Case study 4: Persistent organic pollutants

In the POP case study, none of the habitats taken into account (Table 5.4) were identified as being of high concern; indeed medium concern was determined only for a low number of habitat x ecosystem service combinations. This can be explained by the assumed low impact of POP-type chemicals on most ecosystem services due to the expected low concentrations in pristine areas (cf. Table 4.4, Section 4.4). When severe impact on a certain ecosystem service was assumed (e.g. in the case of food provision), this resulted in only medium concern because the respective habitats were considered to be of no more than intermediate importance for delivery of this service.

Table 5.4: Persistent organic pollutants – ecosystem services of concern with examples of SPUs involved in the delivery of potentially threatened services.
Dark grey: medium concern; light grey: low concern; white: negligible concern