Description
The demand the human population is placing on the environment has triggered accelerated rates of biodiversity change and created trade-offs among the ecosystem services we depend upon. Decisions designed to reverse these trends require the best possible information obtained by monitoring ecological and social dimensions of change. Here, I present a social–ecological network framework and discuss the challenges of monitoring biodiversity and ecosystem services across spatial and temporal scales. I propose that spatially explicit multilayer and multiscale monitoring can help estimate the range of variability seen in social–ecological systems with varying levels of human modification across the landscape. To illustrate the framework, a conceptual case study on the ecosystem service of maple syrup production is used. I conclude that the use of analytical tools capable of integrating qualitative and quantitative knowledge of social–ecological systems (combining Essential Ecosystem Service Variables) provides a causal understanding of change across a network. Altogether, the SEN framework and EESV provide a foundation for establishing monitoring of socio-ecological systems.
| Topic | Topic 1: : Methods for integrating social and ecological knowledge |
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