ESA Certified Ecologist (Ecologist-in-Training, Ecologist, Senior Ecologist) · USA · Ecological Society of America
Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papersThe services nature provides to farming and farming provides back: pollination, pest control, soil formation, water regulation, carbon storage. The economics of valuing them (contingent valuation, travel cost, hedonic pricing) is taught in the Agribusiness subject natural-resource-environmental-economics; this subject covers the ecology, the classification systems, the mapping tools and natural-capital accounting.
In the exams: ICAR AICE subject 71 Unit 2 (values of biodiversity); UGC NET Unit 3; TNFD-related professional work; PG research
How our questions for ESA Certified Ecologist spread across the units of Ecosystem Services & Pollinators in Agricultural Landscapes. Difficulty: 3 easy, 14 medium, 19 hard.
| Mapping and modelling ecosystem services | 8 | |
| Natural capital accounting: SEEA Ecosystem Accounting | 6 | |
| Ecosystem service frameworks: MA, TEEB, CICES, IPBES nature's contributions to people | 4 | |
| Ecosystem disservices to agriculture | 4 | |
| Payments for ecosystem services: design and examples | 4 | |
| Supporting, provisioning, regulating and cultural services | 3 | |
| Pollination services, pollinator decline and pollinator-friendly farming | 2 | |
| Natural pest control and functional agrobiodiversity | 2 | |
| Soil and water regulating services | 2 | |
| Corporate nature dependency and impact assessment | 1 |
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
Why does CICES omit 'supporting services' as a separate category?
B. To avoid double counting processes already reflected in final services
Supporting processes such as nutrient cycling underpin final services like crop production; counting both would double count. CICES classifies final services into provisioning, regulation and maintenance, and cultural.
Further reading: CICES V5.1
In the ecosystem service 'cascade' model, which sequence is correct?
A. Structure and process, function, service, benefit, value
The cascade (Haines-Young and Potschin) runs from biophysical structures and processes to functions, final services, benefits to people and their values. The other orders scramble the logic.
Further reading: Haines-Young and Potschin 2010
Who proposed an influential framework of ecosystem services and dis-services to agriculture in 2007?
D. Zhang and colleagues
Zhang et al. (2007, Ecological Economics) described services to and from agriculture and disservices. Myers is associated with hotspots, Wunder with PES and Klein with crop pollination dependence.
Further reading: Zhang et al. 2007
A forest patch next to a farm supplies pollinators but also shelters crop-raiding monkeys. What does this show?
B. One habitat provides both services and disservices
Net effects depend on species and landscape; assessments must count both. The other conclusions are false.
Further reading: Ecosystem services and disservices literature
Which is a human-health disservice associated with some ecosystems?
C. Disease vectors breeding in wetlands
Mosquitoes and other vectors, allergenic pollen and zoonoses are health disservices. Clean water, recreation and shade are services.
Further reading: Ecosystem disservice literature
Why does a crop list showing 75 % of leading crops depend on pollinators not mean 75 % of food volume depends on them?
B. Staple cereals providing most calories are wind- or self-pollinated
Wheat, rice and maize dominate volume and do not need animal pollination; pollinator-dependent crops are about a third of volume but a large share of micronutrients and value. The other claims are false.
Further reading: Klein et al. 2007
Using benefit transfer, 50 ha of wetland is assigned a value of 2000 per hectare per year. What is the estimated annual value?
C. 100000
Value = 50 × 2000 = 100000. 2050 adds; 40 divides; 1000000 multiplies by ten again.
Which is NOT one of the five core SEEA Ecosystem Accounting accounts?
A. Corporate profit account
The core accounts are extent, condition, physical service flows, monetary service flows and monetary asset accounts. Corporate profit is not an ecosystem account.
Further reading: UN SEEA EA 2021
A district starts with 1200 ha of wetland, restores 50 ha and loses 180 ha to conversion. What is the closing extent?
C. 1070 ha
Closing = opening + additions − reductions = 1200 + 50 − 180 = 1070 ha. 1430 adds both; 1330 adds the loss and subtracts the gain; 970 subtracts both and more.
Further reading: UN SEEA EA 2021
Conserving a hectare costs a farmer 120 a year in forgone income; downstream users value the service at 300. What payment range can benefit both?
B. Between 120 and 300 per hectare
Payments must at least cover the provider's opportunity cost (120) and not exceed the buyer's benefit (300). Below 120 the farmer loses; above 300 the buyer loses; 420 adds the two.
Further reading: PES economics
Ten here, 36 in the app. The Laisha app has every practice question we have written to ESA Certified Ecologist in this subject, marked as you go, with timed papers, a jump-to-unanswered list and a certificate when you pass at 70 per cent.
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