Question

Which of the following best illustrates the intrinsic value of an ecosystem? Chippewa National Forest in Minnesota provides jobs for loggers Woodpeckers in the Black Hills eat mountain pine beetles that have been killing millions of acres of pine forests in the western U.S., costing millions of dollars in lost timber sales and creating an extreme fire hazard A wetland filters runoff and detoxifies water before it percolates into drinking water aquifers An estuary is often a stopover location for millions of migrating shorebirds that need to stop and fuel up on the invertebrates living in the mudflats. My professor's prairie provides flowers for her colony of honeybees to harvest pollen

Answer 1

An estuary is often a stopover location for millions of migrating shorebirds that need to stop and fuel up on the invertebrates living in the mudflats.

Ecosystems include all the organisms, their physical and chemical environment. The intrinsic value of the ecosystem is self-ascribed which means that its intrinsic value is conferred by its own desire to take its lived experience as an end in itself. An estuary establishes its intrinsic value in this example showing how it is utilized in the ecosystem.