data/datasets/onu/Chapter_09.txt

Chapter 9. Conclusions on Major Ecosystem Services
Other than Provisioning Services
Contributor: Patricio A. Bernal (Lead Member)
1. Introduction
The ecosystem services assessed in Part Ill are large-scale; some of them ar planetary in nature and provide human benefits through the normal functioning o the natural systems in the ocean, without human intervention. This makes the intrinsically difficult to value. However, some of these same ecosystem services i turn sustain provisioning services that generate human benefits through the activ intervention of humans. This is the case, for example, for the global ecosyste service provided by primary production by marine plants, which by synthesizin organic matter from CO and water, provide the base of nearly all food chains in th ocean (except the chemosynthetic ones), and provide the food for animal consumer that in turn sustain important provisioning ecosystem services from which human benefit, such as fisheries.
The services in Part Ill are not the only ones provided by the ocean. Many othe ecosystem services are directly or indirectly referred to in Parts IV to VI of thi Assessment. The provisioning ecosystem services related to food security ar addressed in Part IV, Assessment of Cross-Cutting Issues: Food Security And Foo Safety (Chapters 10 through 16); those related to coastal protection are referred t in Part VI, Assessment of Marine Biological Diversity and Habitats, in Warm Wate Corals (Chapter 43), Mangroves (Chapter 48), and in Aquaculture (Chapter 12) Estuaries and Deltas (Chapter 44), Kelp Forests and Seagrass Meadows (Chapter 47 and Salt Marshes (Chapter 49); the maintenance of special habitats are addressed i Chapters on Open Ocean Deep-sea Biomass (Chapter 36F); Cold Water Coral (Chapter 42) and Warm Water Corals (Chapter 43), Hydrothermal Vents and Col Seeps (Chapter 45), High-Latitude Ice (46) and Seamounts and Other Submarin Geological Features Potentially Threatened by Disturbance (Chapter 51); th sequestration of carbon in coastal sediments, the so-called blue carbon, is addresse in Chapters on Mangroves (Chapter 48), Estuaries and Deltas (Chapter 44) and Sal Marshes (Chapter 49); the cycling of nutrients is covered in Estuaries and Delta (Chapter 44) and Salt Marshes (Chapter 49, but also Chapter 6).
Because of the very large scale of the services analysed in Part III, although they ar influenced by human activities, they cannot be easily managed, and in certain case they cannot be managed at all. The uptake of atmospheric CO2 (Chapter 5) and th role of the ocean in the hydrological cycle (Chapter 4) are two examples o regulatory ecosystem services that cannot be managed or valued easily.
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2. Accounting for the human benefits obtained from nature
Ecosystems can exist without humans in them, but humans cannot survive withou ecosystems. Throughout history, humanity has made use of nature for food, shelter protection and engaging in cultural activities. The intensity of humanity’s use o nature has changed with the evolution of society and reached high levels with th introduction of modern technologies and industrial systems. Today, at a planetar scale, including the deepest ocean, no natural or pristine systems are found withou people or unaffected by the impact of human activities; nor do social systems exis that can thrive without the support of nature. Social and ecological systems are trul interdependent and constantly co-evolving.
This fundamental connection between humans and nature has received differen levels of recognition with regard to how we deal with the benefits humans extrac from nature in economic terms. Extractive activities, e.g., of minerals, or of livin natural resources, such as fibre, timber and fish, raise the issues of irreplaceabilit and sustainability. The use of nature is multifaceted and, as a norm, a give ecosystem can provide many goods and several services at the same time. Fo example, a mangrove ecosystem provides wood fibre, fuel, and nursery habitat fo numerous species (provisioning services); it detoxifies and sequesters pollutant coming from upstream sources, stores carbon, traps sediment, and thus protect downstream coral reefs, and buffers shores from tsunamis and storms (regulatin services); it provides beautiful places to fish or snorkel (cultural services); and i recycles nutrients and fixes carbon (supporting services; Lubchenco and Petes 2010). When humans convert a natural ecosystem to another use, some ecosyste services may be lost and others services gained. Such a process gives rise to trade offs between natural services and between these and services not derived fro natural capital. For example, when mangroves are converted to shrimp ponds airports, shopping malls, agricultural lands, or residential areas, new services ar obtained: food production, space for commerce, transportation, and housing, bu the original natural services are lost (Lubchenco and Petes, 2010).
