Background paper prepared by
Dr. Thomas Bancroft,
The Wilderness Society
Assisted by
Dr. Ronald Pulliam,
University of Georgia
and
Dr. David Blockstein,
National Council for Science and the Environment
As we embark upon a new century, the new Administration
will have an important opportunity to refine and enhance the concept of ecosystem
conservation. Ecosystem management necessitates a fundamental change in management
strategy, from single-species to whole ecosystem management, and is aimed at optimizing
the long-term value of ecosystems to humans while protecting existing and potential
species diversity.
During the last decade, conservation biology,
concepts of biodiversity, ecosystem health, and landscape ecology have become a common
part of the public vernacular. In turn, as society has become more concerned about
conserving ecosystems and their associated species federal (and state) agencies have begun
to shift scientific inquiries to the landscape level.
For example, within the last ten years:
The Department of the Interior and the U. S.
Forest Service have each launched a series of initiatives that modified the
fundamental way they manage federal lands. They have begun to write policy that emphasizes
ecosystem health, biodiversity protection, and watershed restoration; indeed, the Forest
Service has identified watershed protection and restoration as a core part of their
mission. On November 13, 2000 the Forest Service released the Roadless Area Conservation
Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS). The FEIS identifies the Forest Service
preferred alternative for protecting nearly 60 million acres of inventoried roadless areas
in national forests and grasslands, with a final rule to be published on December 18. The Bureau
of Land Management (BLM) states their mission as one "to sustain the health,
diversity, and productivity of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and
future generations." To that end, BLM has established the "Office of Landscape
Conservation" to provide a more focused management for certain categories of special
lands.
In 1997 Congress passed an organic act for the National
Refuge System, administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that makes
maintaining ecosystems a central theme of the refuge system.
The National Park Service in 1999 adopted the
Natural Resource Challenge, that seeks to put natural resources and science at the
forefront its activities.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA)
has been developing programs centered on protecting biodiversity and maintaining healthy
coastline habitat. Further, over the last decade, a number of interagency studies on a
regional scale have focused on landscape ecology and the potential threats to ecosystem
biodiversity.
The challenge, therefore, for the new Administration will
be to facilitate the continued development of solid scientific knowledge of landscape
level processes and biodiversity, and to translate this knowledge into policies that will
lead to ecosystem conservation. This discussion will center on the concepts of
biodiversity and ecosystem integrity in order to provide advice to the new Administration
on how to ‘institutionalize’ these concepts, develop better scientific
understanding of these issues and integrate the science into effective policies.
BIODIVERSITY AND ECOSYSTEMS
Biodiversity is defined as the variety of life and its
processes (see OTA 1987 and Noss and Cooperrider 1994). It includes the variety of
living organisms, the genetic differences among them, the communities and ecosystems in
which they occur, and the ecological and evolutionary processes that keep them
functioning, "yet ever changing and adapting."
To protect and enhance sustainable biodiversity, scientific
research must first define what protection and restoration means. In essence, how would
society know that it is protecting biodiversity and restoring ecosystems? The concept of
"ecological integrity" has been developed as one way of evaluating how well
landscapes are doing at protecting biodiversity. If, over time, the ecological integrity
of a landscape increased, then the ecosystem was being restored, whereas, if it decreased,
then the ecosystem was being degraded. Ecosystem integrity includes biotic, physical, and
chemical components (Karr and Dudley 1981). Biological integrity refers to the ability of
an ecosystem to support and maintain a balanced, adaptive community of organisms having a
species composition, diversity, and functional organization comparable to that of natural
habitats within a region. Chemical integrity addresses issues of nutrient cycling and
availability, while physical integrity addresses the structural landscape, including
hydrological changes. These concepts can be quantified by use of indicators such as Karr
and Dudley’s index of biotic integrity (IBI).
KEY QUESTIONS
A. Is it necessary to develop a better
scientific understanding of biodiversity and the natural and anthropogenic processes that
maintain or degrade it? Is the NSF’s Biocomplexity in the Environment initiative
sufficient or is a separate, more targeted, initiative required? Do we need a national
biotic inventory? Is there sufficient characterization of ecosystems? How do we translate
the scientific understanding of biodiversity and ecosystems into management strategies?
What tools need to be developed to measure success?
It will be critical to develop a clear, scientific
understanding of ecosystem function. Core information should include descriptions of the
historic and current ecosystem, as well as a vision of a restored ecosystem. In a highly
fragmented system, management plans would also need to address the functionality of these
remaining fragments, as well as their spatial distribution across the landscape. An
assessment of species composition relative to historic conditions would provide a
framework of how composition has changed.
Understanding how ecological processes have changed and
might change is critical to developing protection and restoration plans. Key processes
affecting ecosystems include disturbance, hydrology and nutrient cycling. Shifts in
species composition as a result of invasive exotics continue to change the composition of
communities and challenge restoration efforts. Resource managers and decisionmakers need a
better understanding of how exotic plants and animals threaten native species and disrupt
the integrity of ecosystems (note: see sources for breakout session on invasive species).
B. Ecological processes inherently vary
over time and space. While this variability is an important component of ecosystems, it is
important that we better understand these processes and incorporate this knowledge
into the policy dialogue. We also need better ways of determining whether observed changes
in ecosystems and biodiversity are within the range of past variability and, if not, what
role human activities are playing in causing the observed changes.
Ecosystems are not static systems, but vary in response to
changes in climatic and biotic factors. For example, rainfall and temperature often vary
through multi-year cycles, which, in turn, affect the productivity of ecosystems.
Populations of organisms also vary in response to changes in weather and food supply and
in their interactions with other species. This variability creates dynamic ecosystems that
are constantly in flux. This fluctuation creates uncertainty for policy and
decision-makers; however, incorporating this variability into the policy dialogue is
critical for the development of policies that protect and restore ecosystems.
