Huntsinger, L., and J. L. Oviedo. 2014. Ecosystem services are social–ecological services in a traditional pastoral system: the case of California’s Mediterranean rangelands. Ecology and Society 19(1): 8.http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-06143-190108

A social–ecological system (SES) is a combination of social and ecological actors and processes that influence each other in profound ways. The SES framework is not a research methodology or a checklist to identify problems. It is a conceptual framework designed to keep both the social and ecological components of a system in focus so that the interactions between them can be scrutinized for drivers of change and causes of specific outcomes. Resilience, adaptability, and transformability have been identified as the three related attributes of SESs that determine their future trajectories. Identifying feedbacks between social and ecological components of the system at multiple scales is a key to SES-based analysis. This chapter explores the spectrum of different ways the concept has been used and defined, with a focus on its application to rangelands. Five cases of SES analysis are presented from Australia, China, Spain, California, and the Great Basin of the USA. In each case, the SES framework facilitates identification of cross-system feedbacks to explain otherwise puzzling outcomes. While information intensive and logistically challenging in the management context, the SES framework can help overcome intractable challenges to working rangelands such as rangeland conversion and climate change. The primary benefit of the SES framework is the improved ability to prevent or correct social policies that cause negative ecological outcomes, and to achieve ecological objectives in ways that support, rather than hurt, rangeland users.