Therefore, human benefits can be derived from a series of different activities tha simultaneously affect the same ecosystem, but that are not necessarily connecte with their harvesting or production processes. Sustainability requires that users tak only a fraction of the resources, preserving in this way the natural capability of th ecosystem to regenerate the same resources, making them available for use b future generations. The appropriate spatial scale and the time sufficient to recove are part of the sustainability requirement. To extract anchovies (Engraulis spp.) o sardines (Sardinops spp.) that can regenerate their populations in three to eigh years has different implications than to extract orange roughy (Hoplostethu atlanticus) from the top of seamounts that needs 100 to 150 years or more t recover.
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3. The evolution of management tools
The increase in “the magnitude of human pressures on the natural system ha caused a transition from single-species or single-sector management to multi-sector ecosystem-based management across multiple geographic and temporal dimensions (...) Intensification of use of ecosystems increases interactions between sectors an production systems that in turn increase the number of mutual negative impacts (i.e. externalities)” (Chapter 3).
Because all these processes take place in an integrated socio-ecological system, w have seen an expansion of scope in the decision-making process, incorporating th simultaneous consideration of several uses or industries at the same time and th livelihoods and other social aspects connected with this ensemble of activities. Thes approaches enable the consideration of tradeoffs among different uses an beneficiaries, enlarging the range of policy options. Only recently have regulator instruments for better accounting for the indirect and cumulative impacts on natura systems of these multiple uses been incorporated into the management an regulation of human activities. Mobilized by a series of high-level World Conference addressing these issues, in Stockholm 1972, Rio de Janeiro 1992, Johannesburg 2002 and Rio de Janeiro 2012, the international community has acted to advance an implement this enlarged scope of decision-making across all societies.
Assigning value to the human benefits obtained from nature is more easily don when the goods and services obtained are traded, thereby becoming part o commerce. Prices in different markets are readily available and comparisons ar possible. It is not that simple, however, for certain types of benefits, for example when subsistence livelihoods that do not enter into trade are concerned, or othe intangible cultural, recreational, religious or spiritual benefits are involved.
However, the extraction of natural products and other human benefits from wil ecosystems can affect other processes inside the ecosystems that provide valuabl permanent services to humanity that are not part of commerce. Examples includ the production of organic matter and oxygen through primary production in th ocean, the protection of the coast by mangrove forests, the re-mineralization o decaying organic matter at the coastal fringes, and the absorption of heat and CO by the ocean that has delayed the impacts of global warming. Furthermore fluctuations in the provision of these natural services can have significant impacts o those natural products that are in commerce.
Climate patterns drive the magnitude and variability of the circulation and hea storage capacity of the surface layers of the ocean, as described in Chapters 4 and 5 The displacement of warm and cold water pools on the surface of the ocean feed into the dynamics of the atmosphere, generating enormous transient fluctuations i weather patterns, such as the El Nifio and La Nifia cycles, that cascade dow affecting the production of a series of goods and services, not only in the ocean, bu most notably also on land. For example, El Nifio adversely affects the availability an price of fishmeal and fish oil, also key components of the diet of carnivorous specie in aquaculture (see Chapter 12).
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4. Scientific understanding of ecosystem services
The fundamental connection between humans and nature has received uneve levels of recognition in how we deal in economic terms with the benefits human extract from nature.
Humans derive many benefits from all aspects of the natural world. Some of thes benefits are provided by nature without human intervention and some requir human inputs, often with substantial labour and economic investment. The feature and functions of nature which provide these services can be regarded as “natura capital”, and the way in which this natural capital is organized and how it functions i delivering benefits to humans, has led to these types of benefits being described a “ecosystem services”. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment characterize ecosystem services as: provisioning services (e.g., food, pharmaceutical compounds building material); regulating services (e.g., climate regulation, moderation o extreme events, waste treatment, erosion protection, maintaining populations o species); supporting services (e.g., nutrient cycling, primary production); and cultura services (e.g., spiritual experience, recreation, information for cognitiv development, aesthetics).
The rent for land or the royalties on mineral extraction are examples of long established approaches adopted to account for uses of nature. They are based on  one-to-one relationship between one activity or industry and one natural source o the goods or services. The effect of other industries on the same ecosystem is no considered; neither are the impacts on other members of the social system affecte by these industries.
