Table 2.1. Trends in the Human Use of Ecosystem Services and Enhancement or Degradation of the Service Around the Year 2000 - Supporting services

Legend

	= Increasing (for Human Use column) or enhanced (for Enhanced or Degraded column)
	= Decreasing (for Human Use column) or degraded (for Enhanced or Degraded column)
	= Mixed (trend increases and decreases over past 50 years or some components/regions increase while others decrease

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Provisioning services

Regulating services

Cultural services

Service	Human Use (a)	Enhanced or Degraded (b)	Notes
Supporting services
Soil formation	†	†
Photosynthesis	†	†
Primary production	†	†	Several global MA systems, including drylands, forest, and cultivated systems, show a trend of NPP increase for the period 1981 to 2000. However, high seasonal and inter-annual variations associated with climate variability occur within this trend on the global scale (C22.2.1)
Nutrient cycling	†	†	There have been large-scale changes in nutrient cycles in recent decades, mainly due to additional inputs from fertilizers, livestock waste, human wastes, and biomass burning. Inland water and coastal systems have been increasingly affected by eutrophication due to transfer of nutrients from terrestrial to aquatic systems as biological buffers that limit these transfers have been significantly impaired. (C12, S7)
Water cycling	†	†	Humans have made major changes to water cycles through structural changes to rivers, extraction of water from rivers, and, more recently, climate change. (C7)

* = Low to medium certainty. All other trends are medium to high certainty.

NA = Not assessed within the MA. In some cases, the service was not addressed at all in the MA (such as ornamental resources), while in other cases the service was included but the information and data available did not allow an assessment of the pattern of human use of the service or the status of the service.

† = The categories of “Human Benefit” and “Enhanced or Degraded” do not apply for supporting services since, by definition, these services are not directly used by people. (Their costs or benefits would be double-counted if the indirect effects were included). Changes in supporting services influence the supply of provisioning, cultural, or regulating services that are then used by people and may be enhanced or degraded.

a For provisioning services, human use increases if the human consumption of the service increases (e.g., greater food consumption); for regulating and cultural services, human use increases if the number of people affected by the service increases.  The time frame is in general the past 50 years, although if the trend has changed within that time frame the indicator shows the most recent trend.

b For provisioning services, we define enhancement to mean increased production of the service through changes in area over which the service is provided (e.g., spread of agriculture) or increased production per unit area. We judge the production to be degraded if the current use exceeds sustainable levels. For regulating and supporting services, enhancement refers to a change in the service that leads to greater benefits for people (e.g., the service of disease regulation could be improved by eradication of a vector known to transmit a disease to people). Degradation of a regulating and supporting services means a reduction in the benefits obtained from the service, either through a change in the service (e.g., mangroves loss reducing the storm protection benefits of an ecosystem) or through human pressures on the service exceeding its limits (e.g., excessive pollution exceeding the capability of ecosystems to maintain water quality). For cultural services, enhancement refers to a change in the ecosystem features that increase the cultural (recreational, aesthetic, spiritual, etc.) benefits provided by the ecosystem. The time frame is in general the past 50 years, although if the trend has changed within that time frame the indicator shows the most recent trend.

Source: MA
  Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Biodiversity Synthesis (2005), p.33-37