Unwanted No More: Land Use, Ecosystem Services, and Opportunities for Resilience in Human-Influenced Shrublands

On the Ground
• Shrub-dominated rangelands are highly susceptible to land degradation, partly because low land values can encourage neglect, leading to poor stewardship and/or conversion to more lucrative but ecologically less desirably uses.
• Recent efforts to assess the value of “ecosystem services” show that commodity values don’t capture all the benefits of shrublands to society.
• Efforts to prevent shrubland degradation and land type conversion can be enhanced if the value of noncommodity ecosystem services can be recognized.
• Conceptual modeling of socio-ecological systems can point decision makers and stakeholders toward strategies to enhance shrubland resilience and protect ecosystem services.