The biotic and abiotic assets of the marine environment form the “marine natural capital” embedded in the global ocean. Marine natural capital provides the flow of “marine ecosystem services” that are directly used or enjoyed by people providing benefits to human well-being. They include provisioning services (e.g., food), regulation and maintenance services (e.g., carbon sequestration and storage, and coastal protection), and cultural services (e.g., tourism and recreational benefits). In recent decades, human activities have increased the pressures on marine ecosystems, often leading to ecosystem degradation and biodiversity loss and, in turn, affecting their ability to provide benefits to humans. Therefore, effective management strategies are crucial to the conservation of healthy and diverse marine ecosystems and to ensuring their long-term generation of goods and services. Biophysical, economic, and sociocultural assessments of marine ecosystem services are much needed to convey the importance of natural resources to managers and policy makers supporting the development and implementation of policies oriented for the sustainable management of marine resources. In addition, the accounting of marine ecosystem service values can be usefully complemented by their mapping to enable the identification of priority areas and management strategies and to facilitate science–policy dialogue. Given this premise, this study aims to review trends and evolution in the concept of marine ecosystem services. In particular, the global scientific literature on marine ecosystem services is explored by focusing on the following main aspects: the definition and classification of marine ecosystem services; their loss due to anthropogenic pressures, alternative assessment, and mapping approaches; and the inclusion of marine ecosystem services into policy and decision-making processes.

The growing global population and modern dietary patterns are the main drivers of current unsustainable food systems, with one of the most serious consequences being the growing issue of food waste and loss (FWL). FWL is a global problem since one-third of the global food produced for human consumption is wasted or lost yearly. FWL occurs throughout the food supply chain. In this study, the scientific literature on FWL was explored. Social network analysis and bibliometrics were integrated to explore the issue of food waste in relation to environmental impact and food security. The generated network maps displayed the relationships among keywords, authors, and countries dealing with the issue of food waste, highlighting the exponential growth of the studies focusing on food waste since 2010. The results allowed for the understanding of the evolution of food waste scientific research, identifying the most important topics and research paths. In addition, the results also showed a clear research shift from an older approach to food waste, based on the downstream notion of waste, to a more modern approach, based on sustainability, food security, consumer behavior, and the circular economy, addressing the problem of food waste by preventing it with upstream actions and policies. Considering the remarkable ethical, environmental, social, and economic implications of FWL, the outcomes of this study display the need for developing interdisciplinary approaches and methodologies capable of providing a comprehensive understanding of the FWL issue.

Urban ecosystems, and the services they provide, are a key focus of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, specifically SDG 11, which emphasizes making cities inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. Green infrastructure (GI) is crucial in enhancing citizens’ quality of life and achieving this goal and it can be defined as a strategically planned network of natural and semi-natural areas designed to deliver a range of ecosystem services (ESs). These infrastructures improve ecosystem functioning, protect biodiversity, promote health, support sustainable land and water management, and boost the local green economy. This paper explores the scientific literature on GI and their ESs in cities using bibliometric science. By combining the keywords “Green Infrastructures”, “Ecosystem Services”, and “Cities” with VOSviewer software (1.6.20 version), we analyzed trends over time. Results show growing attention to these topics, emphasizing human well-being, urban resilience, and sustainability. The study also highlights that focusing exclusively on either “Green Infrastructure in Cities” or “Ecosystem Services in Cities” leads to fragmented insights. A more integrated examination of these three domains offers a holistic view and underscores the importance of considering ecosystem disservices. The study further identifies key research directions, including the need for a comprehensive evaluation of diverse GI types, especially those that are under-researched, such as green roofs, sports areas, and wetlands, and the underexplored role of cultural ecosystem services. Additionally, future research should consider both the benefits and disservices of GI to support better urban planning decisions. Finally, integrating biophysical, social, and economic values of ESs is critical for providing more holistic insights and enhancing sustainable urban development. The novelty of this paper lies in its integrated, holistic approach to examining GI and ESs in urban areas, with a focus on ecosystem disservices, insufficient attention to specific GI types, and the role of cultural ecosystem services—each contributing to the creation of more resilient and sustainable cities.

