Providing ecosystem services in a challenging environment by dealing with bundles, trade-offs, and synergies

The provision of ecosystem services (ES) relies upon the adequate functioning of multifunctional ecosystems and landscapes. Multifunctional ecosystems are prone to the emergence of ES bundles, trade-offs, and synergies due to various ecological and socio-ecological drivers. Dealing effectively with ES bundles, in general, and the interactions between ES, in particular, is crucial to achieve high degrees of sustainability and resilience by human societies. Yet, ES associations and interactions are difficult to assess, posing important challenges to ecologists, decision-makers, environmental planners, and managers. For this Special Section, we selected eight original contributions that were presented during the 5th International EcoSummit held in Montpellier (France) in the summer of 2016. Together, the studies presented herein, cover novel research, tools, and approaches focusing on overcoming the multiple challenges associated with the quantification and analysis of ES bundles, trade-offs, and synergies. These will certainly contribute to develop a better understanding and more comprehensive studies focusing on ES interactions within multifunctional ecosystems in the future.