DRAFT REPORT FOR STRATEGIC PLANNING QUESTION #4 The Strategic Planning “Question 4 Subcommittee” was charged with considering and expanding upon the fourth of four transdisciplinary research questions (or “big ideas”) that have been proposed as a possible framework for advancing ESF’s academic agenda. Question 4 specifically asks: HOW CAN WE ADAPT TO CHANGING ENVIRONMENTS? Both natural and built environments are changing rapidly. Climate change, the biodiversity crisis, environmental degradation, introduction of exotic pests and pathogens, human population growth, increased urbanization, emerging economies, and natural disasters are a few examples of the many factors driving environmental change, increasing resource scarcity, and creating uncertainties for the future. While taking all reasonable steps to mitigate negative environmental changes, we must be prepared to adapt to changes beyond our control that we will inevitably face. New and transdisciplinary approaches leading us toward a deeper exploration of the biosphere, improved policies and communities, and innovations in technology, engineering, and design can all help to create a larger and more diverse set of options for adapting to environmental changes. RELATED TRANSDISCIPLINARY SUB-­‐QUESTIONS The Question 4 Subcommittee members were Dave Kieber, Huiting Mao, Bill Powell, John Wagner, Lindi Quackenbush, Gary Scott, Denali Trimble, Rigoberto Melgar, Doug Johnston, and Bob French. We used five meetings and numerous email messages to discuss and develop a shared understanding of Question 4. We then developed related sub-­‐questions that we believe could provide a basis for exciting and important transdisciplinary research opportunities at ESF. We are now advancing six sub-­‐questions for further examination and consideration by the broader ESF community. For each sub-­‐question, we have also identified: (1) Existing ESF academic programs and/or faculty expertise that could contribute immediately to related transdisciplinary research programs, (2) programs or research areas that could potentially contribute in the future if additional investments are made, (3) a brief listing of potential competing institutions known to have strengths in related areas of research, and (4) potential collaborating institutions and organizations. (Sub-­‐Question #1 – Urban Environments) HOW CAN WE ENHANCE AND MANAGE THE QUALITY OF URBAN ENVIRONMENTS? Along with climate change, the world’s human population shift to urban environments is creating significant changes in the global landscape, a rise in urban ecology, and further habitat fragmentation. Urban areas, in many ways, create the most energy, land, water, and emission-­‐efficient systems for accommodating humans. Yet a bias persists that good moral character originates in rural life in American culture, along with a bias that urban areas are antithetical to “Nature.” Urban environments are resources that need to be understood, enhanced, and managed. Just as the College of Forestry set out to restore the natural resource capacity of NY State at the turn of the 20th century, so might the College set out to enhance and manage the quality of urban environments today. A different way of understanding the nature/Homo urbanis relationship is needed, along with more research and innovation to improve environmental quality in urban areas. Related overarching research questions that should be addressed at ESF: ●
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What are the characteristics of ecological functions occurring in urban areas? Can we explore these characteristics without reference to a pre-­‐human baseline? Are there parallel systems of ecosystem functions in urban and non-­‐urban areas? Can we construct urban ecologies that share the ecosystem service values of non-­‐urban ecologies (functionally, if not structurally)? How do we redesign our infrastructure to be more resilient to changing environmental conditions and increasingly limiting resources? How can we increase the performance of infrastructure to provide a richer set of benefits? How might greater understanding of ecosystem response to disturbance inform our policies and technologies? How can we characterize and quantify not only where change is occurring, but also the rate of change and the impact such change has on ecosystem function? Existing Strengths: ●
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Urban Environmental Science courses/minor Department of Landscape Architecture Center for Community Design Research USFS Urban Forest Research Unit Department of Environmental Resources Engineering Geography (urban campus) Potential Strengths (with investment): ●
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Center for Urban Ecology (existing) Urban food systems Potential Competitors: ●
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Hixon Center for Urban Ecology (Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies) Urban Ecology Research Consortium for Portland/Vancouver (focus on Pacific NW) Center for Urban and Regional Ecology (Georgia Tech) Potential Collaborators: ●
