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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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

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

Forestry log camp

Some content excerpted from "Carbon and Land Management" on the USFS Climate Change Resource Center and the USFS report Considering Forest and Grassland Carbon in Land Management (WO-GTR-95).   Forests play a critical role in mitigating climate change by capturing carbon…

Forest Carbon and Land Management

Lakeshore

Taking action now can help forested watersheds prepare for and adapt to a changing climate. Forested watersheds improve water quality and enhance water storage, naturally regulate streamflows, reduce flood damages and stormwater runoff, replenish groundwater and provide a myriad…

Forested watersheds climate change adaptation

Little Sand Bay, WI.

Traditional and indigenous knowledge and perspectives have not often been recognized in climate adaptation planning efforts focused on natural resources. The Northern Forests Climate Hub is collaborating with regional tribal partners to address this gap, and collaborating to…

Climate Adaptation and Indigenous Knowledge in the Great Lakes

Landscape photo of the Little Missouri National Grasslands, North Dakota.

The USDA Northern Plains Climate Hub (NPCH) contributed, as coauthors, to three articles in as special issue of the journal of Climatic Change on the "Vulnerability Assessment of US Agriculture and Forests developed by the USDA Climate Hubs" (January 2018, Volume 146, Issue…

Northern Plains Contributions: Vulnerability Assessment of US Agriculture and Forests developed by the USDA Climate Hubs

Photo taken at Reiman Gardens Butterfly Wing, Ames, IA

What are Pollinators? Pollinators are animals (primarily insect, but sometimes birds or mammals) that fertilize plants, resulting in the formation of seeds and the fruit surrounding seeds. Humans and other animals rely on pollinators to produce nuts and fruits that are…

Pollinators

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