Sammendrag
The study of ecological services (ESs) is fast becoming a cornerstone of mainstream
ecology, largely because they provide a useful means of linking functioning to societal
benefits in complex systems by connecting different organizational levels. In order to
identify the main challenges facing current and future ES research, we analyzed the
effects of the publication of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA, 2005) on different
disciplines. Within a set of topics framed around concepts embedded within the
MEA, each co-author identified five key research challenges and, where feasible,
suggested possible solutions. Concepts included those related to specific service types
(i.e. provisioning, supporting, regulating, cultural, aesthetic services) as well as more synthetic
issues spanning the natural and social sciences, which often linked a wide range
of disciplines, as was the case for the application of network theory. By merging similar
responses, and removing some of the narrower suggestions from our sample pool, we
distilled the key challenges into a smaller subset. We review some of the historical context
to the MEA and identify some of the broader scientific and philosophical issues that
still permeate discourse in this field. Finally, we consider where the greatest advances
are most likely to be made in the next decade and beyond.
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