Human activity has an enormous impact on Earth, changing organisms, environments and landscapes, leading to the decline of original ecosystems and irreversible changes that create new combinations of living beings and materials. As a result, ecosystems with new properties and new species pools are emerging. Here, we explore a set of transformative drivers, which can act either individually or in synergy. The expansion of novel ecosystems (hybrids of natural and agricultural systems) is a sign of irreversible, human-induced change. Human growth, adaptation to climate change, urban expansion and geoengineering are powerful transformative drivers which are expected to have a high impact, creating novel ecosystems. In contrast, less transformative drivers such as degrowth, biocentrism, ecological restoration and low-impact agriculture can mitigate human impacts, leading to adaptation, resilience and sustainability, while conserving original ecosystems. This requires a new approach, incorporating new ecological, ethical and cultural perspectives, to keep ecosystems functional and healthy.
The transformation caused by the Anthropocene is the world's greatest change triggered by a single species, causing major changes to ecosystems (Hobbs et al. 2006;Albuquerque et al. 2018;IPCC 2021). Humans have altered the Earth's extensively (Western 2001;Chure et al. 2022), and this trend is expected to continue beyond the fossil fuel era (Bardi 2016). Changes in nutrient cycles, species distributions and habitats (Vitousek et al. 1997;Tilman et al. 2001;Simberloff et al. 2013) may be irreversible, decreasing biodiversity (Vitousek et al. 1997;Folke et al. 2012) and resulting in the homogenization and simplification of communities (Parra-Sanchez et al. 2025). Human expansion has transcended boundaries (Niva et al. 2023), thereby facilitating species movement (Mack and Lonsdale 2001;Hobbs et al. 2006). This can result in new combinations of species and new properties emerging (Hobbs et al. 2006;Ellis and Ramankutty, 2008;Chure et al. 2022), making it often impossible to determine whether the change was intentional or random. This pattern began in the Neolithic (Ruddiman, 2007) and accelerated in the 20th century (Steffen et al. 2015).
The collapse of the Earth’s systems by crossing planetary boundaries is possible (Scheffer et al. 2001;Steffen et al 2015), but it is also plausible that the planetary system will reach new equilibrium points (Rockström et al. 2009;Barnosky et al. 2012;Pinheiro and Pena-Rodrigues, 2025). There is a growing consensus that changes to ecosystems give rise to new combinations of organisms and materials (Hobbs et al. 2009;Gómez Márquez 2025). Their key characteristics include the potential to alter ecosystem functioning through new interactions (Osmolovsky et al. 2025). Ecosystems resulting from direct or indirect human action may not require continuous intervention and can be considered natural despite not being original (Illy and Vineis 2024). They can emerge in response to induced conditions and new factors (e.g., soil degradation, nutrient input, and alien introduction). This includes sites managed or induced, such as agroforestry and agricultural fields (Pretty 2008). New communities are now commonly found in managed ecosystems (Seastedt et al. 2008) and these changes have resulted in the local extinction of original species, followed by the introduction of new ones. Indeed, urban, cultivated, or degraded landscapes create dispersal barriers (Forman 1995), while creating novel ecosystems. Direct human impacts, such as soil removal, dam construction, harvesting and pollution, as well as indirect, such as erosion and overgrazing, generally lead to a decrease in biodiversity (Vitousek et al. 1997). These ecosystems represent an intermediate category between original and managed ones (Sanderson et al. 2002). The proportion of each type of ecosystem varies over time and space, with these variations often being driven by increases or decreases in human activities that are responsible for the anthropogenic flow of materials and energy. Other potential human actions include solar radiation management, which involves reflecting sunlight, and the injection of stratospheric aerosols to mimic the effect of volcanic eruptions by reflecting sunlight (Crutzen 2006). These techniques may have side effects, such as changes in precipitation and ozone layer damage (NRC 2015). Human activities are connected to the non-human flows of materials and energy that regulate the entire biosphere. Although our activities have great transformative power, they will always be subject to the limitations imposed by Earth’s systems. Ultimately, we are just another species that depends on this balance to survive, and we must reconsider our transformative actions.
Current perspectives on the human way of life, as well as on conservation and restoration, are being re-evaluated (Archer et al. 2024), as preserving or restoring original ecosystems may no longer be viable (Hobbs et al. 2009;Wakefield 2018;Abhilash 2021;Scheffran et al. 2024). As both mitigating and reversing abiotic and biotic changes are difficult, the aim is often to keep a functional hybrid state (Simberloff et al. 2013) and increase the regenerative capacity of ecosystems (Illy and Vineis 2024). Novel ecosystems can be culturally valuable (Marris 2011) and systems with minimal changes can support hybrid systems (Choi 2004).
Furthermore, the chance of human intervention (positive or negative) is increasing (Zhong et al. 2025). Changed ecosystems affect humans, economies, and livelihoods (Adger et al. 2005) and create opportunities, such as ecotourism, sea farming and sustainable fishing (Bulleri et al. 2018). But these changes can also negatively impact agriculture (Cinner et al. 2018), which threatens food security. Ocean acidification and global warming affect species availability (Gentry et al. 2021). Humans often need to adapt in response to changes in ecosystems to ensure socio-economic sustainability (Füssel and Klein 2006). Environmental
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