Historical foundations and future directions in macrosystems ecology

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Environmental Science

Background:

• Macrosystems ecology investigates ecological processes at extensive spatial scales.
• Understanding its theoretical foundations is crucial for addressing global environmental challenges.

Observation:

• Human activities are fundamentally altering ecological processes.
• These alterations occur across diverse spatial and temporal scales, creating novel interactions.

Findings:

• The spatio-temporal anthropogenic rescaling (STAR) hypothesis proposes that human actions modify ecological scales.
• Four predictions detail how human activities expand, shrink, accelerate, or decelerate ecological processes, leading to new scaling relationships.
• Rescaling is influenced by ecosystem connectivity, stability, and heterogeneity.

Implications:

• The STAR hypothesis challenges conventional ecological assumptions about scale.
• It offers a framework for understanding macrosystem-scale environmental change in terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems.