Thematic brief: Ecosystems & ecosystem services

Ecosystems consist of plants, animal and microorganism communities (including for example, rainforests, coral reefs, agricultural land and managed forests), while ecosystem goods and services are the benefits to human society that ecosystems provide (for example, water provision and flood and storm protection). Ecosystem degradation and the impacts of climate change release the carbon that is stored in biomass and soils, and increase the risk of ecological collapse. Land-use change, predominately due to tropical deforestation and burning contributes 13 per cent of annual global emissions.

Brief Presentation – April  Definitions: ecosystem services & biodiversity  Value of ecosystems  Ecosystem drivers & business context  Business. - ppt download

Sonya Le Febre - Graduate Program Coordinator, Forest & Rangeland Stewardship Department - Colorado State University

Publications Green Climate Fund

UNDP Issues Brief on Nature-Based Climate Solutions

Ecosystems and ecosystem services

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Unit 1.1: Mapping Ecosystem Services

Ecosystems and ecosystem services

Baltimore Ecosystem Study - LTER

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A review of agroforestry ecosystem services and its enlightenment on the ecosystem improvement of rocky desertification control - ScienceDirect

Biodiversity - Ecosystems — European Environment Agency

SER Reports and Publications - Society for Ecological Restoration

2 Eight Themes for Managing the Living World, Twenty-First Century Ecosystems: Managing the Living World Two Centuries After Darwin: Report of a Symposium