Ecosystem Services

7.2 Knowledge gaps
Although this study has shown that there exists much knowledge on the services of
coastal ecosystems in the Nordic countries, it also shows that there are numerous of unanswered
questions and knowledge gaps. The seminal paper from Hooper et al. (2005),
on the effects of biodiversity on ecosystem functioning, states that “further study of the
marine realm is necessary”. Despite this 10 year old statement, this is still relevant today.
Marine ecosystems are under-studied in comparison to terrestrial ones, meaning that
knowledge of functional relationships which have been widely used to map terrestrial services,
is poor (Guerry et al. 2012). Thus, there is concern that when data are lacking for
marine coastal ecosystem services they will be neglected in policy decisions.
In general, more studies need to be completed focusing on the valuation of marine
ecosystem services and the added value provided to the local community, including
monetary values, to ensure greater integration into decision-making processes. As
most studies on marine ecosystem services require an interdisciplinary approach involving
researchers within both ecology and socio-economy, more studies using an interdisciplinary
approach are thus needed.
The need for knowledge on coastal ecosystem services is tightly connected with
the need for knowledge on the ecosystems’ ecology. Naturvårdsverket (2008) states
that by directing research effort towards the less understood fundamental services, like
food web dynamics, habitat, biodiversity and resilience, valuable information about
other services may concurrently be obtained.
There are a number of factors impacting ecosystems and these factors often interact
in ways that are not always integrated into ecosystem models. This includes the interaction
between the habitat and environmental factors and their variation in space
and time. Climatic changes will certainly affect most ecosystems, either positively or
negatively, and through both direct and indirect effects. As a result, there is a need to
assess the future risk of some ecosystem services given the combined influence of predicted
climate changes, including warmer water, coastal zone pressure, invasive species,
eutrophication, and different management options of ecosystems.
As different factors influencing ecosystem services interact and the services are interdependent,
the profit from one service is commonly obtained at the expense of another.
These trade-offs are not straightforward and relevant knowledge in the face of
these changes needs to be researched.
A prerequisite to evaluate ecosystem services for a region is often related to the
access to reliable distribution maps of a resource. Such maps are preferably based on a
carefully considered and planned study design. Effort should be made both to gather
98 Ecosystem Services