Social-ecological Dynamics Research Articles

Diverse knowledge systems reveal social–ecological dynamics that inform species conservation status

AbstractUnderstanding changes over historical timescales is essential to gauge conservation status of a species. Modern ecological data typically neglect past magnitudes of change, which fortunately can be evaluated by bridging disparate knowledge sources. We synthesized zooarchaeological, historical, traditional, and western science knowledge to document changes in relative abundance of key species in Canada's northern abalone social–ecological system (SES) from the Holocene to present. Integrated models fit to traditional and western science data revealed 3.7% annual population decline from 1940s to 2010s for large abalone, although traditional knowledge density estimates were 9.5× higher than those derived from western science. Abalone are presently scarce compared to the mid‐1900s, but more abundant than before the early 1800s, calling their endangered status into question. Linking multiple knowledge sources can build SES understanding, facilitate power sharing, and support ecologically sustainable and socially just conservation outcomes.

Disaggregating gang activity: an exploratory study of the socio-demographic context of gang activity

This paper examines the social ecology of gang activity in Fort Worth, Texas, a community with decades-long and recent growth in Latino immigrant populations. Focusing on the contextual correlates of police-defined gang incidents, the paper explores the relationship between traditional social ecological measures of concentrated disadvantage, residential stability, Latino immigration and racial composition and police-defined gang crime activity in Fort Worth communities. To better understand the social ecological dynamics that correlate with gang activity, the analysis uniquely disaggregates gang activity using 1) the police department’s gang-related classification system and, 2) four categories of gang crime behaviors within police classifications. Overall, the findings reveal that traditional social ecological indicators are significantly related to gang activity; however, the relationship collapses with disaggregation by gang-involved and gang-related crime behaviors and the four disaggregated crime classifications. Implications for research, theory, and policy are discussed.

A novel approach for co-producing positive scenarios that explore agency: case study from the Canadian Arctic

The planet’s social–ecological systems are expected to change in rapid and surprising ways in the coming decades, with consequences for ecosystems, ecosystem services, and human well-being. One way to support local communities and decision-makers at higher scales in addressing such surprising changes is to develop scenarios that are locally actionable and that can inform understanding of social–ecological dynamics across scales. This study focuses on three areas that require advances for developing globally relevant scenarios that support local action: (1) mobilizing Indigenous and local knowledge (ILK) in scenarios; (2) using scenarios to explore agency to affect the future; (3) probing a vast range of plausible positive futures. For scenarios to be relevant to communities in supporting positive change, approaches that engage with ILK to explore how human action, or agency, can shape the future are needed, as well as positive scenarios that feature a wide range of good outcomes for nature and people to inspire and guide action. We propose a novel set of methods for participatory scenario planning—developed and tested through a case study in the Canadian Arctic—designed to carefully explore what ‘positive futures’ could mean to different populations faced with growing impacts from environmental and social change, and how positive outcomes can be achieved even in light of these changing dynamics. This scenario approach provides direction to engage multiple ways of knowing in developing knowledge about future changes that can direct sustainable action.

Applying Place-Based Social-Ecological Research to Address Water Scarcity: Insights for Future Research

Globally, environmental and social change in water-scarce regions challenge the sustainability of social-ecological systems. WaterSES, a sponsored working group within the Program for Ecosystem Change and Society, explores and compares the social-ecological dynamics related to water scarcity across placed-based international research sites with contrasting local and regional water needs and governance, including research sites in Spain and Sweden in Europe, South Africa, China, and Alabama, Idaho, Oklahoma, and Texas in the USA. This paper aims to provide a commentary on insights into conducting future solutions-oriented research on water scarcity based on the understanding of the social-ecological dynamics of water scarce regions.

