生态功益:自然生态过程对人类的贡献

Ecosystem services: the biological conditions and ecological supports necessary for the development of human societies.

大自然是维系人类社会生存和维持文明发展的生命之舟，为人们的物质和精神生活提供必不可少的资源和环境条件及生态服务．生态功益是这些由自然生物过程产生和维持的环境资源方面的条件和服务的统称．本文从自然生产，维持生物多样性，调节气象过程、气候变化和地球化学物质循环，调节水循环和减缓旱涝灾害，改善与保持土壤，净化环境，为作物与自然植物传粉播种，控制病虫害，维护改善人的身心健康和激发人的精神文化追求等方面探讨和介绍生态功益及生态功益的经济评价．迅猛的人口增长、社会变化和技术发展已使承载人类社会的生命之舟受到严重破坏和巨大威胁．减少这些破坏和威胁是整个社会。

atural ecosystems support life, contribute to human welfare, and provide essential conditions and services for civilization. The contributions and benefits from natural ecological systems to human societies are ecosystem services, which include: production of natural goods, biodiversity maintenance, climate regulation, regulation of hydrological flows and water supply, mitigation of droughts and floods, cycling and moving nutrients, generation and preservation of soils and renewal of their fertility, detoxification and decomposition of wastes, pollination and seed dispersal, pest control, maintenance of conditions for both mental and physical health and healing of human beings, provision of aesthetic, intellectual, and spiritual stimulation. The services flowing from natural ecosystems are enormous and indispensable for economy and welfare, but have been greatly undervalued by society, partly because they are not traded in markets and people are rarely ware of the role and importance of these services. In market-driven societies, the valuation of ecosystem services is useful to support more ecologically conscious decision-making. Identification and monitoring of ecological processes that generate ecosystem services are much needed. Human activities already have altered physical, chemical, biological and geographic attributes of the Earth profoundly and have been impairing the flow of ecosystem services on a large scale. We are facing a great challenge to maintain a sustainable society that is ecologically sound, economically feasible, socially just and peaceful. Ecologists should work closely with public and policy-makers to answer this challenge.