a mangrove tree; healthy mangrove forests provide many ecological services

**native**: a term used to describe a species that occurs naturally in an area; in other words it has not been brought to the area by humans; also called indigenous; native species can have a very broad distribution compared to endemic species that occur in a very restricted area; all endemic species are native to their area, but not all native species qualify as endemic

**source water**: the original location or source of the drinking water used by people; rivers, lakes and underground aquifers are examples of source water

**steward**: someone who takes care of something

**wetlands**: a type of ecosystem that is saturated permanently or seasonally with fresh water or salt water; swamps, marshes and bogs are examples of wetlands; healthy wetlands have a lot of biodiversity and provide many ecological services

National Science Foundation Discovery article on tomatoes’ wild relatives

Website on ecosystem services

Article on the economic and social value of mangroves and shrimp farms

American Museum of Natural History website on the New York water story

Map of New York City’s water supply system

Article on the critical role microbes can play in ecosystems

Article on the complex interactions being discovered in tropical rainforests and the benefits to humans

National Geographic News story on the importance of mangrove ecosystems as nurseries

Common Core State Standards

Next Generation Science Standards

If you are wondering where the suggested answers came from, you can review the video for ecosystem services.

1. What are the three categories of services that humans receive from healthy, biodiverse ecosystems? Provide an example for each category.

Answer: A complete explanation would list direct, indirect, and aesthetic/ethical ecosystem services. Examples of direct services include products like food, clothing, housing, energy, and medicine that are derived directly from species in an ecosystem. Examples of indirect services include the storm protection that mangrove forests provide to coastlines or the ability of wetlands to filter and clean water. Aesthetic/ethical services include the peace and other good feelings humans experience when they spend time in nature as well as the value of leaving intact, healthy ecosystems for future generations.

2.     Consider the following statement, “Food, shelter, and energy are all examples of indirect services provided by ecosystems.” Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Explain why in 2-3 sentences.

Answer: Disagree. A complete explanation would mention that these are all examples of direct ecosystems services because these are items or materials that are directly derived from ecosystems. An example of an indirect ecosystem service is the storm protection mangrove forests provide coastlines.

3.     Are coastal mangrove forests and commercial shrimp farms equal in their economic value to humans? Explain your answer in 2-3 sentences.

Answer: They are not equal. A complete explanation would mention that while shrimp farms do produce commercially valuable products, the services provided by mangrove forests, in terms of protecting coastlines from erosion, reducing the cost of recovery from tropical storms, and acting as nurseries for commercially valuable fish, have a greater economic value.

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