Providing ecosystem services
The oceans provide a vast array of ecosystem services that
directly and indirectly benefit society. Human activities, such as
exploitation of resources, pollution, shipping and CO2
emissions, all have consequences for the marine environment and may
alter the way in which ecosystems function and, therefore, the
goods and services provided by the ocean.
Describing natural environments in terms of the goods and
services that they provide to human society is an increasingly
common method of ensuring that there is a true understanding of
exactly what is being gained and lost when the environment is
exploited to an extent that it is changed. To ensure that
exploitation of the marine environment is sustainable, human
activities and the impact upon the provision of all goods and
services must be understood.
PML’s knowledge of marine ecosystem goods and services is
helping to quantify the benefits to society and the associated
“cost”, should these benefits change or discontinue due to human
activities.
Valuing marine ecosystem goods and services is essential if
these functions are to be considered seriously at a
policy level.
Projects
- NERC scoping study on
socio-economics
PML scientists have been involved in scoping
studies to provide a review of the state of the science regarding
the valuation of biodiversity and natural resources and how
environmental science can be integrated more fully into
valuation techniques and methodologies.