Land system science in Latin America: challenges and perspectives

•Monitoring land systems needs to move beyond the forest/non-forest interface and integrate social-ecological parameters.•The concept of social-ecological land systems improves local-regional integration.•A biome-level typology of SELS for Latin America is provided.•Inclusive design of land systems involves multiple/dynamic values and perceptions.•Distant interactions are crucial to the understanding of land systems.

This article reviews the current status, trends and challenges of land system science in Latin America. We highlight the advances in the conceptualization, analysis and monitoring of land systems. These advances shift from a focus on the relationships between forests and other land uses to include a greater diversity of land cover and land-use types and the processes and interactions that link them. We then provide a biome-level typology of social-ecological land systems (SELS) as an approach to help connect local-level realities to regional processes and we discuss how this approach can help to design more socially inclusive land systems. We also discuss the increased role of distant socio-economic and ecological interactions that connect these SELS to global processes. Combined, these insights support a research agenda for land system science in the region that can develop more accurate and integrative monitoring of land change and their social and ecological consequences, better understand different stakeholder perspectives within a context of livelihood diversification, and encourage institutional feedbacks to govern land systems influenced by distant drivers.