May 7, 2025
The Services an Ecosystem Provides
Many of the practices that degrade ecosystems and the environment are driven by short-term economic gain. For instance, it costs more money to selectively harvest a forest than it does to clear-cut an area, even though clear-cutting has severe environmental repercussions. However, ecosystems provide services that we use every day; we can, at times, overlook their value, because we have never lived in a world without them. Ecosystem services range from things that merely make our lives better to things that are essential to our survival.
Pretty much everyone can probably agree that nature is pretty. The joy you feel when going for a hike in a forest or watching birds at a feeder is an ecological service. The forest itself is an ecosystem, and the birds cannot survive without the ecosystems they rely on. Many people travel around the world to explore particular ecosystems; eco-tourism is a significant source of income for multiple countries.
Even more importantly, however, ecosystems provide us with clean air and water. Different ecosystems affect how water is evaporated, how it is moved from place to place as rain, and how it is stored in aquifers, rivers, and ice caps as fresh, drinkable water. Ecosystems, such as forests, not only filter carbon and other pollutants out of the air, but they also create the oxygen we need to survive. All terrestrial ecosystems help make and protect the soil we need to grow our food, through the accumulation of nutrients and protection from erosion.
We cannot survive without the services provided by ecosystems; scientists have estimated that these services are worth trillions of dollars to us. Since I’m only going to be writing one more article for this section, I thought this would be a good time to remind you why this is important. We are facing many large issues today — just remember that small actions matter even when it seems like they don’t. Something as simple as buying food from local sources, taking your own bags to the grocery store, or biking or walking somewhere instead of driving can have far-reaching effects. Every day, we have the ability to make decisions that lessen our impact on the environment; when we make the best choices available to us, we can reduce stress on the ecosystems that keep us alive.