Topic 1.1 Ecosystem Services
Causes and Consequences of Losing Ecosystem Services
Despite human reliance on ecosystems and the services they provide many of our interactions with our environment can damage ecosystems and impair the services they provide.
Activity 1.6
Read the following short Web articles / article sections and any additional information you find and answer the following questions.
“Threats to Ecosystem Services” 
"Ecosystems Services: Benefits Provided to Human Societies by Natural Ecosystems" Daily et al. located on the Sierra Forest Legacy website
"How are Ecosystem Services Cut-Off" section of Ecosystem Services Factsheet
- What are the two broad underlying forces driving human induced threats to ecosystem services?
- Think of some ways that the effects of these two main forces could be reduced or produce a beneficial rather than detrimental effect on ecosystems.
- List as many human activities as you can think of that disrupt, impair or reengineer ecosystems.
- Think of some specific ways that the impact of these activities could also be reduced.
It is important to stress at this point that although some of the negative impacts that humans have on the environment seem inevitable and irreversible, the functioning of many ecosystems could be restored if appropriate actions were taken. We will refer back to the point in the final module with a number of case studies.