Ecosystems provide a wide variety of marketable goods, fish and lumber being two familiar examples. However, society is increasingly recognizing the myriad functions—the observable manifestations of ecosystem processes such as nutrient recycling, regulation of climate, and maintenance of biodiversity— that they provide, without which human civilizations could not thrive. Derived from the physical, biological, and chemical processes at work in natural ecosystems, these functions are seldom experienced directly by users of the resource. Rather, it is the services provided by ecosystems, such as flood risk reduction and water supply, together with ecosystem goods, that create value for human users and are the subject of this report
