title: The value of the seagrass Posidonia oceanica: a natural capital assessment.
abstract: Making nature's value visible to humans is a key issue for the XXI century and it is crucial to identify and measure natural capital to incorporate benefits or costs of changes in ecosystem services into policy. Emergy analysis, a method able to analyze the overall functioning of a system, was applied to reckon the value of main ecosystem services provided by Posidonia oceanica, a fragile and precious Mediterranean seagrass ecosystem. Estimates, based on calculation of resources employed by nature, resulted in a value of 172 € m(-2)a(-1). Sediment retained by meadow is most relevant input, composing almost the whole P. oceanica value. Remarks about economic losses arising from meadow regression have been made through a time-comparison of meadow maps. Suggested procedure represents an operative tool to provide a synthetic monetary measure of ecosystem services to be employed when comparing natural capital to human and financial capitals in a substitutability perspective.
authors: DISTAV, Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, dell'Ambiente e della Vita, Genoa University, Italy.
authors: Paolo
authors: P
authors: Vassallo
authors: DISTAV, Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, dell'Ambiente e della Vita, Genoa University, Italy. Electronic address: chiara.paoli@unige.it.
authors: Chiara
authors: C
authors: Paoli
authors: Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, NY, USA.
authors: Alessio
authors: A
authors: Rovere
authors: DISTAV, Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, dell'Ambiente e della Vita, Genoa University, Italy.
authors: Monica
authors: M
authors: Montefalcone
authors: DISTAV, Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, dell'Ambiente e della Vita, Genoa University, Italy.
authors: Carla
authors: C
authors: Morri
authors: DISTAV, Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, dell'Ambiente e della Vita, Genoa University, Italy.
authors: Carlo Nike
authors: CN
authors: Bianchi
mesh_terms: D035961:Alismatales / Q000254:growth & development*; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D017753:Ecosystem; D058735:Environmental Policy; D052918:Environmental Restoration and Remediation / Q000191:economics; D008522:Mediterranean Sea; D014876:Water Pollution / Q000032:analysis
keywords: Ecosystem services; Emergy analysis; Ligurian Sea; Mediterranean Sea; Posidonia oceanica; Seagrass