Title: Is the Ocean Health Connected with the Supply of Ecosystem Services and Human Benefits?
Abstract:Marine ecosystem services provide multiple benefits and hold significant economic value; however, the capacity of the marine environment to provide ecosystem services can be compromised by anthropogen...Marine ecosystem services provide multiple benefits and hold significant economic value; however, the capacity of the marine environment to provide ecosystem services can be compromised by anthropogenic pressures. To ensure proper environmental conditions and human well-being, it is necessary to study the functioning of marine ecosystem services. The hypothesis of this study is that healthy oceans will supply more and better ecosystem services, resulting in socio-economic benefits for humans, and that this can be tested by applying the CICES (Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services) conceptual cascade to a real case study. To this end, the study was divided in two parts: (i) review, compilation and classification of CICES cascade indicators, for three marine ecosystem service examples (provisioning, regulation and cultural), together with the analysis of the number of indicators and the match of the classification undertaken by the authors in the literature and CICES proposal; and (ii) the application of the CICES cascade to the practical case study of the anchovy fishery in the Bay of Biscay. The results obtained show that many indicators were incorrectly assigned in the literature to the different components of the CICES cascade. This study highlights the need to develop a standardized classification and understanding of the marine ecosystem services. Significant correlations between the different five steps of the CICES cascades were obtained, suggesting that this cascade is effective at explaining the links between a healthy environment and the sustainable supply of ecosystem services and benefits.Read More
Publication Year: 2024
Publication Date: 2024-01-01
Language: en
Type: preprint
Indexed In: ['crossref']
Access and Citation
AI Researcher Chatbot
Get quick answers to your questions about the article from our AI researcher chatbot