Ecological Processes: The Planet's Life Support System

1
Ecological Processes The Planet's Life Support
System

• Environmental Sustainability Educational
  Resources
• prepared by
• Gregory A. Keoleian
• Associate Research Scientist,
• School of Natural Resources and Environment
• Co-Director, Center for Sustainable Systems
• University of Michigan

2
Contents

• Percent of Species at Risk of Extinction slide
  3
• Ecology Definition slide 4
• Ecosystem Definition slide 5
• Definition of the Precautionary Principle
  slide 6
• Ecosystem Services slide 7-8
• What are ecosystems worth slide 9-14
• Biosphere 2 slide 15-16
• Ecosystem threats slide 17-18
• Endangered Species slide 19-20
• Exotic Species slide 21-26
• Carrying Capacity, Population and Ecological
  Footprint slide 27-30
• Ecological Engineering slide 31-32
• Additional Resources slide 33-34

3
(No Transcript)
4
Ecology Definition

• Ecology is the scientific discipline that is
  concerned with the relationships between
  organisms and their past, present, and future
  environments.
• Source Ecological Society of America

5
Other Definitions

• Ecosystem
• any geographic area that includes all of the
  organisms and nonliving parts of their physical
  environment.
• Biodiversity
• Biological diversity, or biodiversity for short,
  refers to the variety of life forms at all levels
  of organization, from the molecular to the
  landscape level.

6
Definition of the Precautionary Principle

• Asserts there is a 'premium' on a cautious and
  conservative approach to human interventions in
  the natural environment where our understanding
  of the likely consequences is limited and there
  are threats of serious or irreversible damage to
  natural systems and processes. (As noted by Myers
  1993 in Barbier, Burgess and Folke 1994, 172).

7
Ecosystems Services (1 of 2 slides)

• moderate weather extremes and their impacts
• disperse seeds
• mitigate drought and floods
• protect people from the suns harmful ultraviolet
  rays
• cycle and move nutrients
• protect stream and river channels and coastal
  shores from erosion
• detoxify and decompose wastes

8
Ecosystems Services (2 of 2 slides)

• control the vast majority of agricultural pests
• maintain biodiversity
• generate and preserve soils and renew their
  fertility
• partially stabilize climate
• purify the air and water
• regulate disease carrying organisms
• pollinate crops and natural vegetation

9
WHAT ARE ECOSYSTEM SERVICES WORTH?

• Natural ecosystems and the plants and animals
  within them provide humans with services that
  would be very difficult to duplicate. While it
  is often impossible to place an accurate monetary
  amount on ecosystem services, we can calculate
  some of the financial values.
• Many of these services are performed seemingly
  for "free", yet are worth many trillions of
  dollars, for example

10
Flood Protection

• Much of the Mississippi River Valleys natural
  flood protection services were destroyed when
  adjacent wetlands were drained and channels
  altered. As a result, the 1993 floods resulted
  in property damages estimated at twelve billion
  dollars partially from the inability of the
  Valley to lessen the impacts of the high volumes
  of water.

11
Source for Medicinal Products

• Eighty percent of the worlds population relies
  upon natural medicinal products. Of the top 150
  prescription drugs used in the U.S., 118
  originate from natural sources 74 percent from
  plants, 18 percent from fungi, 5 percent from
  bacteria, and 3 percent from one vertebrate
  (snake species). Of the top 10 prescription
  medicines, 9 originate from natural plant
  products.

12
Pollination Services

• Over 100,000 different animal species - including
  bats, bees, flies, moths, beetles, birds, and
  butterflies - provide free pollination services.
  One third of human food comes from plants
  pollinated by wild pollinators. The value of
  pollination services from wild pollinators in the
  U.S. alone is estimated at four to six billion
  dollars per year.

