Human-shaped Ecosystems: Processes, Trade-offs and Ecosystem Services in a Drying World

Humans have been modifying natural environments for millennia, leading to a deep co-evolution between social and natural systems. As a result, areas perceived as biodiversity hotspots, such as the Mediterranean Basin, are commonly composed of human-shaped ecosystems. Human-shaped ecosystems can be understood as systems in which human management is required to maintain ecological structure and processes, and where its absence or alteration compromises ecosystem dynamics and resilience. Such human-shaped ecosystems, ranging from agrosilvopastoral mosaics to managed grasslands and rangelands, illustrate the intertwined evolution of social and ecological processes. While these systems have persisted under traditional management, ongoing changes in land use, lifestyle, and climate are reshaping the trade-offs that govern ecosystem dynamics. For example, practices that enhance biodiversity or reduce fire risk may simultaneously alter soil water retention, plant recruitment, or erosion susceptibility. Understanding how human-induced trade-offs modulate key ecological processes and the associated ecosystem services is crucial to assess ecosystem resilience and trajectory, especially in an increasingly dry world where climate change and rising water demand drive uncertain dynamics.

This Research Topic aims to explore how human-induced trade-offs influence ecosystem structure, function, and resilience through their interactions with water-driven processes. We welcome contributions investigating how human activities - such as land-use change, agricultural practices, or ecosystem management - modify water-driven ecological processes and associated trade-offs, and how these changes affect resilience and the provision of ecosystem services. Experimental studies, theoretical models, comparative analyses, and synthesis papers integrating ecological, hydrological, evolutionary, and socio-ecological perspectives are encouraged. This Research Topic seeks to provide insights into the coupled human-water-ecosystem nexus, highlighting how management decisions shape both ecological processes and the benefits ecosystems provide to society under global change.

This Research Topic accepts the following article types: Original Research, Review, Data Report, Opinion, Hypothesis and Theory, Methods, Perspective, Technology and Code.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Socioecosystems, mediterranean, water availability, aridity

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.