title: Ecosystem stewardship: sustainability strategies for a rapidly changing planet.
abstract: Ecosystem stewardship is an action-oriented framework intended to foster the social-ecological sustainability of a rapidly changing planet. Recent developments identify three strategies that make optimal use of current understanding in an environment of inevitable uncertainty and abrupt change: reducing the magnitude of, and exposure and sensitivity to, known stresses; focusing on proactive policies that shape change; and avoiding or escaping unsustainable social-ecological traps. As we discuss here, all social-ecological systems are vulnerable to recent and projected changes but have sources of adaptive capacity and resilience that can sustain ecosystem services and human well-being through active ecosystem stewardship.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK 99775, USA. terry.chapin@alaska.edu
authors.forename: F Stuart
authors.initials: FS
authors.lastname: Chapin
authors.forename: Stephen R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Carpenter
authors.forename: Gary P
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Kofinas
authors.forename: Carl
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Folke
authors.forename: Nick
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Abel
authors.forename: William C
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Clark
authors.forename: Per
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Olsson
authors.forename: D Mark Stafford
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Walker
authors.forename: Oran R
authors.initials: OR
authors.lastname: Young
authors.forename: Fikret
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Berkes
authors.forename: Reinette
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Biggs
authors.forename: J Morgan
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Grove
authors.forename: Rosamond L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Naylor
authors.forename: Evelyn
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pinkerton
authors.forename: Will
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Steffen
authors.forename: Frederick J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Swanson
mesh_terms: D057231:Climate Change; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000379:methods*; D017753:Ecosystem; D006801:Humans