Chinese Journal of Nature ›› 2012, Vol. 34 ›› Issue (5): 273-298.

• Review Article • Previous Articles     Next Articles

 Ecosystem Services and Ecological Security

WANG Xiao-feng,  Lv Yi-he,  FU Bo-jie   

  1. ①Associate Professor,State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for EcoEnvironmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China; The College of Earth and Resources,Changan University,  Xi ’an 710054, China;②Associate Professor,③CAS member, State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for EcoEnvironmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China
  • Received:2012-08-28 Revised:2012-09-28 Online:2012-10-25 Published:2012-10-25

Abstract: Ecological security means not only the survival stability but also development sustainability, not only the safety of environmental structure but also the harmony of ecological relationship. Ecosystem services are the conditions and processing through which natural ecosystems, and the species that make them up, sustain and fulfill human life. They not only supply to human with the production of ecosystem goods, such as food, forage, timber, biomass fuels, natural fiber, and pharmaceuticals. Ecosystems also perform fundamental lifesupport services, which include the purification of air and water, detoxification and decomposition of wastes, regulation of climate, regeneration of soil fertility, and production and maintenance of biodiversity, mitigation of floods, droughts, the erosive forces of wind and rain. Ecological security is the extension and expansion of sustainable development. Ecological security is the method of protection of ecosystem services and ecosystem services is the index of ecological security. The purpose of ecological security is maintaining the normal development of the ecosystem functions to ensure human wellbeing. With the rapid growth of global population and rapid social and economic development, the sharp increase in demand for ecosystem services, ecosystem services are degraded .It becomes an important factor of the serious constraints of sustainable socioeconomic development. Explore the ecosystem services and ecological security becomes a very urgent task. This paper analyzed ecological security, and explored the core issues of ecosystem services and human wellbeing and ecological security.

Key words: ecological security, ecosystem service, sustainable development, human well-being, human disturbance