To comprehensively account for human benefits and costs, “natural capital” needs t be considered alongside the assets that humans have themselves developed whether in the form of individual skills (“human capital”), the social structures the have created (“social capital”) or the physical assets that they have developed (“buil capital”). Managing the scale of the human efforts in using natural capital is crucial The ecosystem-services approach allows decision-making to be integrated acros land, sea and the atmosphere and enables an understanding of the potential an nature of trade-offs among services given different management actions.
The increasing magnitude of human pressures on the natural system has caused  transition from an emphasis on single-species or single-sector management to multi sector, ecosystem-based management and hence to the explicit incorporation o human actions in socio-ecological systems management.
A number of variants of the ecosystem-services approach exist. Some emphasize th functional aspects of ecosystems from which people derive benefits. Others pu more emphasis on their utilitarian aspects and seek to apply mainstream economi accounting methods, assigning them monetary values obtained in the market o using non-market methodologies. Yet others emphasize human well-being an ethical values. Looking at ecosystem services requires consideration of a wide rang of scales, from the completely global (for example, the role of the oceans i distributing heat around the world; Chapter 5) to the very local (for example, the
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protection offered by coral reefs to low-lying islands; Chapter 42).
Most studies conducted on marine and coastal ecosystem services have bee focused locally and, in general, have not taken into account benefits generate further afield. An ecosystem-services approach can help with decision-making unde conditions of uncertainty, and can bring to light important synergies and trade-off between different uses of the ocean. However, attempting to assess the relationshi between the operation of ecosystem services and the interests of humans requires  much broader management approach and an understanding that many aspects o the ocean have non-linear behaviour and responses. One difficulty is that to date n generally agreed classification of goods and services derived from natural capita exists that could facilitate the task. Another obstacle is that the range of factor involved at all levels might require the consideration of their interaction at th relevant scale, making their treatment very complex.
Some ecosystem services are more visible and easily understood than others. Ther is a risk that the less visible an ecosystem service is, the less it will be taken int account in decision-making. There is also a risk that ecosystem services that can b valued in monetary terms will be understood more easily than others, thus distortin decisions. Likewise, the time scales over which some ecosystem services will b affected by decisions will be much longer than others, which an approach wit traditionally used discount rates would completely dismiss.
4.1 Information gaps
Describing and mapping the full range of ecosystem services at different scale requires much data on the underlying functions and structure of the way in whic ecosystems operate. Although much work has been done, mostly on terrestria ecosystems, this assessment draws attention in its various chapters to the gaps i the information needed to understand the way in which individual ecosyste services operate in the ocean and along the coasts. In addition to these specific gaps a more general, overarching gap exists in understanding how all the individua ecosystem services fit together.
4.2 Capacity-building gaps
Many skills have yet to be developed that should integrate an understanding of th operation of ecosystems: knowledge is currently too fragmented between differen specialisms.
Even in cases where the appropriate skills exist, some parts of the world lac institutions with the status, resources and commitment to make the necessar inputs into decision-making that will affect a range of ecosystem services from th oceans.
The many institutions that already exist to study the ocean also require new o enhanced abilities and connections, but can be expected to work together. Som international networks already exist to facilitate this. More are needed.
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5. The ocean’s role in the hydrological cycle
Water is essential for life and the existence of water in a liquid state on the surfac of the earth is probably a critical reason why life is found on this planet and not o others. The presence of water on the surface of the earth is the combined result o the cosmic and geological history of the planet during its 4.5 billion years o existence. These processes, at human time-scales of thousands of years, can b considered as quasi-stable.
The ocean dominates the hydrological cycle. The great majority of the water on th surface of the planet, 97 per cent, is stored in the ocean. Only 2.5 per cent of th global balance of water is fresh water, of which approximately 69 per cent i permanent ice or snow and 30 per cent is ground water. The remainder 1 per cent i available in soil, lakes, rivers, swamps, etc. (Trenberth et al., 2007).
Water evaporates from the planet’s surface, is transported through the atmospher and falls as rain or snow. Rain is the largest source of fresh water entering the ocea (~530,000 km? yr“). At the ocean-atmosphere interface, 85 per cent of surfac evaporation and 77 per cent of surface rainfall occur (Trenberth et al., 2007; Schanz et al., 2010). The residence time of all water in the atmosphere is only seven days. I is fair to say that “all atmospheric water is on a short-term loan from the ocean”.
