Mapping and characterizing social-ecological land systems of South America
Humans place strong pressure on land and have modified around 75% of Earth’s terrestrial surface. In this context, ecoregions and biomes, merely defined on the basis of their biophysical features, are incomplete characterizations of the territory. Land system science requires classification schemes...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Resilience Alliance
2022-06-01
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| Series: | Ecology and Society |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol27/iss2/art27/ |
| _version_ | 1817981832668381184 |
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| author | Lucía Zarbá María Piquer-Rodríguez Sébastien Boillat Christian Levers Ignacio Gasparri T. Mitchell Aide Nora L. Álvarez-Berríos Liana O. Anderson Ezequiel Araoz Eugenio Arima Mateus Batistella Marco Calderón-Loor Cristian Echeverría Mariano Gonzalez-Roglich Esteban G. Jobbágy Sarah-Lan Mathez-Stiefel Carlos Ramirez-Reyes Andrea Pacheco María Vallejos Kenneth R. Young Ricardo Grau |
| author_facet | Lucía Zarbá María Piquer-Rodríguez Sébastien Boillat Christian Levers Ignacio Gasparri T. Mitchell Aide Nora L. Álvarez-Berríos Liana O. Anderson Ezequiel Araoz Eugenio Arima Mateus Batistella Marco Calderón-Loor Cristian Echeverría Mariano Gonzalez-Roglich Esteban G. Jobbágy Sarah-Lan Mathez-Stiefel Carlos Ramirez-Reyes Andrea Pacheco María Vallejos Kenneth R. Young Ricardo Grau |
| author_sort | Lucía Zarbá |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Humans place strong pressure on land and have modified around 75% of Earth’s terrestrial surface. In this context, ecoregions and biomes, merely defined on the basis of their biophysical features, are incomplete characterizations of the territory. Land system science requires classification schemes that incorporate both social and biophysical dimensions. In this study, we generated spatially explicit social-ecological land system (SELS) typologies for South America with a hybrid methodology that combined data-driven spatial analysis with a knowledge-based evaluation by an interdisciplinary group of regional specialists. Our approach embraced a holistic consideration of the social-ecological land systems, gathering a dataset of 26 variables spanning across 7 dimensions: physical, biological, land cover, economic, demographic, political, and cultural. We identified 13 SELS nested in 5 larger social-ecological regions (SER). Each SELS was discussed and described by specific groups of specialists. Although 4 environmental and 1 socioeconomic variable explained most of the distribution of the coarse SER classification, a diversity of 15 other variables were shown to be essential for defining several SELS, highlighting specific features that differentiate them. The SELS spatial classification presented is a systematic and operative characterization of South American social-ecological land systems. We propose its use can contribute as a reference framework for a wide range of applications such as analyzing observations within larger contexts, designing system-specific solutions for sustainable development, and structuring hypothesis testing and comparisons across space. Similar efforts could be done elsewhere in the world. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T23:12:27Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f1d1b763e4554452ac35e87bf7794ea9 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1708-3087 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T23:12:27Z |
| publishDate | 2022-06-01 |
| publisher | Resilience Alliance |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Ecology and Society |
| spelling | doaj.art-f1d1b763e4554452ac35e87bf7794ea92022-12-22T02:25:32ZengResilience AllianceEcology and Society1708-30872022-06-012722710.5751/ES-13066-27022713066Mapping and characterizing social-ecological land systems of South AmericaLucía Zarbá0María Piquer-Rodríguez1Sébastien Boillat2Christian Levers3Ignacio Gasparri4T. Mitchell Aide5Nora L. Álvarez-Berríos6Liana O. Anderson7Ezequiel Araoz8Eugenio Arima9Mateus Batistella10Marco Calderón-Loor11Cristian Echeverría12Mariano Gonzalez-Roglich13Esteban G. Jobbágy14Sarah-Lan Mathez-Stiefel15Carlos Ramirez-Reyes16Andrea Pacheco17María Vallejos18Kenneth R. Young19Ricardo Grau20Instituto de Ecología Regional (IER), Universidad Nacional de Tucumán (UNT) Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Tucumán, ArgentinaLateinamerika-Institut, Freie Universität Berlin, GermanyInstitute of Geography, University of Bern, Bern, SwitzerlandDepartment of Environmental Geography, Institute for Environmental Studies, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The NetherlandsInstituto de Ecología Regional (IER), Universidad Nacional de Tucumán (UNT) Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Tucumán, ArgentinaDepartment of Biology, University of Puerto Rico - Rio PiedrasUSDA Forest Service, International Institute of Tropical Forestry, Río Piedras, Puerto RicoNational Center for Monitoring and Early Warning of Natural Disasters - CEMADEN, Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation - MCTI, BrazilInstituto de Ecología Regional (IER), Universidad Nacional de Tucumán (UNT) Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Tucumán, ArgentinaDepartment of Geography and the Environment, University of Texas at Austin, USABrazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa Agricultural Informatics) State University of Campinas (Unicamp), BrazilCentre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, Melbourne, AustraliaLandscape Ecology Laboratory, Facultad de Ciencias Forestales, Universidad de Concepción, ChileWildlife Conservation Society, Buenos Aires, ArgentinaGrupo de Estudios Ambientales, IMASL - CONICET and Universidad Nacional de San Luis, San Luis, ArgentinaCentre for Development and Environment, University of Bern, SwitzerlandQuantitative Ecology & Spatial Technologies Laboratory, Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Aquaculture, Mississippi State University, USAGerman Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, GermanyPrograma Nacional de Producción y Sustentabilidad Ambiental, Instituto Nacional de Investigación Agropecuaria (INIA), La Estanzuela, Depto. de Colonia, UruguayDepartment of Geography and the Environment, University of Texas at Austin, USAInstituto de Ecología Regional (IER), Universidad Nacional de Tucumán (UNT) Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Tucumán, ArgentinaHumans place strong pressure on land and have modified around 75% of Earth’s terrestrial surface. In this context, ecoregions and biomes, merely defined on the basis of their biophysical features, are incomplete characterizations of the territory. Land system science requires classification schemes that incorporate both social and biophysical dimensions. In this study, we generated spatially explicit social-ecological land system (SELS) typologies for South America with a hybrid methodology that combined data-driven spatial analysis with a knowledge-based evaluation by an interdisciplinary group of regional specialists. Our approach embraced a holistic consideration of the social-ecological land systems, gathering a dataset of 26 variables spanning across 7 dimensions: physical, biological, land cover, economic, demographic, political, and cultural. We identified 13 SELS nested in 5 larger social-ecological regions (SER). Each SELS was discussed and described by specific groups of specialists. Although 4 environmental and 1 socioeconomic variable explained most of the distribution of the coarse SER classification, a diversity of 15 other variables were shown to be essential for defining several SELS, highlighting specific features that differentiate them. The SELS spatial classification presented is a systematic and operative characterization of South American social-ecological land systems. We propose its use can contribute as a reference framework for a wide range of applications such as analyzing observations within larger contexts, designing system-specific solutions for sustainable development, and structuring hypothesis testing and comparisons across space. Similar efforts could be done elsewhere in the world.https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol27/iss2/art27/automatizationhierarchical clusteringmultidisciplinary dataparticipatory mappingsocial-ecological mapping |
| spellingShingle | Lucía Zarbá María Piquer-Rodríguez Sébastien Boillat Christian Levers Ignacio Gasparri T. Mitchell Aide Nora L. Álvarez-Berríos Liana O. Anderson Ezequiel Araoz Eugenio Arima Mateus Batistella Marco Calderón-Loor Cristian Echeverría Mariano Gonzalez-Roglich Esteban G. Jobbágy Sarah-Lan Mathez-Stiefel Carlos Ramirez-Reyes Andrea Pacheco María Vallejos Kenneth R. Young Ricardo Grau Mapping and characterizing social-ecological land systems of South America Ecology and Society automatization hierarchical clustering multidisciplinary data participatory mapping social-ecological mapping |
| title | Mapping and characterizing social-ecological land systems of South America |
| title_full | Mapping and characterizing social-ecological land systems of South America |
| title_fullStr | Mapping and characterizing social-ecological land systems of South America |
| title_full_unstemmed | Mapping and characterizing social-ecological land systems of South America |
| title_short | Mapping and characterizing social-ecological land systems of South America |
| title_sort | mapping and characterizing social ecological land systems of south america |
| topic | automatization hierarchical clustering multidisciplinary data participatory mapping social-ecological mapping |
| url | https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol27/iss2/art27/ |
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