Disservices in terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems. The negative side of the ecosystems

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Paulo Pereira: Conceptualization, Writing - original draft. Emoke Dalma Kovacs: Writing - review & editing. Melinda Haydee Kovacs: Writing - review & editing. Miguel Inácio: Writing - review & editing. Wenwu Zhao: Writing - review & editing.

Declaration of competing interests

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Paulo Pereira and Wenwu Zhao are Associate Editors-in-Chief for this journal and were not involved in the editorial review or the decision to publish this article.

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the European Union NextGeneration EU through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, Component 9. I8., grant number 760104/May 23, 2023, code CF 245/November 29, 2022. This work was supported by the project “Sensing, Mapping, Interconnecting: Tools for soil functions and services evaluation” supported by the Romanian Government, Ministry of the Innovation and Digitization through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) PNRR-III-C9-2022-I8, contract no. CF245/29.11.2022.

References

[1] Alikhanova S., Bull J.W., 2023. Review of nature-based solutions in dryland ecosystems: the Aral Sea case study. Envrion. Manage. 72, 457-472. doi: 10.1007/s00267-023-01822-z.

[2] Blanco J., Bellón B., Barthelemy L., Camus B., Jaffre L., Masson A.S., de Oliveira Roque F., Souza F.L., Renaud P.C., 2022. A novel ecosystem (dis)service cascade model to navigate sustainability problems and its application in a changing agricultural landscape in Brazil. Sustain. Sci. 17, 105-119. doi: 10.1007/s11625-021-01049-z.

[3] C40 cities, 2022. Water Safe Cities. Technical report. https://c40.my.salesforce.com/sfc/p/#36000001Enhz/a/1Q000000ZjNF/NQMDUgqZ_Mcr3hqAYY2bicKH_K17ttVGJyVnDJpypWM

[4] Costanza R., d’Arge R., de Groot R., Farber S., Grasso M., Hannon B., Limburg K., Naeem S., O’Neill R.V., Paruelo J., Raskin R.G., Sutton P., van den Belt M., 1997. The value of the world’s ecosystem services and natural capital. Nature 387, 253-260. doi: 10.1038/387253a0.

[5] Choi H.M., Heo S., Foo D., Song Y.M., Stewart R., Son J.Y., Bell M.L., 2024. Temperature, crime, and violence: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Envrion. Health Perspect. 132 (10), 106001. doi: 10.1289/EHP14300.

[6] Cooke M.T., Xia L., 2020. Impacts of land-based recreation on water quality. Nat. Areas J. 40, 179-188. doi: 10.3375/043.040.0209.

[7] Danley B., Widmark C., 2016. Evaluating conceptual definitions of ecosystem services and their implications. Ecol. Econ. 126, 132-138. doi: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2016.04.003.

[8] Dell’Anna F., Bravi M., Bottero M., 2022. Urban green infrastructures: how much did they affect property prices in Singapore? Urban For. Urban Green. 68, 127475. doi: 10.1016/j.ufug.2022.127475.

[9] Dias T.F., Ghisi E., 2024. Urban water consumption: a systematic literature review. Water 16, 838. doi: 10.3390/w16060838.

[10] Douglas D.J.T., Waldinger J., Buckmire Z., Gibb K., Medina J.P., Sutcliffe L., Beckmann C., Collar N.J., Jansen R., Kamp J., Little I., Sheldon R., Yanosky A., Koper N., 2023. A global review identifies agriculture as the main threat to declining grassland birds. Ibis 165, 1107-1128. doi: 10.1111/ibi.13223.

[11] Drabold E.T., Neville W., Mann F., Feyzbar-Khalkhali-Nejad F., Adhikari S., Higgins B.T., 2025. Organic amendments to control odor during soil application of poultry byproducts under dynamic moisture conditions. Sci. Total Environ. 1002, 180663. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2025.180663.

[12] Escobedo F.J., Kroeger T., Wagner J.E., 2011. Urban forests and pollution mitigation: analysing ecosystem services and disservices. Environ. Pollut. 159 (8-9), 2078-2087. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2011.01.010.

[13] Fushi C., Pu H.H., MacDonell M., Picel K., Negri M., Chen J.H., 2022. Microplastics in the Great Lakes: environmental, health, and socioeconomic implications and future directions. ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. 10, 14074-14091. doi: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.2c02896.

[14] Gharde Y., Singh P.K., Dubey R.P., Gupta P.K., 2018. Assessment of yield and economic losses in agriculture due to weeds in India. Crop. Prot. 107, 12-18. doi: 10.1016/j.cropro.2018.01.007.

[15] Gomes E., Inácio M., Bogdzevič K., Kalinauskas M., Karnauskaitė D., Pereira P., 2021. Future land-use changes and its impacts on terrestrial ecosystem services: a review. Sci. Total Environ. 781, 146716. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.146716.

[16] IPBES, 2019. Summary for Policymakers of the Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. IPBES secretariat, Bonn, Germany, p. 56.

