Support functions underpin other services and as such are not to be
economically evaluated as this would involve double-counting. Nevertheless,
there are economic valuations studies in the literature of what
could be considered as soil support functions and we have therefore
opted to include themas they are interesting in the context of illustrating
the immense importance and value of soil natural capital and soil ES
and functions.
The economic valuation literature concentrates on the role of soil in
four different functions: biodiversity pool; nutrient cycling; soil formation;
and water cycling.