A review of ecosystem service supply in tropical marine ecosystems and its relationship to habitats in the Great Barrier Reef
Ford-Learner, Mark A., Addison, Jane, and Cumming, Graeme S. (2025) A review of ecosystem service supply in tropical marine ecosystems and its relationship to habitats in the Great Barrier Reef. Ecosystems and People, 21 (1). 2425816.
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Abstract
The benefits that people obtain from marine and coastal ecosystems are numerous and complex. Although marine ecosystem service approaches are increasing in prominence, relatively little is known about how marine ecosystem service provision relates to individual habitat types at the level at which they are typically considered in management and policy. To clarify and operationalise the links between tropical marine habitat types and ecosystem services, we undertook a literature review and a spatial mapping exercise. First, we systematically reviewed published studies of tropical marine ecosystem services, with the aim of describing the strengths and weaknesses of existing knowledge and directly linking identified ecosystem services to specific marine habitat types. Second, we tested whether we could use our new synthesis to connect ecosystem services to habitat types by mapping ecosystem service supply in a well-studied and iconic marine protected area, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. The review showed that while some habitat types (particularly mangroves, seagrass and coral reefs) and their associated ecosystem services are well described, others (e.g. beaches, mudflats and surface waters) are far less explored. The mapping exercise showed that habitat mapping can provide a potentially useful interface between the types and locations of marine ecosystem services. Overall, tropical marine ecosystem services in our study area appear to be primarily clustered around coastlines and reefs and in close proximity to human populations. Our results highlight the potential value of ecosystem services approaches for informing management decisions that better connect ecological and human values in tropical marine environments.
| Item ID: | 88567 |
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| Item Type: | Article (Research - C1) |
| ISSN: | 2639-5916 |
| Keywords: | co-production, Evangelia (Valia) Drakou, Great Barrier Reef, habitat mapping, natural resource valuation, social ecological systems |
| Copyright Information: | © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent. |
| Date Deposited: | 05 May 2026 23:32 |
| FoR Codes: | 41 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES > 4104 Environmental management > 410402 Environmental assessment and monitoring @ 100% |
| SEO Codes: | 18 ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT > 1802 Coastal and estuarine systems and management > 180201 Assessment and management of coastal and estuarine ecosystems @ 100% |
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