An underlying theme in the ecosystem services literature is integration. Scholars are searching for ways to overlap ecology with economics in order to generate new insight (Powers et al. 2005, Fisher et al. 2008, Ward and Pulido-Velázquez 2008, Daily et al. 2009). The ultimate goal is to improve decision making with respect to both ecosystems and human welfare. In their quest for integration, specialists in both fields are exploring unfamiliar topics. This has led to creative thinking, but also generated a degree of confusion, especially for students still learning both fields. Within the community of scholars specialized in Ecosystem Services, there is a consensus that integration is fundamentally a good thing; that future breakthroughs will be generated by this integration; and that we are still only in its incipient stages.
References
Daily, Gretchen C., Stephen Polasky, Joshua Goldstein, Peter M. Kareiva, Harold A. Mooney, Liba Pejchar, Taylor H. Ricketts, James Salzman, and Robert Shallenberger. 2009. Ecosystem services in decision making: Time to deliver. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 7(1): 21-28.
Fisher, B. Kerry Turner, Matthew Zylstra, Roy Brouwer, Rudolf de Groot, Stephen Farber, Paul Ferraro, et al. et al. 2008. Ecosystem Services and Economic Theory: Integration for Policy-Relevant Research. Ecological Applications. 18(8): 2050-2067.
Powers, M.E. N. Brozović, C. Bode, D. Zilberman 2005. Spatially explicit tools for understanding and sustaining inland water ecosystems. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. 3(1):47-55.
Ward, F.A. Pulido-Velázquez, M. 2008. Efficiency, equity and sustainability in a water quantity-quality optimization model in the Rio Grande basin. Ecological Economics. 66:23-37.
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