The landscape configuration of socio-ecological land systems results from the interaction between the environmental conditions (relatively homogeneous within ecoregions) and country-level management and land-use decisions. However, social, land-use and sustainability research disciplines often study each independently. We used Euclidean distance analyses of five indicators of land systems functioning to explore the geographical patterns of across-border human-induced asymmetries in transnational ecoregions of South America. The most asymmetric transnational ecoregions occurred in the tropical rainforest biome which also showed the widest range of asymmetry values compared to other biomes. In contrast, transnational ecoregions in montane grasslands showed comparatively little asymmetries, and tropical dry forests showed intermediate asymmetry values. This pattern indicates that major asymmetries occur in land systems located in productive biomes with a comparatively recent history of development, whereas mature socio-ecosystems with a long history of human land use are more homogeneous across borders. In some cases, asymmetries may stabilize as a consequence of reinforcing feedbacks that promote contrasting land-use decisions across borders, including, for example, the establishment of protected areas, or the promotion of agro-industrial activities. Transnational socio-ecological land systems can be used to evaluate alternatives for sustainable development because they highlight the influence of institutions under different governance regimes in defining the spatial configuration and ecological properties of regions. We invite land-use and sustainability scientists to consider political border interactions as valuable “natural experiments” to better understand the interrelations between biophysical and political systems in defining planetary geographical-ecology in the Anthropocene.

社会生态土地系统的景观配置是环境条件（生态区内相对同质）与国家级管理和土地利用决策之间相互作用的结果。然而，社会、土地利用和可持续性研究学科往往各自独立研究。我们对土地系统功能的五个指标进行了欧几里德距离分析，以探索南美洲跨国生态区中跨界人为不对称的地理模式。最不对称的跨国生态区发生在热带雨林生物群落中，与其他生物群落相比，该区域的不对称值范围也最广。相比之下，山地草原跨国生态区的不对称性相对较小，和热带干燥森林显示出中等的不对称值。这种模式表明，主要不对称发生在具有相对较新的发展历史的生产性生物群落中的土地系统中，而具有人类土地利用历史悠久的成熟社会生态系统则跨越国界更加同质化。在某些情况下，不对称可能会因强化反馈而趋于稳定，这些反馈促进了跨越国界的对比性土地使用决策，例如建立保护区或促进农业工业活动。跨国社会生态土地系统可用于评估可持续发展的替代方案，因为它们突出了不同治理制度下的制度在定义区域的空间配置和生态特性方面的影响。