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Global change is threatening the production and livelihoods of millions of smallholders. The capacity of smallholders to deal with such changes is influenced by the increasingly complex trade networks that connect them to local and global markets. Moreover, the social relationships (e.g., trust, reciprocity) in which these trade networks are embedded likely influence smallholders' capacity to respond to change. However, the prevalence and influence of such "social embeddedness" of trading across different fisheries and agricultural small-scale food systems is still largely unknown. Here, we characterize the social embeddedness of trade networks in small-scale food systems across different production and institutional contexts. We then explore how actors in small-scale food systems could respond to environmental changes in relation to their existing trade networks. We used a methodology based on the qualitative comparison of three different case studies of small-scale fisheries and agriculture in Mexico and South Africa. We analyzed and compared expert interviews among case studies and against the backdrop of embeddedness theory and a previous empirical study. We found key similarities in the level of social embeddedness of trade networks across cases. For example, business relationships characterized by stability and trust prevailed, whereby smallholders are often interdependent through networks of connected traders. There were also differences across cases, such as the higher formalization of business relationships in the agricultural cases, and the influence of institutional and country-specific factors on trade structures. Actors mostly responded to environmental change based on their existing trade networks, although these networks were also subject to change. The findings allowed us to propose more detailed hypotheses outlining how social embeddedness in trade networks play different roles in responding to environmental changes. These hypotheses aim to inspire future research toward the improved understanding of trade networks' influence on small-scale food systems' resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Success or failure of a polycentric system is a function of complex political and social processes, such as coordination between actors and venues to solve specialized policy problems. Yet there is currently no accepted method for isolating distinct processes of coordination, nor to understand how their variance affects polycentric governance performance. We develop and test a building‐blocks approach that uses different patterns or "motifs" for measuring and comparing coordination longitudinally on Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Our approach confirms that polycentric governance comprises an evolving substrate of interdependent venues and actors over time. However, while issue specialization and actor participation can be improved through the mobilization of venues, such a strategy can also fragment overall polycentric capacity to resolve conflict and adapt to new problems. A building‐blocks approach advances understanding and practice of polycentric governance by enabling sharper diagnosis of internal dynamics in complex environmental governance systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing and intensifying the use of land represents a prominent sustainability challenge of particular importance in regions undergoing rapid change while at the same time exhibiting large natural and anthropocentrically induced variability. To reconcile the needs for both human prosperity and healthy ecosystems, a more integrated understanding of key biophysical and adaptation processes is paramount in such dynamic and deeply entangled social and environmental contexts. Interdisciplinary research utilizing a network perspective provides a novel methodological and theoretical approach to that end. We review and synthesize recent network-centric studies, and use this network perspective to show how rangeland managers in a dynamic pastoral region in the Qinghai Province of China form social relationships based on geographic proximity, social status and shared grazing areas. The results indicate that adaption to biophysical and socioeconomic changes is partly a social process in that rangeland managers develop their adaptive capacity jointly and in concert with others they trust and with whom they share grazing areas. Avenues for further development of this network perspective, in terms of how it might contribute important new insights about how to sustainably use land in dynamic landscapes undergoing rapid change, are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dynamics and adaptive capacity of social-ecological systems are heavily contingent on system structure, which is established through geography, institutions, interactions, and movement. Contrasting views of system structure, as hierarchies and single-level networks respectively, have tended to emphasize the role of either top-down or lateral (peer-to-peer) connections. The concept of a heterarchy aims to capture both top-down and lateral connections on orthogonal axes and has been proposed as a way of unifying alternative approaches to measuring structure, but it has not been fully operationalized for quantifying and comparing system structures. We developed a simple approach to consistently quantifying heterarchical structure across different kinds of networks. We first calculated suitable metrics, including modularity and a hierarchy score, for a wide range of both simulated and real-world systems including food webs, biological, infrastructure, and social networks. Metrics were corrected for differences in size and magnitude. The results were then visualized as a heterarchy matrix. We compared the angle (degrees) and Euclidian distance of each simulated and real-world network from the center of the matrix between network groups. All networks showed distinct placement on the heterarchy matrix. Relative to one another, food webs were laterally polycentric, social networks were mainly pyramidal and coordinated polycentric, and biological networks were pyramidal and laterally polycentric. Our test of concept, although relatively basic, provides strong evidence that system structure cannot be fully understood as purely laterally connected or purely hierarchical. System resilience requires a tradeoff between modularity, aiding redundancy and collaboration; and hierarchy, aiding efficient action. Our approach has the potential to provide a robust, accessible methodology to quantify system structure that allows for universal contextualization, a key step within fields such as resilience and sustainability science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of quantitative analysis and related metrics has traditionally been unusual for assessment of ecological impacts in urban planning. Since 2010, however, quantitative modelling has been increasingly used in such contexts in Sweden to analyze ecological connectivity. The study reviews and analyses 21 connectivity analysis reports (CAR) based on 17 criteria. Despite the use of quantitative analysis, CARs primarily leverage qualitative aspects of modelling results. Most CARs comply with about 50% of the proposed criteria and close to 90% of the reports fail to address some issues related to modelling transparency and therefore jeopardize an adequate ecological interpretation of the results. The results demonstrate that the primary accomplishment during the last decade is an increase in awareness and acceptance of ecological connectivity among practitioners and decisionmakers. Results point to that an increased use of quantitative methods per se will not deliver more sustainable outcomes, and that an increased use of quantitative methods for ecological impact assessment in urban planning needs to be accompanied by guidelines, standards, and a continuous science – practice knowledge exchange. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effectiveness of collaboration is often explained by the alignment of social networks with collective‐action problem characteristics, yet previous research on social tie formation has focused almost exclusively on actor and relational attributes. We theorize that collective‐action problem characteristics together with actor and relational attributes explain social tie formation and that the relative effect of these factors varies with uncertainty about collaboration partners. The study tests seven hypotheses associated with these factors by estimating multilevel network models of collaboration and task engagement among managers responding to a major wildfire in Sweden. The combination of actors and tasks in a single model captured key characteristics of the collective action problem (task engagements and task interdependencies), and disentangled the relative effects of these factors from actor and relational attributes. Results suggest that social tie formation can be explained both by actors' task engagements, and actor attributes associated with leadership, professionalization, and experience. Further, the effect of task engagements decreases in organizational relationships where collaborative uncertainty is high. Since the alignment of social ties with problem characteristics is supposedly positively associated with collaborative effectiveness, this finding suggests that risk‐aversion is a more deep‐rooted driver of tie formation than the pursuit of collective performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most if not all environmental problems entail conflicts of interest. Yet, different actors and opposing coalitions often but certainly not always cooperate in solving these problems. Hence, processes of conflict and cooperation often work in tandem, albeit