Ecosystem Services

Ecosystem services are the direct and indirect benefits that ecosystems provide humans. Agroecosystems, rangelands, and forests provide suites of ecosystem services that support and sustain human livelihoods. These services are typically broken down into four categories:
  • Provisioning services: the material or energy outputs from an ecosystem, including food, forage, fiber, fresh water, and other resources
  • Regulating services: benefits obtained through moderation or control of ecosystem processes, including regulation of local climate, air, or soil quality; carbon sequestration; flood, erosion, or disease control; and pollination
  • Supporting services: services that maintain fundamental ecosystem processes, such as habitat for plants and wildlife, or the maintenance of genetic and biological diversity
  • Cultural services: the non-material benefits that ecosystems provide to human societies and culture, including opportunities for recreation, tourism, aesthetic or artistic appreciation, and spirituality

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Huckleberries on the Gifford Pinchot National Forest

Huckleberries are culturally and ecologically important plant species in the Northwest that are affected by climate change and land management practices. In the Northwest, the majority of huckleberry habitat is located on lands managed by the US Forest Service. Fire management…

What We Know About Climate Change and Northwest Huckleberries

a typical silvopasture field that was developed from a slash pine plantation. Brush species invaded abundantly after the canopy was opened up and goats were used to manage the brush. Jim Robinson, USDA-NRCS

Forests store or sequester a lot of carbon. Nationwide, USDA Greenhouse Gas Inventories indicate that forests, urban trees, and harvested wood account for the majority of natural sinks of carbon dioxide (USDA OCE 2016). However, trees outside of forests, including those planted…

How can agroforestry support climate change mitigation in the Northeast?

Tree at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

The USDA Northern Forests Climate Hub and the Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science (NIACS) have partnered with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to develop a series of brochures that describe options landowners and land managers have to adapt to climate…

Climate Change Adaptation and NRCS

Burning undergrowth in ponderosa pine forest

Decision-makers need better methods for identifying critical ecosystem vulnerabilities to changing climate and fire regimes. Climate-wildfire-vegetation interactions are complex and hinder classification and projection necessary for development of management strategies. The…

FireCLIME Vulnerability Assessment Tool

The Midwest includes agricultural lands, forests, and urban areas.

Increasing humidity and precipitation and rising extreme temperatures are having negative impacts across the Midwest. Integrating climate adaptation into planning processes can help build adaptive capacity to increase climate resilience. The U.S. Climate Resiliency Toolkit for…

Midwest U.S. Climate Resiliency Toolkit

Hands of a person feeling soil 20 minutes after a rain simulator applied 2 inches of water. Photo credit USDA NRCS

No-till is not a new concept — it has been a management practice for several decades. Yet it has gained fresh momentum as a key soil health practice recommended by the USDA NRCS. Adopting a new management practice is no small decision though. It is essential to learn as much as…

No-Till: From Science to Practice

Phyciodes pulchella in the Great Basin National Park Credt: Robert Webster / xpda.com / CC-BY-SA-4.0

Our national forests, shrublands and grasslands are composed of diverse assemblages of native forb species that support numerous pollinators. Disturbances, invasives and climate change threaten the diversity and abundance of native forbs, and therefore pollinators. Research and…

Investments in native forb research to promote pollinator health

Teff seeded between rows of pumpkins at URI’s agronomy farm. Photo by Dr. Rebecca Brown.

Many Rhode Island farmers plant winter cover crops, such as winter rye (Secale cereale). The plants help to reduce soil erosion, improve soil quality, and provide other benefits. Summer cover crops traditionally have not been used in Rhode Island because of the short summer…

New Opportunities for Summer Cover Crops

Hill top view of McConnell Berry Farm

One third of all of our food comes from pollinated crops.  Because increasing temperatures impact both plants and the pollinators they rely on, climate change poses a dual threat to crop production. Shifts in dates when plants flower or pollinators are present could…

Blueberries, Pollinators, and Pests with WVU

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