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For the period 1991–2005 inclusive we categorise peer-reviewed journal output depending on whether it pertains to case-studies in a) cropland or b) aggregate semi-natural and natural terrestrial (ASNNT) ecosystems for three applications in ecological modelling: 1) modelling of terrestrial carbon and nitrogen fluxes; 2) modelling of terrestrial root systems; 3) geographic information systems. Next we compare these research output magnitudes for case-studies in cropland and ASNNT ecosystems with estimates of the total economic value (TEV) of either system.

It is widely accepted that socially excessive amounts of environmental degradation and pollution occur because of missing markets for ecological goods and services but the potential impact of these missing markets on influencing environmental research output has only been examined in relation to the study of modelling terrestrial carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) fluxes (Stapleton et al., 2004).

Peer-reviewed journal output for application one, modelling terrestrial C and N fluxes, is greater for ASNNT ecosystems compared to cropland with an increasing emphasis on the former, relative to the latter, over time. Over 1991–2005 inclusive 881 papers (articles, reviews and notes) pertain to ASNNT ecosystems compared to 436 to cropland. Numerically, the intercept of the best-fit linear regression is greater for research output in ASNNT ecosystems compared to cropland but statistically there is no significant difference (Fig. 2; Eq. (2)) according to a lumped regression which distinguishes cropland and ASNNT research output using dummy variables3