Prelims 2012 · archive
MediumThe Millennium Ecosystem Assessment describes the following major categories of ecosystem services—provisioning, supporting, regulating, preserving and cultural. Which one of the following is a supporting service?
Answer & explanation
Answer: (c) Nutrient cycling and crop pollination
The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment names nutrient cycling as its standard example of a supporting service. Options (a), (b) and (d) do not describe supporting services, so (c) is the only option that includes one.
- ✗ (a) Food and water are provisioning services, meaning products obtained directly from ecosystems.
- ✗ (b) Regulation of climate, floods and disease belongs to regulating services.
- ✓ (c) Nutrient cycling is the Assessment's main example of a supporting service. These services are necessary for producing all other ecosystem services. Crop pollination is listed under regulating services, so the option is imperfect, but it is the only one that includes a supporting service.
- ✗ (d) Maintenance of diversity is not one of the Assessment's named supporting services. Those are soil formation, photosynthesis and nutrient cycling.
Remember · MA categories: provisioning (food, water), regulating (climate, flood, disease, pollination), cultural (recreational, spiritual) and supporting (nutrient cycling, soil formation, photosynthesis). Supporting services underpin all the others.
Sources
- Millennium Ecosystem Assessment – Ecosystems and Human Well-being: A Framework for Assessment (Ch. 2) ↗ · reference work “Supporting services are those that are necessary for the production of all other ecosystem services. They differ from provisioning, regulating, and cultural services in that their impacts on people are either indirect … provisioning services such as food and water; regulating services such as flood and disease control; cultural services such as spiritual, recreational, and cultural benefits; and supporting services, such as nutrient cycling”
- Millennium Ecosystem Assessment – Synthesis Report / Current State and Trends ↗ · reference work “supporting services such as soil formation, photosynthesis, and nutrient cycling”
Question: UPSC Civil Services (Preliminary) 2012, General Studies paper. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 25 Oct 2026 (how we verify). ·