Delayed behavioural shifts undermine the sustainability of social-ecological systems.

ABSTRACT: Natural habitat destruction and fragmentation generate a time-delayed loss of species and associated ecosystem services. As social-ecological systems (SESs) depend on a range of ecosystem services, lagged ecological dynamics may affect their long-term sustainability. Here, we investigate the role of consumption changes for sustainability, under a time-delayed ecological feedback on agricultural production. We use a stylized model that couples the dynamics of biodiversity, technology, human demography and compliance with a social norm prescribing sustainable consumption. Compliance with the sustainable norm reduces both the consumption footprint and the vulnerability of SESs to transient overshoot-and-collapse population crises. We show that the timing and interaction between social, demogr

SUBMITTER: Lafuite AS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5740268 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature