title: Operationalizing Network Theory for Ecosystem Service Assessments.
abstract: Managing ecosystems to provide ecosystem services in the face of global change is a pressing challenge for policy and science. Predicting how alternative management actions and changing future conditions will alter services is complicated by interactions among components in ecological and socioeconomic systems. Failure to understand those interactions can lead to detrimental outcomes from management decisions. Network theory that integrates ecological and socioeconomic systems may provide a path to meeting this challenge. While network theory offers promising approaches to examine ecosystem services, few studies have identified how to operationalize networks for managing and assessing diverse ecosystem services. We propose a framework for how to use networks to assess how drivers and management actions will directly and indirectly alter ecosystem services.
authors.affiliation: Institute on the Environment and Department of Forest Resources, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN 55108, USA. Electronic address: ledee@umn.edu.
authors.forename: Laura E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Dee
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology & Evolution and Computation Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago IL 60637, USA.
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Allesina
authors.affiliation: UFZ - Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Department of Ecosystem Services, Leipzig, Germany; Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Jena, Germany; German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Aletta
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bonn
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology, Linköping University, Linköping ​58183, Sweden.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Eklöf
authors.affiliation: Bren School of Environmental Science & Management, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93117, USA.
authors.forename: Steven D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Gaines
authors.affiliation: German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany; Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Jes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hines
authors.affiliation: German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany; J.F. Blumenbach Institute of Zoology and Anthropology, University of Goettingen, Berliner Strasse 28, 37073 Goettingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Ute
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Jacob
authors.affiliation: Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science, School of Geography Planning and Environmental Management, University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, Australia.
authors.forename: Eve
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: McDonald-Madden
authors.affiliation: ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions, School of Biological Sciences, University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, Australia.
authors.forename: Hugh
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Possingham
authors.affiliation: UFZ - Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Department of Ecosystem Services, Leipzig, Germany; German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schröter
authors.affiliation: Institute for Applied Ecology, University of Canberra, Canberra, ACT, Australia.
authors.forename: Ross M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Thompson
mesh_terms: D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D004463:Ecology; D017753:Ecosystem; D006801:Humans
keywords: Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES); ecosystem services; natural resource management; network theory