Posidonia oceanica is an endemic seagrass of the Mediterranean Sea, forming extensive meadows and providing valuable ecosystem services underwater as well as on the shore. P. oceanica constantly generates new leaves while shedding the older ones. The latter may be deposited on the shoreline, forming “banquettes” that exhibit variable thickness, ranging from a few centimeters to several meters. These deposits act as natural barriers against coastal erosion, preventing sand loss and dissipating wave energy. Moreover, the degradation of the washed-up leaves releases large amounts of nutrients, relevant for the coastal food web. However, the presence of banquettes in touristic areas is often perceived as a nuisance, thus leading to their removal by local administrations. This study proposes a multidisciplinary approach for the assessment of P. oceanica banquettes along the coastline of the Campania region (Southern Italy), estimating their biomass and the associated concentrations of nutrients and other chemical elements, with the final aim to assess the potential loss of natural capital and ecosystem services due to their removal. Regional estimates show that approximately 40 tons of C are stored annually in the beached biomass, representing a potential carbon loss associated with their removal. The results highlight the crucial role that P. oceanica banquettes play in the blue carbon cycle and provide valuable insights to support their sustainable management.

Environmental accounting refers to methodologies aimed at assessing natural resources and the impacts human activities generate on them. Over the past few years, there has been an increasing interest in environmental accounting both in scientific and policy contexts, which recognize its important role in assessing the environmental costs and impacts generated by humans on natural ecosystems. In this study, we explored the global scientific literature on environmental accounting over the last fifty years. Based on scientific publications data, the VOSviewer software was used to generate network maps on environmental accounting displaying the relationships among scientific journals, keywords, researchers, and countries. In total, environmental accounting resulted to be the subject of 1,603 publications. The main keywords related to environmental accounting were “sustainable development”, “environmental economics”, and “sustainability”, highlighting the important role played by environmental accounting tools for assessing environmental sustainability. In addition, United Kingdom, United States, and Italy, resulted the top countries in the research field of environmental accounting. In conclusion, the application of systems thinking in bibliometric science allowed a broad investigation of the research on environmental accounting, resulting a valuable approach for identifying trends and gaps in this research area.

Coralligenous bioconstructions are a key Mediterranean ecosystem for their associated biodiversity and role in the blue carbon cycle. They are also sensitive to environmental alterations (e.g., climate change) and other anthropic impacts related to coastal anthropization (e.g., fishing activities). Marine-coastal zone protection, conservation programs and management strategies are essential to guarantee a good ecological status of the coralligenous habitat. In this context, environmental and ecosystem accounting are useful tools to measure natural capital stocks and ecosystem service flows associated with marine ecosystems, conveying their importance in scientific and policy contexts. Indeed, the importance of marine ecosystems is often overlooked due to the difficulty of expressing their value in common units, making it challenging for decision-makers to explore trade-offs between conservation and exploitation of marine ecosystems. In this study, a biophysical and trophodynamic environmental accounting model was used to assess the biophysical value of natural capital stocks of the coralligenous habitat in three Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) of the Campania Region (Southern Italy): Punta Campanella, Santa Maria di Castellabate, and Costa degli Infreschi e della Masseta. The natural capital value per unit area associated with the coralligenous habitat ranged from 2.44 × 10¹² to 4.72 × 10¹² sej m⁻² for Santa Maria di Castellabate and Punta Campanella, respectively. Despite the different intensive values of natural capital calculated for the MPAs, there were no significant differences both in the biomass values of the taxonomic groups and in the biomass-based Shannon diversity index. Additionally, the biophysical values were also converted into monetary units, with the aim of facilitating the understanding of the importance of natural stocks in socio-economic and political contexts. The economic equivalent of natural capital value refers to the total extent of the coralligenous habitat and ranged from about EUR 1 to 15 million for Costa degli Infreschi e della Masseta and Santa Maria di Castellabate, respectively. The results of this study could be useful for local managers and policy makers and may make them more likely to achieve biodiversity conservation and sustainable development goals in MPAs. This is the first study devoted to the assessment of natural capital value of coralligenous habitats. Future studies could complement the results of this study with biophysical and economic assessments of ecosystem service flows generated by coralligenous habitats, focusing on the role they play in human well-being.