کد مقاله | کد نشریه | سال انتشار | مقاله انگلیسی | نسخه تمام متن |
---|---|---|---|---|
6359530 | 1622750 | 2013 | 11 صفحه PDF | دانلود رایگان |
- We valued Posidonia oceanica services through ecosystem's ecological performances estimate.
- We propose a tool to include hidden costs of natural capital depletion in policies.
- Emergy analysis has been applied and a system approach has been followed.
- We obtained a monetary estimate of P. oceanica natural capital and its losses.
- Appraisals were made about insertion of these estimates in intervention choices.
Making nature's value visible to humans is a key issue for the XXI century and it is crucial to identify and measure natural capital to incorporate benefits or costs of changes in ecosystem services into policy. Emergy analysis, a method able to analyze the overall functioning of a system, was applied to reckon the value of main ecosystem services provided by Posidonia oceanica, a fragile and precious Mediterranean seagrass ecosystem. Estimates, based on calculation of resources employed by nature, resulted in a value of 172 â¬Â mâ2 aâ1. Sediment retained by meadow is most relevant input, composing almost the whole P. oceanica value. Remarks about economic losses arising from meadow regression have been made through a time-comparison of meadow maps. Suggested procedure represents an operative tool to provide a synthetic monetary measure of ecosystem services to be employed when comparing natural capital to human and financial capitals in a substitutability perspective.
Journal: Marine Pollution Bulletin - Volume 75, Issues 1â2, 15 October 2013, Pages 157-167