Incorporating human drivers and systems approaches into an ecological state-and-transition model framework

Résumé fourni par la source

Abstract Ecology is the study of living organisms and their physical environment. Often, in an ecological modelling context, this has meant a lack of explicit consideration of human impacts on ecological systems, despite the clear influence humans have upon the natural environment over millennia. We suggest that this exclusion of the human from ecological modelling has created serious knowledge gaps in solving ecological challenges, especially given that humans are generally the underlying cause for ecosystem state change. Here we propose reframing ecological models to incorporate human (anthropogenic) drivers (including those that maintain ecosystem integrity and those that might alter it) and to view these drivers as interacting and interlinked, using a systems lens. We demonstrate this using the example of a generalised state-and-transition model and a case study example of ecological restoration of agricultural landscapes in southeastern Australia. This method identifies human (anthropogenic) drivers of ecological change that can be targeted for action. To increase the utility of ecological models, an understanding of anthropogenic influences and drivers should be incorporated, embedding them within adaptive management cycles to guide tangible ecological outcomes.

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