much of the scholarly literature tends to focus on either of these phenomena in isolation. Social network analysis (SNA) provides opportunities to study cooperation and conflict together. In this review, we demonstrate how SNA has increased our understanding of the promises and pitfalls of collaborative approaches in addressing environmental problems. The potential of SNA to investigate conflicts in environmental governance, however, remains largely underutilized. Furthermore, a network perspective is not restricted to the social domain. A multilevel social-ecological network perspective facilitates integration of social and environmental sciences in understanding how different patterns of resource access can trigger both cooperation and conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Ecology of Games Framework (EGF) draws attention to the intertwined nature of different forums in a given policy setting and how this affects governance outcomes. In this article, we associate the EGF with the literature on power asymmetries, in order to investigate hypotheses of actors' perceived level of influence in a forum. Focusing on the Paraíba do Sul river basin committee in Brazil, we specifically explore actors' participation in multiple forums, time spent participating in the basin committee, and actors' degree of involvement in the committee as factors that might explain actors' level of perceived influence in the forum. The findings suggest participation in multiple forums is a key driver of perceived influence and thus highlight a way to challenge traditional power asymmetries. More research, however, is needed to determine to what extent perceived influence is affecting decision‐making processes and governance outcomes in the Paraíba do Sul river basin committee. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growth of collaborative approaches to governance has resulted in increasingly complex policy and management landscapes, where actors are presented with ever‐increasing numbers of decision‐making venues they can participate in and actors they can collaborate with. Given that actors face constraints on their capacity to manage actor and venue relationships in such polycentric governance systems, we assume the marginal benefit of yet another relationship should begin to diminish at some level of engagement. Furthermore, we hypothesize that such capacity limitations are not static, but decrease as actors learn, develop skills, and formulate strategies for how to navigate complex polycentric systems more effectively. Drawing on the Ecology of Games framework, this article investigates two Swedish collaborative governance initiatives where a multitude of actors came together to address a range of different, but interrelated, policy issues and management tasks. The empirical findings suggest that actors' capacities to successfully navigate polycentric governance arrangements increase as they gain experience and develop their networking skills. Our findings imply there is a need to balance increased complexity in polycentric systems with increased capacity, otherwise the overall effect of an ever‐increasing number of venues and actors could be collaborative fatigue and decreased abilities to address diverse governance challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social networks are frequently cited as vital for facilitating successful adaptation and transformation in linked social--ecological systems to overcome pressing resource management challenges. Yet confusion remains over the precise nature of adaptation vs. transformation and the specific social network structures that facilitate these processes. Here, we adopt a network perspective to theorize a continuum of structural capacities in social--ecological systems that set the stage for effective adaptation and transformation. We begin by drawing on the resilience literature and the multilayered action situation to link processes of change in social--ecological systems to decision making across multiple layers of rules underpinning societal organization. We then present a framework that hypothesizes seven specific social--ecological network configurations that lay the structural foundation necessary for facilitating adaptation and transformation, given the type and magnitude of human action required. A key contribution of the framework is explicit consideration of how social networks relate to ecological structures and the particular environmental problem at hand. Of the seven configurations identified, three are linked to capacities conducive to adaptation and three to transformation, and one is hypothesized to be important for facilitating both processes. We discuss how our theoretical framework can be applied in practice by highlighting existing empirical examples from related environmental governance contexts. Further extension of our hypotheses, particularly as more data become available, can ultimately help guide the design of institutional arrangements to be more effective at dealing with change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecosystem-based management (EBM) represents a comprehensive approach to better govern the environment that also illustrates the collaborative trend in policy and public administration. The need for stakeholder involvement and collaboration is strongly articulated, yet how and for what purposes collaboration would be effective remains largely untested. We address this gap by developing and evaluating a set of hypotheses specifying how certain patterns of collaborations among actors affect their joint ability to accomplish EBM. Content analyses of management plans drawn from five EBM planning processes in Sweden are combined with analyses of the collaborative networks through which these plans have been developed. Our results indicate that system thinking and the ability to integrate across different management phases are favored by collaborations between different kinds of actors, and by project leaders being centrally located in the networks. We also find that dense substructures of collaboration increase the level of specificity in the plans in regards to explicating constraints on human activities. Having many collaborative ties does however not enhance the overall level of specificity. Our results also show that different network characteristics can give rise to similar EBM outcomes. This observed equifinality suggests there is no single blueprint for well-performing collaborative networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When environmental processes cut across socioeconomic boundaries, traditional top-down government approaches struggle to effectively manage and conserve ecosystems. In such cases, governance arrangements that foster multiactor collaboration are needed. The effectiveness of such arrangements, however, depends on how well any ecological interdependencies across governed ecosystems are aligned with patterns of collaboration. This inherent interdisciplinary and complex problem has impeded progress in developing a better understanding of how to govern ecosystems for conservation in an increasingly interconnected world. We argue for the development of empirically informed theories, which are not only able to transcend disciplinary boundaries, but are also explicit in taking these complex social-ecological interdependences into account. We show how this emerging research frontier can be significantly improved by incorporating recent advances in stochastic modeling of multilevel social networks. An empirical case study from an agricultural landscape in Madagascar is reanalyzed to demonstrate these improvements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Species composition and habitats are changing at unprecedented rates in the world's oceans, potentially causing entire food webs to shift to structurally and functionally different regimes. Despite the severity of these regime shifts, elucidating the precise nature of their underlying processes has remained difficult. We address this challenge with a new analytic approach to detect and assess the relative strength of different driving processes in food webs. Our study draws on complexity theory, and integrates the network-centric exponential random graph modelling (ERGM) framework developed within the social sciences with community ecology. In contrast to previous research, this approach makes clear assumptions of direction of causality and accommodates a dynamic perspective on the emergence of foodwebs. We apply our approach to analysing food webs of the Baltic Sea before and after a previously reported regime shift. Our results show that the dominant food web processes have remained largely the same, although we detect changes in their magnitudes. The results indicate that the reported regime shift may not be a system-wide shift, but instead involve a limited number of species. Our study emphasizes the importance of communitywide analysis on marine regime shifts and introduces a novel approach to examine food webs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is widely assumed that stakeholder participation has great potential to improve the perceived legitimacy of natural resource management (NRM) and that the deliberative-democratic qualities of participatory procedures are central to the prospects of success. However, attempts to measure the actual effects of deliberation on the perceived legitimacy of participatory NRM are rare. This article examines the links between deliberation and legitimacy in participatory NRM empirically by tracing the determinants of stakeholders' level of policy support and their views about procedural fairness. The study uses statistical methods to analyse survey data from a state-led initiative to develop new plans for ecosystem-based coastal and marine management through