My Background

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My Background
(Climate Change) Policy
Urban Ecology
Physics
Theoretical Ecology
Plant-Microbial Interactions
Diversity-functioning Species distributions Commun
ity structure
Energy and Resources
Fusion Safety and Environmental Aspects
Cooperation altruism in human societies
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ASU CAP-LTER

• One of 30 Long-Term Ecological Research stations
  in the United States. (Funding guaranteed for 8
  years could be extended indefinitely.)
• Most in pristine or human-damaged
  environments
• A couple in managed systems (forestry,
  agriculture)
• 2 recent additions in urban systems
  Central-Arizona Phoenix (CAP) and the Baltimore
  Ecosystems Study (BES).

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Two Approaches in Urban Ecology

• Examine Traditional Ecological Processes in an
  Urban Setting
• More prevalent

• Consider humans as a fully integrated species in
  urban ecosystems
• We (ecologists) dont know how to do this yet

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Three Approaches in Ecology
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Humans and Nature

• Are humans natural?
• If no, ecologists must accept that humans are
  qualitatively different from other species
  (contrary to their science)
• If yes, ecologists must accept that there is no
  moral imperative to reduce impacts of human
  activities (contrary to their environmental
  ideology)
• Is nature cultural?
• Yesbut most (U.S.) ecologists like to conduct
  their research as if it is not

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Why does ecology ignore information (human
dynamics)?

• Tradition (Fear) Since I have a hammer
• Arrogance/Ignorance Humans are stupid, greedy,
  short-sighted, and fearful
• Practicality Funding sources, publication
  outlets
• Envy Of Physics, among other things
• Relevance Human dynamics are too slow to affect
  things on ecological time scales

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Another problem

• Need for fundamental research on the dynamics of
  complex socio-natural systems

• Need for scientists to become politically
  (socially) active, and speak out about
  environmental problems

These two things are frequently not separated in
discussions of future directions
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Why do we need an integrated ecology?

• Real-world systems are socio-natural, not
  social or natural
• Testing of (reductionist) theory under a wider
  range of conditions
• Increased capacity to understand complex,
  self-organized systems
• Wicked problems do exist, and require wicked
  solutions
• In making decisions, someone must integrate
  information

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Environmental Research in the U.S.

• National Science Board Report (1999) called for a
  doubling of NSF Environmental Research over the
  next five years.
• An NSF-sponsored workshop held in June 2000
  outlined priorities for interdisciplinary
  environmental research.

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Five Core Research Areas

• Evolution and Resilience of Coupled Social and
  Ecological Systems
• Ecosystem Services
• Coping with Uncertainty, Complexity, and Change
• Environmental Dimensions of Human Welfare,
  Health, and Security
• Communicating Scientific Information

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NSFs Biocomplexity Program

• The Dynamics of Coupled Human and Natural Systems
  (11.5 M FY 2001).

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Communicating Scientific Information

• The effects of disparate access to science and
  scientists
• The impacts of information technology and
  non-governmental organizations on flows of
  scientific information
• Stakeholder participation in natural-resource
  management and policy formulation

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The Parks Project

• Central Objective To understand the complex ways
  in which ecological processes both influence and
  are influenced by human values and activities in
  human-dominated systems.
• Approach Examine both ecological and social
  phenomena in 15 neighborhood parks 5 in each of
  3 different socioeconomic categories.

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Why Neighborhood Parks?

• Provide the majority of interactions for the
  majority of people on a daily basis.
• Can control for relatively homogeneous
  cultural/social/economic characteristics
• PRIZM dataset
• Social classification had to match at the tract
  and block-group level

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Coupled Human and Ecological Systems
Cultural, Social, Economic, Demographic Context
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Coupled Human and Ecological Systems
Citizens and Managers Ecosystem Services are
Highly valued perceived
Not valued not perceived
Enhancement of process service
Valued monitored
Scientists Ecological processes are
Not valued, not monitored
Source of future surprises
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Avian Species Richness in Parks

• Different value placed on ecological
  characteristics by different groups?
• Prevalence of bird feeders (intentional)
• Landscaping decisions (incidental)
• Other incidental aspects affecting access to
  environmental services?
• Poorer soils
• Smaller residential lots

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What Will We Measure?

• Social
• Value placed on park
• Use
• Management
• Economics/Land values
• Historical
• Historical local land use
• Park development trends

• Ecological
• Plant, bird, and arthropod diversity
• Microclimate
• Soil and air quality
• Biogeochemical processes

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McDonnell Proposal Kinzig, Redman, van der Leeuw

• What are the time lags between environmental
  change, human perception of change, and human
  response to environmental change? How do these
  time lags evolve as systems develop?
• How do the spatial scales over which humans
  monitor environmental change themselves change as
  systems organize?

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McDonnell Proposal Kinzig, Redman, van der Leeuw

• Are there early warning signals of sudden state
  shifts? Over what spatial scales do these signals
  manifest themselves, how do these scales compare
  to those scales over which state shifts
  ultimately emerge, and to the spatial scales over
  which humans monitor?

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The Spatiotemporal Aspects of Resilience in
Complex Urban Systems

• Answer the three core questions using
• Literature reviews
• Intensive case studies, including archeological,
  historical, and present-day analyses
• Development of simple, spatially explicit
  resilience models

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Case Studies

• United States Phoenix Basin
• Water management for the Hohokam (up to 1400
  A.D.) and present-day Phoenix (post 1940)
• Europe The Rhone
• Holocene history of the Valdaine
• Two crises in the Comtat (19th and 20th century)

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Some Questions/Conclusions

• Is it necessary to acknowledge, address, and/or
  bridge the nature-culture divide in order to make
  progress in
• Generating knowledge
• Solving environmental problems
• How does one do that?