Level 3 - Source on Ecosystem Change

• 1. How have ecosystems changed?
  • 1.1 What types of ecosystems have been changed?
  • 1.2 How have environmental cycles changed?
  • 1.3 What biodiversity changes have been observed?
• 2. How have ecosystem services and their uses changed?
  • 2.1 What are ecosystem services?
  • 2.2 What have been the changes in specific ecosystem services?
  • 2.3 What are the effects of developing substitutes for ecosystem services?
  • 2.4 What is the link between biodiversity and ecosystem services?
  • 2.5 What are trade-offs or synergies between ecosystem services?
• 3. How have ecosystem changes affected human well-being and poverty alleviation?
  • 3.1 How is human well-being linked to ecosystem services?
  • 3.2 How is the economy linked to ecosystem services?
  • 3.3 What is the current situation of poverty in the world?
  • 3.4 How is poverty linked to ecosystem services?
• 4. What are the most critical factors causing ecosystem changes?
  • 4.1 What is a "driver" and how does it affect ecosystems?
  • 4.2 What are the indirect drivers and how are they changing?
  • 4.3 What are the direct drivers of changes in ecosystem services?
• 5. How might ecosystems and their services change in the future under various plausible scenarios?
  • 5.1 Which scenarios have been explored in this assessment?
  • 5.2 How might the indirect and direct drivers change over time?
  • 5.3 How might ecosystems change until 2050?
  • 5.4 How might human well-being change due to changing ecosystems?
  • 5.5 What are the benefits of proactive management of ecosystems?
• 6. Why are both global and sub-global assessments of ecosystem change useful?
• 7. How do ecosystems change over time?
  • 7.1 What is known about ecosystem inertia and time scales of change?
  • 7.2 When do non-linear or abrupt changes occur in ecosystems?
  • 7.3 How are humans increasing the risk of non-linear ecosystem changes?
• 8. What options exist to manage ecosystems sustainably?
  • 8.1 How can degradation of ecosystem services be reversed?
  • 8.2 What types of actions would most benefit ecosystems?
  • 8.3 How can decision-making processes be improved?
• 9. What are the most important uncertainties hindering decision-making concerning ecosystems?
  • 9.1 What remains unknown about conditions and trends in ecosystems?
  • 9.2 What are the problems linked to the use of scenarios?
  • 9.3 What are the uncertainties in the response options?
• 10. Conclusions: main findings
  • 10.1 Finding 1: Ecosystem change in last 50 years
  • 10.2 Finding 2: Gains and losses from ecosystem change
  • 10.3 Finding 3: Ecosystem prospects for next 50 years
  • 10.4 Finding 4: Reversing ecosystem degradation