[17] Kelly J.R., Doherty T.J., Gabel T., Disbrow W., 2019. Large carnivore attacks on humans: the state of knowledge. Hum. Ecol. Rev. 25 (2), 15-33. doi: 10.22459/HER.25.02.2019.03.

[18] Laamouri A., Khattabi A., 2025. Estimating the economic cost of land degradation and desertification in Morocco. Land 14, 837. doi: 10.3390/land14040837.

[19] Lyytimäki J., 2014. Bad nature: newspaper representations of ecosystem disservices. Urban For. Urban Green. 13, 418-424. doi: 10.1016/j.ufug.2014.04.005.

[20] Lyytimäki J., Sipilä M., 2009. Hopping on one leg —the challenge of ecosystem disservices for urban green management. Urban For. Urban Green. 8, 309-315. doi: 10.1016/j.ufug.2009.09.003.

[21] Ma F.J., Eneji A.E., Liu J.T., 2015. Assessment of ecosystem services and dis-services of an agro-ecosystem based on extended emergy framework: a case study of Luancheng county, North China. Ecol. Eng. 82, 241-251. doi: 10.1016/j.ecoleng.2015.04.100.

[22] Macêdo R.L., Haubrock P.J., Klippel G., Fernandez R.D., Leroy B., Angulo E., Carneiro L., Musseau C.L., Rocha O., Cuthbert R.N., 2024. The economic costs of invasive aquatic plants: a global perspective on ecology and management gaps. Sci. Total Environ. 908, 168217. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.168217.

[23] Machate O., Schmeller D.S., Schulze T., Brack W., 2023. Review: mountain lakes as freshwater resources at risk from chemical pollution. Environ. Sci. Eur. 35 (1), 3. doi: 10.1186/s12302-022-00710-3.

[24] MEA, 2005. Ecosystems and Human Wellbeing: Synthesis. Island Press, Washington, D.C.

[25] Michel T., Nabinger C., Overbeck G.E., 2026. Estimating costs of ecological restoration across degradation scenarios in South Brazilian grasslands. Restor. Ecol., e70283 doi: 10.1111/rec.70283.

[26] Mundahl N.D., Howard J., 2025. Total phosphorus loadings and corrective actions needed to restore water quality in a eutrophic urban lake in Minnesota, USA: a case study. Limnol. Rev. 25 (3), 28. doi: 10.3390/limnolrev25030028.

[27] Nicklin H., Leicher A.M., Dieperink C., Van Leeuwen K., 2019. Understanding the costs of inaction —an assessment of pluvial flood damages in two European cities. Water 11 (4), 801. doi: 10.3390/w11040801.

[28] Patton A.J., 2025. Why mow?: a review of the resulting ecosystem services and disservices from mowing turfgrass. Crop. Sci. 65, e21376. doi: 10.1002/csc2.21376.

[29] Paudel S., Cobb A.B., Boughton E.H., Spiegal S., Boughton R.K., Silveira M.L., Swain H.M., Reuter R., Goodman L.E., Steiner J.L., 2021. A framework for sustainable management of ecosystem services and disservices in perennial grassland agroecosystems. Ecosphere 12 (11), e03837. doi: 10.1002/ecs2.3837.

[30] Pereira P., Bogunovic I., Zhao W.W., Barcelo D., 2021. Short-term effect of wildfires and prescribed fires on ecosystem services. Curr. Opin. Environ. Sci. Health 22, 100266. doi: 10.1016/j.coesh.2021.100266.

[31] Pereira P., Inacio M., Kalinauskas M., Bogdzevič K., Bogunovic I., Zhao W.W., 2022. Land-use changes and ecosystem services. In: Pereira P., Gomes E., Rocha J. ( Mapping and Forecast Land Use/Cover Changes.Eds.), The Present and Future of Planning. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 1-27. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-323-90947-1.00007-7.

[32] Pimenta L., Duarte L., Teodoro A.C., Beltrão N., Gomes D., Oliveira R., 2025. GISbased flood susceptibility mapping using AHP in the urban Amazon: a case study of Ananindeua, Brazil. Land 14, 1543. doi: 10.3390/land14081543.

[33] Pinto L.V., Inácio M., Ferreira C.S.S., Ferreira A.D., Pereira P., 2022. Ecosystem services and wellbeing dimensions related to urban green spaces —a systematic review. Sust. Cities Soc. 85, 104072. doi: 10.1016/j.scs.2022.104072.

[34] Salin M. Claron C., Nguyen-Rabot E., Mondolfo N., Levrel H., 2025. Digging into the costs of urban soil restoration. Working Papers hal-04904897, HAL.

[35] Saunders M.E., 2020. Conceptual ambiguity hinders measurement and management of ecosystem disservices. J. Appl. Ecol. 57 (9), 1840-1846. doi: 10.1111/1365-2664.13665.

