Expressing Gratitude and Thanksgiving for . . . Ecosystems Services?

Linda B. Rimer, Environmental Stewardship Committee Chair

If you are like many people, the word "ecosystem" is not one that appears frequently in your everyday vocabulary. So the expanded term, "ecosystem services," is even more removed from that day-to-day usage.

If your curiosity were to be piqued sufficiently, you might actually look up the word in a dictionary where you would find an ecosystem defined as: "a dynamic complex of plant, animal, and microorganism communities and the nonliving environment interacting as a functional unit." Ecosystem services would thus be defined as "the benefits obtained from ecosystems."

However erudite the first definition may be, or how obvious the second one is, neither is particularly useful in helping us to understand these benefits or services and why we should be grateful for them.

Perhaps a better way to begin appreciating ecosystems is to reflect on what life could be like without those services. Consider the experience of Biosphere II. You may recall hearing about a small group of scientists who were sealed inside a great 3.2 acre glass and metal dome in Oracle, AZ, back in 1991. In this experiment, over $200 million dollars was spent to mimic the earth's main ecosystems in miniature.

But after two years, this human-engineered environment was dying, and the scientists survived only because fresh air had been pumped in. Despite the technology and cost, Biosphere II had failed to generate breathable air, drinkable water, or adequate food for just eight researchers. Yet we know that Biosphere I, our planet earth, provides these services effortlessly for over 6.5 billion of us every day! What an amazing creation this planet is! How does this happen? And how have we 6.5 billion humans impacted the ability of the earth to continue to provide these services?

In March 2005, the work of over 1300 researchers from 95 nations was released in the first ever Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, a project conducted under the auspices of the United Nations. (The Environmental Stewardship article in Cross Roads of July 2005 reported on this assessment).

The researchers divided ecosystem services into the following categories:

• Provisioning - providing food, fresh water, wood and fiber, fuel
• Regulating - climate, flood, disease, waste, and water purification
• Cultural - aesthetic, spiritual, educational, and recreational
• Supporting - nutrient cycling, soil formation, photosynthesis.

In essence, these "services" not only impact all aspects of our lives every day, they actually make life on earth possible, for humans, other animals, and plants, by providing air that meets our need for oxygen intake and carbon dioxide removal; water that supports the needs of our metabolism; soil, rain, sun, and nutrients that make food production possible; and climate and flood protection - among others.

And what impact have we humans had on these ecosystems? This report concludes that approximately 60% of the ecosystem services that support life on earth are being degraded or used unsustainably, and that the harmful consequences of this degradation could grow significantly worse in the next 50 years.

Two recent and stark examples of what happens when ecosystems are damaged and the services they provide diminished, are the tsunami in Asia last December (the ecosystem being mangroves) and Hurricane Katrina's impact on New Orleans (the ecosystem being wetlands).

For decades, ecologists have extensively documented the flood protection role that mangroves and wetlands play in protecting upland areas. Unfortunately, more than half of the world's mangroves have been lost due to aquaculture and industrial development. Indonesia has lost about 1.6 million acres of mangroves over the past several decades (about 30% of its total). This loss made inland areas far more susceptible to the giant wave than it would have been otherwise.

Likewise, New Orleans has been losing its surrounding wetlands for over one hundred years. Several factors, most human-made, have contributed to this steady decline of the delta at the bottom of the Mississippi River. But most of this erosion is attributed to the levees, which, while accomplishing the purpose of steering water into the Gulf of Mexico and away from New Orleans, also prevent the occasional flooding which served nature's purpose by feeding the delta, bringing fresh water and sediment that served to sustain life and replenish these essential wetlands.

And so during this Thanksgiving season, when we are counting our blessings, we should make an expression of gratitude for God's creation a big part of those thanks, especially for those intricate, elaborate and often mysterious ecosystems whose services make life on earth possible.

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