'Mapping marine and coastal ecosystem services' in 'Mapping Ecosystem Services'

To map Ecosystem Services (ES) provided by marine and coastal ecosystems similarly to the terrestrial ecosystems, one has to understand the process of ES provision, from the ecosystem components, functions and processes to the actual ES. For each component of the ES provision chain, data need to be acquired and quantification methods applied throughout. This information can be used to spatially represent the ES distribution. In the oceans and coastal seas, many ecosystem functions occur within the water column which adds a third spatial dimension to the system. These functions change with depth, water temperature, solar irradiance, salinity and other factors and are extremely variable in space and time. This makes it difficult to capture this information in two-dimensional maps.