Meta-CHANS: Linking metacommunity ecology with decision-making

Zsófia Horváth , Sabine Wollrab, Sonja C Jähnig , Jonathan M. Jeschke, Luc De Meester, Lynn Govaert, Hans-Peter Grossart, Fengzhi He, Felix May, Stella A. Berger, Daniel Mietchen, Mathew Leibold 

Ecological dynamics and the management of natural systems are both structured by local and larger regional spatial effects. In ecological dynamics, these are addressed by metacommunity ecology, but how multi-scale human management and policy interact with ecological dynamics is less well-developed. Here, we propose a unifying framework – Meta-CHANS – that integrates metacommunity ecology (Meta-) with Coupled Human And Natural Systems (CHANS) that links ecological dynamics with structured decision making and ecosystem services policymaking. Using conceptual examples, we show how local and landscape-level management choices can shift the relative importance of metacommunity processes, leading to different biodiversity and ecosystem outcomes. By explicitly linking ecological processes to decision-making, Meta-CHANS provides a framework for comparing management strategies and improving decision-relevant ecological predictions.