a participatory approach in five coastal areas in Sweden. We find that the perceived quality of deliberation had a positive impact on these aspects of legitimacy. However, both policy support and perceived procedural fairness were mainly driven by instrumental-substantive considerations rather than deliberative-democratic qualities of the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Significant benefits can arise from collaborative forms of governance that foster self-organization and flexibility. Likewise, governance systems that fit with the extent and complexity of the system under management are considered essential to our ability to solve environmental problems. However, from an empirical perspective the fundamental question of whether self-organized (bottomup) collaborative forms of governance are able to accomplish adequate fit is unresolved. We used new theory and methodological approaches underpinned by interdisciplinary network analysis to address this gap by investigating three governance challenges that relate to the problem of fit: shared management of ecological resources, management of interconnected ecological resources, and crossscale management. We first identified a set of social-ecological network configurations that represent the hypothesized ways in which collaborative arrangements can contribute to addressing these challenges. Using social and ecological data from a large-scale biodiversity conservation initiative in Australia, we empirically determined how well the observed patterns of stakeholder interactions reflect these network configurations. We found that stakeholders collaborate to manage individual parcels of native vegetation, but not for the management of interconnected parcels. In addition, our data show that the collaborative arrangements enable management across different scales (local, regional, supraregional). Our study provides empirical support for the ability of collaborative forms of governance to address the problem of fit, but also suggests that in some cases the establishment of bottom-up collaborative arrangements would likely benefit from specific guidance to facilitate the establishment of collaborations that better align with the ways ecological resources are interconnected across the landscape. In our case study region, this would improve the capacity of stakeholders to detect both the intended and unintended off-site impacts of management actions. Our approach offers an avenue for empirical evaluations of collaborative governance so that preconditions for effectiveness of environmental programs can be enhanced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most widespread approaches for setting spatially-explicit priorities for connectivity conservation consists in evaluating the effects of the individual removal of each habitat patch (one at a time) from the landscape. It however remains unknown the degree to which such priorities are valid and reliable in the longer term, as subsequent habitat losses and other disruptions accumulate in the landscape. We compared the patch prioritizations and estimated connectivity losses resulting from individual patch removals and from a more exhaustive assessment accounting for the potentially synergistic impacts of multiple habitat losses by testing all possible combinations of patch removals. Habitat availability (reachability) metrics and metapopulation capacity were calculated in purposefully simulated landscapes and in habitat distribution data for three bird species (NE Spain). We found that 1) individual patch removals allowed identifying areas of low contribution to connectivity that remained so after subsequent network modifications, 2) the most important patches identified through individual removals often did not coincide with those patches whose removal would actually be most detrimental after multiple habitat losses. However, these differences were smaller for the habitat reachability metrics, as well as for very mobile species that were largely insensitive to habitat spatial arrangement. If many patch losses over time are likely, it might be a more robust and fruitful conservation strategy for managers to pinpoint those patches that, with a low negative impact on connectivity, can be converted to other land uses, instead of trying to elucidate through individual patch removals which subset of protected patches would be the most effective for conserving as much connectivity as possible in the long term. Individual patch removals provide useful but non-permanent guidelines that may need to be reassessed when substantial landscape modifications occur, which requires dynamic strategies for connectivity conservation in the face of global change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecosystem-based management (EBM) has become a key instrument of contemporary environmental policy and practice. Given the increasingly important role of EBM, there is an urgent need for improved analytical approaches to assess if and to what extent EBM has been accomplished in any given case. Drawing on the vast literature on EBM, we identify five key ecosystem aspects for assessment. By linking these aspects to four phases of management, we develop an interdisciplinary, analytical framework that enables a high-resolution and systematic assessment of the degree of specificity and integration of ecosystem aspects in an EBM. We then apply the framework to evaluate five coastal EBM initiatives in Sweden, four on the Baltic coast and one on the west coast. Our results demonstrate our framework's usefulness for in-depth and continuous assessments of processes aiming for EBM, and also provide an empirical basis for inferences about the key challenges for successful EBM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we build on common-pool research and adaptive management to increase our understanding on if and how communication between resource users affects their joint ability to learn about and manage complex ecological resources. More specifically we study the role of user communication in relation to learning through continual experimentation when managing a complex resource system involving resource interdependencies. For this purpose we designed a laboratory experiment where we tested the effect of user communication over time in a setup with two interdependent resources, and where resource access is asymmetrical: one resource is shared and the other is private. Our results indicate that communication, through its interaction with experimental learning is more multifaceted than what previous experimental studies on commons dilemmas suggest. We show for example that in communicating groups the likelihood of successful resource management increases, but this effect is mostly dominant in earlier periods, when resource dynamics are unknown. We hypothesize however, that communication stimulates continual improvements by fine-tuning of management through experimental learning and coordinated resource extraction. Furthermore, we hypothesize that in communicating groups, the need to quickly gain a basic understanding of the dynamics overshadows not only the devotion to improve management of the private resource but also the potential tensions brought by the asymmetry in resource access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Delivering indicators of habitat connectivity first requires identifying the habitat units that will be treated as individual entities for spatially explicit analyses. These units can be defined at different spatial scales or hierarchical levels, from single habitat patches to aggregations of multiple neighbor patches. Many studies have assessed the scale sensitivity of landscape-level pattern metrics when changing spatial resolution or extent. However, how patch-level connectivity indicators change across hierarchical levels (independently from modifications in resolution or extent) has been largely overlooked, despite the potentially strong and determinant effects on their outcomes and final uses. We evaluated how the hierarchical level at which habitat units are defined affects two types of outcomes frequently derived from connectivity indicators: (i) the importance values (or estimated amount of decrease in landscape connectivity that would be caused by the loss of certain habitat areas), and (ii) the priority ranking (key areas to conserve to minimize connectivity loss), as given by a selected set of widely used metrics (habitat availability, network centrality, metapopulation capacity). We found that importance values can largely vary depending on how habitat units are defined, suggesting that such results may be flawed by a particular a priori selection of hierarchical levels. However, the identification of which parts of the landscape contain the key connectivity providers (priority ranking) was robust, particularly for those metrics that account for the amount of connectivity within habitat units. We conclude that current connectivity indicators based on patch removals do not allow, considering their scale dependence, to consistently assess the magnitude of connectivity decrease resulting from large-scale habitat loss, but that they can be used with much more confidence for detecting those key areas that most contribute to maintain current connectivity levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How to create and adjust governing institutions so that they align (fit) with complex ecosystem processes and structures across scales is an issue of increasing concern in conservation. It is argued that lack of such social-ecological fit makes governance and conservation difficult, yet progress in explicitly defining and rigorously testing what constitutes a good fit has been limited. We used a novel modeling approach and data from case studies of fishery and forest