This page with curricular ideas is based on the original found at:
http://www.racerocks.com/racerock/education/curricula/projects/ecoservices.htm

Although it is targetted as an exercise for Race Rocks, It could be used similarily in any other ecosystem.

In recent years, we have started to acknowledge that "Ecosystem services " are something to which we must start paying attention as to fail to do so leads to a rapid decline in our quality of life: This file explores that idea further and invites you to contribute to a new project :
DEFINING THE ECOSYSTEM SERVICES of RACE ROCKS.
It is our hope that while you are helping us to assemble the values of these Ecosystem services for Race Rocks, you may be motivated to look in your own back yard and start placing a more realistic value on your own Ecosystems' Services. " Even today’s technology and knowledge can reduce considerably the human impact on ecosystems. They are unlikely to be deployed fully, however, until ecosystem services cease to be perceived as free and limitless, and their full value is taken into account."

OBJECTIVES: After doing this assignment,students will beableto:

1. Define what is meant by the terms ecosystem services.

2. Define what is meant by the term Natural Capital.

3. Enumerate the Ecosystem services of Race Rocks,and contribute an observation of some form of ecosystem service you observe there to the GIS.

PROCEDURES:

1. Using the references below, investigate what is meant by Natural Capital and Ecosystem Services. Make a table where you can list the ecosystem services which you think are provided by an area like Race Rocks. In the table make a dollar estimation of the value of that service per year.

2. Using the area where you live, make a list of the ecosysterm services provided by your local ecosystems, and rate which you think are the most important.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

• You will observe commercial whale/marine mammal/bird/-watching boats in the area.. how many passengers do they carry and what is the value generated per trip.
• You may see tankers and others vessels going by which you can also record . Race Rocks has a lighthouse and foghorn.. What is the value to ships of this set of islands for navigation?
• Research is done at Race Rocks by students of schools, colleges and universities? What is the value of this location for research and education?
• The research for tidal energy production is going on at Race Rocks. What is the value of this to Clean Current, to BC Parks, to the BC government, to Pearson College?
• A number of viewers around the world use Race Rocks as a location for bird and animal viewing. See the examples from England which are linked to the Daily Log
• The role of marine protected areas in conservation is a world wide goal. How does the Management Plan for Race Rocks reflect ecosystem services provided by the area. http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/planning/mgmtplns/race_rocks/racerock.html

BACKGROUND REFERENCE: From:
http://www.oceansatlas.org/servlet/CDSServlet?status=ND0xOTAwMS4xO
TAwNiY2PWVuJjMzPWRvY3VtZW50cyYzNz1pbmZvUNEP - WCMC  

Ecosystem services
        
'Ecosystem goods', such as food, and 'services', such as waste assimilation, represent the benefits humans obtain from a properly functioning ecosystem and are usually referred together as 'ecosystem services'. Unsurprisingly a large number of ecosystem services have been identified, especially for the oceans which cover the majority of the planet and the coastal zone where the majority of humans live.
 
The red high-lighted topics below might have a relevance for RaceRocks:

These include: gas regulation (e.g. maintaining a balanced chemical composition in the atmosphere),
climate regulation (e.g. control of global temperature, precipitation, greenhouse gas regulation, cloud formation)
disturbance regulation (e.g. storm protection, flood control, drought recovery),
water regulation (e.g. regulation of global, regional and local scale hydrology through currents and tides),
water supply (e.g. storage of water returned to land as precipitation),
erosion and sediment transport/deposition (e.g. moving sediments from source areas and replenishing depositional areas),
nutrient cycling e.g. the storage, internal cycling, processing and acquisition of nutrients, nitrogen fixation, phosphorus cycles),
waste treatment (e.g. the breakdown of excess xenic and toxic compounds),
biological control (e.g. the trophic-dynamic regulation of populations),
refugia (e.g. feeding and nursery habitats for resident and transient populations of harvested species),
food production (e.g. the portion of gross primary production which is extracted as food for humans),
raw materials (e.g. the portion of gross primary production which is extracted as fuel or building material),
genetic resources (e.g. sources of unique biological materials for medicines),
recreation (e.g. opportunities for tourism, sport and other outdoor pastimes) and cultural (e.g. opportunities for aesthetic, artistic, educational, spiritual activities).
 
