Valuation of Soil Ecosystem Services

Soil natural capital and soil ecosystem services (ES) are under increasing pressure because of human activities. Soils provide multiple benefits to humans, and the role of soil in Earth's Critical Zone is fundamental to its functions that provide these benefits. Despite their importance, soils are rarely appreciated for the values they provide. One reason is the absence of their economic value in land-use decision making. We present a framework for categorizing and economically valuing soil ES and illustrating the use of the framework in a case study for three soil ES in the Koiliaris watershed on the Greek island of Crete. The value of the soil ES estimated was crop and livestock biomass 740–7560 id$ ha^{− 1} year^{− 1}; filtering of nutrients and contaminants 0–278 id$ ha^{− 1} year^{− 1}; and climate regulation − 2200 to − 5610 id$ ha^{− 1} year^{− 1}. Highlights • Soils provide multiple economic benefits that are rarely accounted for.• A framework for the classification and economic valuation of soil ecosystem services (ES) is presented.• The soil framework is applied at Koiliaris, Crete, Greece for three soil ES.• This chapter illustrates soil ES values from − 5610 to 7560 id$ ha^{− 1} year^{− 1} depending on the specific soil ES.