The structure of Polish research on the mapping and assessment of ecosystems and their services

Abstract

Ecosystem services (ES) concept has been popular among researchers in the last several years. In this paper, we assessed the development and trends in Polish ES research in the period 2010- 2016 using the content analysis of 84 scientific papers – the outcome of ECOSERV Symposia. We analysed such attributes as the type, dimension and scale of the study, ecosystems and ES investigated, the system used to name or classify ES, data used, as well as the considered policy and business questions. In addition, we compared the Polish studies with the European research in the database developed in the ESMERALDA project. The conducted study provides insight into the major achievements as well as challenges that the Polish ES research community will have to face. The findings may serve a discussion on how future directions of the research can be shaped in order to mainstream ES into environmental management.