Urban landscaping choices and people’s selection of plant traits in Cape Town, South Africa

As cities increasingly become the dominant settlement form across the world, it is critical to gain a deeper insight into their dynamics, in order to better direct environmental management towards enhancing urban sustainability and environmental quality. People are a key driver shaping the ecological makeup of cities, not least through landscaping actions and choices. In this study, we explore social factors shaping plant selection in Cape Town, South Africa through interviews with stakeholders responsible for managing and landscaping across three land use types: private residential gardens, public parks and open space, and conservation areas. We combine an interdisciplinary, multi-scalar framework on residential landscape dynamics and a plant traits lens to structure our approach to examining the influence of social factors on plant selection across spatial and institutional scales in the city, from a bottom-up perspective. Residents name a variety of reasons for plant selection at the household scale related to plant traits, including aesthetics, utility (e.g., food provision), environmental suitability, and personal symbolic meanings. Parks managers select for ecological suitability as well as aesthetic concerns, and conservation managers select chiefly for ecological integrity. All stakeholders describe factors at other scales (e.g., property structure, government policies) that influence their plant selection. We indicate that a complementary patchwork of private gardens and public open spaces could serve as a source of trait diversity and provide a variety of ecosystem functions and services in the urban landscape, and suggest that management and policy efforts can focus on leveraging synergies towards this end. This study contributes to a greater understanding of the social-ecological dynamics in a global south city and biodiversity hotspot.

Ecological shift and resilience in China's lake systems during the last two centuries

Abstract The worldwide decline of wetland ecosystems calls for an urgent reassessment of their current status from a resilience perspective. Understanding the trajectories of changes that have produced the current situation is fundamental for assessing system resilience. Here, we examine long-term dynamics of wetland ecosystem change by reviewing paleoecological records from 11 representative lakes in China. We identify unprecedented change in alga communities in the context of last two centuries. Striking ecological shifts have occurred in all lakes, yet with spatial and temporal differences. The long-term trajectories of change in diatom species composition and structure indicate gradually eroded system resilience. These ecological shifts were shaped by socio-economic activities as China transformed from a rural agricultural to an industrialized society within the last several decades, during which multiple drivers have accumulated and acted synergistically. The balance between ecosystem and society, which appeared to exist for thousands of years, was broken by increasing population, new technology, and urbanization since the 1980s. The consequences are the emergence of new positive feedbacks with the potential to drive the coupled systems into undesirable states. By linking long-term social and ecological change at a regional scale, our study provides a novel contribution to the understanding of lake ecosystems resilience in present-day China. We argue that sustaining wetland ecosystems requires integrated approaches that incorporate a deeper understanding of social-ecological dynamics over decadal-centennial timescales to address the complex underlying mechanisms leading to the current degradation.

Ecosystem services supply and demand assessment: Why social-ecological dynamics matter

• Social-ecological dynamics of ecosystem services do matter. • Not only the temporal and spatial scales are relevant, but also the social. • Systemic perspective linking supply and demand to social-ecological system is needed. • Social-ecological dynamics need to be better integrated into Research.

Social–ecological dynamics in irrigated agriculture in dry zone Sri Lanka: a political ecology

The study deals with social–ecological dynamics in irrigated agriculture in Sri Lanka’s dry zone. Paddy cultivation on small-scale farms, the prevalent livelihood strategy in the region, is highly dependent on irrigation. Small village tanks and large-scale irrigation schemes shape agricultural life, together with modernized agrarian technologies in accordance with “Green Revolution” approaches. Based on field research conducted in North Central and Eastern Province in 2013/2014, this paper evaluates the current state of rural development in the dry zone through the perspective of political ecology, emphasizing the central role of sustainable water management issues. We find that hardships of the local populations are mainly comprised by the occurrence of a quasi-epidemic kidney disease (CKDu), socio-economic tensions, and post-conflict challenges. Through the lense of the political ecology approach, the study suggests that agricultural modernization in the Sri Lankan dry zone has created severe dilemmas to the social and environmental sustainability of irrigated agriculture.

Social-ecological dynamics of the small scale fisheries in Sundarban Mangrove Forest, Bangladesh

