Ecosystem services

Topic: Biodiversity and its Conservation · NCERT: Class 8, Ch 1 "Natural Resources and Their Use"; Class 11, Ch 14 "Biodiversity and Conservation"

Meaning

Ecosystem services are the benefits that people get from nature. Examples are food, clean water, flood control, fertile soil and places for rest and worship. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA, 2005) puts them in four groups: provisioning, regulating, cultural and supporting [4].

They matter because every human need depends on healthy ecosystems. When biodiversity is lost, these services become weaker, and people pay the cost through floods, poor harvests or a shortage of water.

Explanation

How ecosystem services arise: from species to benefits

• Species do jobs in an ecosystem. NCERT calls these jobs the ecological value of biodiversity:
• Plants capture and store energy through photosynthesis (making food from sunlight).
• Decomposers (fungi, bacteria) break down dead material and recycle it.
• Species help cycle water and nutrients.

• They fix gases, for example CO₂ into plants and nitrogen into soil. This helps control the climate.

• These jobs become services when people benefit from them.

• Cause: species carry out natural processes.
• Process: the ecosystem keeps working and stays in balance.

• Result: people get food, clean water, a stable climate and fertile soil.

• Forests are primary producers. They make food from sunlight, and all other life depends on them (NCERT Class 10).

The four groups (MEA, 2005)

Group	Meaning	Examples
Provisioning	Products we take from ecosystems	Food, water, timber, fibre, medicines [4]
Regulating	Benefits from nature keeping its processes in balance	Climate control, flood control, cleaning water, treating waste, stopping erosion [4]
Cultural	Benefits that are not material things	Spiritual value, recreation, beauty, learning [4]
Supporting	Basic processes needed to produce all the other services	Nutrient cycling, soil formation, primary production [4]

• Supporting services sit at the base. Without soil formation and nutrient cycling, there would be no crops (provisioning) and no forests to control floods (regulating).
• Only provisioning services are sold in markets. The other three are mostly free and unseen, so people often ignore them until they are lost.

Conditions that keep services flowing

• High biodiversity. Ecosystems with more species are more stable and more productive.
• If one species is lost, another can take over its job.

• So the service keeps flowing even when there is stress.

• Variety of ecosystems (ecosystem diversity). Each type of ecosystem gives different services to people.

• Genetic diversity. This is variation of genes inside one species. It lets crops and animals adapt to new diseases or a new climate, and that keeps provisioning services secure.
• What weakens services:
• Over-use of species as a resource leads to species decline.
• Growing only a few high-yielding varieties (HYVs) wipes out old local crop varieties, and their genes are lost with them.
• Loss of habitat removes the species that do the work.

Where it occurs

• Tropical rainforests (near the equator, about 23.5°N to 23.5°S) cover only a small share of the land but hold about half of all species. This makes them very large sources of every type of service.
• Anamalai hills, Western Ghats: the sholas (stunted evergreen forest patches in high valleys) and the grasslands next to them are NCERT's example of ecosystem diversity. Each gives people different services.
• India as a megadiverse country: India has about 2.4% of the world's land area but 7–8% of all recorded species [2][3]. It has 4 of the 34 global hotspots [3]:
• Himalaya
• Indo-Burma (North-east India)
• Western Ghats and Sri Lanka

• Sundaland (Nicobar Islands)

• India as a Vavilovian centre (a centre where crop plants first came from): it has more than 300 wild ancestors and close relatives of crop plants [3]. These form a gene store for breeding new crops, which is a provisioning service.

• Forests and wetlands give regulating services such as flood control and cleaning water.
• Oceans: the UN's World Ocean Assessment uses the same idea of ecosystem services for marine ecosystems [4].

Don't confuse with

• Ecological functions vs ecosystem services: functions are the natural jobs species do, such as storing energy or decomposing waste. They become services only when they are seen as benefits to people.
• Supporting services vs regulating services: nutrient cycling, soil formation and primary production are supporting services [4]. Climate control, flood control and cleaning water are regulating services [4]. This is a common MCQ trap.
• Provisioning services vs economic value of biodiversity: provisioning is one MEA group of products (food, timber, medicines). Economic value is one of NCERT's four values of biodiversity (ecological, economic, scientific, ethical).
• Ethical value vs cultural services: ethical value says every species has an intrinsic right to exist, whether or not it is useful to people. Cultural services are benefits to people, such as spiritual value and recreation.

Prelims Hooks

• The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005) groups ecosystem services into provisioning, regulating, cultural and supporting [4].
• Nutrient cycling, soil formation and primary production are supporting services, not regulating ones [4].
• Flood control, climate control, cleaning water, treating waste and stopping erosion are regulating services [4].
• Spiritual value, recreation, beauty and learning are cultural services, which means non-material benefits [4].
• Food, water, timber, fibre and medicines are provisioning services [4].
• More diverse ecosystems are more stable and more productive, because other species can take over the job of a lost species.

Mains Points

• Valuing nature beyond goods (GS-III): the MEA (2005) shows that nature gives regulating, cultural and supporting services as well as goods [4].
• Policy usually counts only timber or crops.
• It should also count unseen services, such as flood control by forests and wetlands.

• Ignoring them leads to decisions that clear forests and fill wetlands, which raises the risk of floods and erosion.

• India's responsibility (GS-III): India has 2.4% of world land, 7–8% of species and 4 of the 34 hotspots [2][3].

• Losing habitat in the Western Ghats or the North-east weakens services for millions of people who depend on these forests.

• Endemic species (found in one area only) need protection where they live (in-situ).

• Agro-biodiversity and food security (GS-III): since the Green Revolution, the spread of a few HYVs has pushed out local varieties and weakened the genetic base of provisioning services.

• India is a Vavilovian centre with 300+ wild crop relatives [3].
• Gene banks, community seed banks and access and benefit-sharing under the Nagoya Protocol (CBD, 2010) help protect these crop relatives for future breeding.

Related concepts

• Biodiversity
• Species
• Genetic diversity
• Species diversity
• Ecosystem diversity
• Latitudinal diversity gradient
• Endemic species
• Importance of biodiversity
• Agro-biodiversity

Read more

• Biodiversity: meaning, levels, distribution and value