The ecological processes of natural ecosystems provide humanity with a large and important range of free services on which we depend. These include: maintaining the quality of the atmosphere (which helps regulate the climate); improving water quality, controlling water cycles, including reducing the likelihood of serious flooding and droughts; protecting coastal areas for the conservation and generation of coral reef and dune systems; generating and conserving fertile soils; controlling crop pests and disease vectors; facilitating the pollination of many crops; directly providing food from aquatic and terrestrial environments and the maintenance of a vast "genetic library" from which man has extracted the foundations of civilization in the form of crops, domesticated animals, medicines and industrial products.