Biodiversity, Conservation and Ecosystem Services in Managed Landscapes
Data-driven Review of Ecosystem-based Management Efforts
Economic Impact of Non-native Forest Pests and Pathogens in North America
Habitat Conservation Planning for Endangered Species | A Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity |
Prospectus for an Analysis of Recovery Plans and Delisting
Ushering in a New Era of Functional Ecology: Dynamics in a Changing Environment
Recent Distributed Graduate Seminars
Habitat Conservation Planning for Endangered Species
Investigators
Products
Final Report Using Science in Habitat Conservation Plans Additional Publications |
NCEAS collaborated with the American Institute of Biological Sciences to examine the scientific basis of Habitat Conservation Plans prepared under the Endangered Species Act. This one-year Working Group project included a Distributed Graduate Seminar held at eight universities. The seminars included 119 researches, including 106 students and 13 faculty members. The group reviewed Habitat Conservation Plans to evaluate the extent to which scientific data and methods were used in developing and justifying the agreements, and also recommended ways to strengthen the role of science in conservation planning. In addition to multiple scientific publications the research prompted wide coverage in the popular press. Participating Universities
Fall 1997 Florida State University |
Prospectus for an Analysis of Recovery Plans and Delisting
InvestigatorsBoersma, Dee ProductsProject Web Site (Archived) |
NCEAS, In collaboration with the Society for Conservation Biology, developed a Distributed Graduate Seminar involving 19 universities, 23 faculty and over 200 graduate students who together evaluated the effectiveness of recovery plans for endangered species. Graduate students gathered data and developed a large database of a representative sample of recovery plans. Recovery plans for 181 species were reviewed during the project. Using only the information presented in the recovery plan and the original listing document for the species, seminar participants recorded more than 2600 specific data about each recovery plan. Student representatives from each school came to NCEAS to participate in analyzing the data and developing scientific publications and policy recommendations to the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, based on this analysis. The project provided a unique opportunity to undertake a large collaboration among graduate students and faculty at multiple universities, and to facilitate communication between academic scientists and USFWS policy makers and resource managers. The project successfully accomplished the most detailed and comprehensive review of endangered species recovery plans yet conducted, and produced a rich database of information on the content and characteristics of these planning documents. Analyses of the database have identified many positive aspects of recovery plans, and also suggested specific ways in which the recovery planning process could be improved. Participating Universities |
A Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity
InvestigatorsAndelman, Sandy ProductsBackground Publications Data Sets |
Understanding biocomplexity and other dimensions of ecological systems necessitates a holistic approach that can be achieved only by identifying, retrieving, and synthesizing diverse data from distributed sources and by collaboration among scientists from a broad range of disciplines, investigating many different systems.
In a series of multi-campus graduate seminars, students in ecology, natural resource management, informatics, and statistics explored a variety of topics related to biocomplexity research and ecological synthesis. Participants used newly developed ecoinformatics tools and principles to investigate the relationship between species richness and productivity, and to test the efficacy of the tools. Data were derived from local LTER sites and student representatives from each university participated at NCEAS in comparing results across sites. Participating Universities |
Data-driven Review of Ecosystem-based Management Efforts
InvestigatorsAndelman, Sandy ProductsData Sets |
Over the last decade there have been a wide range of efforts to implement ecosystem management in various systems (e.g., the Everglades, Greater Yellowstone, the Interior Columbia Basin, Serengeti-Mara, and the Great Barrier Reef). Although there have been several recent reviews of ecosystem management, these have not been quantitative or deeply analytical. This project used a distributed graduate seminar model to examine information regarding past ecosystem-based management efforts. Participants considered factors such as explicit goals, key elements and sequencing of the process, institutional attributes, implementation, degree of integration of science and decision-making, and outcomes. Faculty and graduate students from seven universities collaborated to assess successes and failures. They evaluated why particular efforts succeeded and failed, and identified lessons learned for management of coastal-marine systems. Locally, participants in each seminar collaborated to synthesize data for a particular example of ecosystem-based management and to develop a database of EBM activities and attributes. Participants in each seminar collaborated to synthesize data for a particular example of ecosystem-based management and to develop a database of EBM activities and attributes. A final working group meeting, involving 43 graduate students and faculty members from all participating universities, was held at NCEAS in February of 2005 to synthesize information from all case studies. Participating Universities |
Biodiversity, Conservation and Ecosystem Services in Managed Landscapes
InvestigatorsDe Clerck, Fabrice ProductsLoss of functional diversity under land use intensification across multiple taxa Functional richness and ecosystem services: bird predation on arthropods in tropical agroecosystems Beyond yield: plant disease in the context of ecosystem services
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Participating Universities |
Fabrice De Clerk from Turrialba, Costa Rica, is based at the Centro Agronónomico Tropical de Investigación Enseñanza (CATIE). He teamed up with 7 other scientists from the East Coast, Midwest and West Coast of the United States to conduct a seminar for graduate students on the role of biodiversity in the landscapes that humans manage intensively. They reviewed the evidence for and against the idea that biodiversity can enhance the value humans receive from heavily managed landscapes, such as agriculture or cattle production. and then came to NCEAS to synthesize their findings.
InvestigatorsAukema, Juliann
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We are conducting a distributed graduate seminar to determine the extent to which ecological and economic impacts of non-native forest pests and pathogens can be quantified. The seminar involves groups of students at seven universities: Northern Arizona University, Colorado State University, University of Minnesota, University of Montana, State University of New York, North Carolina State University, and Oregon State University. Each university-based seminar has two leaders, an ecologist and an economist. Each university has selected one to several forest pests or pathogens of local to regional concern. They are gathering key data and evaluating ecological and economic impacts. We will bring together representatives from each university for a comparison and synthesis of results, modeling approaches, and data gaps. Participating Universities Colorado State University, Fort Collins Winter 2008 |
Ushering in a New Era of Functional Ecology: Dynamics in a Changing Environment
InvestigatorsCleland, Elsa E.
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Human activities are increasingly altering the environment in ways that impact plant communities and ecosystems. Climate change, invasive species, and nutrient enrichment of natural ecosystems are all examples of such environmental changes. The seminar will focus on emerging areas of research that are advancing functional ecology. A major goal of the DGS is to develop approaches to help predict how plant species and communities will shift in response to environmental changes. In particular the team will seek to connect plant traits, which reflect both ecological function and evolutionary history, to species responses to altered environmental conditions. To accomplish this goal they will bring together datasets from numerous locations throughout North America, including experimental manipulations of nitrogen, water, temperature and species composition, as well as observational datasets along existing environmental gradients. The capstone NCEAS meeting will combine analyses and techniques from each institution to generate predictions regarding national-level responses of plant communities to environmental change such as invasive species and nitrogen enrichment. Participating Universities Columbia University Fall 2007 |