Human activities introduce large perturbations to a wide variety of ecosystems across the planet, altering ecosystem structures and functions in ways not predictable from our understanding of intact, more pristine systems. For example, urban ecosystems tightly couple human and natural systems, dramatically altering ecological dynamics within the city while impacting ecosystems across the globe through consumption of resources and production of waste. There are many other examples of human dominated ecosystems, each with novel ecosystem dynamics. The many simultaneous and interacting forms of anthropogenic global change (land use change, altered biogeochemical dynamics, threats to biodiversity, climate change, etc.) mean that the potential for human actions at a local scale to influence ecosystems globally has never been greater. Ignoring the influence of human activity on ecosystem dynamics entails the risk of producing fundamentally incomplete understanding of global ecology. Nevertheless, many ecological studies tend to minimize or remove human impacts, potentially limiting the applicability and relevance of their results. This session will highlight cutting edge ecological studies that focus on novel and emerging socio-ecological systems or that take a fresh look at understudied socioecological dynamics in human-dominated landscapes.