conservation to empirically test presumed relationships between conservation outcomes and certain patterns of alignment of social-ecological interdependences. Our approach made it possible to analyze conservation outcome on a systems level while also providing information on how individual actors are positioned in the complex web of social-ecological interdependencies. We found that when actors who shared resources were also socially linked, conservation at the level of the whole social-ecological system was positively affected. When the scales at which individual actors used resources and the scale at which ecological resources were interconnected to other ecological resources were aligned through tightened feedback loops, conservation outcome was better than when they were not aligned. The analysis of individual actors' positions in the web of social-ecological interdependencies was helpful in understanding why a system has a certain level of social-ecological fit. Results of analysis of positions showed that different actors contributed in very different ways to achieve a certain fit and revealed some underlying difference between the actors, for example in terms of actors' varying rights to access and use different ecological resources. El Éxito de la Conservación como Función de una Buena Alineación de Estructuras y Procesos Sociales y Ecológicos [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate and land-use changes will require species to move large distances following shifts in their suitable habitats, which will frequently involve traversing intensively human-modified landscapes. Practitioners will therefore need to evaluate and act to enhance the degree to which habitat patches scattered throughout the landscape may function as stepping stones facilitating dispersal among otherwise isolated habitat areas., We formulate a new generalized network model of habitat connectivity that accounts for the number of dispersing individuals and for long-distance dispersal processes across generations. By doing so, we bridge the gap between complex dynamic population models, which are generally too data demanding and hence difficult to apply in practical wide-scale decision-making, and simpler static connectivity models that only consider the amount of habitat that can be reached by a single average disperser during its life span., We find that the loss of intermediate and sufficiently large stepping-stone habitat patches can cause a sharp decline in the distance that can be traversed by species (critical spatial thresholds) that cannot be effectively compensated by other factors previously regarded as crucial for long-distance dispersal (fat-tailed dispersal kernels, source population size)., We corroborate our findings by showing that our model largely outperforms previous connectivity models in explaining the large-scale range expansion of a forest bird species, the Black Woodpecker Dryocopus martius, over a 20-year period., The capacity of species to exploit the opportunities created by networks of stepping-stone patches largely depends on species-specific life-history traits, suggesting that species assemblages traversing fragmented landscapes may be exposed to a spatial filtering process driving long-term changes in community composition., Synthesis and applications. Previous static connectivity models seriously underestimate the importance of stepping-stone patches in sustaining rare but crucial dispersal events. We provide a conceptually broader model that shows that stepping stones (i) must be of sufficient size to be of conservation value, (ii) are particularly crucial for the spread of species (either native or invasive) or genotypes over long distances and (iii) can effectively reduce the isolation of the largest habitat blocks in reserves, therefore largely contributing to species persistence across wide spatial and temporal scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Conservation planning is challenging in landscapes where reoccurring habitat destruction and subsequent recovery affect metapopulation persistence, because different species respond differently to landscape change. By building on a graph-theoretical modeling framework, we here develop a connectivity model of how varying levels of area protection and unprotected areas predetermined for destruction affect species differently depending on (1) their tradeoff in colonization versus habitat utilization ability and (2) their maximum dispersal ability. We apply our model to 20,000 patches of old pine forest in northern Sweden, which host many threatened species but are scattered in a landscape dominated by intensive forestry. Unprotected mature forests stands predestined for logging are treated as adequate but temporarily available habitat for colonization specialists, whereas the same stands are assumed to, at best, serve only as intermediate stepping-stones for habitat specialists as they disperse between long-standing forests in protected areas. Our results show that the effect of habitat fragmentation on metapopulation persistence differs greatly not only depending on the dispersal distance of a particular species, but also on how well it utilizes habitat patches of different longevity. Such traits are discussed with respect to the spatiotemporal planning of habitat protection. Also, we suggest that the negative impacts of logging on biodiversity may be reduced if forestry practice is adjusted to better account for the ecological values of maturing production stands, through spatially explicit modeling of connectivity and of complementarity in the protection gradient. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing is prevalent globally and has detrimental effects on commercial fish stocks and nontarget species. Effective monitoring and enforcement aimed at reducing the level of IUU fishing in extensive, remote ocean fisheries requires international collaboration. Changes in trade and vessel activities further complicate enforcement. We used a web-based survey of governmental and nongovernmental organizations engaged in reducing IUU fishing in the Southern Ocean to collect information on interorganizational collaborations. We used social-network analyses to examine the nature of collaborations among the identified 117 organizations engaged in reducing IUU fishing. International collaboration improved the ability to control and manage harvest of commercially important toothfish (Dissostichus spp.) stocks and reduced bycatch of albatrosses (Diomedeidae) and petrels (Procellariidae) in longlines of IUU fishing vessels. The diverse group of surveyed organizations cooperated frequently, thereby making a wide range of resources available for improved detection of suspected IUU vessels and trade flows, cooperation aimed at prosecuting suspected offenders or developing new policy measures. Our results suggest the importance of a central agency for coordination and for maintaining commonly agreed-upon protocols for communication that facilities collaboration. Despite their differences, the surveyed organizations have developed common perceptions about key problems associated with IUU fishing. This has likely contributed to a sustained willingness to invest in collaborations. Our results show that successful international environmental governance can be accomplished through interorganizational collaborations. Such cooperation requires trust, continuous funding, and incentives for actors to participate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both global and local environmental problems call for the transformation of many contemporary and unsustainable governance approaches. Therefore, recent interest has sprung up around factors that facilitate and hinder societies from transforming governance of natural resources. Using a social-network approach, we study links between informal power structures and knowledge sharing and consensus building. We examine how this interaction may have affected the (in)ability of a community to move from open-access to some form of collective action for resource management. Individuals occupying central positions in a knowledge network can be instrumental in determining which knowledge and interpretation of ecological signals is most dominant. If the same individuals are also influential in other areas, they are highly likely to become opinion leaders. We use this notion of opinion leaders to frame our study. The study is set in a rural fishing community in East Africa where access to fishing equipment is of utmost importance for generating household income, but such gear ownership is not evenly distributed in the village. Hence, we use gear-exchange networks to explore power. Our results show a clear and strong relationship between centrality in the knowledge network and in-degree centrality (reflecting gear-lending capacity) in the gear-exchange network, supporting the idea that opinion leaders exist. We also indicate that a majority of these potential opinion leaders demonstrate little recognition of declining fisheries. We relate our findings to existing theories of influence and governance transformability at the community level, and explore ideas about how social networks can help identify potential change agents in communities experiencing inertia with respect to collective action for improved resource management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here we propose an integrated framework for modeling connectivity that can help ecologists, conservation planners and managers to identify patches that, more than others, contribute to uphold species dispersal and other ecological flows in a landscape context. We elaborate, extend and partly integrate recent network-based approaches for modeling and supporting the management of fragmented landscapes. In doing so, experimental patch removal techniques and network analytical approaches are merged into one integrated modeling framework for assessing the role of individual patches as connectivity providers. In particular, we focus the analyses on the habitat availability metrics PC and IIC and on the network metric Betweenness Centrality. The combination and extension of these metrics jointly assess both the immediate connectivity impacts of the loss of a particular patch and the resulting increased vulnerability of the network to subsequent disruptions. In using the framework to analyze the connectivity of two real landscapes in Madagascar and Catalonia (NE Spain), we suggest a procedure that can be used to rank individual habitat patches and show that the combined metrics reveal relevant and non-redundant information valuable to assert and quantify distinctive connectivity aspects of any given patch in the landscape. Hence, we argue that the proposed framework could facilitate more ecologically informed decision-making in managing fragmented landscapes. Finally, we discuss and highlight some of the advantages, limitations and key differences between the considered metrics. