Ecosystem Service and Environmental Health.

Supplement Aims and Scope Yet, in many developed and undeveloped parts of the world, consequences of these interrelated processes and the risks and hazards that they pose to both human health and ecosystems remain underexplored. This special issue of the Environmental Heath Insights will draw seek draw on new, empirical research which examines the nexus between ecosystem services and environmental health in the context of a rapidly changing world. Environmental Health Insights aims to provide environmental health practitioners, researchers and the general public with online, open access to scholarly articles on environmental health hazards and associated risks. The journal aims to explore how these hazards and risks can be eliminated or limited or prevented to help protect human health and our environment. This special issue of Environmental Health Insights will be designed to explore the interrelated – and rapidly changing – issues of ecosystem services and environmental health. There are many challenges to ecosystem services which, in turn, threaten human health. These include the rapid process of urbanisation; the increased concentrations of poverty and pollution in the urban periphery; climate change and new patterns of ecosystem services; agricultural intensification and extractive mining industries. At the same time, ecosystem services perform many diverse and under-recognised roles in relation to human health, including as a source of ingredients for indigenous and other health, the provision of livelihoods and wellbeing, nutrient supplementation and so forth. The risks of ecosystem degradation and the benefits of ecosystem services are not always readily apparent and may only be fully realised many years down the line. I n a field where the literature is ever-expanding, practitioners and researchers increasingly need to have ready access to up-to-date, high-quality scholarly articles on areas of ongoing interest in environmental health. This supplement aims to address this need by presenting contemporary articles by leading scholars, allowing readers to distinguish the signal from noise. We hope that through this effort practitioners and researchers will be aided in finding answers to some of the most complex and pressing issues of our time. The essentials to life, from the air we breathe and the water we consume to the outdoor recreational activities we enjoy, all depend on healthy, natural ecosystems. Natural ecosystems (eg, wetlands, streams, estuaries, and forests) are indispensable for the survival of all species on Earth, 1,2 because they are critical for regulating and maintaining the ecological processes essential for providing the …