Ecosystem management is an integrative, adaptive method for planning and implementing interventions in ecological systems to sustain or restore their structure, function, composition, and services over the long term. It emphasizes system-level objectives, such as maintaining biodiversity, ecological integrity, and resilience, rather than optimizing single components or outputs. Methodologically, it combines ecological modeling, long-term monitoring, stakeholder involvement, and scenario-based decision analysis within an adaptive management cycle of hypothesis-driven actions and iterative evaluation. Ecosystem management explicitly incorporates spatial heterogeneity, cross-scale ecological processes, and uncertainty, and often uses tools such as GIS-based landscape analysis, environmental indicators, and decision-support systems to guide management actions and evaluate trade-offs among competing ecological and socio-economic goals.
Across a narrow watershed in Asakura, a rural city in Fukuoka Prefecture, centuries-old stone channels still guide water through fields and into the river below. Today, those same systems are the focus of researchers at Kyushu ...
Environment
Jul 11, 2026
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10
Coral reefs are disappearing at an unprecedented rate as climate change, marine heat waves, pollution and coastal development threaten one of Earth's richest ecosystems. While scientific research has greatly advanced understanding ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 8, 2026
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9
Freshwater ecosystems are under growing pressure worldwide, but conservation resources are limited. A framework developed by IIASA researchers and partners can help identify where conservation could prevent biodiversity loss ...
Ecology
Jul 7, 2026
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15
New University of Minnesota research offers land managers a practical strategy for keeping invasive buckthorn from returning: remove the shrub and sow native grasses and wildflowers as early as possible.
Plants & Animals
Jul 7, 2026
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6
Climate change is shifting forest conditions faster than local tree species can adapt. Higher temperatures, more frequent droughts and less predictable winters can weaken species that have been established in a region for ...
Ecology
Jul 6, 2026
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9
Coral reef decline driven by climate change could cost Hawaiʻi residents between $1.8 billion and $3 billion in lost reef-related activities by 2100, according to a new study published in Ecological Economics. The research ...
Environment
Jul 2, 2026
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Australia is home to some of the world's most beautiful reefs. This includes the lush Great Southern Reef, which wraps around Australia's southern coastline, and the world-renowned Great Barrier Reef.
Ecology
Jul 1, 2026
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5
An alpine ash forest is a sight to behold. Alpine ash (Eucalyptus delegatensis) is a tall eucalypt species that grows in the cool, wet mountains of southeastern Australia.
Plants & Animals
Jun 30, 2026
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18
Worldwide landscapes are changing at an unprecedented pace. Forests are cleared, wetlands drained, and ecosystems degraded by decades of human activity and unsustainable extraction.
Ecology
Jun 29, 2026
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6
Grasslands account for roughly 40% of terrestrial ecosystems and are paramount to global food security. Wild grasslands provide food for livestock and habitat for pollinators and act as a carbon sink in the era of climate ...
Ecology
Jun 29, 2026
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9