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National Park Service Center for Urban Ecology USGS Urban Dynamics Research Unit Massachusetts Audubon NYC Urban Park Ranger Nature Centers Competitors listed above? (Sub-­‐Question #2 – Natural Products and Sustainable Materials) HOW DO WE ENHANCE USE OF RENEWABLE NATURAL PRODUCTS AND SUSTAINABLE MATERIALS AND PROCESSES? Natural products ranging from large networked materials to the simple molecules that form the chemical ecological basis of all terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems are fundamental components of the world we live in and the technological advances we have made in urban and non-­‐urban landscapes. These advances have nearly always relied on fossil-­‐fuel based solutions and materials (the synthesis of pest controls is one example). Moving forward, our reliance on fossil-­‐fuel based materials and synthesized “natural” products will need to transition to other technologies. These newer technologies may involve alternative energy sources such as biofuels or solar power, and may be coupled with discoveries in biomimicry, renewable resources, and genetic engineering to yield sustainable pathways to the production of a myriad of new products, materials and energy sources. ●
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How do we transition successfully to technologies that make greater use of alternative energy sources and renewable resources to produce sustainable products, materials and energy? How do we use methods in biomimicry or genetic engineering to develop new solutions to create systems that require decreased energy inputs to develop and maintain? What are the challenges and approaches to developing high recovery processes? How do we manage renewable resources to ensure future sustainability? Existing Strengths: ●
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Expertise in production of biofuels and related chemical products and processes Expertise in natural products chemistry and polymer chemistry Expertise in wood science and wood products engineering Expertise in biotechnology and genetic engineering Expertise in forest, natural resources, and sustainable energy management Institute for Sustainable Materials and Manufacturing Potential Strengths (with investment): ●
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Biomimicry-­‐ecological engineering, process design Chemical ecology Potential Competitors: ●
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Center for Sustainable Materials Chemistry (Oregon State U, Rutgers, etc.-­‐NSF Center) Sustainable Energy and Materials (Columbia University) Biomimicry Center (Arizona State) Biomimicry Research and Innovation Center (University of Akron) Potential Collaborators: ●
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Agenda 2020 Renewable Bioproducts Institute (Georgia Tech) USDA Forest Service Competitors listed above? (Sub-­‐Question #3 – Ecosystem Health and Services) HOW CAN WE MAINTAIN OR IMPROVE ECOSYSTEM HEALTH AND SERVICES IN ENVIRONMENTS THAT ARE CHANGING AND UNDER STRESS? Terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems are under significant stress from globalization, human population growth, climate change, and other factors. Stressors include invasive species, pests and pathogens; adapting to a warmer and drier climate; pollution (including challenges from new technologies such as nanotechnology); fragmentation of ecosystems; and others. These stressors affect the health of ecosystems as well as the services they provide. To address these varied stressors and understand how they affect ecosystems, we need to (a) monitor targeted ecosystems over a long-­‐term, (b) develop preventive measures, (c) employ adaptive management strategies as needed, and (d) carry out restoration when necessary. These actions require expertise in a variety of fields including social sciences, engineering, chemistry, biology, ecology, and more. Can ESF use its unique strengths to meet some of these challenges better than other universities? ●
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What are the effects of specific stressors on ecosystem services? What might we learn about adaptation by studying environmental change under different disturbance spatial and temporal scales (volcanoes vs. climate change vs. plate tectonics)? Which ecosystem health and service functions are important? How do we connect ecosystem stress to changes in ecosystem function? How do we determine ways that species (human or other) can thrive in a changed environment? How can we develop biological or biologically-­‐inspired approaches to enhance ecosystem health? ●
How can we synchronize with ecosystem cycles to mitigate human impacts or increase ecosystem services? Existing Strengths: ●
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Conservation Biology Plant Biotechnology GIS and ecological monitoring Environmental Studies/Science Expertise in forest and natural resources management Center for Native Peoples and the Environment Freshwater aquatic ecosystems Potential Strengths (with investment): ●
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Demonstration sites Chemical ecology Potential Competitors: ●
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LTER Programs (Harvard Forest, Plum Island, Hubbard Brook, Baltimore Ecosystem Study) Any Environmental Science Program (Yale, Harvard, UMass Department of Environmental Conservation…) Potential Collaborators ●
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Any DEC/DEP Competitors listed above? (Sub-­‐Question #4 – Sustainable Energy Sources) HOW DO WE TRANSITION TO ECONOMICALLY SUSTAINABLE AND TECHNICALLY EFFICIENT ENERGY SOURCES? Global energy needs and resources are changing. The energy needs of developing countries are increasing significantly (e.g., new coal-­‐fired energy plants in China) while current sources of energy are getting more difficult to obtain (e.g. oil). In addition, many renewable energy sources (e.g. solar, wind) are either cyclical or erratic in nature, requiring energy storage to even-­‐out the variations. Fossil fuels, with all their concerns, are easily and densely stored and transported. ●
