title: Science for managing ecosystem services: Beyond the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.
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.
authors.affiliation: Center for Limnology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA. srcarpen@wisc.edu
authors.forename: Stephen R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Carpenter
authors.forename: Harold A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Mooney
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Agard
authors.forename: Doris
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Capistrano
authors.forename: Ruth S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Defries
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Díaz
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Dietz
authors.forename: Anantha K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Duraiappah
authors.forename: Alfred
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Oteng-Yeboah
authors.forename: Henrique Miguel
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Pereira
authors.forename: Charles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Perrings
authors.forename: Walter V
authors.initials: WV
authors.lastname: Reid
authors.forename: José
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sarukhan
authors.forename: Robert J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Scholes
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Whyte
mesh_terms: D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D017753:Ecosystem; D004777:Environment; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D011336:Probability; D013045:Species Specificity