How are ecosystem services cut off? Ecological Society of America 03.23.01 Ecosystem services are so fundamental to life that they are easy to take for granted and so large in scale that it is hard to imagine that human activities could destroy them. Nevertheless, ecosystem services are severely threatened through (1) growth in the scale of human enterprise (population size, per-capita consumption, and effects of technologies to produce goods for consumption) and (2) a mismatch between short-term needs and long-term societal well being. Many human activities disrupt, impair, or reengineer ecosystems every day including:   · runoff of pesticides, fertilizers, and animal wastes   · pollution of land, water, and air resources   · introduction of non-native species   · overharvesting fisheries   · destruction of wetlands   · erosion of soils   · deforestation   · urban sprawl   Prepared by   The Ecological Society of America   1707 H Street, NW, Suite 400,   Washington, DC 20006 ©2001 The Aurora Collection, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Site Development by: Interactive Multimedia. Inc.