The Sundarban Mangrove Forest (SMF) is an intricate ecosystem containing the most varied and profuse natural resources of Bangladesh. This study presents empirical research, based on primary and secondary data, regarding the social-ecological system (SES), social-ecological dynamics, different stakeholders and relevant management policies of small-scale or artisanal fisheries such as the SMF; showing how, despite extensive diversification, the livelihood activities of the artisanal fishers in the SMF all depend on the forest itself. Regardless of this critical importance of mangroves, however, deforestation continues due to immature death of mangroves, illegal logging, increased salinity, natural disasters and significant household consumption of mangrove wood by local people. As the mangroves are destroyed fish stocks, and other fishery resources are reduced, leading to moves of desperation among those whose livelihood has traditionally been fishing. The present study also considers several risks and shock factors in the fishers' livelihood: attacks by wild animals (especially tigers) and local bandits, illness, natural disasters, river bank erosion, and the cost of paying off corrupt officials. The artisanal fishers of the SMF have adopted different strategies for coping with these problems: developing partnerships, violating the fisheries management laws and regulations, migrating, placing greater responsibility on women, and bartering fishing knowledge and information. This study shows how the social component (human), the ecological component (mangrove resources) and the interphase aspects (local ecological knowledge, stakeholder's interest, and money lenders or middle man roles) of the SMF as an SES are linked in mutual interaction. It furthermore considers how the social-ecological dynamics of the SMF have negative impacts on artisanal fishermen's livelihoods. Hence there is an urgency to update existing policies and management issues for the sustainable utilization of the SMF resources, eventually contributing to the improvement of the artisanal fishers' livelihoods.

Analysis of social-ecological dynamics driving conflict in linked surface-groundwater systems

McGuire, S. A., and T. J. Ehlinger. 2018. Analysis of social-ecological dynamics driving conflict in linked surface-groundwater systems. Ecology and Society 23(4):19. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-10510-230419

국립공원 반달가슴곰 복원사업의 사회생태시스템 동태성 분석 및 관리계획

국립공원 반달가슴곰 복원사업의 사회생태시스템 동태성 분석 및 관리계획

Social-Ecological Dynamics of Ecosystem Services: Livelihoods and the Functional Relation between Ecosystem Service Supply and Demand—Evidence from Socotra Archipelago, Yemen and the Sahel Region, West Africa

In aiming to halt global biodiversity loss, it is essential to address underlying societal processes. The concept of ecosystem services claims to bridge between biodiversity and society. At the same time there is a considerable research gap regarding how ecosystem services are provided, and how societal activities and dynamics influence the provision of ecosystem services. Interactions and dependencies between ecosystem services supply and demand come to the fore but context-specific dynamics have largely been neglected. This article is a critical reflection on the current research of ecosystem services supply and demand. We argue that there is a functional relation between the supply and demand for ecosystem services, with the two influencing each other. Scientific interest should focus on both the temporal and spatial dynamics of ecosystem services supply and demand. Presenting two studies from Socotra Archipelago, Yemen and the Sahel regions in Senegal and Mali, West Africa, we illustrate that the society behind the demand for ecosystem services is highly interrelated with ecosystem services supply. We thus advocate the adoption of a social-ecological perspective for current research on ecosystem services supply and demand in order to address these context-specific temporal and spatial dynamics.

Las redes sociales en la gestión de los recursos naturales: ¿qué hay que aprender de una perspectiva estructural?

Las redes sociales entre actores y grupos de interés están recibiendo cada vez más atención en los estudios sobre la gestión de los recursos naturales, especialmente en los que se refieren a la gestión adaptativa basada en diferentes formas de participación y cogestión. Las redes sociales se han concebido principalmente como recursos que habilitan la colaboración y la coordinación entre diferentes actores. Aquí, continuamos la discusión iniciada por Newman y Dale (2005), que destacaron el hecho de que no todas las redes sociales son creadas iguales. Discutimos la relación entre algunas características estructurales y las funciones de las redes sociales con respecto al manejo de los recursos naturales, centrándonos en las implicaciones estructurales que a menudo se pasan por alto al estudiar las redes en el contexto del manejo de los recursos naturales. Presentamos varias medidas que se utilizan para cuantificar las características estructurales de las redes sociales y vincularlas con una serie de procesos como el aprendizaje, el liderazgo y la confianza, que se consideran importantes en el manejo de recursos naturales. Se muestra esquemáticamente que puede haber yuxtaposiciones entre las diferentes características estructurales que necesitan ser equilibradas en lo que nos imaginamos como estructuras de redes sociales conducentes a la cogestión adaptativa de los recursos naturales. Sostenemos que es esencial desarrollar una comprensión de los efectos que las diferentes características estructurales de las redes sociales tienen sobre la gestión de los recursos naturales.

The progress of interdisciplinarity in invasion science.

