Elsevier

Agricultural Systems

Volume 145, June 2016, Pages 24-38
Agricultural Systems

Review
Classification and valuation of soil ecosystem services

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2016.02.010Get rights and content

Highlights

  • We give a literature review on soil ecosystem service (ES) classifications.

  • Soil's part in delivering ES is a vital component of the Earth Critical Zone.

  • Economic valuation tools exist for the assessment of soil ES.

  • A holistic framework for the assessment of soil ES is needed.

Abstract

Soil ecosystem services (ES) provide multiple benefits to humans but to date no consensus has formed on a comprehensive framework for their classification and economic valuation, and therefore a systematic approach has not been developed to evaluate their importance. We present a literature review of soil ES and functions, the economic methods that have been used to value them, and values that have been derived from various studies under different type of land use. We illustrate how recent developments in the field of Earth Critical Zone research are contributing to the development of soil ES valuation techniques within the ES framework. These developments have further underpinned the necessity to include the multiple aspects of soils in ES frameworks because of their fundamental roles in ecosystem functionality and vitality. We provide examples on how soil ES can be classified and valued using standard economic methods and established analysis frameworks. We show how significant economic value is derived from soil ES and thus highlight the economic losses associated with soil degradation. Furthermore, we also demonstrate the need to develop a comprehensive framework for the economic assessment of soil ecosystem services in order to better inform decision-making at various levels of governance regarding land use and management.

Introduction

Soil is one of the more species-rich habitats of terrestrial ecosystems and its functions include biomass production, maintaining nutrient balance, chemical recycling and water storage to name a few (Blum, 2005). Soil is a very slow forming resource, and similarly to other habitats and ecosystems, it is coming under increasing pressures due to anthropocentric activities. The near exclusion of the importance and value of ecosystems and resources, such as soils, in economic decision-making is exacerbating degradation pressures. In order to resolve this, the concepts of natural capital and ecosystem services (ES) have been widely adopted by academics, NGOs and governments and have been gaining in momentum and acceptance (despite disagreement and confusion of terminology — see Table 1 for our definitions of key terms) for the last two decades (Gomez-Baggethun et al., 2010).

Even though many studies (Kumar, 2010) have been conducted valuing ES, services derived from soils have been partially or entirely omitted (Dominati et al., 2010a). We aim to communicate the importance of soil ES by reviewing the existing literature to identify the various ES that soils provide, and proceed to analyses of how concepts related to soil ES and soil natural capital have developed and how services from soils can be economically evaluated. Relying on the widely-adopted Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) framework for ES, we report on various economic valuation methods for soil ES and the value of soil ES in different types of land uses.

Section snippets

Ecosystem service classification schemes

The environment or natural capital can be considered a stock, which similar to man-made capital yields, through its multiple functions, a flow of goods and services into the future (Costanza et al., 1997). Collectively the various services from natural capital have been referred to as ‘ecosystem services’ and are defined as the benefits people obtain from the ecosphere and its ecosystems (MEA, 2005). When assessing the economic value of ES, the services provided by an ecosystem must be

Frameworks for soil ES

Soil ES are defined here as the benefits that people derive from soils (Dominati et al., 2010a). Despite that various frameworks for classifying ES have been put forward and the evident importance of soil health to human welfare, soil's ES are overlooked and to date there is no agreed upon framework for identifying, classifying or valuing them (Robinson and Lebron, 2010). There have been a few attempts to identify and classify soil ES (Table 2). The first study that we know of appeared in Daily

Value in economics

In this paper, examples of how soil ES can be classified and valued economically are highlighted with the purpose of integrating the economic value of soil ES into land-use decision-making processes. A Preferences-based approach to valuation is therefore opted for as opposed to Biophysical approach (for a detailed discussion on valuation of ES see chapter 5 of Kumar, 2010).

In Preferences-based approaches, which are common in economics, valuation is always based on anthropocentric values, i.e.

Concluding discussion

Provisioning of ES is necessary for maintaining economic systems, and is directly and indirectly linked to human well-being. As many ES, including soil ES, are largely non-market goods, they are excluded from formal economic decision-making and therefore undervalued and overexploited. In the case of soils and soil ES, this is revealed through significant threats to soil natural capital. It is clear that soil degradation is driven or exacerbated by human activities such as unsustainable

Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the European Commission 7th Framework Programme as a Large Integrating Project “Soil Transformations in European Catchments” (SoilTrEC, www.soiltrec.eu, Grant Agreement No. 244118). The authors would like to thank David Cook for his assistance with the manuscript and the two anonymous reviewers for their comments and guidance.

References (96)

  • E. Dominati et al.

    A framework for classifying and quantifying the natural capital and ecosystem services of soils

    Ecol. Econ.

    (2010)
  • E. Dominati et al.

    Response to Robinson and Lebron — Learning from complementary approaches to soil natural capital and ecosystem services

    Ecol. Econ.

