Ecology and Society (Dec 2020)
The adaptive cycle and the ecosystem services: a social-ecological analysis of Chiloé Island, southern Chile
Abstract
We used the adaptive cycle as a heuristic to conceptualize the changes in ecosystem services between its phases (growth, conservation, collapse, and reorganization) for Chiloé Island (southern Chile), analyzed as a social-ecological system. We generated hypothetical relationships between services and phases based on literature articles, testing them with secondary databases for 1826-2016 and interviews with local actors. Results show that the island is currently either in a late conservation phase or already in a collapse phase. Only provisioning ecosystem services corresponded with the proposed phases' relationships, while regulation-maintenance and cultural services showed long-term decreasing trends. We discuss cross-scale interactions and political centralism as the main factors preventing a local adaptive scheme that may start a reorganization phase.
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