Department of Wetland Ecology, Estación Biológica de Doñana, CSIC, E-41092, Sevilla, Spain.
Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc. 2014 Feb;89(1):105-22. doi: 10.1111/brv.12045. Epub 2013 Jun 21.
Ecosystem services are ecosystem processes that directly or indirectly benefit human well-being. There has been much recent literature identifying different services and the communities and species that provide them. This is a vital first step towards management and maintenance of these services. In this review, we specifically address the waterbirds, which play key functional roles in many aquatic ecosystems, including as predators, herbivores and vectors of seeds, invertebrates and nutrients, although these roles have often been overlooked. Waterbirds can maintain the diversity of other organisms, control pests, be effective bioindicators of ecological conditions, and act as sentinels of potential disease outbreaks. They also provide important provisioning (meat, feathers, eggs, etc.) and cultural services to both indigenous and westernized societies. We identify key gaps in the understanding of ecosystem services provided by waterbirds and areas for future research required to clarify their functional role in ecosystems and the services they provide. We consider how the economic value of these services could be calculated, giving some examples. Such valuation will provide powerful arguments for waterbird conservation.
生态系统服务是指直接或间接有益于人类福祉的生态系统过程。最近有很多文献都在确定不同的服务以及提供这些服务的群落和物种。这是管理和维护这些服务的重要的第一步。在本综述中，我们特别关注水鸟，它们在许多水生生态系统中发挥着关键的功能作用，包括作为捕食者、食草动物和种子、无脊椎动物和营养物质的载体，尽管这些作用经常被忽视。水鸟可以维持其他生物的多样性，控制害虫，成为生态条件的有效生物指标，并作为潜在疾病爆发的哨兵。它们还为土著和西方化社会提供重要的供给（肉、羽毛、蛋等）和文化服务。我们确定了对水鸟提供的生态系统服务的理解中的关键差距，并确定了未来需要研究的领域，以澄清它们在生态系统中的功能作用以及它们提供的服务。我们考虑了如何计算这些服务的经济价值，并给出了一些例子。这种评估将为水鸟保护提供有力的论据。
