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Ecosystem Services in Seasonally Dry Tropical Forests

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Seasonally Dry Tropical Forests

Abstract

Human populations depend for their survival and well-being on benefits derived from ecosystems, also called ecosystem services (MA 2003). The nature, magnitude, and reliability of the services provided by a certain ecosystem depend on its particular characteristics, the human group that interacts with it, and the nature of their interaction (MA 2003; Maass et al. 2005). The ability of an ecosystem to provide services depends on its processes—that is, the interactions between its physical and biotic components—and the rates and variability over time and space of such processes and components (Kremen 2005). The benefits people obtain from ecosystems also depend on demographic, economic, political, cultural, scientific, and technological characteristics of the human groups that interact with the ecosystem (MA 2003; Castillo et al. 2005). Human groups determine which services they demand, extract, or expect from ecosystems and thus drive decisions about how to manage them (MA 2003; Bennet and Balvanera 2007). Given the tight relationship between the delivery of ecosystem services and human well-being, the long-term maintenance of the capacity of ecosystems to provide services is essential to ensure a promising future for humanity. Indeed, technical and social interventions need to be designed to foster the maintenance of the services to ensure human well-being (MA 2003).

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Acknowledgments

Many of the ideas and perspectives addressed in this chapter were inspired by the collaborative research we have been conducting around the Chamela- Cuixmala Biosphere Reserve; we would like to thank all the participants in the Cuencas, Cuitzmala, and Mabotro projects for their insights and support, as well as CONACYT for its support through the grant SEP-CONACYT 50955. We also thank G. Daily for her input to earlier versions of this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Restoration of River Systems and Wetlands, Productive Activities, Chile

    MarÍa JosÉ MartÍnez-Harms

  2. Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Mexico, Mexico

    Patricia Balvanera

  3. Center for Ecosystem Research, UNAM, Mexico, Mexico

    Alicia Castillo

Authors
  1. Patricia Balvanera
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  2. Alicia Castillo
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  3. MarÍa JosÉ MartÍnez-Harms
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Rodolfo Dirzo Hillary S. Young Harold A. Mooney Gerardo Ceballos

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Balvanera, P., Castillo, A., MartÍnez-Harms, M.J. (2011). Ecosystem Services in Seasonally Dry Tropical Forests. In: Dirzo, R., Young, H.S., Mooney, H.A., Ceballos, G. (eds) Seasonally Dry Tropical Forests. Island Press, Washington, DC. https://doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-021-7_15

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