Call for proposals: Special Feature on understanding land-use driven biodiversity change

People and Nature of the British Ecological Society is seeking proposals to the Special Feature “Understanding land-use driven biodiversity change: frontiers in linking ecological and socio-economic data and models”.

Land-use change cuts across ecosystem and political borders and as such acts as one of the principal human-mediated drivers of global biodiversity change. However, processes driving land-use change such as population growth, patterns of production and consumption, or changes in the biophysical suitability for different land uses, are typically underrepresented or absent in ecological models. Similarly, teleconnections and leakage effects are typically poorly captured, despite their impacts on biodiversity.

There has been a recent rise in popularity of modelling frameworks that integrate models and data from socio-economic, land-use and biodiversity modelling at large spatio-temporal scales. Integrated modelling frameworks allow us to gain a deeper understanding of the direct impacts of land-use change, but also the indirect, land-use-mediated impacts of socioeconomic drivers on biodiversity. As such, integrated modelling frameworks can help guide conservation decision-making, inform policy to mitigate livelihood impacts and improve forecasts of biodiversity change and its ecological impacts.

We are seeking contributions that identify challenges and/or solutions to the challenges inherent to parameterising and using models for complex socio-ecological systems, including (but not limited to):

• how sub-models from various disciplines can be linked both conceptually and mathematically under consideration of feedbacks
• data constraints at different scales and ways of addressing these (e.g., accounting for bias) and the scalability of models for global biodiversity assessments
• co-creation of research questions and model structures across disciplinary boundaries
• applications of models to social-ecological systems

Proposals should meet the scope of the special feature as set out above, as well as that of the journal. People and Nature publishes work from across research areas exploring relationships between humans and nature. Submissions should have something meaningful to say about both the ‘people’ and ‘nature’ aspects of this scope. For more details please read our full aims and scope.

Proposals should be submitted via the form below by Friday 15 October 2021. They will be assessed by the editors and invited if proposed articles are in scope for the journal and a good fit for the special feature. If your proposal is accepted, your manuscript must be submitted by 1 May 2022.

The Special Feature is guest edited by Laura Graham (University of Birmingham), Carsten Meyer (German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research) and Simon Kapitza (Potsdam University). The guest editors are happy to answer informal enquires relating to the special feature. For enquires relating to People and Nature more generally please contact the Editorial Office.