Nature supplies materials, regulates conditions, supports recreation and learning, and sustains the processes behind these benefits.
An ecosystem includes living things and the non-living surroundings they interact with. In a pond, plants, fish and microorganisms depend on water, nutrients, sunlight and one another. Urban parks, lakes, ponds and forests can be ecosystems even when people manage them.
Ecosystem services are the benefits people gain from ecosystems. Provisioning services supply materials, such as food and fresh water.
Regulating services moderate environmental conditions. Vegetation can cool the immediate area, called its microclimate. Plants and soil can slow runoff, while other ecological processes help regulate air and water quality. Explain the process and benefit, rather than just naming a tree or pond.
Cultural services include recreation, beauty and opportunities to learn. A school nature walk is one example.
Supporting services keep ecosystems functioning and help make the other services possible. This syllabus groups soil formation, photosynthesis and pollination here. One pond may provide several services, but their importance depends on the site. Do not assume every green space provides every service equally.
Step by step
Identify the interaction
For example, roots and vegetation slow water moving over the ground.
Trace the benefit
Slower runoff can reduce the speed at which water enters drains.
Classify the service
Moderating water flow is a regulating service, rather than a product taken from nature.
Worked example: One pond, several services
In a teaching scenario, water from a managed pond supports irrigation, planted margins slow runoff, and a nearby path supports a school nature walk. These illustrate provisioning, regulating and cultural services respectively. Photosynthesis by pond plants helps sustain the living system that makes such services possible.
Watch out for this
Pollination is a provisioning service because people eat the resulting fruit.
The fruit is a provisioning product. In this syllabus, the pollination process is treated as a supporting service that helps make that product possible.
Check your understanding
Vegetation reduces the speed of runoff reaching a drain. Which service is being described?
- Cultural, because vegetation can look attractive.
- Provisioning, because the drain is a physical object.
- Regulating, because it moderates water flow.