Research Frontiers in Ecosystem Service Science

How are ecosystem services conceptualized, analyzed, and forecast into the future? How can ecosystem service science be advanced to improve environmental decision-making at all scales? In this paper, I focus on three critical challenges in ecosystem service science that must be addressed to better understand, forecast, and manage ecosystem services. These include (1) understanding the role of nonlinearities, feedbacks, and legacies in the sustainable and resilient provision of ecosystem services; (2) understanding the role and interplay of ecological and social components in the provision of ecosystem services; and (3) employing stakeholder knowledge in co-designing research that better addresses decision-makers’ most pressing questions. Addressing these three challenges will advance ecosystem science and improve the use of ecosystem services in understanding and managing ecosystems.