TY - JOUR
T1 - Science and socio-ecological resilience
T2 - examples from the Arizona-Sonora Border
AU - Morehouse, Barbara J.
AU - Ferguson, Daniel B.
AU - Owen, Gigi
AU - Browning-Aiken, Anne
AU - Wong-Gonzalez, Pablo
AU - Pineda, Nicolás
AU - Varady, Robert
N1 - Funding Information:
The ideas for this paper were generated during two workshops funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation under its Sustainability Under Uncertainty Program, NSF Grant #SES0345944. The authors wish to thank all the participants whose ideas and suggestions provided the original framework from which this paper grew.
PY - 2008/5
Y1 - 2008/5
N2 - The Greater Sonoran Ecoregion (GSE), spanning the U.S.-Mexico border between Arizona and Sonora, faces myriad biophysical and social challenges to maintaining long-term socio-ecological resilience. Concepts of socio-ecological resilience and transformability provide a foundation for examining interactions between society and nature, and between society and science. An analysis of three case studies reveals that the GSE is becoming ever more vulnerable to systemic changes that will have serious consequences for the environment and society alike. While much more knowledge needs to be developed in both the biophysical and social sciences, there is an equally pressing need to bring social values and practices more closely into alignment with the resources and limitations of the coupled system itself. Improvements in science-society interactions are also needed. Threats to the GSE can only be addressed through long-term programs having the ultimate goal of preserving the system's human and ecological integrity.
AB - The Greater Sonoran Ecoregion (GSE), spanning the U.S.-Mexico border between Arizona and Sonora, faces myriad biophysical and social challenges to maintaining long-term socio-ecological resilience. Concepts of socio-ecological resilience and transformability provide a foundation for examining interactions between society and nature, and between society and science. An analysis of three case studies reveals that the GSE is becoming ever more vulnerable to systemic changes that will have serious consequences for the environment and society alike. While much more knowledge needs to be developed in both the biophysical and social sciences, there is an equally pressing need to bring social values and practices more closely into alignment with the resources and limitations of the coupled system itself. Improvements in science-society interactions are also needed. Threats to the GSE can only be addressed through long-term programs having the ultimate goal of preserving the system's human and ecological integrity.
KW - Institutions
KW - Socio-ecological resilience
KW - Transformation
KW - U.S.-Mexico border
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U2 - 10.1016/j.envsci.2007.07.007
DO - 10.1016/j.envsci.2007.07.007
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:42349087871
SN - 1462-9011
VL - 11
SP - 272
EP - 284
JO - Environmental Science and Policy
JF - Environmental Science and Policy
IS - 3
ER -