Science for managing ecosystem services: Beyond the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment
- Stephen R. Carpentera,1,
- Harold A. Mooneyb,
- John Agardc,
- Doris Capistranod,
- Ruth S. DeFriese,
- Sandra Díazf,
- Thomas Dietzg,
- Anantha K. Duraiappahh,
- Alfred Oteng-Yeboahi,
- Henrique Miguel Pereiraj,
- Charles Perringsk,
- Walter V. Reidl,
- José Sarukhanm,
- Robert J. Scholesn and
- Anne Whyteo
- aCenter for Limnology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706;
- bDepartment of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-5020;
- cDepartment of Life Sciences, Faculty of Science and Agriculture, University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies;
- dSoutheast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture, University of the Philippines, Los Baños, 4031 Laguna, Philippines;
- eDepartment of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027;
- fInstituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal (CONICET-FCEFyN), Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Casilla de Correo 495, 5000 Córdoba, Argentina;
- gEnvironmental Science and Policy Program and Departments of Sociology and Crop and Soil Sciences, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48864;
- hDivision of Policy Implementation, United Nations Environment Programme, P. O. Box 47074, Nairobi 00100, Kenya;
- iEnvironmental and Health Sector, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, P. O. Box MB 32, Accra, Ghana;
- JCentro de Biologia Ambiental, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, 1749-016 Lisbon, Portugal;
- kGlobal Institute of Sustainability, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-3211;
- lConservation and Science Program, David and Lucile Packard Foundation, 300 Second Street, Los Altos, CA 94022;
- mInstituto de Ecologia, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Apartado Postal 70-275, Ciudad Universitaria, Mexico City, 04510 DF, Mexico;
- nDivision of Water, Environment, and Forestry Technology, P. O. Box 395, Pretoria 0001, South Africa; and
- oMestor Associates, 739 Hamilton Road, Russell, ON, Canada K4R 1E5
Abstract
The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) introduced a new framework for analyzing social–ecological systems that has had wide influence in the policy and scientific communities. Studies after the MA are taking up new challenges in the basic science needed to assess, project, and manage flows of ecosystem services and effects on human well-being. Yet, our ability to draw general conclusions remains limited by focus on discipline-bound sectors of the full social–ecological system. At the same time, some polices and practices intended to improve ecosystem services and human well-being are based on untested assumptions and sparse information. The people who are affected and those who provide resources are increasingly asking for evidence that interventions improve ecosystem services and human well-being. New research is needed that considers the full ensemble of processes and feedbacks, for a range of biophysical and social systems, to better understand and manage the dynamics of the relationship between humans and the ecosystems on which they rely. Such research will expand the capacity to address fundamental questions about complex social–ecological systems while evaluating assumptions of policies and practices intended to advance human well-being through improved ecosystem services.
Footnotes
- 1To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: srcarpen{at}wisc.edu
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Edited by William C. Clark, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, and approved November 19, 2008
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Author contributions: S.R.C., H.A.M., J.A., D.C., R.S.D., S.D., T.D., A.K.D., A.O.-Y., H.M.P., C.P., W.V.R., J.S., R.J.S., and A.W. designed research, performed research, analyzed data, and wrote the paper.
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The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.
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See Commentary on page 1301.
- © 2009 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA
