The Drivers: An Overview

GERALD C. NELSON, ELENA BENNETT, ASMERET ASEFAW BERHE, KENNETH CASSMAN, RUTH DEFRIES, THOMAS DIETZ, ANDREW DOBSON, ACHIM DOBERMANN, ANTHONY JANETOS, MARC LEVY, DIANA MARCO, NEBOJSA NAKICENOVIC, BRIAN O’NEILL, RICHARD NORGAARD, GERHARD PETSCHEL-HELD, DENNI

Ecology and Society

Ecological Society of America

Año: 2006 p. 29 - 60

This paper provides an overview of what the Millennium Assessment calls “indirect and direct drivers” of change in ecosystem services. The MA definition of 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 categories of global driving forces are: demographic, economic, sociopolitical, cultural and religious, science and technology, and physical and biological. Drivers in all categories other than physical and biological are considered indirect. Important direct drivers include changes in climate, plant nutrient use, land conversion, and diseases and invasive species. This paper does not discuss natural drivers such as climate variability, extreme weather events and volcanic eruptions.