Abstract
BackgroundResearch on ecosystem services has grown exponentially during the last decade. Most of the studies have focused on assessing and mapping terrestrial ecosystem services highlighting a knowledge gap on marine and coastal ecosystem services (MCES) and an urgent need to assess them.Methodology/Principal FindingsWe reviewed and summarized existing scientific literature related to MCES with the aim of extracting and classifying indicators used to assess and map them. We found 145 papers that specifically assessed marine and coastal ecosystem services from which we extracted 476 indicators. Food provision, in particular fisheries, was the most extensively analyzed MCES while water purification and coastal protection were the most frequently studied regulating and maintenance services. Also recreation and tourism under the cultural services was relatively well assessed. We highlight knowledge gaps regarding the availability of indicators that measure the capacity, flow or benefit derived from each ecosystem service. The majority of the case studies was found in mangroves and coastal wetlands and was mainly concentrated in Europe and North America. Our systematic review highlighted the need of an improved ecosystem service classification for marine and coastal systems, which is herein proposed with definitions and links to previous classifications.Conclusions/SignificanceThis review summarizes the state of available information related to ecosystem services associated with marine and coastal ecosystems. The cataloging of MCES indicators and the integrated classification of MCES provided in this paper establish a background that can facilitate the planning and integration of future assessments. The final goal is to establish a consistent structure and populate it with information able to support the implementation of biodiversity conservation policies.
Highlights
Ecosystem services are the benefits people derive from nature
Data and methods to asses the provision of marine and coastal ecosystem services (MCES) are much more limited when compared to terrestrial assessments [6,7,8,9]
To add to that, existing ecosystem services classification systems have been created taking into account the terrestrial environment and in very few cases address the particularities of the marine environment [15,16] which generates inconsistencies in the used terminologies and conceptual mismatches
Summary
Ecosystem services are the benefits people derive from nature. Human survival and well-being depend on these services, and on the conservation and the best management of ecosystems that provide them [1,2]. The variety of objectives and approaches of ecosystem service research and its escalating rate of publication has increased the number of proposals of ecosystem service indicators being linked to different purposes [18,19]. Extensive reviews of such indicators, mostly focused on terrestrial systems, have been carried out by [20,21,22,23,24]. The compilation of MCES indicators performed in this review could serve as an information repository, while enhancing our understanding towards ecosystem services provided by the marine and coastal systems and towards key characteristics/functions that can be used for quantifying and valuing MCES. All the information is summarized and organized in a systematic way in order to facilitate its use by researchers and practitioners wanting to map and assess ecosystem services for marine and coastal environments
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