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Jepsen JU, Arneberg P, Ims RA, Siwertsson A, Yoccoz NG, Fauchald P, Pedersen ÅØ, van der Meeren GI, von Quillfeldt CH. Panel-based assessment of ecosystem condition as a platform for adaptive and knowledge driven management. ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT 2024; 74:1020-1036. [PMID: 39271533 PMCID: PMC11438735 DOI: 10.1007/s00267-024-02042-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/22/2023] [Accepted: 09/01/2024] [Indexed: 09/15/2024]
Abstract
Ecosystems are subjected to increasing exposure to multiple anthropogenic drivers. This has led to the development of national and international accounting systems describing the condition of ecosystems, often based on few, highly aggregated indicators. Such accounting systems would benefit from a stronger theoretical and empirical underpinning of ecosystem dynamics. Operational tools for ecosystem management require understanding of natural ecosystem dynamics, consideration of uncertainty at all levels, means for quantifying driver-response relationships behind observed and anticipated future trajectories of change, and an efficient and transparent synthesis to inform knowledge-driven decision processes. There is hence a gap between highly aggregated indicator-based accounting tools and the need for explicit understanding and assessment of the links between multiple drivers and ecosystem condition as a foundation for informed and adaptive ecosystem management. We describe here an approach termed PAEC (Panel-based Assessment of Ecosystem Condition) for combining quantitative and qualitative elements of evidence and uncertainties into an integrated assessment of ecosystem condition at spatial scales relevant to management and monitoring. The PAEC protocol is founded on explicit predictions, termed phenomena, of how components of ecosystem structure and functions are changing as a result of acting drivers. The protocol tests these predictions with observations and combines these tests to assess the change in the condition of the ecosystem as a whole. PAEC includes explicit, quantitative or qualitative, assessments of uncertainty at different levels and integrates these in the final assessment. As proofs-of-concept we summarize the application of the PAEC protocol to a marine and a terrestrial ecosystem in Norway.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jane U Jepsen
- Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, Department of Arctic Ecology, Fram Centre, 9296, Tromsø, Norway.
| | - Per Arneberg
- Institute of Marine Research, Department of Ecosystem Processes, Fram Centre, 9296, Tromsø, Norway
| | - Rolf A Ims
- UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Department of Arctic and Marine Biology, 9037, Tromsø, Norway
| | - Anna Siwertsson
- Institute of Marine Research, Department of Ecosystem Processes, Fram Centre, 9296, Tromsø, Norway
- Akvaplan-niva, Fram Centre, 9296, Tromsø, Norway
| | - Nigel G Yoccoz
- UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Department of Arctic and Marine Biology, 9037, Tromsø, Norway
| | - Per Fauchald
- Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, Department of Arctic Ecology, Fram Centre, 9296, Tromsø, Norway
| | | | - Gro I van der Meeren
- Institute of Marine Research, Department of Ecosystem Processes, 5392, Storebø, Norway
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Orlove B, Sherpa P, Dawson N, Adelekan I, Alangui W, Carmona R, Coen D, Nelson MK, Reyes-García V, Rubis J, Sanago G, Wilson A. Placing diverse knowledge systems at the core of transformative climate research. AMBIO 2023; 52:1431-1447. [PMID: 37103778 PMCID: PMC10406791 DOI: 10.1007/s13280-023-01857-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/16/2022] [Revised: 01/19/2023] [Accepted: 03/20/2023] [Indexed: 05/12/2023]
Abstract
We argue that solutions-based research must avoid treating climate change as a merely technical problem, recognizing instead that it is symptomatic of the history of European and North American colonialism. It must therefore be addressed by decolonizing the research process and transforming relations between scientific expertise and the knowledge systems of Indigenous Peoples and of local communities. Partnership across diverse knowledge systems can be a path to transformative change only if those systems are respected in their entirety, as indivisible cultural wholes of knowledge, practices, values, and worldviews. This argument grounds our specific recommendations for governance at the local, national, and international scales. As concrete mechanisms to guide collaboration across knowledge systems, we propose a set of instruments based on the principles of consent, intellectual and cultural autonomy, and justice. We recommend these instruments as tools to ensure that collaborations across knowledge systems embody just partnerships in support of a decolonial transformation of relations between human communities and between humanity and the more-than-human world.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ben Orlove
- School of International and Public Affairs and Columbia Climate School, Columbia University, 420 West 118th Street, New York, NY 10027 USA
| | - Pasang Sherpa
- Department of Sociology, Trichandra Multiple Campus, Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur, Kathmandu, 44605 Nepal
| | - Neil Dawson
- Global Environmental Justice Research Group, School of International Development, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
| | - Ibidun Adelekan
- Department of Geography, Faculty of the Social Sciences, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria
| | - Wilfredo Alangui
- Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, College of Science, University of the Philippines Baguio, Governor Pack Road, Baguio, 2600 Philippines
| | - Rosario Carmona
- Department of Anthropology of the Americas, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany
- Center for Integrated Disaster Risk Management (CIGIDEN), Pedro Torres 460, apt. 405 B, Santiago, Chile
| | - Deborah Coen
- Department of History and Program in the History of Science & Medicine, Yale University, 320 York St, New Haven, CT 06511 USA
| | - Melissa K. Nelson
- School of Sustainability, College of Global Futures, Arizona State University, 777 E. University Dr, Tempe, AZ 85281 USA
| | - Victoria Reyes-García
- ICREA and Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Vallès, 08193 Barcelona, Spain
| | | | - Gideon Sanago
- Pastoralists Indigenous NGO’s Forum (PINGO’s Forum), P.O.Box 14437, Sakina kwa Iddi, Arusha, Tanzania
| | - Andrew Wilson
- School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, 420 West 118th Street, New York, NY 10027 USA
- Global Policy Lab, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA USA
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Plieninger T, Fagerholm N, Bieling C. How to run a sustainability science research group sustainably? SUSTAINABILITY SCIENCE 2020; 16:321-328. [PMID: 32863971 PMCID: PMC7446743 DOI: 10.1007/s11625-020-00857-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/29/2020] [Accepted: 08/13/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Rigorous sustainability science includes addressing pressing real-world problems, weaving multiple knowledge systems, and striving for transformative change. However, these key attributes of sustainability science often conflict with university structures and established academic work practices, for instance with regard to frequent long-distance travel. Such contradictions between key principles of sustainability and everyday practices are experienced by many researchers not only at university level, but also in their individual behaviors. To help resolve this widespread divergence, we present ten principles to foster the sustainability of a research group working in sustainability science, based on our personal experiences and experiments as research group leaders. These principles comprise: (1) monitor the environmental footprint, (2) foster learning and innovation, (3) reduce the environmental footprint, (4) nurture campus sustainability, (5) embrace sustainability in private life, (6) constructively deal with environmental anxiety, (7) design research projects for sustainability impact, (8) engage with stakeholders, (9) capitalize on sustainability teaching, and (10) recognize biases and limits. Applying sustainability principles in everyday research practices can provide important social tipping points that may trigger the spreading of new social norms and behaviors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tobias Plieninger
- Faculty of Organic Agricultural Sciences, University of Kassel, 34109 Kassel, Germany
- Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Platz der Göttinger Sieben 5, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
| | - Nora Fagerholm
- Department of Geography and Geology, University of Turku, 20014 Turku, Finland
| | - Claudia Bieling
- Division of Societal Transition and Agriculture (430b), University of Hohenheim, Schloss, 70593 Stuttgart, Germany
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