However, as with many other cycles, the water cycle is a dynamic system in a quas steady-state condition. This steady-state condition can be altered if the factor controlling the cycle change. The great glaciations, or ice ages, are processes i which, due to interplanetary and planetary changes, huge amounts of water pas from the liquid to the solid state, altering the availability of liquid water on th surface of the earth and dramatically changing the sea level. As a consequence of th change in sea level, the shape of world coastlines and the amount of emerged (o submerged) land is drastically changed.
Changes are occurring today at an unprecedentedly fast but still uncertain rate.  warmer ocean expands and, being contained by rigid basins, the only surface tha can move is the free surface in contact with the atmosphere, raising sea level.
In addition, the melting of ice due to a warmer atmosphere and a warmer ocean i increasing the volume of the ocean and in the long run will dominate the amount o total change in sea level.
As the ocean warms, evaporation will increase, and global precipitation patterns wil change. The IPCC assess (AR 3, 2001; AR 4, 2007; and AR 5, 2013 and 2014) that th dynamic system of water on earth, driven by global warming, is changing sea level a a mean rate of 1.7 [1.5 to 1.9] mm yr“ between 1901 and 2010, increased to 3. [2.8 to 3.6] mm yr“ between 1993 and 2010 and, due to the changes in climate, wil also change the patterns of rain on land.
Warming affects the polar ice caps, and changes in their melting affect the salinity o the ocean. This in turn can affect the ocean circulation, especially the thermohalin vertical circulation, also known as the “conveyor belt” (Chapter 5) and the operatio of associated ecosystem services.
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Due to the concentration of human population and built infrastructure in the coasta zone, sea level rise will seriously affect the way in which humans operate. The effect of sea-level rise will vary widely between regions and areas, with some of the region most affected least able to manage a response.
Changes in water run-off will affect both land and sea. Salinity in the different part of the ocean has changed over time, but is now changing more rapidly. Gradients i salinity are becoming more marked. Because the distribution of marine biota i affected by the salinity of the water that they inhabit, changes in the distribution o salinity are likely to result in changes in distribution of the biota.
Changes in run-off from land are affecting the input of nutrients to the ocean. Thes changes will also affect marine ecosystems, due to increases in the acidity of th ocean.
The warming of the ocean is not uniform. It is modulated by oscillations such as E Nifio. These oscillations cause significant transient changes to the climate an ecosystems, both on land and at sea, and have serious economic effects. Th variations in ocean warming will affect the interaction with the atmosphere an affect the intensity and distribution of tropical storms.
5.1 Information gaps
The sheer scale of the changes that are happening to the ocean makes presen knowledge inadequate to understand all the implications. There are gaps i understanding sea-level rise, and interior temperature, salinity, nutrient and carbo distributions. Many of these gaps are being addressed as part of the world climat change agenda, but more detail about ocean conditions is needed for regional an local management decisions. The information gaps are particularly serious in som of the areas most seriously affected (e.g., the inter-tropical band).
5.2 Capacity-building gaps
Parts of the water cycle are still subject to uncertainties due to insufficient in sit measurements and observations. This is particularly true for surface water fluxes a the regional meso-scale. Because changes in the ocean's role on the hydrologica cycle will be pervasive, all parts of the world need to have access to, and the abilit to interpret, these changes. People and institutions with the necessary skills exist i many countries, but in many others they lack the status and resources to make th necessary input to decision-making.
6. Sea-Air Interaction
Most of the heat excess due to increases in atmospheric greenhouse gases i absorbed by the ocean. All ocean basins have warmed during recent decades, bu the increase in heat content is not uniform; the increase in heat content in the
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Atlantic during the last four decades exceeds that of the Pacific and Indian Ocean combined.
‘Recent’ warming (since the 1950s) is strongly evident in sea surface temperatures a all latitudes in all part of the ocean. Prominent structures that change over time an space, including the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO), decadal variability pattern in the Pacific Ocean, and a hemispheric asymmetry in the Atlantic Ocean, have bee highlighted as contributors to the regional differences in surface warming rates which in turn affect atmospheric circulation.
The effects of these large-scale climate oscillations are often felt around the world leading to the rearrangement of wind and precipitation patterns, which in tur substantially affect regional weather, sometimes with devastating consequences.
