Caroline Dillard Class Reading 2: 4/16/23 (ecosystem services)

 In Chapter 6 of Humans in the Landscape Lee et al. writes about ecosystem services. Ecosystem services is an interesting concept. I have learned about many ecosystems in my Biology classes. It's always interesting to see which ecosystem functions qualify as services and what organisms or humans their functions serve. The ecological value of an ecosystem is very subjective. The book defines ecosystem services as functions that provide fundamental-life support to humans that without humans would cease to thrive. This is an interesting definition. I wasn’t aware that ecosystem functions only pertain to serving humans. We really do like to put ourselves at the center of everything. Ecosystems provide many services to other animals and plants as well. For example, Eastern red cedar provides shelter and food to birds in the winter, tropical waters provide mating grounds and proliferation of species. The book also talks about how ecosystem services can be invisible when people do not think about limited resources and only act as consumers. Ecosystems can be abused and only through regulation of some type will an ecosystem be rightly appreciated. One of my favorite ecosystem services is the carbon storing ability of peatlands. The soil of peatlands is saturated, anoxic, and acidic. The combination of these factors inhibit decomposition such that carbon is stored in the soil for millennia.