A new report warns that climate change is causing shifts in species composition faster than expected. Co-author and Cary scientist Peter Groffman comments, "cold temperatures are a critical regulator of species outbreaks and also of species distributions".
Business, especially the pesticide industry, will face challenges in developing sustainable practices that will reduce insecticide use. Yet their active participation is necessary to bring about change.
When we do things in an ecosystem that erode biodiversity — we chop forests into bits or replace habitat with agricultural fields — we tend to get rid of species that serve a protective role.
Many species, including humans, change the physical structure of the non-living world, profoundly changing the functioning of ecosystems. How might we use an understanding of ecosystem engineering in species and ecosystem management?
Acorn production catalyzes chain reactions in a complex web of species interactions in oak forests that can influence forest health, via Gypsy Moth outbreaks, human health, via Lyme disease risk, and biodiversity via songbird nesting success. What are these and other acorn connections?
Ecological engineering combines ecological understanding of the functioning of human-natural coupled systems with engineering to design management practices that are environmentally, socially and economically viable and sustainable.