Compared with estimates for the global ocean, coastal waters are warming faster during the last three decades, approximately 70 per cent of the world’s coastline ha experienced significant increases in sea surface temperature. Such coastal warmin can have many serious consequences for the ecological system, including specie relocation.
These changes are also affecting the salinity of the ocean: saline surface waters i the evaporation-dominated mid-latitudes have become more saline, while relativel fresh surface waters in rainfall-dominated tropical and polar regions have becom fresher.
Approximately 83 per cent of global CO, increase is currently generated from th burning of fossil fuels and industrial activity. Forests and grasslands that usuall absorb CO, from the atmosphere are being removed, causing even more CO) to b absorbed by the ocean. The ocean thus serves as an important sink of atmospheri CO2, effectively slowing down global climate change. However, this benefit come with a steep bio-ecological cost. When CO reacts with water, it forms carbonic acid leading to the ocean becoming more acid — referred to as “ocean acidification” Through various routes, this imposes an additional energy cost to calcifier organisms such as corals and shell-bearing plankton, although this is by no means the sol impact of ocean acidification (OA).
OA is not a simple phenomenon nor will it have a simple unidirectional effect o organisms. Calcification is an internal process that in the vast majority of cases doe not depend directly on seawater carbonate content, since most organism us bicarbonate, which is increasing under acidification scenarios, or CO2 originating i their internal metabolism. It has been demonstrated in the laboratory and in th field that some calcifiers can compensate and thrive in acidification conditions.
Without significant intervention to reduce CO2 emissions, by the end of this century average surface ocean pH is expected to be below 7.8, an unprecedented level i recent geological history. These changes will be recorded first at the ocean’s surface where the highest biodiversity and productivity occur.
The abundance and composition of species may be changed, due to OA, with th potential to affect ecosystem function at all trophic levels. Consequential changes i ocean chemistry could occur as well. Economic studies have shown that potentia losses at local and regional scales may be catastrophic for communities and national
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economies that depend on fisheries.
6.1 Information Gaps
Regular monitoring of relevant fluxes across the ocean-atmosphere interface need to be maintained, including the regular assessment of the accumulation of heat an CO> (changes in alkalinity) in the surface layers of the ocean. The state of knowledg regarding OA is only currently moving beyond the nascent stage. Therefore severa major information gaps are yet to be filled. Neither all areas of the globe nor al potentially affected animal and plant groups have yet been covered in terms o research. The full range of response and adaptation of organisms, although an activ field of research, is very seldom known.
Additional information is required around the effects of mean changes in OA versu changes in variability and extremes; as well as multi-generational effects an adaptive potential of different organisms (Riebesell and Gattuso, 2015; Sunday et al. 2014). The tolerance level by individual organisms to changes in pH must b understood in situ rather than exclusively in laboratory conditions, along with th possible consequential changes in competition by organisms for resources. Th effects of potential loss of keystone species within ecosystems are not yet clear neither are the chemical changes due to pH.
The future agenda of research in OA should include integrating knowledge o multiple stressors, competitive and trophic interactions, and adaptation throug evolution and moving from single-species to community assessments (Sunday et al. 2014). Future economic impacts of OA are being studied but much more needs to b done. Monitoring and management strategies for maintaining the marine econom will also be needed. In this regard, it has been suggested that future OA researc could focus on species related to ecosystem services in anticipation that these cas studies might be most useful for modellers and managers (Sunday et al. 2014).
6.2 Capacity-Building Gaps
OA was put in evidence only through long-term observational programme coordinated by the international research community. To monitor OA on a regula basis, these international efforts need to be continued and _ institutionall consolidated. OA adaptation is a demanding field of research that require significant infrastructure (i.e. mesocosm experimental facilities) and highly qualifie human resources. These are not readily available in all regions of the world. Furthe understanding of the scope of adaptation capabilities to OA by plants and animals the application of mitigation strategies, or the successful management of productiv systems cultivating organisms with calcareous exo-skeletons that are regularl exposed to corrosive waters sources, require the existence of these capabilities i place.
