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Final ecosystem services (i.e. services that directly benefit humanity) depend fundamentally upon the various processes, regulated by organisms, which underpin ecosystem functioning and maintain ecosystem structures. Such processes include inter alia primary productivity, detritus decomposition, pollination, soil formation, and nutrient uptake and fixation. Insights into the abiotic, biotic, and spatial factors regulating these “supporting ecosystem processes” have arisen from within multiple fields of ecology which have not always been well integrated, including research on biodiversity–ecosystem functioning (B-EF) and biodiversity–ecosystem service (B-ES) relationships, meta-ecosystem ecology, and ecological resilience. Here, we draw together insights from these fields towards a framework suitable for addressing impacts of human disturbances on ecosystem processes and the services they support. We further …