Pulse Brain · Growing Health Evidence Index
Peer-reviewed

Ten facts about land systems for sustainability

Patrick Meyfroidt; Ariane de Bremond; Casey M. Ryan; Emma Archer; Richard Aspinall; Abha Chhabra; Gilberto Câmara; Esteve Corbera; Ruth DeFries; Sandra Dı́az; Jinwei Dong; Erle C. Ellis; Karl‐Heinz Erb; Janet Fisher; Rachael Garrett; Nancy E. Golubiewski; H. Ricardo Grau; J. Morgan Grove; Helmut Haberl; Andreas Heinimann; Patrick Hostert; Estéban G. Jobbágy; Suzi Kerr; Tobias Kuemmerle; Éric F. Lambin; Sandra Lavorel; Sharachchandra Lélé; Ole Mertz; Peter Messerli; Graciela Metternicht; Darla K. Munroe; Harini Nagendra; Jonas Østergaard Nielsen; Dennis S. Ojima; Dawn C. Parker; Unai Pascual; John R. Porter; Navin Ramankutty; Anette Reenberg; Rinku Roy Chowdhury; Karen C. Seto; Verena Seufert; Hideaki Shibata; Allison M. Thomson; B. L. Turner; Jotaro Urabe; A. Veldkamp; Peter H. Verburg; Gete Zeleke; Erasmus K. H. J. zu Ermgassen

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2022

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Summary

Land use is central to addressing sustainability issues, including biodiversity conservation, climate change, food security, poverty alleviation, and sustainable energy. In this paper, we synthesize knowledge accumulated in land system science, the integrated study of terrestrial social-ecological systems, into 10 hard truths that have strong, general, empirical support. These facts help to explain the challenges of achieving sustainability in land use and thus also point toward solutions. The 10 facts are as follows: 1) Meanings and values of land are socially constructed and contested; 2) land systems exhibit complex behaviors with abrupt, hard-to-predict changes; 3) irreversible changes and path dependence are common features of land systems; 4) some land uses have a small footprint but

Subject
Food security & global nutrition
Source type
Peer-reviewed study
System type
Other
DOI
10.1073/pnas.2109217118
Catalogue ID
NRmo9rin9c-0qt
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