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7. Primary Production, Cycling of Nutrients, Surface Layer and Plankton
“Marine primary production” is the photosynthesis of plant life in the ocean t produce organic matter, using the energy from sunlight, and carbon dioxide an nutrients dissolved in seawater. Carbon dioxide dissolved in seawater is drawn fro the atmosphere. Oxygen is produced as a by-product of photosynthesis both on lan and in the ocean. Of the total annual oxygen production from photosynthesis o land and ocean, approximately half originates in marine plants. The plants involve in this process range from the microscopic phytoplankton to giant seaweeds. O land, the other 50 per cent of the world’s oxygen originates in the photosynthesi from all plants and forests. Present-day animals and bacteria rely on present-da oxygen production by plants on land and in the ocean as a critical ecosystem servic that keeps atmospheric oxygen from otherwise declining.
Marine primary production, as the primary source of organic matter in the ocean, i the basis of nearly all life in the oceans, playing an important role in the globa cycling of carbon. Phytoplankton absorbs about 50 billion tons of carbon a year, an large seaweeds and other marine plants (macrophytes) about 3 billion tons. At  planetary level, this ecological function plays an important role in removing CO,  one of the significant greenhouse gases — from the atmosphere. Total annua anthropogenic emissions of CO are estimated at 49.5 billion tons, one-third of whic is taken up by the ocean. This ecological service provided by the ocean has so fa prevented warming of the planet above 2° C.
Marine primary production also plays a major role in the cycling of nitrogen aroun the world. A moderate level of uncertainty exists about the extent to which th ocean is currently a net absorber or releaser of nitrogen.
Anthropogenic nutrient loading in coastal waters, ocean warming, ocea acidification, and sea-level rise are driving changes in the phenology (see below) an spatial pattern of phytoplankton and in net primary production as well as in nutrien cycles. These changes are threatening the provision of several ecosystem services a different scales (local, regional).
Changes in macrophyte net primary production and their impacts (losses of habita and of carbon sinks) are also well documented.
Changes in net primary production by phytoplankton or in the nutrient cycles in th upper levels of the world ocean have been the subject of recent debate. Som analyses suggested a diminishing trend in world primary production (Boyce et al. 2010). However, this result was challenged by Rykaczewski and Dunne (2011) an finally reviewed by the original authors (Boyce, et al., 2014). After recalibration o the datasets, despite an overall decline of chlorophyll concentration over 62 per cen of the global ocean with sufficient observations, they describe a more balance picture between regional increases and decreases of primary production, without a overall globally pervasive negative trend. The wider consequences of this long-ter trend are presently unresolved.
The efficient use of primary production to support animals at higher levels in th food web depends on a good relationship between the timing of bursts of primary
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production and breeding periods of zooplankton and planktivorous fish. Th phenology of species, i.e., the timing of events in the life cycle of species, plays  significant role here. Changes in the phenology of plankton species an planktivorous fish due to ocean warming is starting to produce significan mismatches and could produce many more, affecting the local level of production i the ocean.
Warming of the upper ocean and associated increases in vertical stratification ma lead to a major decrease in the proportion of primary production going t zooplankton and planktivorous fish, and an increase in the proportion o phytoplankton being broken down by microbes without first entering the highe levels of the food web. Such a trend would reduce the carrying capacity of th oceans for fisheries and the capacity of the oceans to mitigate the impacts o anthropogenic climate change.
Coastal eutrophication (see Chapter 20) is likely to lead to an increase in th numbers and area of dead zones and toxic phytoplankton blooms. Both can hav serious effects on the supply to humans of food from the sea.
Nanoparticles (microscopic fragments of plastic and other anthropogeni substances) pose a potential serious threat to plankton and the vast numbers o marine biota which depend on them.
Increases in nitrogen inputs to the ocean and in sea temperatures may have seriou impacts on the type (species, size) and amount of marine primary production although much debate still occurs about the scale of this phenomenon. Differen responses are likely to be found in different regions. This may be particularl significant in the Southern Ocean, where a major drop in primary production ha been forecast.
7.1 Information gaps
Completing a worldwide observing system for the biology and water quality of th ocean that could provide cost-effectively improved information to futur assessments under the Regular Process is seen as an important gap. Routine an sustained measurements across all parts of the ocean are needed on planktoni species diversity, chlorophyll a, dissolved nitrogen and dissolved biologically activ phosphorus. Due to their ability to enter into marine food chains, with a potentia impact on both marine organism and human health, plastic microparticles need t be systematically monitored.
Without this additional information, it will not be possible to understand or predic the changes that will occur due to the accumulated and combined effect of severa drivers. Some information can be derived from satellite remote sensing, but in sit observations at the surface and especially at sub-surface levels are irreplaceable given the fact that the ocean is essentially opaque to electromagnetic radiation, th medium par excellence of remote sensing.
