scholarly journals Failures to disagree' is essential for environmental science to effectively influence policy development.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Norberg ◽  
Thorsten Blenckner ◽  
Sarah Cornell ◽  
Owen Petchey ◽  
Helmut Hillebrand
Keyword(s):  
Policy Development ◽  
Environmental Science ◽  
Dominant Role ◽  
Nobel Laureate ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Natural Systems ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Constructive Process ◽  
Common Goals

While environmental science, and ecology in particular, is working to provide better understanding to base sustainable decisions on, the way scientific understanding is developed can at times be detrimental to this cause. Locked-in debates are often unnecessarily polarized and can compromise any common goals of the opposing camps. The present paper is inspired by a resolved debate from an unrelated field of psychology where Nobel laureate David Kahneman and Garry Klein turned what seemed to be a locked-in debate into a constructive process for their fields. The present paper is also motivated by previous discourses regarding the role of thresholds in natural systems for management and governance, but its scope of analysis targets the scientific process within complex social-ecological systems in general. We identified five features of environmental science that appear to predispose for locked-in debates: 1) The strongly context dependent behaviour of ecological systems. 2) The dominant role of single hypothesis testing. 3) The high prominence given to theory demonstration compared investigation. 4) The effect of urgent demands to inform and steer policy. This fertile ground is further cultivated by human psychological aspects as well as the structure of funding and publication systems.

scholarly journals Invasion landscapes as social‐ecological systems: Role of social factors in invasive plant species control

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johanna Yletyinen ◽  
George L. W. Perry ◽  
Olivia R. Burge ◽  
Norman W. H. Mason ◽  
Philip Stahlmann‐Brown
Keyword(s):  
Plant Species ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Invasive Plant ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Invasive Plant Species ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological

Investigating the Role of Fish and Fishing in Sharing Networks to Build Resilience in Coral Reef Social-Ecological Systems

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 165-187
Author(s):  
Rachel Dacks ◽  
Tamara Ticktin ◽  
Stacy D. Jupiter ◽  
Alan M. Friedlander
Keyword(s):  
Coral Reef ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological

scholarly journals Importance and Utilization of Theory-Based Evaluations in the Context of Sustainable Development and Social-Ecological Systems

2022 ◽  
pp. 223-235
Author(s):  
Takaaki Miyaguchi
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Critical Realism ◽  
Evaluation Criteria ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
Natural Systems ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Development Evaluation

AbstractNumerous challenges confront the task of evaluating sustainable development—its complex nature, complementary evaluation criteria, and the difficulty of evaluation at the nexus of human and natural systems. Theory-based evaluation, drawn from critical realism, is well suited to this task. When constructing a program theory/theory of change for evaluating sustainable development, concepts of socioecological systems and coupled human and natural systems are useful. The chapter discusses four modes of inference and the application of different theory-based evaluation approaches. It introduces the CHANS (coupled human and natural systems) framework, a holistic, analytical framework that is useful in evaluating such complex, social-ecological systems and resonates with the challenging elements of sustainable development evaluation.

scholarly journals Utilitarian redundancy in local medical systems - theoretical and methodological contributions

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrícia Muniz de Medeiros ◽  
Washington Soares Ferreira Júnior ◽  
Fabiane da Silva Queiroz
Keyword(s):  
Therapeutic Indication ◽  
Keystone Species ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Medical Systems ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Number Of Species ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Methodological Improvement ◽  
Redundancy Index

Abstract The utilitarian redundancy model (URM) is one of the recent contributions to ethnobiology. We argue that URM can be applied to access use-pressure on plant species, the resilience of socioecological systems (e.g., local medical systems), cultural keystone species, and the role of exotic species in social-ecological systems. Based on previous URM studies, we also emphasize the need to differ practical (considering plants and uses that are currently employed) and theoretical (considering both currently employed and potentially employed plants and uses) redundancy. Based on the main applications of the URM, we propose a new index to access redundancy of a therapeutic indication: the Uredit, so that Uredit = NSp + CR, were Uredit is the Utilitarian Redundancy Index for the therapeutic indication; NSp is the total number of species mentioned for the indication, and CR is the species’ contribution to redundancy (in terms of knowledge sharing). The maximum value that the Uredit could reach is twice the number of species employed for the therapeutic indication. We believe that this theoretical and methodological improvement in the model can improve comparisons of redundancy in different social-ecological systems. We also highlight some limitations of the URM (and our Uredit), and we believe that conscious reasons behind people’s decisions should be incorporated into future studies on the subject.

