2011/06/01 by Richard J. Hobbs, Lauren M. Hallett, Paul R. Ehrlich +1 · 413 citations
Environmental Science · Psychology · #Abiotic component #Applied ecology #Biodiversity #Biology #Computer science #Ecology #Ecosystem #Ecosystem services #Environmental Conservation and Management #Environmental Philosophy and Ethics #Environmental resource management #Environmental science #Intervention (counseling) #Land Use and Ecosystem Services #Leverage (statistics) #Novel ecosystem #Psychological intervention #Psychology #Systems ecology
paper · pdf · doi:10.1525/bio.2011.61.6.6
published in BioScience 61(6), 442-450 (Oxford University Press)
openalex publication_date 2011/06/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/03
Rapid, extensive, and ongoing environmental change increasingly demands that humans intervene in ecosystems to maintain or restore ecosystem services and biodiversity. At the same time, the basic principles and tenets of restoration ecology and conservation biology are being debated and reshaped. Escalating global change is resulting in widespread no-analogue environments and novel ecosystems that render traditional goals unachievable. Policymakers and the general public, however, have embraced restoration without an understanding of its limitations, which has led to perverse policy outcomes. Therefore, a new ecology, free of pre- and misconceptions and directed toward meaningful interventions, is needed. Interventions include altering the biotic and abiotic structures and processes within ecosystems and changing social and policy settings. Interventions can be aimed at leverage points, both within ecosystems and in the broader social system—particularly, feedback loops that either maintain a particular state or precipitate a rapid change from one state to another.