Supplied, demanded and consumed ecosystem services: Prospects for national assessment in Russia.

The National assessment of ecosystem services of Russia is an urgent task taking into account their key importance for maintaining the quality of life of the population and the regulation of biosphere processes. The purpose of the present paper is to propose a natural science methodology for evaluation supplied, demanded and consumed ecosystem services for national ecosystem assessment of Russia. Supplied ecosystem services were considered as services produced by ecosystems regardless of presence or absence of people, demanded – as the volume of services that is necessary for people and economy, consumed – as services actually used by people. Ratios between these three volumes of ecosystem services reveal the degree of service use and degree of meeting the demand for service that are analogous to indices of ecosystem service budget. The proposed methodology was tested in the preparation of the Prototype of the National Report on Ecosystem Services of Russia. Ecosystem services of air and water purification are considered as examples in the present paper. These examples demonstrate that proposed methodology is useful for estimation of surplus or deficit in ecosystem services across regions and identification of ecological risk areas. It also allows regional comparison at national level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]