The Global Challenge for Soil Carbon - Soil Carbon: Science, Management and Policy for Multiple Benefits - page 5

pollutants from atmospheric deposition and
land contamination, gas and aerosol emis-
sions, slope and other physical stability,
and storage and transmission of infiltrating
water.
3. Provisioning services are food, fuel and
fibre production, water availability, non-
renewable mineral resources and as a plat-
form for construction.
4. Cultural services are the preservation of
archaeological remains, outdoor recreational
pursuits, ethical, spiritual and religious interests,
the identity of landscapes and supporting
habitat.

depend on ecosystem structure, where soil
carbon is a key component, along with the
environmental conditions and human inter-
ventions that can influence the produced
services, goods and benefits strongly ( Fig. 1.2 ;
Fisher et al ., 2009; Bateman et al ., 2011;
Robinson et al ., 2013).
Subsequent chapters delve into the
underlying processes, the impacts of envir-
onmental change, the chains of impact and
the consequences that arise, and methods to
intervene in order to influence these impacts
beneficially. Decisions on land use and soil
management that affect the stocks and com-
position of soil carbon therefore incur costs
and benefits through changes to these eco-
system services. In many cases, the value of
these changes is not reflected in markets,

Soil carbon plays a key role in all four clas-
ses of soil ecosystem services. The flows
arising from environmental processes ( Fig. 1.1 )

Boundary conditions (e.g. climate; elevation)

Ecosystem structure (e.g. soil texture
and depth, slope)

'Soil functions'

Primary processes and intermediate
(e.g. nutrient cycling)

Final ecosystem services
(e.g. productive capacity of land)

Non-ecological inputs
(human and manufactured
capital, e.g. labour)

Benefits/goods
(e.g. crop yield or timber/biomass
for fuel production)

Fig. 1.2. Conceptual linkages between environmental drivers, ecosystem structure (cf. Fig. 1.1 ) including
soil conditions, the soil processes that produce the environmental flows that characterize soil functions
and their potential to provide ecosystem services, goods and benefits. (Adapted from Fisher et al ., 2009
and Bateman et al ., 2011.)