scholarly journals Time-delayed biodiversity feedbacks and the sustainability of social-ecological systems

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.-S. Lafuite ◽  
M. Loreau
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Technological Change ◽  
Population Size ◽  
Demographic Transition ◽  
Human Population ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Land Conversion ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological

AbstractThe sustainability of coupled social-ecological systems (SESs) hinges on their long-term ecological dynamics. Land conversion generates extinction and functioning debts, i.e. a time-delayed loss of species and associated ecosystem services. Sustainability theory, however, has not so far considered the long-term consequences of these ecological debts on SESs. We investigate this question using a dynamical model that couples human demography, technological change and biodiversity. Human population growth drives land conversion, which in turn reduces biodiversity-dependent ecosystem services to agricultural production (ecological feedback). Technological change brings about a demographic transition leading to a population equilibrium. When the ecological feedback is delayed in time, some SESs experience population overshoots followed by large reductions in biodiversity, human population size and well-being, which we call environmental crises. Using a sustainability criterion that captures the vulnerability of an SES to such crises, we show that some of the characteristics common to modern SESs (e.g. high production efficiency and labor intensity, concave-down ecological relationships) are detrimental to their long-term sustainability. Maintaining sustainability thus requires strong counteracting forces, such as the demographic transition and land-use management. To this end, we provide integrative sustainability thresholds for land conversion, biodiversity loss and human population size - each threshold being related to the others through the economic, technological, demographic and ecological parameters of the SES. Numerical simulations show that remaining within these sustainable boundaries prevents environmental crises from occurring. By capturing the long-term ecological and socioeconomic drivers of SESs, our theoretical approach proposes a new way to define integrative conservation objectives that ensure the long-term sustainability of our planet.

scholarly journals Delayed behavioural shifts undermine the sustainability of social–ecological systems

2017 ◽  
Vol 284 (1868) ◽  
pp. 20171192 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.-S. Lafuite ◽  
C. de Mazancourt ◽  
M. Loreau
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Natural Habitat ◽  
Sustainable Consumption ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Habitat Destruction ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Ecological Feedbacks ◽  
Mixed Equilibria

Natural habitat destruction and fragmentation generate a time-delayed loss of species and associated ecosystem services. As social–ecological systems (SESs) depend on a range of ecosystem services, lagged ecological dynamics may affect their long-term sustainability. Here, we investigate the role of consumption changes for sustainability, under a time-delayed ecological feedback on agricultural production. We use a stylized model that couples the dynamics of biodiversity, technology, human demography and compliance with a social norm prescribing sustainable consumption. Compliance with the sustainable norm reduces both the consumption footprint and the vulnerability of SESs to transient overshoot-and-collapse population crises. We show that the timing and interaction between social, demographic and ecological feedbacks govern the transient and long-term dynamics of the system. A sufficient level of social pressure (e.g. disapproval) applied on the unsustainable consumers leads to the stable coexistence of unsustainable and sustainable or mixed equilibria, where both defectors and conformers coexist. Under bistability conditions, increasing extinction debts reduces the resilience of the system, thus favouring abrupt regime shifts towards unsustainable pathways. Given recent evidence of large extinction debts, such results call for farsightedness and a better understanding of time delays when studying the sustainability of coupled SESs.

scholarly journals How Does Agroecology Contribute to the Transitions towards Social-Ecological Sustainability?

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (16) ◽  
pp. 4372 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisa Oteros-Rozas ◽  
Federica Ravera ◽  
Marina García-Llorente
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Public Policies ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Ecological Sustainability ◽  
Ecological Functions ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Feminist Perspectives ◽  
Technical Innovations ◽  
Complex Relationships

This Special Issue of Sustainability aims at compiling original theoretical, methodological, and empirical research exploring how agroecology approaches can promote the transition towards sustainability, particularly of agri-food social-ecological systems, taking into account the complex relationships established between ecological functions and ecosystem services, human wellbeing, innovative socio-technical innovations, and governance models as well as public policies. In this editorial, we carry out an overview of the 17 contributions that shape this number, around five main themes: Agroecological practices that enhance ecosystem services, the potential of agroecology to promote social learning and innovation, gender and feminist perspectives in agroecology, the political articulation of agroecology, and public policies and the institutionalization of agroecology. Finally, we reflect about suggested guidelines for agroecology research that truly aims at supporting the transition towards strong social-ecological sustainability, we then deepen on the main gaps revealed by the research works presented. Finally, we conclude with the insights provided by agroecology within the transition towards social-ecological sustainability.

Robustness, institutions, and large-scale change in social-ecological systems: the Hohokam of the Phoenix Basin

2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOHN M. ANDERIES
Keyword(s):  
Formal Model ◽  
Irrigation System ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Term Change ◽  
Phoenix Basin ◽  
The Phoenix

Societies frequently generate public infrastructure and institutional arrangements in order to mediate short-term environmental fluctuations. However, the social and ecological consequences of activities dealing with short-term disturbances may increase the vulnerability of the system to infrequent events or to long-term change in patterns of short-term variability. Exploring this possibility requires the study of long-term, transformational change. The archaeological record provides many examples of long-term change, such as the Hohokam who occupied the Phoenix Basin for over a thousand years and developed a complex irrigation society. In the eleventh and fourteenth centuries, the Hohokam society experienced reductions in complexity and scale possibly associated with regional climatic events. We apply a framework designed to explore robustness in coupled social-ecological systems to the Hohokam Cultural Sequence. Based on this analysis, a stylized formal model is developed to explore the possibility that the success of the Hohokam irrigation system and associated social structure may have increased their vulnerability to rare climactic shocks.

