1.2.3.1 Marine supporting services

As defined in the MEA [2005], supporting services are ecological functions that are necessary for the production of all other ecosystem services. They differ from provisioning, regulating, and cultural services in that their impacts on people are often indirect or occur over a very long time, whereas changes in the other categories have relatively direct and short-term impacts on people.

In the marine environment, supporting services include [MEA, 2005; Beaumont et al., 2007; Naber et al., 2008]:

Photosynthesis
Photosynthesis produces oxygen necessary for most living organisms.

Primary production
The assimilation or accumulation of energy and nutrients by organisms.

Nutrient cycling
Approximately 20 nutrients essential for life, including nitrogen and phosphorus, cycle through ecosystems and are maintained at different concentrations in different parts of ecosystems.

Resilience and resistance
The extent to which ecosystems can absorb recurrent natural and human perturbations and continue to regenerate without slowly degrading or unexpectedly flipping to alternate states [Hughes et al., 2005; Beaumont et al.,2007]

Biologically mediated habitat
Habitat which is provided by living marine organisms. Examples of such habitat are coral reefs, seagrass beds, and kelp forests which provide a habitat for numerous other marine species the survival of which depends on the health of their habitat forming species.