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7.2 Capacity-building gaps
The gathering of such information requires a worldwide network for data collection Both a Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) and a Global Biodiversity Observatio Network (GEO BON) are currently being developed to collect biological an ecologically relevant information that, if completed, would fill in some of th information gaps described above. The capacities to participate in these system need to be extended worldwide. It is also important to develop the skills to explai to decision-makers and the general public the importance of plankton and it significance for the ecosystem services provided by the ocean.
8. Ocean-sourced carbonate production
Many marine organisms secrete calcium carbonate to produce a hard skeleton These vary in size from the microscopic plankton, through corals, to large mollus shells. Carbonate production by corals is particularly important, because the reef that they form are fundamental to the existence of many islands and some entir States.
Sand beaches are also often formed by the fragmented shells of marine biota Beaches are dynamic structures, under constant change from the effects of th oceans; hence a constant supply of new sand of this kind is needed to sustain them.
Sea-level rise will particularly affect beaches, causing them to move inland. In th case of small islands, this may diminish the already limited inhabitable area. Suc changes may also be affected by the availability of new supplies of sand. Suc changes could be very serious for States or parts of States comprised of atolls.
The impact of climate change on the rate of biogenic production of carbonat sediment is also little understood, but it seems likely to have negative consequences Ocean warming has already led to the death (bleaching) of some coral reefs or part of them.
The acidification of the ocean may lead to significant changes in the biogeni production of calcium carbonate, with implications for the future of coral reefs an shell beaches.
8.1 Knowledge gaps
Long-term data are lacking on the formation and fate of reef islands and shel beaches. Information is particularly lacking on the links between the physica structures and the environmental circumstances that may affect changes in thes structures.
8.2 Capacity-building gaps
A gap often exists in the capacities of people living on atolls and in countrie depending heavily on tourism from shell beaches to understand the drivers that
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shape the development of these structures. Without such capacities it is impossibl to bring the factors affecting the future of these structures into the making o decisions which can fundamentally affect them.
9. Aesthetic, cultural, religious and spiritual ecosystem services derived fro the marine environment
The development of human culture over the centuries has been influenced by th ocean, through transport of cultural aspects across the seas, the acquisition o cultural objects from the sea, the development of culture to manage huma activities at sea, and the interaction of cultural activities with the sea.
The ocean has been and continues to be the source of prized materials for cultura use, for example: pearls, mother-of-pearl, coral, and tortoise-shell. Some marin foodstuffs are also ingredients in culturally significant dishes. The high value given t many of these culturally significant objects can lead to their over-exploitation an the long-term damage of the ecosystems that supply them. The sea is an importan element in many sites of cultural significance. Forty-six marine and coastal sites ar included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Even where sites do not reach this high threshold of cultural significance, grea aesthetic and economic importance may be attached to preserving the seascape an coastal views. This concern should also be extended to the tangible cultural heritag of past human interaction with the sea and of past human activities in periods of lo sea levels. This can be particularly significant in making decisions about the locatio of new offshore installations.
The intangible cultural heritage of human interaction with the sea is also important Ten per cent of the items on the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Nee of Urgent Safeguarding involve the ocean. Important cultural areas are derived fro the need of humans to operate on the ocean, leading to skills such as navigation hydrography, naval architecture, chronometry and many other techniques.
The need is increasingly being recognised to understand the knowledge system developed by many indigenous peoples to understand and manage their interaction with the marine environment.
9.1 Knowledge gaps
In the current fast-changing world, it is important to record much traditiona knowledge before it is lost.
9.2 Capacity-building gaps
For cultural goods derived from the sea, a gap exists in many parts of the world fo the skills needed to identify and implement potential opportunities to turn loca marine objects to good account. Means to support traditional cultural practices so
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that they endure for future generations need to be provided, and anthropologica skills to record and interpret them are also important.
