Ecosystem Services: Charting a Path to Sustainability

Ecosystem Services: Charting a Path to Sustainability
Interdisciplinary Research Team Summaries; Conference, Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center, Irvine, California, November 10-11, 2011; The National Academies Keck Futures Initiative 
NAS Press | 2012 | ISBN: 0309252423 9780309252423 | 137 pages | PDF | 6 MB

This book describes how ecosystem services scientists work to document the direct and indirect links between humanity's well-being and the many benefits provided by the natural systems we occupy. This report explains the specific topics the interdisciplinary research teams addressed at the conference

Natural environments provide enormously valuable, but largely unappreciated, services that aid humans and other earthlings. It is becoming clear that these life-support systems are faltering and failing worldwide due to human actions that disrupt nature's ability to do its beneficial work. 

The book documents the National Academies' Keck Futures Initiative Conference on Ecosystem Services. At this conference, participants were divided into 14 interdisciplinary research teams to explore diverse challenges at the interface of science, engineering, and medicine. The teams needed to address the challenge of communicating and working together from a diversity of expertise and perspectives as they attempted to solve a complicated, interdisciplinary problem in a relatively short time. 

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Frontiers in Understanding Climate Change and Polar Ecosystems

Frontiers in Understanding Climate Change and Polar Ecosystems
Summary of a Workshop . Committee for the Workshop on Frontiers in Understanding Climate Change and Polar Ecosystems; National Research Council 
NAS Press | 2011 | ISBN: 0309210879 9780309210874 | 87 pages | PDF | 2 MB

Workshop participants discusses the need for holistic, interdisciplinary systems approach to understanding polar ecosystem responses to climate change. As an outcome of the workshop, participants brainstormed methods and technologies that are crucial to advance the understanding of polar ecosystems and to promote the next generation of polar research. These include new and emerging technologies, sustained long-term observations, data synthesis and management, and data dissemination and outreach.

Experts gathered from a variety of disciplines with knowledge of both the Arctic and Antarctic regions. Participants were challenged to consider what is currently known about climate change and polar ecosystems and to identify the next big questions in the field. A set of interdisciplinary "frontier questions" emerged from the workshop discussions as important topics to be addressed in the coming decades. To begin to address these questions.

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