| AAAS Symposium on Society and Environment |
 |
 |
 |
| Written by Gwen Pearson |
| Sunday, 21 February 2010 11:44 |
Science and society need to come together if we are to effectively address the pressing environmental challenges we now face, a Michigan State University professor told a symposium at this year’s meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. 
Phil Robertson, chairperson of the National Science Foundation’s Long-term Ecological Research (LTER) Network and University Distinguished Professor of crop and soil sciences, organized and moderated a session titled “Integrated Science for Society and the Environment.” “Solutions to problems that range from climate change to over-exploitation of environmental resources to nitrogen pollution require more than knowledge about the biophysical environment or knowledge about how humans react to such problems,” said Robertson. “Knowledge is needed about the interface – how the biophysical and social domains interact.”The goal of the symposium was to discuss LTER’s Integrative Science for Society and Environment (ISSE) framework, which was developed exactly with these kinds of issues in mind. The LTER Network is composed of 26 NSF-funded sites which conduct basic research in ecology and environmental science. MSU hosts one of the sites at its W.K. Kellogg Biological Station. The ISSE framework developed by LTER scientists seeks to understand societal and environmental links in ecosystems as varied as arctic tundra, eastern forests, deserts, croplands and cities. The marine, urban, and rangeland studies featured in the symposium demonstrated the value of an integrated, long term, comparative research program in socio-ecological research, and point to new policy options for managing environmental change. Robertson noted that environmental research in the United States and elsewhere has traditionally been conducted in separate spheres with few formal interactions. In part, he said, this is due to the absence of a unifying framework that provides the potential to understand interactions and feedbacks. “In particular, new frameworks are needed to help us understand how humans perceive the critical services provided by ecosystems, how these perceptions change behavior and institutions, and how behavioral and institutional change in turn feeds back to affect ecosystems and their ability to deliver future services.” ------------- This news article originally appeared at MSU News; Contact: Tom Oswald, University Relations. |