Why an Ecological Visions Project?
Ecological knowledge is critical to identifying solutions for the complex environmental
and health challenges that are facing our globe. Despite its relevance to society,
ecological science is not well understood by the public and is under-utilized
by decision makers.
How can ecologists and the Ecological Society of America help ecological science
become an integral part of the public discourse on society and the environment?
Some history...
ESA's Sustainable Biosphere Initiative (SBI Report) began in 1992 and
stimulated ecologists to define the major environmental problems and ecological
research frontiers. The report highlighted three major areas of ecological research:
ecological aspects of climate change, the ecology and conservation of biodiversity,
and ecological strategies for a sustainable biosphere.
In initiating the Ecological Visions Project, the leadership of the Ecological Society of America
chose to move beyond generating
lists of research priorities or agendas, to identifying those actions required
to realize such agendas.
It is time to take a fresh look at the future of ecological science - where
are we going and how will we get there?
Who was behind this initiative?
The ESA Governing Board created the Ecological Visions Committee in Fall 2002
and charged it with identifying actions that would accelerate the progress of Ecology in tackling the big scientific challenges and increase the visibility and influence of ecological science in the next decade.
Committee was composed of 20 scientists
and supporting staff. The Committee met four times between January and December 2003. In addition,
the Committee developed an ESA membership survey and organized a discussion
session at the ESA 2003 annual meeting in Savannah to gather input from members.
Breakfast briefings with colleagues from federal agencies, industry, non-governmental
organizations and other scientific societies provided valuable insight and garnered
potential collaborations.
What are the project's goals?
The continuing goals of the Ecological Visions project are to stimulate revolutionary changes
in our community to:
- Bolster the research capabilities of ecological science in order to elevate
the understanding of our planet as an interacting system; and,
- Transform interactions between ecological scientists, policy makers and
the public in order to maximize the benefits from natural systems while preserving
and protecting those benefits and the integrity of the ecosystems on which
they depend.
Why is the time right?
- 1. The planet is now the subject of attention - ecological and environmental
science is moving beyond a focus on smaller or isolated ecosystems because
of new understandings, new technologies and because problems and solutions
are global in nature.
- Emerging results from ongoing research indicate that much larger scale
experiments must be deployed to understand certain critical environmental
problems
- Human activities are leading to unprecedented global environmental changes
that require a change in the way humans are living on the planet - such change
demands novel scientific thinking on the part of ecologists.
- Humans as global dispersal agents (invasives, disease)
- Homogenization of fauna and habitats
- Spatially variable water problems
- Blocked or changed ecosystem boundaries threaten basic ecological services
- Global scale atmospheric and biogeochemical changes that influence all
living things
- The current explosion of technological and informatics advances empower
us to girdle the planet with sensors and treat it as a holistic system, to
visualize and synthesize new and existing data and then develop creative solutions
to sustain ecosystem services.
- generic data access and integration tools for ecologists are in development
or near completion
- data visualization and analysis tools for ecological synthesis are on
the immediate horizon
- massive R&D for new tools
- An increasing acceptance among ecologists that their toolbox must not only
hold scientific devices but communication skills, knowledge about what managers
& decision makers need, and new ways to work with other disciplines in
order to make ecological information most useful.
- advancing public understanding of complex ecological systems and issues
can help slow the rate of environmental degradation and bring the public
in as partners in generating scientifically tractable and socially acceptable
remedies
- ecologists trained to communicate their work can better inform decision-making
and policy development
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