Natural capital and ecosystem services, developing an appropriate soils framework as a basis for valuation

Natural capital and ecosystem service concepts are embodied in the ecosystems approach to sustainable
development, which is a framework being consistently adopted by decision making bodies ranging from
national governments to the United Nations. In the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment soils are given the
vital role of a supporting service, but many of the other soil goods and services remain obscured. In this
review we address this using and earth-system approach, highlighting the final goods and services soils
produce, in a stock-fund, fund-service model of the pedosphere. We also argue that focusing on final
goods and services will be counterproductive in the long run and emphasize that final goods and services
are derived from an ecosystem supply chain that relies on ecological infrastructure. We propose that an
appropriate ecosystems framework for soils should incorporate soil stocks (natural capital) showing their
contribution to stock-flows and emergent fund-services as part of the supply chain. By so doing, an
operational ecosystems concept for soils can draw on much more supporting data on soil stocks as
demonstrated in a case study with soils data from England andWales showing stocks, gaps in monitoring
and drivers of change. Although the focus of this review is on soils, we believe the earth-system approach
and principles of the ecosystem supply chain are widely applicable to the ecosystems approach and bring
clarity in terms of where goods and services are derived from.