98 | Nature | Vol 575 | 7 November 2019 Perspective Anatomy and resilience of the global production ecosystem M. Nyström 1 *, J.-B. Jouffray 1,2 , A. V. Norström 1 , B. Crona 1,2 , P. Søgaard Jørgensen 1,2 , S. R. Carpenter 3 , Ö. Bodin 1 , V. Galaz 1,2 & C. Folke 1,2,4 Much of the Earth’s biosphere has been appropriated for the production of harvestable biomass in the form of food, fuel and fibre. Here we show that the simplification and intensification of these systems and their growing connection to international markets has yielded a global production ecosystem that is homogenous, highly connected and characterized by weakened internal feedbacks. We argue that these features converge to yield high and predictable supplies of biomass in the short term, but create conditions for novel and pervasive risks to emerge and interact in the longer term. Steering the global production ecosystem towards a sustainable trajectory will require the redirection of finance, increased transparency and traceability in supply chains, and the participation of a multitude of players, including integrated ‘keystone actors’ such as multinational corporations. The demand for harvestable biomass (food, fuel and fibre) by a grow- ing, wealthier and increasingly urbanized global human population is placing relentless pressure on the Earth’s ecosystems. To a large extent, this demand has been met by converting ecosystems into production ecosystems—ecosystems modified for the production of one or a few harvestable species 1,2 . Although these alterations occur at local scales, their cumulative effect is causing global transformation of the Earth’s biosphere 3,4 . Humans have already altered more than 75% of the world’s terrestrial habitats 5 —nearly 40% of all productive land has been con- verted into agricultural areas 6 and two thirds of all boreal forests are under some form of management, mainly for wood production 7 . In the seas, around 90% of large industrial fisheries are either overexploited or fully exploited 8 , and a rapidly expanding aquaculture sector is occupy- ing increasing areas of coastal and offshore space 9 . As available productive land and abundant fish stocks become progressively scarce, the potential for further land conversion, land redistribution and exploitation of new wild stocks as options to meet projected global human demand is dwindling 8,10 . To increase efficiency, production ecosystems are intensified and simplified using human inputs such as fossil fuels, fertilizers, pesticides, antibiotics and tech- nology 2,6,11 . In parallel, people, places, cultures and economies are increasingly linked across geographic locations and socioeconomic contexts 12 , making production ecosystems increasingly globally interconnected. Collectively, these changes are converting much of the biosphere into a GPE. This new reality calls for approaches that recognize the biosphere sys- tem as a complex and integrated social-ecological system 3,13,14 . Within this context, resilience—the capacity of a system to persist with and adapt to change, but also transform away from unsustainable social- ecological trajectories—has been suggested as a conceptual framework that could assist in developing paths towards sustainability 15 . Whereas the aggregated transformation of Earth’s biomes is indisputable, its consequences for the dynamics and resilience of an expanding GPE remain poorly understood. Here we describe the anatomy of the GPE through the lens of three key features underpinning resilience, namely connectivity, diversity and feedback 16 . We do this by considering a diverse set of socioeco- nomic and biophysical elements that have previously been studied separately. We discuss how this anatomy influences the resilience of the GPE and creates novel conditions for risks to emerge and interact. We conclude by highlighting three avenues that can foster innovation and encourage new partnerships to motivate transformation towards a more sustainable GPE. The anatomy of the GPE The GPE is the result of three important and interacting trends: (1) the continued conversion of the Earth’s biosphere into simplified produc- tion ecosystems, (2) the increased intensification and dependence of these production ecosystems on human inputs, and (3) their expand- ing connectivity through global markets. The GPE integrates multiple sectors, broadly referred to here as forestry, agriculture (crops and livestock) and fishery (wild capture and aquaculture) (Fig. 1). We rec- ognize that some production ecosystems, such as subsistence fishing and farming or diversified agricultural landscapes, may be subject to https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1712-3 Received: 28 July 2018 Accepted: 23 September 2019 Published online: 6 November 2019 1 Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden. 2 Global Economic Dynamics and the Biosphere Academy Programme, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, Sweden. 3 Center for Limnology, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI, USA. 4 Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, Sweden. *e-mail: magnus.nystrom@su.se Anniversary collection: go.nature.com/ nature150