Our IGERT program in Adaptive Management links four colleges, fifteen academic departments, and three research centers at the University of Florida with international wetlands research centers in Africa, Mexico, South America, Australia, and south Florida. It focuses on the theme of wise use of water, wetlands, and watersheds. At the heart of the research theme, and a key educational feature of our program, is the innovative practice of Adaptive Management. Adaptive Management is a systematic process for continually improving management policies and practices by learning from the outcomes of operational programs. Adaptive Management is a most essential study area for future scientists, engineers and policy makers who will be working with coupled human and natural systems.
Monday and Tuesday October 26-27, 2009
MONDAY (10/26) AFTERNOON 3PM: Seminar and Discussion
Location: Mechanical Aerospace Engineering A, Room 303
Dr. Jeffrey C. Johnson, University Distinguished Research Professor, East Carolina University
Title: “Thinking About Human and Natural Systems as One”
Abstract:
This talk examines research exploring the linkages between human ecological knowledge, social networks, and various aspects of natural ecosystems. Initially, the talk looks at people’s cognitive or cultural models of how ecosystems work and function, including such things as animal behavior, using examples from the arctic and coastal North America. This is followed by the comparison of cultural models of ecological knowledge with other ways of knowing (e.g., science). Next, the issue of variation in ecological knowledge is discussed with respect to possible factors (e.g., social networks) underlying knowledge distribution and diffusion, with a particular emphasis on processes underlying knowledge change due to such things as a shifting global climate. Finally, the talk concludes with a more conceptual discussion of ways for better linking humans with their natural environment that will foster a better understanding of the dynamic coupling of human and natural systems (e.g., system cascades).
TUESDAY (10/27) AFTERNOON 3-4:30 PM: NSF grant-writing seminar
Location: International Center (HUB) conference room
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NSF grant-writing seminar with Dr. Russ Bernard, Emeritus Professor, Anthropology. The seminar will focus on interdisciplinary grants and SBE (Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences).
(Please note that there is another NSF grant writing workshop on Wednesday(10/28) at 4:30 offered by another program at UF and targeted towards STEM students. Particle Engineering Bldg. Room 202 at 4:30.)
Monday September 14, 2009
Time: 3pm Seminar and Discussion
Location: Emerson Alumni Building, Classroom
Dr. Paul Robbins ,Professor of Geography, Department of Geography and Regional Development, University of Arizona
Title: “Broken Laws and Patchy Landscapes: Conservation and Power at Kumbhalgarh Wildlife Sanctuary, Rajasthan, India”
Abstract: It has become increasingly clear that wildlife conservation boundaries in India are porous at best, and fictional at worst. What this means for flows of people and non-humans along and across such boundaries is less clear, however. Do humans and animals "compete" for resources, as traditional conservation theory would suggest? Or do they rather produce conditions for their mutual power-laden transformation, pushing against one another, providing one another resources, and predating on one another at the margins? This presentation argues for the latter view, providing evidence from an interdisciplinary study that included village surveys, institutional ethnography, land cover change analysis, botanical survey, wildlife census, and scat analysis from the Kumbhalgarh Wildlife Sanctuary in Rajasthan. The results point to the subsidies that monkeys, herders, blue bull, farmers and panthers produce for one another along with the sometimes violent extractions and encounters these subsidies predicate. The results suggest that social and environmental systems are non-discreet and that the borders between each are produced through inter-species adaptation and coercion. Conservation lines and rules mapped and imposed on the landscape by the Indian state face systems that resist control. Even so, emerging opportunities exist for systems of "Jugar" (adaptive "arrangements") - that work along, rather than against, the grain of these interactions.
Monday April 6, 2009
Time: 3pm – 5pm Seminar and Discussion
Location: 404 Grinter Hall
Dr. Andy Tatem, Assistant Professor, Emerging Pathogens Institute, University of Florida
Title: “The Malaria Atlas Project”
Abstract: TBA
Background Info: Tatem is interested in how the increasing mobility of humans and growth in global trade are reducing geographical barriers to the movement of pathogens and exotic species. The recent growth in availability of detailed spatial datasets on climate, population, transport networks and species distributions, combined with sophisticated spatial analysis tools, means that hypotheses on, for instance, exotic species dispersal and vector-borne disease spread can be tested for the first time. Tatem also plans to explore interdisciplinary links through the application molecular epidemiology and spatial demographic tools and datasets. At EPI, Tatem plans to continue his work with the Malaria Atlas Project by examining approaches to quantifying human movement patterns, as part of a $1.5 million Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation grant with Dr. David Smith aimed at developing spatial tools for local malaria elimination planning. Cell phone records, seasonal satellite imagery and microcensus records are all being used in an effort to explore novel approaches to quantifying human and malaria infection movements in low transmission regions.