Twenty years of systematic physical geography: issues for a 'New Environmental Age'

1992 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malcolm Newson
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Science ◽  
Systems Approach ◽  
Physical Modelling ◽  
Physical Geography ◽  
Natural Systems ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Or Applications

This review assesses the role of physical geography in the 'New Environmental Age'; it addresses especially the role of the natural systems approach after 20 years in which this has constituted the main fabric of physical geography in the UK. It also necessarily examines the role of geomorphology, the dominant partner in British physical geography, in positioning the subject as an environmental science. Systems thinking has clearly pervaded pedagogic aspects of physical geography but its full holistic methodology has not provided a coherent disciplinarity in research or applications. A holistic, conservationist perspective has often been disowned by physical geographers, leaving professional environmental applications largely in the hands of applied geomor phology. Now, however, there are major opportunities for a broader physical geography, especially one prepared to re-espouse the social science and humanities aspects of geography whose knowledge-base is so essential to the environmental manager's 'scenario-setting' (as opposed to pure physical modelling). Breadth-versus-depth arguments seem, however, likely to continue in physical geography, with those favouring breadth necessarily becoming environmentalists whilst those retaining depth become less preoccupied by equilibrium conditions of systems, stressing instead discontinuity and natural hiatuses.

scholarly journals Seasonality in ecology: Progress and prospects in theory

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Easton R White ◽  
Alan Hastings
Keyword(s):  
Global Climate Change ◽  
Floquet Theory ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Theoretical Studies ◽  
Childhood Diseases ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Ecological Dynamics ◽  
Natural Systems

Seasonality is an important feature of essentially all natural systems but the consequences of seasonality have been vastly underappreciated. Early work emphasized the role of seasonality in driving cyclic population dynamics, but the consequences of seasonality for ecological processes are far broader. In ecological systems, seasonality may include variations in temperature, precipitation, or other processes. Seasonality is typically not explicitly included in either empirical or theoretical studies. However, many aspects of ecological dynamics can only be understood when seasonality is included, ranging from the oscillations in the incidence of childhood diseases to the coexistence of species. Further, studies of phenology and global climate change only make sense in the context of seasonal dynamics. Our goal is to outline what is now known about seasonality and to set the stage for future efforts. We review the effects of seasonality on ecological systems in both laboratory and field settings. We then discuss approaches for incorporating seasonality in mathematical models, including Floquet theory. We argue, however, that these tools are still limited in scope and more approaches need to be developed. We demonstrate the range of impacts of seasonality on ecological systems and show the necessity of incorporating seasonality to understand ecological dynamics.

scholarly journals Inferring Models with Alternative Stable States from Independent Observations

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward W. Tekwa ◽  
Martin Krkošek ◽  
Malin L. Pinsky
Keyword(s):  
Initial Conditions ◽  
Alternative Stable States ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Process Models ◽  
Stable States ◽  
Multiple Attractors ◽  
Natural Systems ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Independent Observations

AbstractMultiple attractors and alternative stable states are defining features of scientific theories in ecology and evolution, implying that abrupt regime shifts can occur and that outcomes can be hard to reverse. Here we describe a statistical inferential framework that uses independent, noisy observations with low temporal resolution to support or refute multiple attractor process models. The key is using initial conditions to choose among a finite number of expected outcomes using a nonstandard finite mixture methodology. We apply the framework to contemporary issues in social-ecological systems, coral ecosystems, and chaotic systems, showing that incorporating history allows us to statistically infer process models with alternative stable states while minimizing false positives. Further, in the presence of disturbances and oscillations, alternative stable states can help rather than hamper inference. The ability to infer models with alternative stable states across natural systems can help accelerate scientific discoveries, change how we manage ecosystems and societies, and place modern theories on firmer empirical ground.

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