10. The ecosystem services concept and the United Nations and other system of environmental-economic accounting
As can be seen from the foregoing, there is a general need to bring togethe information about ecosystem services, in a way which allows judgments to be mad about trade-offs. In 1992, the United Nations Conference on Environment an Development (UNCED) called for the implementation of integrated environmental economic accounting in countries, to complement national accounts by accountin for environmental losses and gains. As a consequence, the United Nations Statistic Division (in charge of maintaining the framework as well as the world standards fo the System of National Accounts) led the development of the System o Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) under the auspices of the Unite Nations Committee of Experts on Environmental-Economic Accounting (UNCEEA) The SEEA Central Framework was adopted as an international standard by th United Nations Statistical Commission at its 43rd Session in 2012 and the SEE Experimental Ecosystem Accounting was endorsed by the same commission at it 44th session in 2013 (http://unstats.un.org/unsd/envaccounting/seea.asp). Both th SEEA Central Framework and SEEA Experimental Ecosystem Accounting use th accounting concepts, structures and principles of the System of National Account (SNA).
The SSEA provides a way of organizing information in both “physical terms” an “monetary terms” using consistent definitions, concepts and classifications. Physica measures and valuation of ecosystem services and ecosystem assets are discussed i the SEEA Experimental Ecosystem Accounting. Those ecosystem services an ecosystem assets are not typically traded on markets, as explained in Chapter 3, an are difficult to measure because observed prices cannot be used to measure thes assets and services as in standard economic accounting (Statistics Division of th United Nations, 2012). Although concepts and methods are still experimental, man United Nations Member States have engaged in ambitious programmes to appl these new concepts (Figure 1).
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COUNTRIES IMPLEMENTING SEEA
Hi Existing programmes on SEEA — Coastline
|| Countries planning to start a programme on SEEA — International Boundary
| | NoprogrammesonSEEA 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 === Other Line of Separatio (no Tesponse
and the des at or.
Figure 1. Countries of the world implementing natural capital accounting programmes. The map i provided by the United Nations Statistics Division.
Simplified ecosystem capital accounts are currently being implemented in Europe b the European Environment Agency, in cooperation with Eurostat, as one of th responses to recurrent policy demands in Europe for accounting for ecosystems an biodiversity (The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity:TEEB). The Europea Union has developed the MAES programme, for Mapping and Assessment o Ecological Services in the 27 countries of the European Unio (http://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/an-experimental-framework-for ecosystem).
The United Kingdom Government has recently completed a national ecosyste assessment (UK National Ecosystem Assessment, 2011) and, building on this report has made a commitment to include the value of natural capital and ecosystems full into the United Kingdom environmental accounts by 2020.
11. Conclusions
Long-established approaches adopted to account for uses of nature, like rent o royalties, are based on a one-to-one relationship between one activity or industr and one natural source of the goods or services. The effect of other industries on the
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same natural source is not considered; neither are the impacts on other members o the social system affected by these industries.
Traditionally these invisible benefits and costs are mostly hidden in the “natura system”, and usually are not accounted for at all in economic terms. The emergenc and evolution of the concept of ecosystem services is an explicit attempt to bette capture and reflect these hidden or unaccounted benefits and costs, expanding th scope of policy options already available in integrated management approache through the consideration of the trade-offs among different uses and beneficiaries.
The ecosystem services approach has proven to be very useful in the management o multi-sector processes and is informing today many management and regulator processes around the world, especially on land. However, the methodologies an different approaches to assess and measure ecosystem services, or to assign the value, as presented in Chapter 3, are far from benefiting from a common set o standards and a consensual framework for their application. Furthermore, as state in Chapter 3, “On land, negative impacts can be partially managed or contained i space. However, in the ocean, due to its fluid nature, impacts may broadcast far fro their site of origin and are more difficult to contain and manage. For example, ther is only one Ocean when considering its role in climate change through the ecosyste service of “gas regulation”.
In Chapters 4 to 8, the ecosystems services analyzed are provided on different spatia and temporal scales. Most of those ecosystems are described only on large to ver large scales, many of them, indeed, at the planetary scale. In contrast, much of th work on valuing ecosystem services in the ocean has focused on smaller systems, fo example, on assessing and valuing the services provided by marine parks, marin reserves and marine protected areas, in order to enable local judgments (includin such elements as making local planning decisions or establishing fees to charge t visitors). Despite a significant amount of work on ecosystem-services valuation fo the ocean and coasts, as reported in Chapter 3, evidence of its broader application i decision-making at the larger scales is still very limited.
References
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Rykaczewski, R.R. and Dunne, J.P. (2011). A measured look at ocean chlorophyl trends. Nature 472, E5-6.
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