Eruption of Mt. Pinotubo, 1991

http://www.epa.gov/airmarkets/articles/clearingtheair.pdf

Acid Rain Damage in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina

http://www.bp.com/downloads/1188/es_2001.pdf

Ecosystem Services: Free, But ValuableEstimates of various Ecosystem Services

ECOSYSTEM SERVICES VALUE (trillion $US)

Nutrient cycling 17.1Cultural (noncommercial use) 3.0Waste Treatment 2.3Water regulation and supply 2.3Climate regulation (temperature and precipitation) 1.8Food and raw materials production 1.4Flood and storm protection 1.1Recreation 0.8Genetic resources 0.8Atmospheric gas balance 0.7Pollination 0.1All other services 1.6

Total value of ecosystem services 33.3

Source: Adapted from R. Costanza et al., (1997) The Value of the World's Ecosystem Services and Natural Capital. Nature 387: 256, Table 2.

Source: Adapted from R. Costanza et al., (1997) The Value of the World's Ecosystem Services and Natural Capital. Nature 387: 256, Table 2.

Global Gross National Product (US$ 18 trillion)

Water sources forNew York City

• In 1997, NYC asked the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to waive rules that required filtration of its water supply to meet the Safe Drinking Water Act (Filtration would have cost NYC $6-8 billion + $300 million / year maintenance cost)

• Instead, NYC pledged to improve the ecosystems around the watersheds that supply it with water (improvements cost roughly $1.5 billion)

• The EPA granted this waiver for 4 years

• In 2002, The EPA determined that NYC ecosystem improvements sufficiently increased water quality, and a new filtration waiver was granted indefinitely

New York City Wastewater Treatment

Figure 55.0 Deforestation of tropical forests

Figure 55.00x Deforestation in the United States

Figure 55.1 Three levels of biodiversity

Figure 55.2 A hundred heartbeats from extinction: Philippine eagle (left), Chinese river dolphin (right)

Figure 55.3 The rosy periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus): a plant that saves lives

Figure 55.4 What scientists learned about ecosystem services from the world’s largest terrarium

Figure 55.5 Fragmentation of a forest ecosystem

Figure 55.6 The history of habitat reduction and fragmentation in a Wisconsin forest

St. Louis under normal conditions

St. Louis during flood of 1993

http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov

Cincinnati Flooding, 1997 Cincinnati Enquirer

From www.americanlands.org Photo by Steve Holmer

Golden trumpets, a type of pitcher plant, are seen at the Pitcher Plant Bog Natural Area in Georgia. Human activities are threatening to wipe out as many as one-half of the Earth's plant species, a new study suggests. Earlier studies had estimated that only about 13 percent of all plant species are in danger of extinction. (AP Photo, Elliott Minor)

Marlinhttp://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Gallery/Descript/BlueMarlin/BlueMarlin.html

Figure 55.7 Disastrous species introductions: Nile perch (top left), brown tree snake (top right), Argentine ants (bottom left), seaweed Caulerpa (bottom right)

Figure 55.7x Zebra mussels

Figure 55.8 The great auk (Pinguinis impennis)

Figure 55.9 North Atlantic bluefin tuna auctioned in a Japanese fish market

Figure 55.10 The extinction vortex of the small-population approach

Figure 55.11 The decline of the greater prairie chicken (Tympanuchus cupido) in central Illinois from 1970 to 1997

Figure 55.12 Two species of edible plants whose persistence is threatened by habitat loss and overharvesting

Figure 55.13 Long-term monitoring of a grizzly bear population

Figure 55.14 Habitat requirements of the red-cockaded woodpecker

Figure 55.15 Edges between ecosystems

Figure 55.16 An artificial corridor

Figure 55.17 Some biodiversity hot spots

Figure 55.18 The legal and biotic boundaries for grizzly bears in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks

Figure 55.19 Zoned reserves in Costa Rica

Figure 55.19 Local schoolchildren marvel at the diversity of life in one of Costa Rica's reserves

Figure 55.20b An endangered, endemic species in its unique habitat

Figure 55.21 The size-time relationship for community recovery from natural (salmon-colored) and human-caused (white) disasters

Figure 55.22 Restoration of degraded roadsides in the tropics

Figure 55.23 Biophilia, past and present