The Concept of Ecological Services

The Concept of Ecological Services

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Ecological Services

The Concept of Ecological Services

An ecological service refers to any beneficial procedure due to the presence of healthy ecosystems, for example, purification of aquatic systems, atmosphere and decomposition of waste (Matlock and Morgan, 2010). Humans and other organisms benefit in multiple ways from ecosystems; the benefits are the ones that have come to be referred to as ecological services.

The concept of ecological services was disseminated by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) that was held in the early 21st century. The activity was held to assess the impact of activities carried by humans on the environment. The assessment found that in the previous fifty years there have been major changes in the ecosystem than any other time in history due to the strive to meet demand for food, timber, fresh water and fuel for the exponentially growing human population.

The MA categorises ecological services into four categories that includeprovisioning, regulating, supporting and cultural services. Provisioning services include the provision of food and water, regulating services include control of climate and disease, supporting services include crop pollination and cultural services involve the support given by the ecosystem for recreational and cultural benefits.

Ecological Services of Rivers

Rivers are important in the ecosystem as they help enable life to exist in them and on land since they are part of the aquatic system which is critical for the environment. Provision of fresh water is an important service that humans get from the rivers. The rivers help in the cycling of nutrients and nutrient buffering which is fundamental to the growth of crops more so food and cash crops that are important to humans. Nutrient cycling is the alteration of organic and inorganic matter back for use in the production of living matter.

Water is fundamental for health and wealth of the population (Feld, 2013). It is obvious that water is essential for the well-being of humans. On any place on earth people depend on rivers for the supply of fresh water. Nutrient cycling is an important service that we get from rivers which enable the utilisation of a given element in different organisms (Vitousek, 2004). A good example isnitrogen; the gas is in abundance in the atmosphere and plants can only utilise it when it is in two forms ammonium and nitrate, nutrient cycling is responsible for availing it in these forms. Nutrient Cycling is also responsible for the transfer of nutrient from one location to another hence availing nutrients from inaccessible highly concentrated areas to areas where they can be accessed and utilised by organisms.

Human being’s activities have a major impact on the river ecosystems. The human activities can result in a decline of ecological services provided by rivers. Some activities have led to pollution and this can lead to the reduction of fresh water that is provided by the rivers the reason is that humans are not able to utilise water as it can cause illness and poisoning. Some other activities have led to modifications to the flow of the rivers and these haveinterfered with the aquatic animals.

An example of a polluted river whose water cannot be used is the Cuyahoga River that empties into Lake Eerie. “The river was much polluted that it used to catch fire”, (Usborne, 2015). Eighty percent of fish comes from estuaries but the building of dams has changed the flow of rivers to this points hence affecting the aquatic life there. Examples include Gulf of Mexico, San Francisco Bay, Black and Caspian Seas among others. ( Pottinger, 1996).

References

Feld, C. (2013). What rivers do for us. The Fresh Water Blog. Retrieved March 3, 2016, from, http://freshwaterblog.net/2013/07/30/what-rivers-do-for-us/

Matlock, M.D. & Morgan, R.A. (2010). Ecological engineering design: restoring and conserving ecosystem services. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Pottinger, L. (1996, October 1). Environmental Impacts of Large Dams: African examples. Retrieved from www.internationalrivers.org/resources/environmental-impacts-of-large-adams-african-examples-2029/

Usborne, D. (2015, August 12). Animas pollution: The toxic orange river that America cannot ignore.Independent. Retrieved from http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/animas-pollution-the-toxic-orange-river-that-america-cannot-ignore-10452796.html/

Vitousek, P.M. (2004). Nutrient cycling and limitation: Hawai’i as a model system. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press