Thursday March 19, 2009
Time: 2pm – 3pm Seminar and Discussion
Location: Bartram Hall Room 211
William J. Mitsch, The Ohio State Uiversity
2004 Stockholm Water Prize Laureate, Distinguished Professor of Environment and Natural Resources,
Director of the Wilma H. Schiermeier Olentangy River Wetland Research Park
Title: “Restoring the Mississippi River Basin: Wetlands, rivers, floodplains, and delta”Title: “Restoring the Mississippi River Basin: Wetlands, rivers, floodplains, and delta” video link
Abstract: The 20,000 km2 hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico has served to focus attention on the fact that the Mississippi-Ohio-Missouri (MOM) River Basin is saturated with nutrients, mainly from agricultural activity, and that there is need for ecological solutions in addition to agronomic ones. Hurricane Katrina in 2005 focused attention on the fact that coastal Louisiana has been losing wetlands for decades and with that loss, the protection that is afforded by those wetlands. A new ecologically engineered river landscape is needed in the Delta, the Midwest and the entire MOM basin to counteract these problems but also address local water pollution and flood problems. Research at the Olentangy River Wetland Research Park and elsewhere are discussed as places where these problems are being addressed and estimates are being made of the scale of the solution.
Tuesday March 17, 2009
Time: 3pm – 5pm Seminar and Discussion
Location: 101 New Engineering Building
Dr. Richard Murphy, Director of Science and Education, Ocean Futures Society
Formerly Vice President for Science and Education of the Cousteau Society
Title: “Complexity in coral reef ecosystems and challenges for coastal development - A case study in Fiji” video link
Abstract: Coral reefs, along with rainforests, are the most diverse ecosystem on earth. With this diversity comes complexity and integration at many levels. This presentation will explore the many relationships and adaptations that enable reefs to thrive in oligotrophic waters. With insights from reef systems we will see how they have been used to guide sustainable development of an eco resort in Fiji. Richard C. Murphy received a Ph.D. in Marine Ecology from the University of Southern California. He began working with Jean-Michel Cousteau and his father, Jacques Cousteau, in 1968. Since that time he has been involved in a wide variety of projects and expeditions in many remote areas around the globe. Dr. Murphy’s role in these expeditions has included serving as chief scientist, photographer, writer, educator, or project director. He has participated in Cousteau expeditions conducted in such places as Papua New Guinea, Fiji Islands, the Caribbean, Indonesia, the Mekong River in SE Asia, the Amazon, Sea of Cortez, Australia and New Zealand. Since 1973 Dr. Murphy has been involved with Jean-Michel Cousteau in the creation and implementation of field study programs for students of all ages. The objective of these programs has been to share the wonder and importance of the ocean realm with the public. Drawing on over 30 years of exploring and studying a wide variety of ecosystems and cultures, Dr. Murphy states, “I believe a better understanding of how nature works can not only promote an appreciation for the value of our natural heritage but also help guide the next generation in living more sustainably on the planet.”
Monday February 23, 2009
Time: 3pm – 5pm Seminar and Discussion
Location: 209 Emerson Hall
Sven Jørgensen, Professor of Environmental Chemistry, Copenhagen University
Editor-in-chief of Ecological Modeling
Recipient of the Stockholm Water Prize for the Outstanding Contributions to the Ecology of the World’s Lakes and Wetlands, and the Prigogine Award
Title: “A New Ecology” video link
Abstract: Current developments in ecosystem theory to understand ecological complexity, particularly those incorporating and applying thermodynamic principles, are making it possible to integrate various ecosystem approaches into a consistent theoretical framework. The time, therefore, seems mature to apply this theory to explain observations, published in the ecological literature, that typically lack linkages to ecological theory or other rule-based explanations. This paper presents the foundations of that theory of ecological complexity in twelve observational principles and summarizes the results from a review of a number of papers using the principles to explain ecological observations. The theory will continue to evolve and be modified as more test cases are made, however, here literature based explanations of some ecological observations published in the ecological literature are presented to illustrate how the ecosystem theory is applied in this context.
Wednesday January 28, 2009
Time: 3pm – 5 pm Seminar and Discussion
Location: Frazier-Rogers Hall 122
Steven Perz, Associate Professor, Depart. of Sociology, University of Florida
Title: “Interdisciplinary and International Collaboration for Resilience Science in the Southwestern Amazon: Managing Partnerships and Politics”
Abstract: There is growing recognition that environmental problems require contributions from a gamut of disciplines. But that implies incorporation of social science into interdisciplinary environmental science, which can be an awkward business. There is also increasing acceptance that environmental problems don't respect national boundaries, and thus constitute a focus for research and action in multiple countries. Of course, attempting coordinated and systematic data collection in several countries at the same time is logistically difficult. These demands for interdisciplinary and international research are daunting, and call for a highly collaborative model of science. This presentation offers a case study of one such attempt, an NSF-funded effort to understand the implications of paving the Inter-Oceanic Highway for the social-ecological resilience of communities and forest landscapes in the southwestern Amazon. The last unpaved section of the road is located in a tri-national frontier where Bolivia, Brazil and Peru meet. The University of Florida has formed partnerships with the Amazonian University of Pando (Bolivia), the Federal University of Acre (Brazil) and the National Amazonian University of Madre de Dios (Peru) to pursue remote sensing, botanical and socio-economic research in the tri-national frontier area. This has involved considerable organizational effort, constitution of additional partnerships, grant leveraging, creative mechanisms for outreach, and adaptive strategic planning. Even when partnerships are upheld in good faith, politics in a highly dynamic region such as the southwestern Amazon can still intervene and render research, outreach and action difficult or unviable.
Adaptive Management: Wise Use of Water, Wetlands & Watersheds
is an NSF-funded IGERT program at the University of Florida
