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Highly mobile and migratory wildlife are ecologically, culturally, and economically important because they provide ecosystem services across heterogenous landscapes. Migratory ungulates (hoofed mammals) are particularly influential because of their large body size, seasonal movement across vast distances, and ties to human society. Ungulate migrations are widely declining in the face of habitat alteration, and initiatives across the globe seek to conserve them. However, migratory herds can generate significant costs or disservices for landowners and communities, complicating management and conservation. We demonstrate how a comprehensive assessment of the ecosystem services and disservices (ESDs) provided by mobile wildlife can enable conservation policy that facilitates co-existence across multi-use landscapes. Our mixed-methods approach applies the widely recognized Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) ESD categories as a framework to combine formal scientific knowledge spanning multiple disciplines with experiential knowledge gathered from local stakeholders through interviews. We apply this methodology in the context of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE), which harbors long-distance migrations of six ungulate species that move between public protected areas and private working lands. We discuss how stakeholder knowledge corroborates or contradicts scientific literature and characterize stakeholder groups and their perspectives. We suggest that formal assessments of ESDs within their ecological and socioeconomic contexts could mobilize resources for conservation, increase returns on conservation spending, and support conflict resolution amongst groups seeking to manage wildlife for different objectives. [Display omitted] • Migratory species provide ecosystem services and disservices (ESDs) across complex landscapes to many groups of people. • Stakeholder knowledge enhances understanding of these ESDs provided by migrations. • Managing ESDs provided by mobile species is fundamentally different from managing those from stationary species. • Formalizing knowledge of ESDs can help mobilize resources for conservation and management and enhance policy design. • In the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, six ungulate species engaged in long-distance migrations provide diverse ESDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] We resurveyed 19 aspen stands and understory communities sampled in 1964 and 1994. [•] Aspen density and basal area both decreased during the most recent sampling interval. [•] Aspen stands were neither stable and self-replacing, nor succeeding to conifers. [•] Aspen canopy losses had little effect on understory plant communities. [•] Understory shifts suggest effects of ungulate herbivory and an absence of recent fire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]