This chapter provides a summary of the assessment of global drivers of ecosystem change that appears as Chapter 7 of the MA Scenarios volume. A driver is any natural or human-induced factor that directly or indirectly causes a change in an ecosystem. A direct driver unequivocally influences ecosystem processes. An indirect driver operates more diffusely, by altering one or more direct drivers. The MA categories of indirect drivers of change are demographic, economic, sociopolitical, scientific and technological, and cultural and religious. Important direct drivers include climate change, nutrient pollution, land conversion leading to habitat change, overexploitation, and invasive species and diseases. Changes in ecosystem services are almost always caused by multiple, interacting drivers that work over time and over level of organization and that happen intermittently. Changes in ecosystem services can feed back to alter drivers
Publication year
2005
Authors
Language
English
Keywords
climate change, ecology
