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Social–Ecological Network Approaches in Interdisciplinary Research: A Response to Bohan et al. and Dee et al.

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The Interdisciplinary Challenge of Institutional Fit

A primary example of how network science has been used to gain substantive insights while also extending the methodological repertoire derives from the study of institutional fit, in other words how institutions are more or less, or not at all, aligned (temporally or geographically) with the structures and processes of the ecosystems they intend to govern (e.g., [5]). In 2009, Ekstrom and Young [6] modeled estuarine systems in the US Pacific Northwest as a network consisting of key social and

Advancing Social–Ecological Theory Using Network Science

No matter how social and ecological components are conceptualized from the perspective of a system, we argue that ultimately the value of a social–ecological network approach will be assessed by its ability to facilitate the development of interdisciplinary theory. Only then we will be able to advance general insights that extend beyond possible idiosyncrasies of single cases. Without such knowledge, developing general guidelines and policy recommendations would be a daunting task. To that end,

Towards an Ecosystem Services Network Perspective

Previous theoretical and empirical examples of social–ecological network science have modeled the natural environment as an ecological network consisting of nodes either generically defined as ecological components (e.g., species such seabirds and/or habitats such as estuaries) or more specifically defined as wetland patches or spatially aggregated reefs 7, 8. By contrast, both Bohan et al. [1] and Dee et al. [2] convincingly argue that interdisciplinary science on ecosystem services can be

The Interdisciplinary Research Process

Any interdisciplinary research that does not resolve the balance across disciplines will, as we argue, make limited progress. This is particularly true when working across the natural and social sciences where different epistemologies and research traditions pose significant barriers to fruitful collaboration. One desirable feature of the network-centric approach is that it provides a common language, an argument made by Janssen et al. [4] and more recently by Bohan et al. [1]. Further, network

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  • Network science: Applications for sustainable agroecosystems and food security

    2022, Perspectives in Ecology and Conservation
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    New studies have sought to combine these (and multiple other) types of networks to provide insights into how the interface between management and biodiversity alters ecosystem functioning (Felipe-Lucia et al., 2021). These efforts have included agricultural environments (Hutchinson et al., 2019), and theory surrounding socio-ecological networks is sufficiently mature for actionable interdisciplinary research (Bodin et al., 2017). Putting multilayer networks to work in the context of agriculture may improve our understanding of the mechanistic basis through which management decisions translate to changes in production, or other services provided by the agro-ecosystems.

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