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background: Diverse livelihood portfolios are frequently viewed as a critical component of household economies in developing countries. Within the context of natural resources governance in particular, the capacity of individual households to engage in multiple occupations has been shown to influence important issues such as whether fishers would exit a declining fishery, how people react to policy, the types of resource management systems that may be applicable, and other decisions about natural resource use. Methodology/Principal Findings: This paper uses network analysis to provide a novel methodological framework for detailed systemic analysis of household livelihood portfolios. Paying particular attention to the role of natural resourcebased occupations such as fisheries, we use network analyses to map occupations and their interrelationships- what we refer to as 'livelihood landscapes'. This network approach allows for the visualization of complex information about dependence on natural resources that can be aggregated at different scales. We then examine how the role of natural resource-based occupations changes along spectra of socioeconomic development and population density in 27 communities in 5 western Indian Ocean countries. Network statistics, including in- and out-degree centrality, the density of the network, and the level of network centralization are compared along a multivariate index of community-level socioeconomic development and a gradient of human population density. The combination of network analyses suggests an increase in household-level specialization with development for most occupational sectors, including fishing and farming, but that at the community-level, economies remained diversified. Conclusions/Significance: The novel modeling approach introduced here provides for various types of livelihood portfolio analyses at different scales of social aggregation. Our livelihood landscapes approach provides insights into communities' dependencies and usages of natural resources, and shows how patterns of occupational interrelationships relate to socioeconomic development and population density. A key question for future analysis is how the reduction of household occupational diversity, but maintenance of community diversity we see with increasing socioeconomic development influences key aspects of societies' vulnerability to environmental change or disasters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims To highlight the potential value of network analysis for conservation biogeography and to focus attention on some of the challenges that lie ahead in applying it to conservation problems. Location Global. Methods We briefly review existing literature and then focus on five important challenges for the further development of network-based approaches in the field. Results Our five challenges include (i) understanding cross-scale and cross-level linkages in ecological systems (top–down and bottom–up effects, such as trophic cascades, have been demonstrated in food webs but are poorly understood in nested hierarchies such as reserve networks and stream catchments), (ii) capturing dynamic aspects of ecological systems and networks (with a few exceptions we have little grasp of how important whole-network attributes change as the composition of nodes and links changes), (iii) integrating ecological aspects of network theory with metacommunity frameworks and multiple node functions and roles (can we link the spatial patterns of habitat patches in fragmented landscapes, the parallel networks of interacting species using those patches and community-level interactions as defined by metacommunity theory in a single framework?), (iv) integrating the analysis of social and ecological networks (particularly, can they be analysed as a single interacting system?) and (v) laying an empirical foundation for network analysis in conservation biogeography (this will require a larger data bank of well-studied networks from diverse habitats and systems). Main conclusions Recent research has identified a variety of approaches that we expect to contribute to progress in each of our five challenge areas. We anticipate that some of the most exciting outcomes of attempts to meet these challenges will be frameworks that unite areas of research, such as food web analysis and metacommunity theory, that have developed independently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a graph-theoretical modelling approach using daily movements and habitat demands of different target bird species in an urban context to assess: 1) habitable land cover types, 2) threshold distances between patches of habitat, 3) the required minimum accessible habitat areas and 4) the effects of barriers and stepping stones. The modelling approach is tested using empirical data from field surveys in the urban area of Stockholm, Sweden. The results show that groups of small habitat patches can house the same species as larger contiguous patches as long as they are perceived as functionally connected by the inhabitant organisms. Furthermore, we found that binary habitat/non-habitat representations of the landscape could roughly explain the variation in species occurrence, as long as habitat was properly defined. However, the explanatory power of the landscape models increased when features of matrix heterogeneity such as stepping stones and barriers were accounted for. Synthesis and application: in a world where forest ecosystems are becoming increasingly fragmented there is an urgent need to find comprehensive and scientifically relevant methods for managing and planning ecosystems. This study shows that: 1) groups of well placed small habitat patches can, together, be sufficient to attract birds in intensively developed areas, 2) the presented modelling approach can help identify such groups of patches, 3) matrix heterogeneity should preferably be accounted for, and 4) proper assessments of habitable land cover types are important. Finally, we argue that the modelling approach applied here may substantially improve landscape management and planning at scales ranging from whole landscapes down to neighbourhoods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Social capital and leadership characteristics are important in resource management. We present a case study of a fishing community showing high levels of social capital quantified through social network analysis, but low willingness to report rule breaking. Furthermore, identified key individuals possess few links to financial institutions and important markets. These findings may, individually or in combination, explain the lack of common initiatives to deal with the overexploitation of fisheries. Alternative hypotheses are also discussed and include homogeneity among key individuals leading to poor recognition of the problem of changing ecological conditions, and the structural characteristics of their relational network, which reveal one person in a very influential position. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Social networks among actors and stakeholders are gaining attention in studies of natural resource management, particularly those of adaptive management based on different forms of participation and co-management. In this sense, social networks have primarily been envisioned as enabling different actors to collaborate and coordinate management efforts. Here, we continue the discussion initiated by Newman and Dale (2005), which highlighted the fact that not all social networks are created equal. We discuss the relation between some structural characteristics and functions of social networks with respect to natural resource management, thus focusing on structural implications that are often overlooked when studying social networks within the context of natural resource management. We present several network measures used to quantify structural characteristics of social networks and link them to a number of features such as learning, leadership, and trust, which are identified as important in natural resource management. We show schematically that there may be inherent juxtapositions among different structural characteristics that need to be balanced in what we envision as social network structures conducive to adaptive comanagement of natural resources. We argue that it is essential to develop an understanding of the effects that different structural characteristics of social networks have on natural resource management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The social networks is one factor determining the flow of information within communities and as such may be important in determining successful implementation of community based management. We mapped the social network used for communication of knowledge and information related to natural resource extraction among villagers in a coastal seascape in Kenya. We further identified subgroups and examined their interrelations while measuring to what extent personal attributes such as occupation can explain observed group structure. Finally, we compared the local ecological knowledge held by villagers of different occupations with the structure of the communication network to map how well this structure can explain distribution of ecological knowledge among them. Results show that communication occurs primarily between fishermen who use the same gear type, which may inhibit exchange of ecological knowledge within the community. This may partly explain why the community has been unsuccessful in regulating resource extraction, especially since potentially influential groups of nonfishermen have a limited communication with the various fisher groups. Analysis of network structure also shows that groups most central, and hence potentially most influential, are dominated in numbers by migrant deep sea fishermen, hypothetically less motivated to initiate collective action for resource management. Hence, we conclude that a lack of collective action to remedy an unsustainable situation may be attributed to various different but distinct aspects of the specific structure of the social network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Formal models used to study the resilience of social-ecological systems have not explicitly included important structural characteristics of this type of system. In this paper, we propose a network perspective for social-ecological systems that enables us to better focus on the structure of interactions between identifiable components of the system. This network perspective might be useful for developing formal models and comparing case studies of social-ecological systems. Based on an analysis of the case studies in this special issue, we identify three types of social-ecological networks: (1) ecosystems that are connected by people through flows of information or materials, (2) ecosystem networks that are disconnected and fragmented by the actions of people, and (3) artificial ecological networks created by people, such as irrigation systems. Each of these three archytypal social-ecological networks faces different problems that influence its resilience as it responds to the addition or removal of connections that affect its coordination or the diffusion of system attributes such as information or disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of understanding how social-ecological interdependencies deriving from global trade influence sustainability has been argued for decades. Even if substantial progress has been made, a research gap remains regarding how the adaptability of small-scale fish buyers, whose daily operations have implications for the livelihood of more than 100 million people, are affected by networks of trade relationships. Adaptability is here defined as fish buyers´ abilities to adapt using their relationships with others. We elaborate how these capacities relate to the precise patterns in which a fish buyer is entangled with other fish buyers, with the fishers, and with the targeted fish species, by combining a multilevel social-ecological network model with empirical data from a small-scale fishery in Mexico. Further, we also identify types of fish buyers distinguishable by how they operate, and how they are embedded in the trading network. Our results suggest that adaptability differs substantially amongst these types, thus implying that fish buyers' abilities to respond to changes are unevenly distributed. This study demonstrates the need for a more profound understanding of the consequences of the different ways in which fish buyers operate commercially, and how these operations are affected by patterns of social and social-ecological interdependencies. A multi-level network model explicates trade relationships amongst fish buyers and between fish buyers, fishers, and fish resources. We use this model to conceptualize fish buyer's adaptive capacity defined by three dimensions: adaptive capacity in relation to other buyers, in relation to fishers, and in relation to fish resource fluctuations. In combining network measures with qualitative insights, we characterized five types of fish buyers based on their pattern of relationships with other fish buyers, and how they are connected with fishers and with different types of market demand. The results suggest that each type of fish buyer has different capacities to adapt to changes, which can have potential implication for small-scale fisheries sustainability. Unlabelled Image • Trade involves fish exchange embedded in social relationships. • We disentangle patterns of fish trade relationships in a small-scale fishery. • We define five types of fish buyers with three distinct functions. • Fish buyer's types can be associated with different capacities to adapt to changes. • Fish buyer's types may influence fishing patterns and trade differently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local and regional trade networks in small-scale fisheries are important for food security and livelihoods across the world. Such networks consist of both economic flows and social relationships, which connect different production regions to different types of fish demand. The structure of such trade networks, and the actions that take place within them (e.g., people fishing, buying, selling), can influence the capacity of small-scale fisheries to provide sufficient fish in a changing social and ecological context. In this study, we aim to understand the importance of networks between different types of traders that access spatially-distinct fish stocks for the availability and variability of fish provision. We deployed a mixed-methods approach, combining agent-based modelling, network analysis and qualitative data from a small-scale fishery in Baja California Sur, Mexico. The empirical data allowed us to investigate the trade processes that occur within trade networks; and the generation of distinct, empirically-informed network structures. Formalized in an agent-based model, these network structures enable analysis of how different trade networks affect the dynamics of fish provision and the exploitation level of fish stocks. Model results reveal how trade strategies based on social relationships and species diversification can lead to spillover effects between fish species and fishing regions. We found that the proportion of different trader types and their spatial connectivity have the potential to increase fish provision. However, they can also increase overexploitation depending on the specific connectivity patterns and trader types. Moreover, increasing connectivity generally leads to positive outcomes for some individual traders, but this does not necessarily imply better outcomes at the system level. Overall, our model provides an empirically-grounded, stylized representation of a fisheries trading system, and reveals important trade-offs that should be considered when evaluating the potential effect of future changes in regional trade networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biodiversity conservation is often limited by inadequate investments in monitoring and enforcement. However, monitoring and enforcement problems may be overcome by encouraging resource users to develop, endorse, and subsequently enforce conservation regulations. In this article, we draw upon the literature on common‐pool resources and social networks to assess the impacts of participation and network ties on the decisions of fishers to voluntarily report rule violations in two Jamaican marine reserves. Data was collected using questionnaires administered through personal interviews with fishers (n = 277). The results suggest that local fishers are more likely to report illegal fishing if they had participated in conservation planning and if they are directly linked to community‐based wardens in information sharing networks. This research extends well‐established findings regarding the role and impacts of participation on biodiversity conservation by highlighting the importance of synergies between participation and social networks for voluntary monitoring of conservation regulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As declines in biodiversity accelerate, there is an urgent imperative to ensure that every dollar spent on conservation counts toward species protection. Systematic conservation planning is a widely used approach to achieve this, but there is growing concern that it must better integrate the human social dimensions of conservation to be effective. Yet, fundamental insights about when social data are most critical to inform conservation planning decisions are lacking. To address this problem, we derived novel principles to guide strategic investment in social network information for systematic conservation planning. We considered the common conservation problem of identifying which social actors, in a social network, to engage with to incentivize conservation behavior that maximizes the number of species protected. We used simulations of social networks and species distributed across network nodes to identify the optimal state‐dependent strategies and the value of social network information. We did this for a range of motif network structures and species distributions and applied the approach to a small‐scale fishery in Kenya. The value of social network information depended strongly on both the distribution of species and social network structure. When species distributions were highly nested (i.e., when species‐poor sites are subsets of species‐rich sites), the value of social network information was almost always low. This suggests that information on how species are distributed across a network is critical for determining whether to invest in collecting social network data. In contrast, the value of social network information was greatest when social networks were highly centralized. Results for the small‐scale fishery were consistent with the simulations. Our results suggest that strategic collection of social network data should be prioritized when species distributions are un‐nested and when social networks are likely to be centralized. Article impact statement: The value of collecting social network information for conservation planning depends on both species distributions and social network structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on an effective collaboration among different public and private actors and stakeholders for solving environmental problems through collaborative governance. The group aims at devising sustainable solutions to environmental problems and emphasize benefits from local to global scales.

