Western environmental thought and practice historically separated humans and nature. This dichotomy led to an ecological bias in environmental research and management, but increasingly issues like biological invasions are being re-conceived as socio-ecological problems. Here, we studied how terrestrial and freshwater vertebrate species assemblages in Tierra del Fuego (TDF) have been co-constructed between humans and nature. The social imaginary concept was used to integrate shared discourses (e.g., species preferences, nature ideals, broader social values) and practices (e.g., species introductions, environmental management) via institutions (e.g., informal norms, laws, governmental entities, organizations). To analyze how socio-historical processes interact with biological invasions, we used TDF as a case study linked to broader geographic scales in Patagonia, Argentina, Chile and beyond. We found three predominant social imaginaries characterizing human–nature relationships that led to 20 species being introduced and subsequent efforts to remove or control seven of these: Colonization (ca. 1850–1930), Development (ca. 1930–1980) and Conservation (ca. 1980–present). Each imaginary materialized via formal and informal institutions operating from local to international scales. Specifically, we uncovered 10 discourse categories that related to human interventions of TDF’s species assemblage, ranging from racism and nationalism (Colonization and Development, respectively) to wilderness and uniqueness (Conservation). These ideas affected actions to introduce (eight and 10 species during Colonization and Development, respectively) or remove species (one and seven in Development and Conservation, respectively). An integrated socio-ecological understanding of biological invasions identified not only social preferences and values, but also underlying social processes that can help resolve the complex and underappreciated interactions between society and biological invasions.

西方环境思想和实践在历史上将人与自然分开。这种二分法导致了环境研究和管理的生态偏差，但是越来越多的问题，例如生物入侵，被重新认为是社会生态问题。在这里，我们研究了人类与自然之间如何共同构建火地岛（Terra del Fuego，TDF）中的陆地和淡水脊椎动物物种组合。社会想象概念被用来通过机构（例如非正式规范，法律，政府实体，组织）整合共享的话语（例如物种偏好，自然理想，更广泛的社会价值）和实践（例如物种引进，环境管理）。要分析社会历史过程与生物入侵之间的相互作用，我们将TDF用作案例研究，与巴塔哥尼亚，阿根廷，智利及其他地区的更广泛的地理规模相关联。我们发现了三个主要的虚构人物，这些人物以人与自然的关系为特征，导致引入了20个物种，并随后为消除或控制其中的7个物种做出了努力：殖民化（大约1850–1930年），发展（大约1930–1980年）和自然保护（大约1930年）。 （1980年至今）。每个假想图都是通过从本地到国际范围运作的正式和非正式机构来实现的。具体来说，我们发现了10种与人类对TDF物种集合的干预相关的话语类别，从种族主义和民族主义（分别为殖民化和发展）到旷野和独特性（保护）。这些想法影响了引进行动（在殖民和发展过程中有8种和10种 或删除物种（在“开发”和“保护”中分别为1和7）。对生物入侵的综合社会生态理解不仅确定了社会偏好和价值观，而且还确定了有助于解决社会与生物入侵之间复杂而未被充分认识的相互作用的潜在社会过程。