Introduction to ecosystem services | Earth Resources | meriSTEM
Professor Saul Cunningham from the Australian National University (anu.edu.au) provides and overview of what ecosystem services are. This is part of a series of videos on renewable resources.
This clip has been created by the Research School of Earth Sciences (rses.anu.edu.au). These resources are part of a comprehensive program, curriculum matched to the unit 'Unit 3 Living on Earth - extracting, using and managing Earth resources'.
This video touches on the following curriculum descriptors:
Ecosystems provide a range of renewable resources, including provisioning services (for example, food, water, pharmaceuticals), regulating services (for example, carbon sequestration, climate control), supporting services (for example, soil formation, nutrient and water cycling, air and water purification) and cultural services (for example, aesthetics, knowledge systems) (ACSES077)
Biography:
Professor Saul Cunningham's first experience of research was as an Honours student at Monash University. He then received a Fulbright Award to support Ph.D. studies in the USA with field work in Costa Rica.
Having been awarded his Ph.D. in 1995, he returned home to Australia and commenced post-doctoral projects at Macquarie University, before joining CSIRO in Canberra as a Research Scientist. Over a 17 year period with CSIRO, Professor Cunningham developed a research program focusing on the challenge of maintaining biodiversity in landscapes dedicated to agricultural production.
He has worked with farming industry groups, local landholder groups, and a wide network of international colleagues with shared interests.
In 2015 the Ecological Society of Australia honoured Professor Cunningham with the ""Australian Ecology Research Award"". He was a contributor to the Intergovernmental Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Assessment Report on Pollination and Food Production, published in 2016.
Professor Cunningham has been Director of the Fenner School of Environment & Society since 2017.
For practice questions after each video, register an account to access our free senior science courses at https://courses.meristem.anu.edu.au. Teachers can access free lesson plans and in-class activities by joining our teacher community via https://meristem.weblogs.anu.e....du.au/index.php/new-
This video is part of meriSTEM Australian senior science educational resources (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). Email the team (contact.meristem@anu.edu.au) for further information, course access and curriculum links.
