What are Ecosystem Services: Understanding complexity

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What are Ecosystem Services Understanding
complexity

• by
• Arild Vatn
• Department of Environment and Development,
• Norwegian University of Life Sciences
• Lecture at the international workshop Making
  Sense of Ecosystem Services Ecosocial and
  Institutional Perspectives
• Koli, Finland, August 25-27

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The structure of the presentation

• The perspective of the Millennium Ecosystem
  Assessment
• Complexity, social systems and ecosystem services

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1. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment

• The MEA classifies sets of ecosystem service
  functions
• Supporting (e.g., nutrient cycling, soil
  formation)
• Provisioning (e.g.,food, fuel)
• Regulating (e.g., climate regulation, disease
  regulation)
• Cultural (e.g., aesthetics, educational)

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1. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (cont.)
Ecosystem services and human well being
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2. Complexity Social and ecological

• Nested systems
• Different scales (time space)
• Different processes operate at different scales ?
  Multiple representations
• Lack of (complete) predictability
• Risk
• Uncertainty
• Ignorance (radical uncertainty)

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2. Complexity Social and ecological
(cont.)Complexity and knowledge
Determinism simple/compli- cated outcomes all
known
Ignorance complexity uncertainty/ignorance
After Faber et al. 1996
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2. Complexity Social and ecological
(cont.)Systems complexity

• Vulnerability
• Adaptability
• Resilience

Attractor basin
?
Systems position
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2. Complexity Social and ecological
(cont.)Natural systems complexity

• Evolution of species
• Biogeochemical cycles
• The interactions between biota, chemical and
  geological processes
• Life has created its own conditions e.g., the
  composition of the atmosphere
• The rivet popper analogy redundancy,
  resilience and vulnerability
• Interconnectedness
• The entropy laws

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2. Complexity Social and ecological
(cont.)Social systems complexity

• Institutions bring order to a complex external
  world (Wittgenstein The limits of my language
  means the limits to my world). Still multiple
  representations
• Social complexity
• Different representations e.g., different
  perspectives and disciplines
• Different values and value systems
• Different interests
• Different rationalities e.g., individual vs.
  social rationality
• Interest vs. value vs. data conflicts
• Anthropocentric vs. non-anthropocentric values
• Complex behavior individual and group level