Ecology of ecosystem services: a case study of riparian systems

Published on January 30, 2022   21 min
Please wait while the transcript is being prepared...
0:00
Hi, my name is Isabel Rojas, and I am an assistant professor of Forest and Water in The University of Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile. In this lecture I'm going to develop on a very important topic for humankind and the persistence of life on Earth as we know it. We're going to learn about the framework of ecosystem service, and the ecological principles that support the framework. To do this we're going to use riparian System as a case study of the application of the framework.
0:31
In 2015 the United Nations member states made a universal call to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030. And to do so they define 17 sustainable development goals including no poverty, climate action, and the protection of biodiversity of land and below water. However, one of the largest challenges to move forward on sustainable goals, it is to balance economic, social and environmental sustainability. There is a robust scientific evidence that during the last 70 years humans have changed ecosystem more rapidly and extensively than in any comparable period of time in human history, largely to meet rapidly growing demand for food, freshwater, timber, fiber and fuel. This has resulted in a substantial and largely irreversible loss in the diversity of life on Earth. The changes that have been made to ecosystem have contributed to substantial net gain in human well-being and economic development, but these gains had been achieved at a growing cost in the form of degradation of many ecosystems, and the exacerbation of poverty for some group of people. These problems unless addressed will substantially diminish the benefit that future generations obtain from ecosystem. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment then, it is a conceptual framework to assess the consequence of ecosystem change for human well being and to develop the scientific basis for actions needed to announce the conservation and sustainable use of ecosystems. Before we get started,
Hide

Ecology of ecosystem services: a case study of riparian systems

Embed in course/own notes