5 results
9 - Humans in Ecosystems
- Edited by Robert G. Woodmansee, Colorado State University, John C. Moore, Colorado State University, Dennis S. Ojima, Colorado State University, Laurie Richards, Colorado State University
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- Book:
- Natural Resource Management Reimagined
- Published online:
- 25 February 2021
- Print publication:
- 11 March 2021, pp 279-299
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Summary
During the first decade and a half of the development of the systems ecology paradigm (SEP) most research efforts were placed on learning about how the biophysical realms of ecosystems function and how simulation models could aid gaining that understanding. Missing from that research were the obvious connections of humans as components of ecosystems, not simply as controllers. In 1981 the US National Science Foundation (NSF) Programs Ecosystems Studies and Anthropology funded the South Turkana Ecosystem Project. It was the first time that an ecosystem study had included the human component as a full actor in an ecosystem. The NSF has since created the Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems program, the sole purpose of which is to fund these types of projects. The human side of SEP has grown in other directions as well including, agro-ecosystem ecology, understanding ecosystem services and effects of land fragmentation, Citizen Science, and providing guidance to the management of natural and human-dominated systems and the improvement of human welfare. Ongoing research has led to the realization that the human residents of the ecosystems under study can engage with research scientists to co-create knowledge about the operation of their own systems.
4 - Five Decades of Modeling Supporting the Systems Ecology Paradigm
- Edited by Robert G. Woodmansee, Colorado State University, John C. Moore, Colorado State University, Dennis S. Ojima, Colorado State University, Laurie Richards, Colorado State University
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- Book:
- Natural Resource Management Reimagined
- Published online:
- 25 February 2021
- Print publication:
- 11 March 2021, pp 90-130
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Summary
Ecosystem modeling, a pillar of the systems ecology paradigm (SEP), addresses questions such as, how much carbon and nitrogen are cycled within ecological sites, landscapes, or indeed the earth system? Or how are human activities modifying these flows? Modeling, when coupled with field and laboratory studies, represents the essence of the SEP in that they embody accumulated knowledge and generate hypotheses to test understanding of ecosystem processes and behavior. Initially, ecosystem models were primarily used to improve our understanding about how biophysical aspects of ecosystems operate. However, current ecosystem models are widely used to make accurate predictions about how large-scale phenomena such as climate change and management practices impact ecosystem dynamics and assess potential effects of these changes on economic activity and policy making. In sum, ecosystem models embedded in the SEP remain our best mechanism to integrate diverse types of knowledge regarding how the earth system functions and to make quantitative predictions that can be confronted with observations of reality. Modeling efforts discussed are the Century ecosystem model, DayCent ecosystem model, Grassland Ecosystem Model ELM, food web models, Savanna model, agent-based and coupled systems modeling, and Bayesian modeling.
7 - Evolution of the Systems Ecology Paradigm in Managing Ecosystems
- Edited by Robert G. Woodmansee, Colorado State University, John C. Moore, Colorado State University, Dennis S. Ojima, Colorado State University, Laurie Richards, Colorado State University
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- Book:
- Natural Resource Management Reimagined
- Published online:
- 25 February 2021
- Print publication:
- 11 March 2021, pp 202-244
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The systems ecology paradigm (SEP) emerged in the late 1960s at a time when societies throughout the world were beginning to recognize that our environment and natural resources were being threatened by their activities. Management practices in rangelands, forests, agricultural lands, wetlands, and waterways were inadequate to meet the challenges of deteriorating environments, many of which were caused by the practices themselves. Scientists recognized an immediate need was developing a knowledge base about how ecosystems function. That effort took nearly two decades (1980s) and concluded with the acceptance that humans were components of ecosystems, not just controllers and manipulators of lands and waters. While ecosystem science was being developed, management options based on ecosystem science were shifting dramatically toward practices supporting sustainability, resilience, ecosystem services, biodiversity, and local to global interconnections of ecosystems. Emerging from the new knowledge about how ecosystems function and the application of the systems ecology approach was the collaboration of scientists, managers, decision-makers, and stakeholders locally and globally. Today’s concepts of ecosystem management and related ideas, such as sustainable agriculture, ecosystem health and restoration, consequences of and adaptation to climate change, and many other important local to global challenges are a direct result of the SEP.
8 - Land/Atmosphere/Water Interactions
- Edited by Robert G. Woodmansee, Colorado State University, John C. Moore, Colorado State University, Dennis S. Ojima, Colorado State University, Laurie Richards, Colorado State University
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- Book:
- Natural Resource Management Reimagined
- Published online:
- 25 February 2021
- Print publication:
- 11 March 2021, pp 245-278
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Emerging from the warehouse of knowledge about terrestrial ecosystem functioning and the application of the systems ecology paradigm, exemplified by the power of simulation modeling, tremendous strides have been made linking the interactions of the land, atmosphere, and water locally to globally. Through integration of ecosystem, atmospheric, soil, and more recently social science interactions, plausible scenarios and even reasonable predictions are now possible about the outcomes of human activities. The applications of that knowledge to the effects of changing climates, human-caused nitrogen enrichment of ecosystems, and altered UV-B radiation represent challenges addressed in this chapter. The primary linkages addressed are through the C, N, S, and H2O cycles, and UV-B radiation. Carbon dioxide exchanges between land and the atmosphere, N additions and losses to and from lands and waters, early studies of SO2 in grassland ecosystem, and the effects of UV-B radiation on ecosystems have been mainstays of research described in this chapter. This research knowledge has been used in international and national climate assessments, for example the IPCC, US National Climate Assessment, and Paris Climate Accord. Likewise, the knowledge has been used to develop concepts and technologies related to sustainable agriculture, C sequestration, and food security.
12 - Modelling of large herbivore–vegetation interactions in a landscape context
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- By Peter J. Weisberg, University of Nevada, Michael B. Coughenour, Colorado State University, Harald Bugmann, Mountain Forest Ecology
- Edited by Kjell Danell, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Roger Bergström, The Forestry Research Institute of Sweden, Patrick Duncan, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris, John Pastor, University of Minnesota, Duluth
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- Book:
- Large Herbivore Ecology, Ecosystem Dynamics and Conservation
- Published online:
- 16 November 2009
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- 25 May 2006, pp 348-382
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INTRODUCTION
There is growing appreciation of the important role large herbivores can play in vegetation, ecosystem and landscape dynamics (Hobbs 1996, Danell et al. 2003, Rooney & Waller 2003, and earlier chapters of this volume). In turn, there has been an improved understanding of the importance of landscape pattern for large herbivore dynamics (Turner et al. 1994, Illius & O'Connor 2000, Walters 2001), and research into patterns of animal movement through landscapes (Gross et al. 1995, Schaefer et al. 2000, Johnson et al. 2002). At landscape scales, the large herbivore‐vegetation interaction can be quite complex, involving many interacting factors such as plant competition, landscape pattern, climate, disturbance regimes and biogeochemical cycles. The earlier chapters of this volume demonstrate the complexity of such relationships, and the difficulty in establishing simple generalizations.
Simulation modelling has proved a useful tool for disentangling some of this complexity, and for integrating information across multiple scales. There are numerous modelling approaches, at varying levels of complexity, developed to satisfy different research objectives, for simulating the impacts of large herbivores upon vegetation or vice versa. However, few represent key interactions between the two ecosystem components in a balanced manner.
In this chapter, we review the different modelling approaches for representing large herbivore‐landscape interactions in an integrated way. By integrated models, we refer to modelling approaches that consider vegetation and animal dynamics with similar levels of complexity, bridging the two key components through the ecological process of herbivory.