The value (the theoretical cost of artificially replacing the services were they not to be provided by nature) to humanity of these ecosystem services has been estimated at $8400 billion per year for the open oceans and 1.5 times this for coastal ecosystems. Consumptive use (production of food and raw materials) is a minor (<5%) component and therefore the true value of marine ecosystems is in non- consumptive use. However quantifying such use is notoriously hard.

Adapted from the reference:
The structure and function of ecological systems in relation to property right regimes. In: Hanna, S., Folke, C., Maler, K.G. (Eds.), Rights to Nature. Island Press, Washington, DC, pp. 13 34. Authority. Research Publication No. 35, Townsville, Australia, pp. 83.   ( DOCUMENT ) Author(s) / Editor(s) Costanza, R., Folke, C., 1997.

OTHER REFERENCES ON THIS TOPIC:

Patterns of a Conservation Economy: True Cost Pricing
http://www.conservationeconomy.net/natural_capital.html

Ecosystem Services:
http://www.conservationeconomy.net/ecosystem_services.html

Ecosystem Services: Benefits Supplied to Human Societies by Natural Ecosystems
http://www.ecology.org/biod/value/EcosystemServices.html

Millennium Ecosystem Assessments of the world Health organization
http://www.millenniumassessment.org//en/index.aspx

How ecosystem services relate to one another
http://www.ecosystemservicesproject.org/html/publications/docs/nair/chap7.pdf

Ecosystem Services - Case studies from Australia
http://www.ecosystemservicesproject.org/index.htm

Securing Canada's Natural Capital:
http://www.nrtee-trnee.ca/eng/publications/securing-canadas-natural-capital/securing-canadas-natural-capital-eng.pdf

Natural Capital:

http://www.conservationeconomy.net/content.cfm?PatternID=17

RESULTS OF NATIONAL SURVEY ON ECOLOGICAL GOODS AND SERVICES
http://www.maweb.org/documents/document.300.aspx.pdf

References specializing in Marine Ecosystem Services:

Aquatic ecosystems provide many services contributing to human well-being . Maintenance of the integrity and
the restoration of these ecosystems are vital for services such as water replenishment and purification, flood and drought control.

1. Other reference Ecosystem Services: The Role of Natural Capital
A piece that defines the ecosystem services of Race Rocks

2.ECOSYSTEM SERVICES: Benefits Supplied to Human Societies by Natural Ecosystems
http://www.ecology.org/biod/value/EcosystemServices.html

3. The encyclopedia of Earth: Marine ecosystem services:
http://www.ecology.org/biod/value/EcosystemServices.html

4. Assessing the Non-Market Values of Ecosystem Services provided by Coastal and Marine Systems http://www.ecotrust.org/katoomba/presentations/Marine_Coastal_Presentations
/NonMarket_Values_Coastal_Marine_Ecosystems_Matthew_Wilson_Shuang_Liu.pdf

5. Economic Valuation of Ecosystem Services
http://judylumb.com/eco-services.html

• "It is most important to raise consciousness of the general public and of public officials and managers of the value of ecosystem services. Here are some ways that individual friends might choose.
  1)    Educate ourselves about ecosystem services.
  2)    Monitor local news for issues that impact ecosystem services to point out areas of public concern when ecosystem services are destroyed or disregarded.
  3)    Speak truth to power — communicate with local officials and congressional representatives about the implications of their decisions on ecosystem services.
  4)      Hold agencies to the environmental and public input requirements of the laws.
  5)       Make certain that preservation of ecosystem services is among the options presented.
  6)    Write letters to the editor to educate the public about ecosystem services"

6: Millennium Ecosystem assessment panel: Ecosystems and Human Well: being wetlands and water.
http://www.maweb.org/documents/document.358.aspx.pdf

7.The Ecosystem Services Project http://www.ecosystemservicesproject.org/

8. Amory Lovins lecturing on Natural Capital in a lecture at Berkley

This file was created in 2008 as a marine education resource supported by the Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre in Sidney