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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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Summary
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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Summary
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.
11 - Simulated Biogeochemical Impacts of Historical Land-Use Changes in the U.S. Great Plains from 1870 to 2003
- Edited by Daniel G. Brown, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Derek T. Robinson, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Nancy H. F. French, Michigan Technological University, Bradley C. Reed, United States Geological Survey, California
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- Book:
- Land Use and the Carbon Cycle
- Published online:
- 05 February 2013
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- 28 January 2013, pp 287-304
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Summary
Introduction
Extensive research has shown that agricultural land-use practices have substantial impacts on the environment, including (1) release of 50 percent of soil carbon (C) following cultivation of the soil, (2) enhanced soil nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions, (3) reduced soil fertility, (4) increases in nitrate (NO3−) leaching into groundwater and streams, (5) changes in plant production, and (6) changes in energy balance and water fluxes (Pielke et al. 2007). By linking observed detailed land-use data for the U.S. Great Plains over the past 150 years to the DayCent ecosystem model (Parton et al. 1998), this review demonstrates how historical changes in land use have affected soil organic carbon (SOC), soil fertility, plant production, and greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes. A detailed description of the procedure used to link the observed U.S. Great Plains land-use data with the DayCent model, along with a comparison of observed and DayCent simulated historical changes in crop yields for the major crops (corn, wheat, sorghum, hay, and cotton) is presented by Hartman et al. (2011).
The Great Plains region of the United States is unique because by the time it was settled by Euro-American farmers, many modern institutions for information gathering and data analysis were already in place. The settlement and subsequent ecological transformation of this region is therefore well documented in the U.S. censuses of population and agriculture, which contain detailed data at the county level regarding changes in land use, animal production, yields for crops grown under both dryland and irrigated conditions, economic value of animal and crop raising, and movements of human populations, first on the decadal scale and then every five years for agriculture beginning in 1925. These data have been digitized for the Great Plains and are now publicly available in machine-readable form (Gutmann 2005a, 2005b).