TY - JOUR

T1 - Ecosystem services as a boundary object for sustainability

AU - Abson, David

AU - von Wehrden, Henrik

AU - Baumgärtner, Stefan

AU - Fischer, Jörn

AU - Hanspach, Jan

AU - Härdtle, Werner

AU - Heinrichs, Harald

AU - Klein, Alexandra-Maria

AU - Lang, Daniel J.

AU - Martens, Pim

AU - Walmsley, David

PY - 2014/7

Y1 - 2014/7

N2 - Ecosystem services research has become a major academic field, drawing in various academic disciplines, perspectives, and research approaches. The multifaceted concept of "ecosystem services" includes a normative component, which has strong implicit links to the notion of sustainability. Yet, how ecosystem services research relates to sustainability has received little attention. We reviewed the current state of research on ecosystem services, and examined whether the concept's original motivation has allowed it to act as an effective boundary object for the integration of the diverse knowledge related to sustainability. A full-text, multivariate statistical analysis of 1388 peer-reviewed publications on ecosystem services from 1997 to 2011 revealed a rapidly growing but fragmented body of research, which has emphasized the development of descriptive understandings of human-nature interactions. Future challenges for the ecosystem services concept include greater integration of currently fragmented knowledge domains and stronger engagement with the concept's normative foundations.

AB - Ecosystem services research has become a major academic field, drawing in various academic disciplines, perspectives, and research approaches. The multifaceted concept of "ecosystem services" includes a normative component, which has strong implicit links to the notion of sustainability. Yet, how ecosystem services research relates to sustainability has received little attention. We reviewed the current state of research on ecosystem services, and examined whether the concept's original motivation has allowed it to act as an effective boundary object for the integration of the diverse knowledge related to sustainability. A full-text, multivariate statistical analysis of 1388 peer-reviewed publications on ecosystem services from 1997 to 2011 revealed a rapidly growing but fragmented body of research, which has emphasized the development of descriptive understandings of human-nature interactions. Future challenges for the ecosystem services concept include greater integration of currently fragmented knowledge domains and stronger engagement with the concept's normative foundations.

KW - Sustainability sciences, Management & Economics

KW - Bibliographic analysis

KW - ecosystem services

KW - Ethics

KW - Multivariate statistics

KW - Normative knowledge

KW - Sustainability

KW - Systems knowledge

KW - Transformative knowledge

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84899829256&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2014.04.012

DO - 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2014.04.012

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:84899829256

VL - 103

SP - 29

EP - 37

JO - Ecological Economics

JF - Ecological Economics

SN - 0921-8009

IS - 7

ER -