1. Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA)
– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Ecosystem_Assessment
– Major assessment carried out in early 00’s regarding human impact on the environment
– Popularized “ecosystem services”
2. Nutrient cycle
– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutrient_cycle
– the movement and exchange of organic and inorganic matter back into the production of living matter (decomposing the matter into mineral nutrients)
3. Organic compound
– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_compound
– virtually any chemical compound that contains carbon; all known life is based on organic compounds
4. Biomass
– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomass_(ecology)
– the mass of living biological organisms (microorganisms, plants or animals) in a given area or ecosystem at a given time. Biomass can refer to species biomass, which is the mass of one or more species, or to community biomass, which is the mass of all species in the community
5. Ecosystem
– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecosystem
– interconnected systems where matter and energy flows and is exchanged as organisms feed, digest, and migrate about.
6. Biodiversity
– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biodiversity
– the variety and variability of life
– “genetic variation, ecosystem variation, or species variation (number of species) within an area, biome, or planet”
7. Natural Capital
– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_capital
– “world’s stock of natural resources, which includes geology, soils, air, water and all living organisms”
8. Common goods
– “…goods from which it is difficult to exclude others. For example, the owner of a forest can exclude others from harvesting timber but it is difficult to exclude others from the benefits of carbon storage, birdlife and the landscape function, which the forest also fulfills.” (Ecosystem Services: From Concept to Practice, Ch1 p12-13)
9. Tragedy of the commons
– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons
– individual users acting independently according to their own self-interest behave contrary to the common good of all users by depleting that resource through their collective action