13
Pure Water

• Before it became overwhelmed by agricultural and
  sewage runoff, the watershed of the Catskill
  Mountains provided New York City with water
  ranked among the best in the Nation by Consumer
  Reports. When the water fell below quality
  standards, the City investigated what it would
  cost to install an artificial filtration plant.
  The estimated price tag for this new facility was
  six to eight billion dollars, plus annual
  operating costs of 300 million dollars - a high
  price to pay for what once was free. New York
  City decided instead to invest a fraction of that
  cost (660M) in restoring the natural capital it
  had in the Catskills watershed. In 1997, the
  City raised an Environmental Bond Issue and is
  currently using the funds to purchase land and
  halt development in the watershed, to compensate
  property owners for development restrictions on
  their land, and to subsidize the improvement of
  septic systems.

14
Estimated Value

• Value of Ecosystem Services 33 trillion
• range 16 - 54 trillion
• 1.8 x Global GNP
• Majority of the value of these services is
  outside the market system
• source Costanza, et al. Nature 1997

15
Biosphere 2
16
(No Transcript)
17
Ecosystem services are severely threatened
through

• growth in the scale of human enterprise
  (population size, per-capita consumption, and
  effects of technologies to produce goods for
  consumption) and
• a mismatch between short-term needs and long-term
  societal well-being.

18
Human activities that disrupt, impair, or
reengineer ecosystems

• runoff of pesticides, fertilizers, and animal
  wastes
• pollution of land, water, and air resources
• introduction of non-native species
• overharvesting fisheries
• destruction of wetlands
• erosion of soils
• deforestation
• urban sprawl

19
Endangered Species

• 735 U.S. species of plants are listed.
• 496 U.S. species of animals are listed.
• 11 U.S. species of plants are currently proposed
  for listing.
• 74 U.S. species of animals are currently proposed
  for listing.

20
Endangered Florida panther
21
Exotic Species

• "Exotic" speciesorganisms introduced into
  habitats where they are not native
• are severe world-wide agents of habitat
  alteration and degradation.
• a major cause of biological diversity loss
  throughout the world, they are considered
  "biological pollutants."

22

• Invasive species threaten biodiversity, habitat
  quality, and ecosystem function.
• second-most important threat to native species,
  behind habitat destruction
• contributed to the decline of 42 of U.S.
  endangered and threatened species.
• introduced species also present an
  ever-increasing threat to food and fiber
  production.
• In the United States, the economic costs of
  nonnative species invasions reach billions of
  dollars each year.

23
Sea lamprey on lake trout
24
Lake trout with scar from sea lamprey
25
Zebra mussels washed up on beach
26
(No Transcript)
27
Carrying Capacity

• Maximum population size that a given area can
  sustain
• Estimates of the earths carrying capacity vary
  widely
• ranging from 1 - 1000 billion people (Cohen 1995)

28
World Population Size Estimates and Fertility
Variants (billions)
Source United Nations Population Division, World
Population Prospects The 1998 Revision,
forthcoming.
29
Source Living Planet Report 2000
30
Have we exceeded the Earths Carrying Capacity?

• In 1996 there were 2.2 ha per person of
  biologically productive land on the planet
• a total of 12.6 billion hectares, covering 1/4 of
  the Earths surface
• 1.3 billion ha cropland
• 4.6 billion ha grazing land
• 3.3 billion ha forest land
• 3.3 billion ha fishing grounds
• 0.2 billion ha built-up land
• World average footprint was 2.85 ha per person

31
Ecological Engineering

• defined as "the design of the human society with
  its natural environment for the benefit of both"
  (Mitsch Jorgensen, 1989).
• integrates various existing environmental fields
  such as classical ecology, agro-ecology, and
  restoration ecology.
• used to design low-impact systems for waste
  treatment, food and energy production, habitat
  restoration and other benefits.
• should provide useful services for human society
  while at the same time retaining their function
  as an ecosystem.

32
Constructed Wetlands for Wastewater Treatment
33
Additional Resources

• Ecology
• Ecological Society of America
• http//esa.sdsc.edu/
• Endangered Species
• US Fish and Wildlife Service
• http//endangered.fws.gov/wildlife.html

34

• Exotic Species
• Sea Grant
• http//www.seagrant.umn.edu/exotics/index.html
• Ecological Engineering
• International Ecological Engineering Society
• http//www.iees.ch/
• American Ecological Engineering Society
• http//swamp.ag.ohio-state.edu/ecoeng/AEES_a.html