Networking Our Way to Better Ecosystem Service Provision

• Published in: Trends in ecology & evolution (Amsterdam) Vol. 31; no. 2; pp. 105 - 115
• Main Authors: Bohan, David, Landuyt, Dries, Ma, Athen, Macfadyen, Sarina, Martinet, Vincent V., Massol, Francois, Mcinerny, Greg, Montoya, Jose M., Mulder, Christian, Pascual, Unai, Pocock, Michael J O, White, Piran, Blanchemanche, Sandrine, Bonkowski, Michael, Bretagnolle, Vincent V., Bronmark, Christer, Dicks, Lynn, Dumbrell, Alex, Eisenhauer, Nico, Friberg, Nikolai, Gessner, Mark O, Gill, Richard, Gray, Clare, Haughton, Alison, Ibanez, Sébastien, Jensen, John, Jeppesen, Erik, Jokela, Jukka, Lacroix, Gerard, Lannou, Christian, Lavorel, Sandra, Le Galliard, Jean-François, Lescourret, Francoise, Liu, Shanlin, Loeuille, Nicolas, Mclaughlin, Orla, Muggleton, Stephen H., Penuelas, Josep, Petanidou, Theodora, Petit, Sandrine, Pomati, Francesco, Raffaelli, Dave, Rasmussen, Jes, Raybould, Alan, Reboud, Xavier, Richard, Guy, Scherber, Christoph, Scheu, Stefan, Sutherland, William J, Tamaddoni-Nezhad, Alireza, ter Braak Cajo, J.F., Termansen, Mette M., Thompson, Murray S. A., Tscharntke, Teja, Vacher, Corinne C., van Der Geest, Harm, Voigt, Winfried, Vonk, J Arie, Zhou, Xin, Woodward, Guy
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.02.2016; Elsevier
• Subjects: Animals; Annan samhällsvetenskap; Biologi; Biological Sciences; Biometris; Biometris (PPO/PRI); Conservation of Natural Resources - economics; Conservation of Natural Resources - methods; cooperative research; Ecological and Environmental Phenomena; Ecology; Ecology (including Biodiversity Conservation); economic valuation; Ecosystem; ecosystem services; ecosystems; Ekologi; Environmental Restoration and Remediation; Environmental Sciences; Humans; Models, Biological; Natural Sciences; Naturvetenskap; Other Social Sciences; PE&RC; Samhällsvetenskap; social benefit; Social Sciences; Socioeconomic Factors; terminology; traditions; Animals; Conservation of Natural Resources / economics; Ecosystem; Humans; Conservation of Natural Resources / methods; Ecological and Environmental Phenomena; Models; Biological; Environmental Restoration and Remediation; Socioeconomic Factors
• ISSN: 0169-5347; 1872-8383; 1872-8383
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2015.12.003

The ecosystem services (EcoS) concept is being used increasingly to attach values to natural systems and the multiple benefits they provide to human societies. Ecosystem processes or functions only become EcoS if they are shown to have social and/or economic value. This should assure an explicit connection between the natural and social sciences, but EcoS approaches have been criticized for retaining little natural science. Preserving the natural, ecological science context within EcoS research is challenging because the multiple disciplines involved have very different traditions and vocabularies (common-language challenge) and span many organizational levels and temporal and spatial scales (scale challenge) that define the relevant interacting entities (interaction challenge). We propose a network-based approach to transcend these discipline challenges and place the natural science context at the heart of EcoS research. The EcoS concept is being used to evaluate the complex social and economic benefits that ecological systems provide to humans. EcoS should explicitly connect the natural and social sciences, but have been criticized for retaining little natural science context. When formalized in a series of discipline-specific layers, network-based methods can be used in EcoS. In layer 1, analysis of ecological networks identifies the crucial natural science context for EcoS research, which structures the overlying social science and economic layers, and thus limits the complexity of the problem. This brings a generic network-based language to EcoS and makes explicit the scales and interactions that connect the disciplines, fostering communication. Network approaches are a promising method for interdisciplinary research aimed at understanding and predicting EcoS.