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.

Ecosystems and ecosystem services

The four main categories of ecosystem services. (MA 2005)

Ecosystems and ecosystem services

Frontiers Urban ecosystem services and climate change: a dynamic interplay

Supporting urban ecosystem services across terrestrial, marine and freshwater realms - ScienceDirect

UNDP Issues Brief on Nature-Based Climate Solutions

IUCN CEM Impact Mitigation and Ecological Compensation Thematic Group

1. Ecosystem service concept and classification systems

Valuing ecosystem services: The first thematic panel of the international conference on African ecosystems

Ecosystems and ecosystem services