… is required for producing a range of different crops. These are ecosystem services, and other examples include flood attenuation, water and nutrient cycling, carbon storage, and most crucially the production of oxygen through photosynthesis, which enables us to breathe. Recognition of these services and their value to human societies is increasing but not necessarily fast enough, which is one…
… or the countryside11. Yet since these services are undervalued, or not financially valued, they are under threat. In the UK around 10,000 playing fields were sold between 1979 and 1997 and the number of allotments is at around 10% of the area of that in the 1940s12. Supporting services e.g. nutrient cycling The supporting ecosystem services are the most crucial of all because all the other services and our…
… lives depend on them. They include nutrient cycling, the production of oxygen by plants and the formation of soil from rocks. Knowledge of how these services interact and how they are affected by other services and human activities is limited; however they are used as environmental indicators. Measurements have shown that the pH of surface soils has increased over the past 30 years in line…