    (2010)
  • E.J. Dominati et al.

    An ecosystem services approach to the quantification of shallow mass movement erosion and the value of soil conservation practices

    Ecosys. Serv.

    (2014)
  • J.H. Faber et al.

    Elaborations on the use of the ecosystem services concept for application in ecological risk assessment for soils

    Sci. Total Environ.

    (2012)
  • E. Gomez-Baggethun et al.

    The history of ecosystem services in economic theory and practice: From early notions to markets and payment schemes

    Ecol. Econ.

    (2010)
  • N. Hanley et al.

    Estimating the economic value of improvements in river ecology using choice experiments: an application to the water framework directive

    J. Environ. Manag.

    (2006)
  • P.M. Haygarth et al.

    The future of soils and land use in the UK: soil systems for the provision of land-based ecosystem services

    Land Use Policy

    (2009)
  • P. Lavelle et al.

    Soil invertebrates and ecosystem services

    Eur. J. Soil Biol.

    (2006)
  • D.A. Robinson et al.

    On the natural capital and ecosystem services of soils

    Ecol. Econ.

    (2010)
  • D.A. Robinson et al.

    Natural capital and ecosystem services, developing an appropriate soils framework as a basis for valuation

    Soil Biol. Biochem.

    (2013)
  • H.S. Sandhu et al.

    Organic agriculture and ecosystem services

    Environ. Sci. Pol.

    (2010)
  • H.S. Sandhu et al.

    The role of supporting ecosystem services in conventional and organic arable farmland

    Ecol. Complex.

    (2010)
  • H.S. Sandhu et al.

    The future of farming: The value of ecosystem services in conventional and organic arable land. An experimental approach

    Ecol. Econ.

    (2008)
  • E. Smit et al.

    General surveillance of the soil ecosystem: an approach to monitoring unexpected adverse effects of GMO's

    Ecol. Indic.

    (2012)
  • S.M. Swinton et al.

    Ecosystem services and agriculture: cultivating agricultural ecosystems for diverse benefits

    Ecol. Econ.

    (2007)
  • V. Torsvik et al.

    Microbial diversity and function in soil: from genes to ecosystems

    Curr. Opin. Microbiol.

    (2002)
  • K. Wallace

    Ecosystem services: multiple classifications or confusion?

    Biol. Conserv.

    (2008)
  • L.P. Wilding et al.

    Advancing the frontiers of soil science towards a geoscience

    Geoderma

    (2006)
  • W. Zhang et al.

    Ecosystem services and dis-services to agriculture

    Ecol. Econ.

    (2007)
  • J. Alcamo et al.

    Ecosystems and Human Well-being: a Framework for Assessment

    (2003)
  • S.P. Anderson et al.

    Proposed initiative would study Earth's weathering engine

    Eos. Trans. AGU

    (2004)
  • S.S. Andrews et al.

    The soil management assessment framework: a quantitative soil quality evaluation method

    Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J.

    (2004)
  • R. Artz et al.

    European Atlas of Soil Biodiversity

    (2010)
  • I. Bateman et al.

    Valuing environmental preferences: theory and practice of the contingent valuation method in the US, EU, and developing countries

    (1999)
  • W.E.H. Blum

    Functions of soil for society and the environment

    Rev. Environ. Sci. Bio/Technology

    (2005)
  • C.A. Bond et al.

    Agricultural producers and the environment: a stated preference analysis of Colorado corn producers

    Can. J. Agric. Econ.

    (2011)
  • M.D. Bowes et al.

    Multiple-Use Management: The Economics of Public Forestlands

    (1989)
  • S.L. Brantley et al.

    Crossing disciplines and scales to understand the critical zone

    Elements

    (2007)
  • B.E. Clothier et al.

    Preferential flow and transport in soil: progress and prognosis

    Eur. J. Soil Sci.

    (2008)
  • R. Costanza et al.

    Natural capital and sustainable development

    Conserv. Biol.

    (1992)
  • R. Costanza et al.

    The value of the world's ecosystem services and natural capital

    Nature

    (1997)
  • G.C. Daily et al.

    Ecosystem services: benefits supplied to human societes by natural ecosystems

    Issues in Ecology

    (1997)
  • G.C. Daily et al.

    Ecosystem services supplied by soil

  • N. Das et al.

    Microbial degradation of petroleum hydrocarbon contaminants: an overview

    Biotechnol. Res. Int.

    (2011)
  • V.M. D'Costa et al.

    Sampling the antibiotic resistome

    Science

    (2006)
  • R. de Groot

    Integrating the ecological and economic dimensions in biodiversity and ecosystem service valuation

  • T.P. Dolley et al.

    Silica, US Geological Survey Minerals Yearbook

    (2000)
  • P. Drechsel et al.

    Valuing Nutrients in Soil and Water: Concepts and Techniques With Examples From IWMI Studies in the Developing World

    (2004)
  • Cited by (0)

    View full text