article · Ecological Processes
Regulatory ecosystem services play a vital role in human safety and environmental protection by mitigating natural hazards such as floods, disasters, and diseases. Despite overall exponential growth in ecosystem services research, regulatory services receive comparatively little focus because their benefits are intangible and challenging to quantify. Current decision-making frameworks predominantly favour services with direct, easily measurable links to human well-being. A review of existing literature reveals a marked shortage of comprehensive studies on regulatory ecosystem services, alongside significant disparities in geographic coverage, ecosystem types, and indicators evaluated. Inconsistent classifications and varied methodologies further obstruct practical use. Crucially, the generated knowledge remains poorly integrated into national policies for natural resource management, creating potential risks to human health and ecological stability. Addressing these gaps requires robust measurement standards and dedicated strategies to enhance regulatory ecosystem functions.
Natural habitats protect societies from floods, disease outbreaks, and environmental degradation. When policymakers focus only on immediately visible or commercialised benefits, critical regulatory protections are overlooked. Identifying and addressing global research gaps ensures that conservation programmes and national resource policies accurately account for the natural barriers that keep communities safe and resilient against disasters.
This work represents early-stage conceptual research and does not propose a specific commercial product. However, establishing standardised methodologies and indicators could eventually inform environmental consultancy frameworks, corporate sustainability metrics, and disaster risk assessment tools used by insurance providers or environmental management organisations. The abstract does not indicate a clear pathway to immediate commercial application.
AI-generated from the published abstract. Always read the original work before citing.
Abstract Ecosystem services (ES) are growing fields of research. It helps to provide an inherent way to understand the synergy and trade-offs between human beings and their natural environment. Regulatory ecosystem services (RES) are significantly important to maintaining the world in which people can live, and control the negative effects of flood, disasters, and diseases. It can also provide regulatory services like ecosystem protection, human safety, and the provision of other ES. However, emerging ES decision-making agendas focus on ES that is tangible and has a direct link with human well-being. Thus, the attention given to RES is low due to its less tangible benefits and complexity to measure the benefits. Disregarding and lack of attention from policymakers and scientific community may lead to unintended risks to human well-being and significant influences on the provision of other ES. This study describes the research trends on RES, knowledge generated, and the major limitation. We concluded that though there is an exponential growth of scientific publications on ES, no adequate studies were found on RES. Also, the existed studies varied in their size and types of RES indicators covered, habitats/ecosystems, and geographic extent addressed. There was also a lack of connecting knowledge generated on the benefits of RES with the national policy of natural resource management, inconsistency of ES classification, and methodological diversity. Therefore, scientific communities are promoted to link RES studies with human health. Besides, the researcher should give priority for the least studied ecosystems and its services, developing robust methodology, and proposing management options to enhance the regulatory services of ecosystems.
This page summarises published work. The authoritative version sits with the publisher.
DOI: 10.1186/s13717-020-00241-w
Is something wrong with this record? Report it or request removal.
Discussion
Have you built on this work, tried to replicate it, or seen it applied in practice? Share what you know. Verified researchers and MARATTO™ domain experts can open a discussion, and any member can reply. Contributions are reviewed before they appear.
No discussion yet. Open the first thread.
New to MARATTO™? Create a free account.
