Current Status and Future Prospects for the Assessment of Marine and Coastal Ecosystem Services: A Systematic Review

BackgroundResearch on ecosystem services has grown exponentially during the last decade. Most of the studies have focused on assessing and mapping terrestrial ecosystem services highlighting a knowledge gap on marine and coastal ecosystem services (MCES) and an urgent need to assess them.Methodology/Principal FindingsWe reviewed and summarized existing scientific literature related to MCES with the aim of extracting and classifying indicators used to assess and map them. We found 145 papers that specifically assessed marine and coastal ecosystem services from which we extracted 476 indicators. Food provision, in particular fisheries, was the most extensively analyzed MCES while water purification and coastal protection were the most frequently studied regulating and maintenance services. Also recreation and tourism under the cultural services was relatively well assessed. We highlight knowledge gaps regarding the availability of indicators that measure the capacity, flow or benefit derived from each ecosystem service. The majority of the case studies was found in mangroves and coastal wetlands and was mainly concentrated in Europe and North America. Our systematic review highlighted the need of an improved ecosystem service classification for marine and coastal systems, which is herein proposed with definitions and links to previous classifications.Conclusions/SignificanceThis review summarizes the state of available information related to ecosystem services associated with marine and coastal ecosystems. The cataloging of MCES indicators and the integrated classification of MCES provided in this paper establish a background that can facilitate the planning and integration of future assessments. The final goal is to establish a consistent structure and populate it with information able to support the implementation of biodiversity conservation policies.

研究背景 过去十年间，生态系统服务领域的研究呈指数级增长态势。现有研究大多聚焦陆地生态系统服务的评估与制图工作，导致海洋与海岸带生态系统服务（Marine and Coastal Ecosystem Services, 以下简称MCES）相关研究存在显著知识缺口，亟需开展针对性评估。
研究方法与主要结果 本文对现有与MCES相关的科学文献进行系统性梳理与综述，旨在提取并分类用于评估和制图的相关指标。最终共筛选出145篇专门针对海洋与海岸带生态系统服务的研究文献，从中提取得到476项评估指标。其中，以渔业为代表的食物供给服务是被研究最为广泛的MCES类型；水质净化与海岸防护为研究频次最高的调节与维持服务类别，而文化服务范畴内的休闲旅游服务也得到了相对充分的评估。本文指出当前仍存在显著知识缺口：针对各项生态系统服务的能力、流量或衍生效益的量化指标仍较为匮乏。多数案例研究以红树林与海岸湿地为研究对象，且研究区域主要集中于欧洲与北美地区。本次系统性综述同时强调，亟需针对海洋与海岸带系统优化生态系统服务分类体系，本文据此提出了优化后的分类框架，并附上相关定义及与既往分类体系的关联说明。
结论与意义 本综述系统总结了当前与海洋和海岸带生态系统相关的生态系统服务研究现状。本文所整理的MCES评估指标目录及整合性分类体系，可为未来评估工作的规划与整合提供基础性支撑。本研究的最终目标是构建一套统一规范的框架体系，并充实相关数据信息，以助力生物多样性保护政策的落地实施。