Ecosystem Services - Ecological Systems - page 84

Finally, the service delivered to human communities is often valued differently,
depending on the context. For example, coastal protection services provided by
nearshore habitats to easily accessible, popular, public beaches might be seen as
more valuable, or providing greater benefit, than those to more remote sites.

History of the Concept of Ecosystem Services

It is primarily through disruption and loss that the nature and value of ecosystem
services has been illuminated. For instance, deforestation has demonstrated the
critical role of forests in the hydrological cycle - in particular, in mitigating floods,
droughts, the erosive forces of wind and rain, and the silting of dams and irrigation
canals. Release of toxic substances, whether accidental or deliberate, has revealed
the nature and value of physical and chemical processes, governed in part by
a diversity of microorganisms, that disperse and break down hazardous materials.
Thinning of the stratospheric ozone layer sharpened awareness of the value of its
service in screening out harmful ultraviolet radiation. And the loss of coastal
wetlands has brought into relief their importance in regulating coastal hazards
such as hurricanes and tsunamis.

Initial Development of the Ecosystem Services Concept

A cognizance of ecosystem services, expressed in terms of their loss, dates back at
least to Plato and probably much earlier:
What now remains of the formerly rich land is like the skeleton of a sick man with all the fat
and soft earth having wasted away and only the bare framework remaining. Formerly, many
of the mountains were arable. The plains that were full of rich soil are now marshes. Hills
that were once covered with forests and produced abundant pasture now produce only food
for bees. Once the land was enriched by yearly rains, which were not lost, as they are now,
by flowing from the bare land into the sea. The soil was deep, it absorbed and kept the
water ... , and the water that soaked into the hills fed springs and running streams every-
where. Now the abandoned shrines at spots where formerly there were springs attest that
our description of the land is true. (Plato)
Mooney and Ehrlich [ 40 ] trace modern concern for ecosystem services to
George Perkins Marsh, a lawyer, politician, and scholar. Indeed, his 1864 topic
Man and Nature describes a wide array of services, again, often expressed in
terms of their loss. Remarking on the terrain of the former Roman Empire, he
notes that it “is either deserted by civilized man and surrendered to hopeless desola-
tion, or at least greatly reduced in both productiveness and population” (p. 9). He
continues, describing the reduction of hydrological services: “Vast forests have
disappeared from mountain spurs and ridges, the vegetable earth [is] washed

away; meadows, once fertilized by irrigation, are waste and unproductive,

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