The Forest Service is using the concept of ‘historic
range of variability’ to evaluate management alternatives and conditions on the
landscape level. Scientists in south Florida studying the Everglades ecosystem have
developed a hydrologic model of the pre-drainage system to estimate what
"natural" hydrologic conditions might occur with current rainfall patterns.
C. Ecosystems encompass numerous
microhabitats and, more often than not, extend across man-made boundaries. How can
scientists and decisionmakers understand cross-boundary issues and create an environment
in which multiple land managers can work together to protect biodiversity and ecosystems?
The science of ecology, which has taught us about the
interconnectedness of natural systems, supports an enlightened approach to broad policy
decisions about public lands. There is a political and management challenge because many
ecosystems extend well beyond the physical boundaries of a particular agency’s
stewardship. From an ecological perspective, we must view our public lands on the scale of
watersheds, ecoregions, and habitat components first, and then implement policies that
cross agency jurisdictions. Interagency cooperation is key to sustaining the biotic
integrity and ecosystem services.
The Forest Service has started a ‘Large-Scale
Watershed Restoration Program’ as a mechanism to get multiple parties involved in
addressing issues of watershed restoration and protection. This program has set up a
number of partnerships that bring federal, state, local, and private groups together to
examine resources, threats, and future options for watersheds.
D. How should the new Administration
develop an education program to raise the awareness of managers, policy professionals, and
opinion leaders of the importance of biodiversity and ecosystems? Development and
implementation of effective policies will require greater awareness of the complexity of
ecosystems, their variability, and the interdependence of systems across the landscape.
How do we achieve that level of knowledge and impart it to a new generation of citizens
and leaders?
Ecosystems are complex entities. Substantial uncertainty
will always exist in our understanding of them, how they function, and what we must do to
protect biodiversity and ecosystems. Many, however, feel that we cannot afford to wait
until society has more complete knowledge of ecosystems to develop protection and
restoration plans. How should science present the current extent of our knowledge on
various defined ecosystems and further, how do we develop management plans that accurately
present the inherent uncertainties? "Adaptive management" has been presented as
a mechanism to learn from management actions and adjust the management plans over time.
What role should science play in developing a greater awareness by policy makers in the
complexity of ecosystems?
E. The knowledge about ecosystems
and their functioning comes from natural sciences, including ecology, systematics,
geology, hydrology, and geography. The tools for ecosystem management come from the
applied sciences, including conservation biology, fisheries and wildlife ecology, forestry,
environmental design, and engineering. The ability of managers and decision makers to
apply this knowledge and these tools is dependent upon social values and economic
valuations that are the tools of the social sciences, including economics, anthropology,
sociology, and political science. How can programs be formed, supported, and sustained
that will develop an integrated approach to ecosystem science and its application for
management and decision-making? What changes should be called for in government
science programs and in the communication of programs and their applications?
Many natural scientists, social scientists, and
engineers are learning to work together across disciplinary lines and to communicate their
results with decision-makers. Yet financial disincentives (lack of funding) and
institutional barriers often inhibit cross-disciplinary partnerships (Blockstein 1999).
There are signs of recent progress, but each step also has
certain drawbacks. The integration of biological sciences in the Department of the
Interior first through the National Biological Service (NBS), and then the merger of the
NBS into the US Geological Survey (USGS) brings all Interior Department scientists into a
single unit. However, the integration of scientists is at the cost of administrative
separation of scientists from agency resource managers.
The Department of the Interior has recently begun to create
a network of Cooperative Ecosystem Science Units (CESUs) at university campuses. The
CESU’s are designed to create a nexus of academic and government scientists from
different departments and agencies and from different disciplines. However, the
relationship between CESUs and traditional fisheries and wildlife Cooperative Research
Units is uneasy and uncertain.
The National Science Foundation has launched an ambitious
new environmental initiative across the agency, in response to a new report from the
National Science Board (NSF 2000). The initiative seeks to increase spending on
environmental research, assessment and education from $600 million to $1.6 billion over 5
years (not all of this money will go towards ecosystem sciences, but it is intended to
foster an interdisciplinary approach to science and engineering). Part of this initiative
is a new program, Biocomplexity for the Environment (BE), which seeks to understand the
role of complexity in environmental systems. The BE program was funded at $50 million in
FY 2000 and will be funded at $75 million in FY 2001. However, grant proposals greatly
exceeded available funds so that only 5% of the team research programs were funded in FY
2000. In addition to the mismatch between research proposals and available funds, there
are disconnects between the fundamental science focus of NSF and the information needs of
managers and policymakers.
In addition, moves towards integrated ecosystem science
have occurred in other agencies. However, the programs are still administratively isolated
from each other and tradition and budgets inhibit cooperation.
Are further programmatic refinements and institutional
changes needed to foster an integrated ecosystem science or is it now simply a matter of
more money and more time?
REFERENCES
Blockstein, D.E. 1999. Integrated Science for Ecosystem
Management: An Achievable Imperative. Conservation Biology 13: 682-685.
Noss, R. F., and A. Y. Cooperrider. 1994. Saving
Nature’s Legacy: protecting and restoring biodiversity. Island Press, Washington, DC.
Karr, J. R., and D. R. Dudley. 1981. Ecological perspective
on water quality goals. Environmental Management 5:55-68.
Office of Technology Assessment. 1987. Technologies to
Maintain Biological Diversity. U.S. Government Printing Office. Washington, DC.
National Science Board. 2000. Environmental Science and
Engineering for the 21st Century: the role of the National Science Foundation.
NSF-00-22.
