Towards an applied metaecology

Abstract

tThe complexity of ecological systems is a major challenge for practitioners and decision-makers whowork to avoid, mitigate and manage environmental change. Here, we illustrate how metaecology – thestudy of spatial interdependencies among ecological systems through fluxes of organisms, energy, andmatter – can enhance understanding and improve managing environmental change at multiple spatialscales. We present several case studies illustrating how the framework has leveraged decision-making inconservation, restoration and risk management. Nevertheless, an explicit incorporation of metaecologyis still uncommon in the applied ecology literature, and in action guidelines addressing environmentalchange. This is unfortunate because the many facets of environmental change can be framed as modifyingspatial context, connectedness and dominant regulating processes - the defining features of metaecolog-ical systems. Narrowing the gap between theory and practice will require incorporating system-specificrealism in otherwise predominantly conceptual studies, as well as deliberately studying scenarios ofenvironmental change.