Interdisciplinarity is needed to gain knowledge of the ecology of invasive species and invaded ecosystems, and of the human dimensions of biological invasions. We combine a quantitative literature review with a qualitative historical narrative to document the progress of interdisciplinarity in invasion science since 1950. Our review shows that 92.4% of interdisciplinary publications (out of 9192) focus on ecological questions, 4.4% on social ones, and 3.2% on social-ecological ones. The emergence of invasion science out of ecology might explain why interdisciplinarity has remained mostly within the natural sciences. Nevertheless, invasion science is attracting social-ecological collaborations to understand ecological challenges, and to develop novel approaches to address new ideas, concepts, and invasion-related questions between scholars and stakeholders. We discuss ways to reframe invasion science as a field centred on interlinked social-ecological dynamics to bring science, governance and society together in a common effort to deal with invasions.

Exploring social-ecological dynamics of a coral reef resource system using participatory modeling and empirical data

Coral reef resource systems are complex adaptive social-ecological systems providing vital and valuable ecosystem services for human societies such as food provision, coastal protection and recreational activities. Their sustainability is questioned in many places around the world as they experience combined effects of multiple chronic anthropogenic and natural drivers at local to global scales. From a management perspective, there is a crucial need to understand how the impact of these drivers cascade through the social-ecological system components. This study develops a transdisciplinary and participatory approach to investigating the social-ecological dynamics of a Polynesian coral reef coastal system. A preliminary conceptual model using the Driver-Pressure-State-Impact (DPSI) framework is first being built through participatory modeling workshops. Then, pressure-state relationships are assessed with the help of empirical datasets as a first step towards the validation of the DPSI model. Results shows striking social-ecological interactions with different patterns in the lagoon and in the fore reef. Local management should be: (1) less resource-focused to account more specifically to the existing typology of actors; (2) more spatially-explicit to better distinguish management objectives and actions for the lagoon and the fore reef sub-systems; and (3) more coordinated with terrestrial agencies for a coherent land-sea connection and integration that would both (i) account for existing land-sea interactions and (ii) better reflect the Polynesian cultural heritage that considers nature from ridge to reef as a whole. Such conceptual models of social-ecological systems are a useful tool to build exploratory scenarios to ultimately support planning decision-making processes.

Social–ecological dynamics of change and restoration attempts in the Chihuahuan Desert grasslands of Janos Biosphere Reserve, Mexico

Shrub encroachment and declining grass production are widespread throughout the grasslands and savannas of the Mexico–US borderlands, with negative consequences for ecosystem services, livestock production, and native biodiversity. The problem suggests a complex interaction of social and ecological drivers that are not well understood. Using the Chihuahuan Desert grasslands of the Janos Biosphere Reserve of northern Mexico as a case study, we sought to understand the social–ecological context that shaped landscape change. Our approach included a synthesis of the historical literature and interviews with local residents, with the goal of facilitating long-term grassland restoration. Findings indicate that recent changes in Chihuahuan Desert grasslands are likely related to the co-occurrence of heavy grazing, fire suppression, and the elimination of key species, including prairie dogs and native ungulates. Local residents widely perceive both fire and prairie dogs to be destructive to grasslands and livelihoods. Over the last 50 years, evolving land tenure policies have fragmented the landscape into smaller parcels which typically produce an insufficient livelihood from cattle despite high stocking rates. Declining cattle profitability has motivated the sale and conversion of rangelands to more profitable croplands irrigated with groundwater. Since the founding of the Janos Biosphere Reserve in 2009, universities, local cattle operators, conservation organizations, and federal agencies have begun collaborating on restoration activities. While complete restoration of grasslands is unlikely, progress appears possible largely because of the willingness of local residents to try new management practices that may improve their ability to benefit from the land.

My cattle and your park: codesigning a role-playing game with rural communities to promote multistakeholder dialogue at the edge of protected areas

Protected areas are often burdened with conflicts between environmental managers and neighboring rural communities. Unsuccessful top-down approaches for conservation may be replaced by alternative forms of systemic management involving local actors in the design and implementation of conservation management. Although theoretically sound and appealing, the involvement of local residents in the management of protected areas is often impaired in practice by scale mismatches, conflicting values and interests, power imbalance, and a lack of trust among actors. In this paper, we describe a process initiated in Zimbabwe to create a fair and balanced locally designed arena where local communities and protected area managers may collaborate to produce effective management plans. Adopting the Companion Modeling approach, we conducted a participatory modeling experiment to codesign a role-playing game that simulates the interactions between farming activities, livestock herding practices, and wildlife in a virtual landscape reproducing local social–ecological dynamics. After 18 months of intensive ethnographical fieldwork to gain knowledge and legitimacy, we spent one year codesigning the first version of the game with a group of volunteer villagers. The game, called Kulayijana (teaching each other), was tested and validated by other members of the rural communities and subsequently presented to protected area managers. We show how this approach allowed the negotiation of uncertainties and their inclusion in a model that constitutes a shared representation of farmers' interactions with the protected area. We emphasize the fact that working with marginalized actors first increased participation, appropriation, and confidence of rural communities to engage in a multistakeholder debate, thus reducing power imbalance among actors. We conclude by discussing the next phase of our work: the necessary involvement of conservation actors in the Kulayijana team, and the implementation of Kulayijana with higher hierarchical levels. (Resume d'auteur)

Identifying Gender-Sensitive Agroforestry Options: Methodological Considerations From the Field

Agroforestry is seen as a promising set of land use practices that can lead to increased ecological integrity and sustainable benefits in mountain areas. Agroforestry practices can also enhance smallholder farmers' resilience in the face of social and ecological change. There is a need for critical examination of existing practices to ensure that agroforestry recommendations for smallholder farmers are socially inclusive and grounded in local experience, knowledge, and perceptions. In this paper, we present a transdisciplinary systems approach to the identification and analysis of suitable agroforestry options, which takes into account gendered perceptions of the benefits and values of natural resources. The 4-step approach consists of an appraisal of local perceptions of the social-ecological context and dynamics, an inventory of existing agroforestry practices and species, a gendered valuation of agroforestry practices and species, and the development of locally adapted and gender-sensitive agroforestry...

Interactions of social, terrestrial, and marine sub-systems in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

Galapagos is often cited as an example of the conflicts that are emerging between resource conservation and economic development in island ecosystems, as the pressures associated with tourism threaten nature, including the iconic and emblematic species, unique terrestrial landscapes, and special marine environments. In this paper, two projects are described that rely upon dynamic systems models and agent-based models to examine human–environment interactions. We use a theoretical context rooted in complexity theory to guide the development of our models that are linked to social–ecological dynamics. The goal of this paper is to describe key elements, relationships, and processes to inform and enhance our understanding of human–environment interactions in the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador. By formalizing our knowledge of how systems operate and the manner in which key elements are linked in coupled human–natural systems, we specify rules, relationships, and rates of exchange between social and ecological features derived through statistical functions and/or functions specified in theory or practice. The processes described in our models also have practical applications in that they emphasize how political policies generate different human responses and model outcomes, many detrimental to the social–ecological sustainability of the Galapagos Islands.

An Exploration of Human Well-Being Bundles as Identifiers of Ecosystem Service Use Patterns.

We take a social-ecological systems perspective to investigate the linkages between ecosystem services and human well-being in South Africa. A recent paper identified different types of social-ecological systems in the country, based on distinct bundles of ecosystem service use. These system types were found to represent increasingly weak direct feedbacks between nature and people, from rural “green-loop” communities to urban “red-loop” societies. Here we construct human well-being bundles and explore whether the well-being bundles can be used to identify the same social-ecological system types that were identified using bundles of ecosystem service use. Based on national census data, we found three distinct well-being bundle types that are mainly characterized by differences in income, unemployment and property ownership. The distribution of these well-being bundles approximates the distribution of ecosystem service use bundles to a substantial degree: High levels of income and education generally coincided with areas characterised by low levels of direct ecosystem service use (or red-loop systems), while the majority of low well-being areas coincided with medium and high levels of direct ecosystem service use (or transition and green-loop systems). However, our results indicate that transformations from green-loop to red-loop systems do not always entail an immediate improvement in well-being, which we suggest may be due to a time lag between changes in the different system components. Using human well-being bundles as an indicator of social-ecological dynamics may be useful in other contexts since it is based on socio-economic data commonly collected by governments, and provides important insights into the connections between ecosystem services and human well-being at policy-relevant sub-national scales.