Evaluating ecosystem services on farmland: a novel, experimental, 'bottom up' approach

Abstract

Human life is supported by natural ecosystems and species that constitute them through conditions and processes which are known as ecosystem services or nature’s services. To date, ES value has been assessed using a ‘top-down’ approach, i.e., the economic value of 17 ES in 16 biomes was calculated by Costanza et al. (1997) to be in the range of US$16-54 trillion per year, with an annual average of US$33 trillion based on published studies, supported by a few original calculations, Pimentel et al. However, there is lack of detailed understanding of the ES associated with highly-modified or ‘engineered’ landscapes (Balmford et al., 2002). In contrast with the above mentioned broad, value transfer approaches, current work assesses three key ES (biological control of pests, soil formation, and mineralization of plant nutrients) experimentally and focuses on one sector of an engineered ecosystem, arable farming, and addresses both conventional and organic systems attributing dollar values to some of their key ES.