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How do we make the best use of non-­‐renewable energy resources while we transition to sustainable energy sources? How should we meet our transportation-­‐related energy needs? How do we match the daily, weekly, seasonal, and annual cycles of energy demand with the varying cycles of renewable energy production? ●
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How do we address the storage needs for energy at all scales (from electric car batteries and smaller to municipal power grids and larger)? How do we make our industrial processes more energy-­‐efficient and match the energy demand cycles with the production cycles? How do we make use of the various energy sources (renewable, fossil, nuclear) to meet our personal, residential, municipal, transportation, and industrial needs? Existing Strengths: ●
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Sustainable Energy Management program Expertise in biofuels production Potential Strengths (with investment): ●
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Sustainable Energy Management (expand) Expertise in biofuels (expand) Potential Competitors: Institute for Massachusetts Biofuels Research Center for Advanced Biofuels (DOE Energy Research Frontier Center) DOE Bioenergy Science Center (Oak Ridge) DOE Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (UWisc./MSU) DPE Joint Bioenergy Institute (Lawrence Berkeley) University of Washington UT Austin Potential Collaborators: ●
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Agenda 2020 Competitors listed above? (Sub-­‐Question #5 – Building an Integrative Framework) HOW CAN WE DEVELOP AN INTEGRATIVE AND TRANSDISCIPLINARY FRAMEWORK FOR SUCCESSFUL ENVIRONMENTAL ADAPTATION? The study of environmental adaptation calls for an integrative and transdisciplinary framework because the earth is a single complex system with intricately connected spheres. We need to identify the most important questions that connect ecology, climate, hydrology, biogeochemistry and human activities using long-­‐term measurement data. ESF offers unique ecological research sites that provide decades of measurement data related to this topic. These data could help us answer a variety of research questions and provide a basis for developing an integrated framework for ongoing study of environmental adaptation. ●
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How have ecosystems, the hydrological cycle, and biogeochemistry responded to climate change? How are changes in these systems associated with anthropogenic activities? How can we develop a forecasting system that integrates the sciences of ecology, climate, hydrology, biogeochemistry, and socioeconomics to predict responses to future climate change? What technologies are needed to adapt to the predicted changes in those systems? How do we manage the interaction and interface between those systems to practice adaptation successfully? Existing Strengths: ●
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Available long-­‐term measurement data from ESF research sites such as Heiberg Memorial Forest, James F. Dubuar Memorial Forest, Pack Forest, Huntington Wildlife Forest as well as other ESF properties, “disturbed” sites such as Onondaga Lake, and others Graduate program in Geospatial Information Science and Engineering (related expertise in statistics and modeling) Expertise in hydrological sciences Expertise in forest and natural resources management Expertise in atmospheric chemistry Expertise in forestry biology, ecology, and biogeochemistry Potential Strengths (with investment): ●
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Additional “disturbed” environmental research sites Climate science Potential Competitors: ●
Harvard forest research group Potential Collaborators: ●
TBD (Sub-­‐Question #6 – Building an Integrative Water Resources Capability) HOW DO WE MANAGE AND PROTECT FRESHWATER RESOURCES? Freshwater is perhaps our most valuable renewable resource that at one time seemed limitless in its abundance, but now is becoming more limited due to multiple pressures from a rapidly increasing population, urban development, climate change, habitat degradation and pollution. Together these changes have put severe strains on the ecology of freshwater ecosystems and associated watershed habitats, and on the quality, usage, and distribution of water on a global scale. At ESF, we are uniquely positioned to create a world-­‐class center for the study of freshwater sciences, wherein we would address fundamental questions regarding freshwater systems and their role in urban and non-­‐urban ecology, and in human development and quality of life ●
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How do we manage water resources within the framework of an increasing human population and a changing environment where water resources are shifting globally? How do we protect and preserve the quality of water and the ecological richness that it sustains? Existing Strengths: Riparian and stream ecology (in FNRM, EFB, and ERE) Watershed biogeochemestry (in FNRM, FCH(?)) Watershed hydrology (in FNRM and ERE) Watershed management (in FNRM) Chemical and biological limnology (in FCH and EFB) Proximity to New York State freshwater resources Onondaga Lake Research and Education Facility, Cranberry Lake Station, 1000 Islands Station, as well as other ESF properties ● Upstate Freshwater Institute ● Environmental engineering ● Great Lakes Research Consortium Potential Strengths (with investment): ●
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Hydrological modeling Water quality toxicology Potential Competitors: ●
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Great Lakes WATER Institute in Milwaukee WI Potential Collaborators ●
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