scholarly journals Long-term perspectives on circumpolar social-ecological systems

2020 ◽  
Vol 549 ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Sean P.A. Desjardins ◽  
Peter D. Jordan ◽  
T. Max Friesen ◽  
Mary-Louise Timmermans
Keyword(s):  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological

scholarly journals A Resilience Framework for Chronic Exposures: Water Quality and Ecosystem Services in Coastal Social-Ecological Systems

2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 242-258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathaniel H. Merrill ◽  
Kate K. Mulvaney ◽  
David M. Martin ◽  
Marnita M. Chintala ◽  
Walter Berry ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Resilience Framework

scholarly journals Comparisons of historical Dutch commons inform about the long-term dynamics of social-ecological systems

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (8) ◽  
pp. e0256803
Author(s):  
Anders Forsman ◽  
Tine De Moor ◽  
René van Weeren ◽  
Mike Farjam ◽  
Molood Ale Ebrahim Dehkordi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Resource Depletion ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Natural Ecosystems ◽  
Shared Resources ◽  
High Resolution Data ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approaches ◽  
Past Experiences

Human societies and natural ecosystems are under threat by growing populations, overexploitation of natural resources and climate change. This calls for more sustainable utilization of resources based on past experiences and insights from many different disciplines. Interdisciplinary approaches to studies of historical commons have potential to identify drivers of change and keys to success in the past, and offer advice about the management and use of shared resources in contemporary and future systems. We address these issues by applying an ecological perspective to historical data on social-ecological systems. We perform comparisons and time series analyses for nine successful Dutch commons for which high-resolution data on the regulatory activities and use of shared resources is available for on average 380 years (range 236 to 568) during the period 1300 to 1972. Within commons, institutional developments were oscillating, with periods of intense regulatory activity being separated by periods of low activity, and with the dynamics of regulations being largely independent across commons. Ecological theory posits that species that occupy similar niches should show correlated responses to environmental challenges; however, commons using more similar resources did not have more parallel or similar institutional developments. One notable exception was that sanctioning was more frequent in commons that directed more regulatory activities towards non-renewable subsoil resources, whereas there was no association between sanctioning and the use of renewable resources. This might indicate that commoners were aware of potential resource depletion and attempted to influence freeriding by actively trying to solve the underlying social dilemmas. Sanctioning regulations were more frequent during the first than during the second part of a common’s life, indicating that while sanctioning might have been important for the establishment of commons it was not key to the long-term persistence of historical commons.

scholarly journals An education approach for the Anthropocene epoch

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. e448101119780
Author(s):  
Cristiane Mansur de Moraes Souza
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Social Learning ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Ecological Resilience ◽  
Considerable Uncertainty ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
The Social

It is now well established in the literature that there is a need to incorporate the concept of sustainability into education at all study levels. However, there is considerable uncertainty expressed concerning how it could best be achieved and how the resilience concept would enhance this idea. This article aims to address this gap. The objective is to explore aspects of socio-ecological resilience, that underlies a university case study. The methodology is exploratory, descriptive, and explanatory. Results demonstrate that civil engagement university activities are an education approach that provides students with experiences that build skills necessary for addressing the challenges of the Anthropocene Epoch. The conclusion of the article emphasizes that the education for the Anthropocene epoch should consider the enhancement of ecosystem services by demonstrating that humans are part of the social-ecological systems; considering interdisciplinarity as a methodological approach; demonstrating the variety of potentials on participation of stakeholders by civil engagement as developing autonomy both on students and stakeholders and developing the ability for proactive attitudes. Is also enhance learning and social learning by civil engagement and participation.

scholarly journals Palaeoenvironmental proxies indicate long-term development of agro-pastoralist landscapes in Inner Asian mountains

2022 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Spate ◽  
Mumtaz A. Yatoo ◽  
Dan Penny ◽  
Mohammad Ajmal Shah ◽  
Alison Betts
Keyword(s):  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Archaeological Research ◽  
Kashmir Valley ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Environmental Perturbations ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Arid Conditions ◽  
Mountain Landscapes ◽  
Term Management

AbstractA growing body of archaeological research on agro-pastoralist populations of the Inner Asian mountains indicates that these groups adapted various systems of mobile herding and cultivation to ecotopes across the region from as early as 5000 BP. It has been argued that these adaptations allowed the development of flexible social-ecological systems well suited to the long-term management of these mountain landscapes. At present, less attention has been paid to examining the long-term ecological legacy of these adaptations within the sedimentary or palaeoenvironmental record. Here we present sediment, palynomorph and charcoal data that we interpret as indicating agro-pastoralist environmental perturbations, taken from three cores at middle and high altitudes in the Kashmir Valley at the southern end of the Inner Asian mountains. Our data indicate spatially and temporally discontinuous patterns of agro-pastoralist land use beginning close to 4000 BP. Periods of intensification of upland herding are often coincident with phases of regional social or environmental change, in particular we find the strongest signals for agro-pastoralism in the environmental record contemporary with regionally arid conditions. These patterns support previous arguments that specialised agro-pastoralist ecologies across the region are well placed to respond to past and future climate deteriorations. Our data indicating long-term co-evolution of humans and landscape in the study area also have implications for the ongoing management of environments generally perceived as “pristine” or “wilderness”.

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