Producing food to meet rising global demand requires a more thorough understanding of how farming systems can ensure food security without compromising economic, environmental, and social sustainability. This dilemma can be addressed through a social-ecological systems approach to ecosystem service assessment, which assesses the linkages between the different components of an agricultural social-ecological system – beef production in the Canadian Prairies. Using this framework, we documented the relationships between governance and management, social and ecological structures and processes, ecosystem services and human well-being for these systems. We also examined how this framework could aid in the greater integration of ecosystem services into decision-making and management practices for these systems. The framework was applied to all stages of the prairie beef production cycle, consisting of the cow-calf, backgrounding, finishing and feed production stages. The benefits, shortcomings and limitations of such an approach as well as the state of knowledge on relationships between the components of the system are discussed, and recommendations for future research directions, farm management strategies and policy are proposed. Overall, the high degree of heterogeneity in biophysical and socio-economic conditions across the prairie landscape underscores the need for more site-specific ecosystem service assessments and environmental stewardship policies that are tailored to these specific contexts.

生产满足全球不断增长的需求的食品，需要对耕作制度如何在不损害经济，环境和社会可持续性的前提下确保粮食安全的透彻理解。这种困境可以通过生态系统服务评估的社会生态系统方法来解决，该方法评估了农业社会生态系统的不同组成部分之间的联系，即加拿大大草原的牛肉生产。使用此框架，我们记录了这些系统的治理与管理，社会和生态结构与过程，生态系统服务与人类福祉之间的关系。我们还研究了该框架如何帮助将生态系统服务进一步整合到这些系统的决策和管理实践中。该框架适用于大草原牛肉生产周期的所有阶段，包括牛犊，犊牛的生产，育肥阶段和饲料生产阶段。讨论了这种方法的优点，缺点和局限性，以及有关系统各组成部分之间关系的知识状态，并提出了有关未来研究方向，农场管理策略和政策的建议。总体而言，整个草原景观在生物物理和社会经济条件下的高度异质性凸显了对针对这些特定情况的针对特定场所的生态系统服务评估和环境管理政策的需求。讨论了这种方法的缺点和局限性，以及有关系统各组成部分之间关系的知识状态，并提出了有关未来研究方向，农场管理策略和政策的建议。总体而言，整个草原景观在生物物理和社会经济条件下的高度异质性凸显了对针对这些特定情况的针对特定场所的生态系统服务评估和环境管理政策的需求。讨论了这种方法的缺点和局限性，以及有关系统各组成部分之间关系的知识状态，并提出了有关未来研究方向，农场管理策略和政策的建议。总体而言，整个草原景观在生物物理和社会经济条件下的高度异质性凸显了需要针对这些特定情况针对具体地点进行更多生态系统服务评估和环境管理政策的需求。