Bottom-up approaches are often presented as a remedy to environmental governance problems caused by poorly aligned social institutions and fragmented ecosystems. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence demonstrating how such social–ecological fit might emerge and help achieve desirable outcomes. This paper combines quantitative social–ecological network analysis with interviews to investigate whether bottom-up approaches in lake governance improve the fit. We study groups of residents seeking to improve management of a network of lakes in Bengaluru, India. Results show that 23 'lake groups' collaborate in a way that aligns with how lakes are hydrologically connected, thus strengthening the social–ecological fit. Three groups founded around 2010 have mobilized support from municipal officers and introduced an ecosystem-based approach to lake management that recognizes their ecological functions and dependence on, the broader hydrological network. These groups have also changed how other lake groups operate: groups founded after 2010 are more collaborative and more prone to contribute to social–ecological fit compared to the older lake groups. This paper demonstrates the utility of a theoretically informed method for examining the impact of bottom-up approaches, which, we argue, is important for a more informed perspective on their relevance and potential contribution to urban environmental governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small‐scale fisheries often involve weak management regimes with limited top‐down enforcement of rules and minimal support from legal institutions, making them useful model systems for investigating the role of social influence in determining economic and environmental outcomes. In such regimes, interpersonal relationships are expected to have a strong effect on a fisher's catch portfolio, the set of fish species targeted by an individual fisher. Here, we test three competing hypotheses about social influence using belief propagation network models and show that a peer‐to‐peer information‐sharing social network is key to explaining catch portfolios at a small‐scale fishery in Jamaica. We find that experience dictates the direction of influence among fishers in the social network, with older fishers and information brokers having distinct roles in shaping catch patterns for large‐ and small‐sized fish species, respectively. These findings highlight concrete opportunities for harnessing social networks in natural resource management. Our new approach to modelling social influence is applicable to many social–ecological systems with minimal legal and institutional support or those that rely heavily on bottom‐up participatory processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Communication between resource users has repeatedly been shown to be of significant importance in environmental management. The proposed causal mechanisms are numerous, ranging from the ability of users to share information to their ability to negotiate solutions to common problems and dilemmas. However, what is less known is under what conditions these potential causal mechanisms are important and if, in cases when different means other than communication were available, whether they would be more effective in accomplishing these objectives. An example of such an alternative could be that instead of (or in addition to) users being reliant on within-group communication to acquire useful information an intermediary—such as a public agency—could provide that for them. Furthermore, the different causal mechanisms making communication beneficial might not be independent, neither in respect to each other, nor in respect to other externally imposed means to facilitate better environmental management, and not in regards to different contextual factors. This study makes use of laboratory experiments in an innovative way to explore these questions and specifically test the relative importance of communication in managing complex social-ecological system characterized by common-pool resource dilemmas, ecological interdependencies, and asymmetric resource access–all characteristics being present simultaneously. We find that when resources users are confronted with such a complex challenge, the ability to communicate significantly increases individual and group performance. What is more surprising is the negative effect on overall outcomes that providing external information has on outcomes, when the users also have the ability to communicate. By analysing the content of the conversations we are able to suggest several possible explanations on how the combination of external information provisioning and user communications act to increase individual cognitive load and drives intra-group competition, leading to a significant reduction of individual and group outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large hydrologic basins involve multiple stakeholders, and coupled dynamic social and ecological processes. Managing such basins has long been a challenge. Balancing the demand for water from nature against that from humans is always difficult, particularly in arid watersheds. Here, we analyze potential institutional causes of ecological degradation and how it can be reversed by introducing new forms of governance. The framework and assumptions are illustrated using China's second-largest endorheic basin, where empirical evidence shows that the introduction of a new governing authority connecting midstream and downstream actors facilitated the establishment of a new governance regime that is better aligned with the biophysical scales of the watershed. A trans-regional water allocation project initiated by the new higher-level authority successfully rescued downstream oases and restored a dried terminal lake. These outcomes suggest that when social and ecological structures are better aligned our ability to manage the interplay between social and ecological processes increases. However, the lack of direct connection between the actors of the middle and lower reaches resulted in the paradox of an increase in water demand. We therefore suggest that measures to stimulate the emergence of horizontal social ties linking different critical groups of actors across the watershed could further the alignment of the institutional and biophysical structures—without these changes sustainable management of river basins and other common pool resources will remain problematic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles in the issue on topics including multiscalar and boundary-spanning nature of water resources; challenges for addressing nonpoint source pollution; and collaboration among actors in multilevel water governance arrangements.

Local governments, or municipalities, play a key role in water governance around the world owing to the many administrative competencies they hold, ranging from water service delivery to urban planning. However, the ability of municipalities to carry out their competencies effectively depends in large part on the characteristics of the institutional arrangements in which they are embedded. In particular, the relationship between municipalities and watershed governance institutions has received little attention in the literature on polycentric and multilevel governance. Drawing on insights from diverse cases around the world, we argue that empirical research must pay closer attention to the links, or lack thereof, between municipalities and watershed governance institutions to improve the sustainability of water governance outcomes in practice. We identify a set of critical issues affecting municipalities' engagement in governance at the watershed scale that broadly apply across different contexts, and which we argue deserve more attention in future research: (1) disconnect and ambiguities of authority across hierarchical levels; (2) internal and external challenges to municipalities engaging in effective collaborations; (3) barriers to expanding the scope of traditional municipal affairs; and (4) misalignment of biophysical, institutional, and political timescales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regime shifts are large, abrupt, and persistent critical transitions in the function and structure of ecosystems. Yet, it is unknown how these transitions will interact, whether the occurrence of one will increase the likelihood of another or simply correlate at distant places. We explored two types of cascading effects: Domino effects create one-way dependencies, whereas hidden feedbacks produce two-way interactions. We compare them with the control case of driver sharing, which can induce