ECOSYSTEM SERVICES

Definition:
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.

Provisioning services are: The products obtained from ecosystems, including, for example,
genetic resources, food and fiber, and fresh water.

Regulating services are: The benefits obtained from the regulation of ecosystem processes,
including, for example, the regulation of climate, water, and some human diseases.

Cultural services are: The non-material benefits people obtain from ecosystems through
spiritual enrichment, cognitive development, reflection, recreation, and aesthetic
experience, including, e.g., knowledge systems, social relations, and aesthetic values.

Supporting services are: Ecosystem services that are necessary for the production of all
other ecosystem services. Some examples include biomass production, production of
atmospheric oxygen, soil formation and retention, nutrient cycling, water cycling, and
provisioning of habitat.
Ecosystem preservation and conservation strategies

Ecological restoration: It is a process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem

that has been partially or completely degraded. In simple words ecological
restoration means restoring the ecosystem, to a former state or to an perfect
condition. Ecological restoration focuses on the recovery of many aspects of
ecosystem which are as following.
• Health of the ecosystem: purification of air, sequestration of carbon dioxide,
filtration of water
• Integrity of ecosystem: Species composition and community structure
• Sustainability: Resistance and resilience to disturbance
Rehabilitation: It mean returning of a degraded land to a fully functional ecosystem
irrespective of its original state but according to a prior landuse plan. Examples of the
rehabilitation process are partial recovery of species diversity and ecological complexity,
reducing the livestock grazing from riparian zone, allowing natural growth of vegetation
or restoring fluvial processes.

Remediation: It is a process in which using physical and biological methods, chemical

contaminants are cleaned from polluted ecosystem in order to protect human and
ecosystem health.

Reclamation: It is a process by which biotic function and productivity of severely

damaged land is restored.

Mitigation: It is defined as restoration, rehabilitation or reclamation process to reduce

the effect of the source of degradation