Ecosystem Management and Conservation Biology Faculty Theme Group

1. ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT AND CONSERVATION BIOLOGY FACULTY THEME GROUP UTILIZING A LANDSCAPE SCALE APPROACH IN SOLVING COMPLEX ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS

2. Why do we need an ecosystem and landscape-scale approach? “Dead Zone” ANOXIA IN THE GULF OF MEXICO IS BELIEVED TO BE CAUSED BY EXCESS NITROGEN AS A RESULT OF AGRICULTURAL RUNOFF FROM SIX DIFFERENT RIVER BASINS. FARMERS IN IOWA IMPACT LOUISINA SHRIMPERS. CLEARLY, AN ECOSYSTEM WIDE APPROACH IS APPROPRIATE FOR THIS COMPLEX ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEM.

3. Associated Faculty David Allan Aquatic Ecosystems Burt Barnes Forest and Landscape Ecology Kathleen Bergen GIS, Remote Sensing Dan Brown GIS, Remote Sensing Terry Brown Land Use Planning, Landscape Architecture Donna Erickson Land Use Planning, Landscape Architecture Bob Grese Ecological Restoration Michael Moore Environmental Economics, Aquatic Ecosystems Joan I. Nassauer Land Use Planning, Landscape Architecture Ivette Perfecto Terrestrial Ecosystems, Environmental Justice Dorceta Taylor Environmental Justice John Witter Terrestrial Ecosystems, Forest Entomology Julia Wondolleck Collaboration & Decision-Making Steve Yaffee Environmental Policy, Collaboration & Decision-Making Donald Zak Terrestrial Ecosystems Adam Block Graduate Student Research Associate

4. WHAT IS ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT? • Ecosystem management uses an ecosystem-based approach to resource management in order to address the myriad challenges that arise from fragmented landscapes and diverse management strategies. In our view, an ecosystem management approach has five key elements. • Ecosystem management: • Requires consideration of geographic areas defined by ecological boundaries • Requires managers to take into account the complexity of natural processes and social systems • Incorporates explicit definition of biological and social goals at both the national and local scales • Emphasizes collaborative decision making to deal with a landscape owned by many individuals and organizations with different values, interests and capabilities • Uses a process of adaptive management to account for uncertainty

6. WHAT IS CONSERVATION BIOLOGY? The study and practice of evaluating the status of extant organisms and developing techniques to manage these populations for future sustainability, including methods to bring endangered organisms back from the threat of extinction.

7. EMCB’s FIVE MAIN RESEARCH AREAS: • ECOSYSTEM STRUCTURE, FUNCTION, AND COMPOSITION • SPATIAL ANALYSIS AND ECOSYSTEM CLASSIFICATION • ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT AND RESTORATION • LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY, PLANNING, AND DESIGN • COLLABORATION AND DECISION MAKING

8. PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS: Project SLUCESpatial Land Use Change and Ecological Effects at the Rural-Urban Interface:Agent-Based Modeling and Evaluation of Alternative Policies and Interventions Dan Brown and Joan I. Nassauer, Co-PIs; with multiple collaborators Project SLUCE seeks to understand the individual decision-making that drives land use decisions and to formulate and test alternative policies and interventions that could reduce environmental costs and enhance environmental benefits. A multidisciplinary team will develop, evaluate, and apply agent-based models of land use and cover change processes and assess the interactions with ecosystem structure and function. Results will have direct implications for understanding social and landscape dynamics within an urban system and at the urban-rural fringe.

9. PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS: Landscape Ecology and the Conservation of the Kirtland's Warbler (Burton Barnes and Wayne Walker) This research demonstrates that warblers are inseparable parts of landscape ecosystems. The summer breeding ground of the rare and endangered Kirtland's Warbler is in northern Lower Michigan in ecosystems dominated by jack pine. Creating new warbler habitat is a primary recovery issue. Traditionally, the primary focus in recovery has been on the warbler itself. However, studies of landscape ecosystems revealed that changes in location of warbler populations over 13 years were closely associated with ecosystem features of topography, microclimate, and soil. Therefore, by understanding ecosystems, managers can locate new warbler habitat that can at least triple the duration of warbler occupancy.

10. PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS: LEARNING FROM EXPERIENCE: A NATIONAL RESOURCE FOR COLLABORATION AND PARTNERSHIPS DEVELOPED THROUGH A PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN THE ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT INITIATIVE AND THE U.S. FOREST SERVICE Learning from Experience is a website of natural resource collaboration and partnership case studies and lessons that are designed to inspire and inform people engaged in partnership development.

11. QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, SUGGESTIONS PLEASE CONTACT EITHER OF THE TWO EM-CB FACULTY THEME LEADERS STEVE YAFFEE YAFFEE@UMICH.EDU J. DAVID ALLAN DALLAN@UMICH.EDU