correlations. Using 30 regime shifts described as networks, we show that 45% of regime shift pairwise combinations present at least one plausible structural interdependence. The likelihood of cascading effects depends on cross-scale interactions but differs for each type. Management of regime shifts should account for potential connections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary As concerns about anthropogenically driven marine resource decline continue, rights-based approaches to fisheries governance have gained attention. Territorial User Rights (TURF) is one example increasingly promoted to enhancing sustainability of small-scale fisheries. Despite rising global interest empirical inquiry into the factors contributing to TURF outcomes remains limited and focus has centered on the ecological and fisheries outcomes, largely neglecting documentation of social consequences and social determinants of success. This paper aims to move the theoretical and empirical work on the role of social capital and leadership in natural resource governance (particularly fisheries) forward by deepening the discussion around the conceptualization and operationalization of social capital. We also extend empirical work on TURF performance by examining multiple social and ecological outcomes. We put forth four theoretically informed propositions about the relationship between key explanatory variables and outcomes. Using empirical data from six Chilean Territorial User Rights areas we provide an early assessment of the validity of these propositions using a case comparative approach, and test their usefulness in operationalizing and analyzing such multifaceted data. Findings show that social capital may not be a useful predictor of success, while the presence of engaged leadership and agreement among members around sanctions appears more closely linked to performance across all social and ecological outcome variables. A key finding is that the use of social capital as a broad term encompassing multiple pro-social variables may not be a fruitful way forward for improving our understanding of the determinants of success in resource management. Instead results indicate that leadership interacts with specific aspects of what is generally referred to as social capital to affect outcomes. To allow theoretical refinement and hypotheses testing regarding determinants of governance outcomes we suggest the social processes measured under the broad umbrella of social capital should be kept separate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Meeting the objectives of sustainable fisheries management requires attention to the complex interactions between humans, institutions and ecosystems that give rise to fishery outcomes. Traditional approaches to studying fisheries often do not fully capture, nor focus on these complex interactions between people and ecosystems. Despite advances in the scope and scale of interactions encompassed by more holistic methods, for example ecosystem‐based fisheries management approaches, no single method can adequately capture the complexity of human–nature interactions. Approaches that combine quantitative and qualitative analytical approaches are necessary to generate a deeper understanding of these interactions and illuminate pathways to address fisheries sustainability challenges. However, combining methods is inherently challenging and requires understanding multiple methods from different, often disciplinarily distinct origins, demanding reflexivity of the researchers involved. Social–ecological systems' research has a history of utilising combinations of methods across the social and ecological realms to account for spatial and temporal dynamics, uncertainty and feedbacks that are key components of fisheries. We describe several categories of analytical methods (statistical modelling, network analysis, dynamic modelling, qualitative analysis and controlled behavioural experiments) and highlight their applications in fisheries research, strengths and limitations, data needs and overall objectives. We then discuss important considerations of a methods portfolio development process, including reflexivity, epistemological and ontological concerns and illustrate these considerations via three case studies. We show that, by expanding their methods portfolios, researchers will be better equipped to study the complex interactions shaping fisheries and contribute to solutions for sustainable fisheries management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding how governance structures align to ecological processes in a landscape is critical for effective management of ecological resources. Ecological resources are not independent from each other, instead they are interconnected, and their well-being is often critically dependent on upholding ecological connectivity, especially in times of change and disturbances. Coordination and collaboration among managing actors, each managing their own piece of the puzzle, is therefore essentially a requirement for effective management. We present a conceptual model that includes ecological resources, managing and coordinating actors, along with an explicit representation on how all these entities are connected to each other. We apply this model to 25 municipalities that manage 408 wetlands in central Sweden. The study shows a good social and ecological alignment, however with a high prevalence for coordination through third parties. We discuss this pattern emergence, its potential implications, and examine which municipalities adopt these coordinating functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of institutional fit in social-ecological systems has been empirically documented and conceptually discussed for decades, yet there is a shortage of approaches to systematically and quantitatively examine the level of fit. We address this gap, focusing on spatial fit in an urban and peri-urban regional landscape. Such landscapes typically exhibit significant fragmentation of remnant habitats, which can limit critical species dispersal. This may have detrimental effects on species persistence and ecosystem functioning if land use is planned without consideration of the spatial patterns of fragmentation. Managing habitat fragmentation is particularly challenging when the scale of fragmentation reaches beyond the control of single managers, thereby requiring different actors to coordinate their activities to address the problem at the appropriate scale. We present a research approach that maps patterns of collaborations between actors who manage different parts of a landscape, and then relates these patterns to structures of ecological connectivity. We applied our approach to evaluate the fit between a collaborative wetland management network comprising all 26 municipalities in the Stockholm County in Sweden and an ecologically defined network of dispersed but ecologically interconnected wetlands. Many wetlands in this landscape are either intersected by the boundary between two or more municipalities, or are located close to such boundaries, which implies a degree of ecological interconnectedness and a need for intermunicipal coordination related to wetland management across boundaries. We first estimated the level of ecological connectivity between wetlands in neighboring municipalities, and then used this estimate to elaborate the level of social-ecological fit vis-à-vis intermunicipal collaboration. We found that the level of fit was generally weak. Also, we identified critical misalignments of ecological connectivity and intermunicipal collaboration, respectively, as well as collaborations that represented an adequate alignment. These findings inform on where to most effectively allocate limited resources of collaborative capacity to enhance the level of social-ecological fit. Our approach and results are illustrated using maps, which facilitates the potential application of this method in land use planning practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social–ecological networks (SENs) represent the complex relationships between ecological and social systems and are a useful tool for analyzing and managing ecosystem services. However, mainstreaming the application of SENs in ecosystem service research has been hindered by a lack of clarity about how to match research questions to ecosystem service conceptualizations in SEN (i.e., as nodes, links, attributes, or emergent properties). Building from different disciplines, we propose a typology to represent ecosystem service in SENs and identify opportunities and challenges of using SENs in ecosystem service research. Our typology provides guidance for this growing field to improve research design and increase the breadth of questions that can be addressed with SEN to understand human–nature interdependencies in a changing world. Social–ecological networks (SENs) provide a promising approach to represent the complex ecological, social, and social–ecological relationships that influence ecosystems service supply. Ecosystem services can be represented in SENs as nodes, links, attributes, or as emergent properties of the network, each bringing distinct aspects of ecosystem services into focus to address different questions. Applications of SENs in ecosystem service research can foster: (i) understanding of the social and ecological drivers of ecosystem services; (ii) forecasting of the impacts of stressors; (iii) investigation of trade-offs between ecosystem services; and (iv) assessment of the effects of alternative management options. Ecosystem service research would benefit from a typology to conceptualize particular ecosystem services in SEN analyses and from greater clarity of when ecosystem service research can benefit from a SEN approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]