[36] Schaal-Lagodzinski T., König B., Riechers M., Heitepriem N., Leventon J., 2024. Exploring cultural landscape narratives to understand challenges for collaboration and their implications for governance. Ecosyst. People 20 (1), 2320886. doi: 10.1080/26395916.2024.2320886.

[37] Shackleton C.M., Ruwanza S., Sinasson Sanni G.K., Bennett S., De Lacy P., Modipa R., Mtati N., Sachikonye M., Thondhlana G., 2016. Unpacking Pandora’s box: understanding and categorising ecosystem disservices for environmental management and human wellbeing. Ecosystems 19 (4), 587-600. doi: 10.1007/s10021-015-9952-z.

[38] Sun X.Y., Armstrong M., Moradi A., Bhattacharya R., Antão-Geraldes A.M., Munthali E., Grossart H.P., Matsuzaki S.I.S., Kangur K., Dunalska J.A., Stockwell J.D., Borre L., 2025. Impacts of climate-induced drought on lake and reservoir biodiversity and ecosystem services: a review. Ambio 54 (3), 488-504. doi: 10.1007/s13280-024-02092-7.

[39] Sun Y.M., Li H., Lei S., Semple K.T., Coulon F., Hu Q., Gao J.Y., Guo G.L., Gu Q.L., Gu Q.B., Jones K.C., 2022. Redevelopment of urban brownfield sites in China: motivation, history, policies and improved management. Eco-Environ. Health 1 (2), 63-72. doi: 10.1016/j.eehl.2022.04.005.

[40] Swain H.M., Boughton E.H., Bohlen P.J., Lollis P.O., 2013. Trade-offs among ecosystem services and disservices on a Florida ranch. Rangelands 35 (5), 75-87. doi: 10.2111/RANGELANDS-d-13-00053.1.

[41] Sza ł kiewicz E., Jusik S., Grygoruk M., 2018. Status of and perspectives on river restoration in Europe: 310,000 euros per hectare of restored river. Sustainability 10 (1), 129. doi: 10.3390/su10010129.

[42] Takatsuki S., Sato M., Morinaga Y., 2018. Effects of grazing on grassland communities of the forest-steppe of northern Mongolia: a comparison of grazed versus ungrazed places. Grassland Sci. 64 (3), 167-174. doi: 10.1111/grs.12195.

[43] Tóth G., Ivits E., Prokop G., Gregor M., Fons-Esteve J., Milego Agràs R.M., Mancosu E., 2022. Impact of soil sealing on soil carbon sequestration, water storage potentials and biomass productivity in functional urban areas of the European Union and the United Kingdom. Land 11 (6), 840. doi: 10.3390/land11060840.

[44] Turbelin A.J., Hudgins E.J., Catford J.A., Cuthbert R.N., Diagne C., Kourantidou M., Roiz D., Courchamp F., 2024. Biological invasions as burdens to primary economic sectors. Glob. Environ. Change 87, 102858. doi: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2024.102858.

[45] Vaz A.S., Kueffer C., Kull C.A., Richardson D.M., Vicente J.R., Kühn I., Schröter M., Hauck J., Bonn A., Honrado J.P., 2017. Integrating ecosystem services and disservices: insights from plant invasions. Ecosyst. Serv. 23, 94-107. doi: 10.1016/j.ecoser.2016.11.017.

[46] von Döhren P., Haase D., 2015. Ecosystem disservices research: a review of the state of the art with a focus on cities. Ecol. Indic. 52, 490-497. doi: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2014.12.027.

[47] von Döhren P., Haase D., 2022. Geospatial assessment of urban ecosystem disservices: an example of poisonous urban trees in Berlin, Germany. Urban For. Urban Green. 67, 127440. doi: 10.1016/j.ufug.2021.127440.

[48] Wang C.Z., Wang X.H., Jin Z.N., Müller C., Pugh T.A.M., Chen A.P., Wang T., Huang L., Zhang Y., Li L.X.Z., Piao S.L., 2022. Occurrence of crop pests and diseases has largely increased in China since 1970. Nat. Food 3 (1), 57-65. doi: 10.1038/s43016-021-00428-0.

[49] Wheate N.J., 2022. A review of environmental contamination and potential health impacts on aquatic life from the active chemicals in sunscreen formulations. Aust. J. Chem. 75 (4), 241-248. doi: 10.1071/CH21236.

[50] World Bank, 2025. Ukraine. Rapid damage and needs assessment (RDNA4). Washington, 192 pp.

[51] Yu P.H., Wei Y.J., Ma L.J., Wang B., Yung E.H.K., Chen Y.Y., 2024. Urbanisation and the urban critical zone. Earth Crit. Zone 1, 100011. doi: 10.1016/j.ecz.2024.100011.

[52] Yukich J., Doum D., McIver D.J., Richardson J.H., Sovannaroth S., Lobo N.F., Tatarsky A., 2025. The costs and logistics of distributing forest packs containing novel vector control tools to forest-exposed populations in Cambodia. Malar. J. 24 (1), 2. doi: 10.1186/s12936-024-05237-x.