Ecosystem

An ecosystem is a dynamic complex of plant, animal, and micro-organism communities and the non-living environment interacting as a functional unit. Ecosystems vary enormously in size; a temporary pond in a tree hollow and an ocean basin can both be ecosystems.

Ecosystem services are the benefits people obtain from ecosystems.

These include:

• Provisioning services such as food and water.
• Regulating services such as regulation of floods, drought, land degradation, and disease.
• Supporting services such as soil formation and nutrient cycling.
• Economic value such as tourism.
• Cultural or social services such as health and wellbeing, recreational, spiritual, religious and other non-material benefits.

Ref Home Quality Mark One, Technical Manual SD239, England, Scotland & Wales, published by BRE in 2018.

--BRE Group

NB Culvert, screen and outfall manual, (CIRIA C786) published by CIRIA in 2019, defines ecosystem services as: ‘The many and varied benefits that humans freely gain from the natural environment and from properly-functioning ecosystems. Such ecosystems include, for example, agroecosystems, forest ecosystems, grassland ecosystems and aquatic ecosystems.’

[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings Wiki

• Biodiversity.
• BRE articles.
• BREEAM.
• Ecological baseline.
• Ecological value.
• Ecological survey.
• Ecology.
• Ecology compensation.
• Green infrastructure.
• Habitat.
• Habitat Suitability Index
• Habitat survey
• Home Quality Mark.
• Natural capital.
• Why creating new ponds helps to protect the ecosystem.

[edit] External references

• Albon S, Turner K and Watson R (2011) The UK National Ecosystem Assessment: Synthesis of the key findings, UNEP-WCMC.
• The SuDS Manual, CIRIA C753, 2015.
• Home Quality Mark One, Technical Manual SD239, England, Scotland & Wales, published by BRE in 2018.