Friday, August 7, 2009: 8:00 AM-11:30 AM
Blrm A, Albuquerque Convention Center
SYMP 22 - Agroecology for a Sustainable Future: Cross-Disciplinary Research at Multiple Scales
The development of sustainable agroecosystems requires bridging traditional disciplinary divisions between human and biophysical sciences. Despite impressive gains in scientific understanding about agroecosystems in recent decades, this ecological knowledge is rarely reflected in local, regional, or global policies and land management decisions. With a global food crisis underway, and soaring costs of the non-renewable resources that support current industrial agricultural production, we are at a critical juncture for managing agricultural landscapes. If agroecological approaches are to be incorporated into policy interventions, research must integrate across ecological, socioeconomic, and political systems. Defining the relevant system boundaries is a central component of ecosystem-based research. Which environmental quality and social factors are considered in interdisciplinary research questions on agricultural sustainability? What geopolitical boundaries do studies span? And, how does agroecological research affect the global policy environment (and vice versa)? One challenge to cross-disciplinary research is that the boundaries of interest for studying ecological systems and social systems can differ. Presenters will share examples of cross-disciplinary agroecological research and policy development from community to landscape scales, and will discuss how the process of defining, or bounding, research problems impacts agricultural sustainability.
Organizer:Meagan E. Schipanski, Cornell University
Co-organizer:Jennifer B. Gardner, Cornell University
Moderator:Jennifer Gardner, Cornell University
Endorsement:ESA Agroecology Section, ESA Student Section
8:00 AM Introductory Remarks
8:05 AMSYMP 22-1Bringing agroecology into national and global policy arenas: Lessons from the UN International Assessment of Agriculture
Marcia Ishii-Eiteman, Pesticide Action Network
8:30 AMSYMP 22-2Participatory Action Research (PAR) in agroecology: Challenges & opportunities for interdisciplinary, multi-scale investigations
V. Ernesto Mendez, University of Vermont
8:55 AMSYMP 22-3Hypoxia and the Mississippi River Basin as a model system: What can we learn about the social-ecological interface?
Laurie E. Drinkwater, Cornell University, Mark B. David, University of Illinois, Ryan E. Galt, University of California, Davis, Jennifer B. Gardner, Cornell University, Stefanie Hufnagl-Eichiner, Cornell University, Liz Marshall, World Resources Institute, Sieglinde Snapp, Michigan State University, Christina Tonitto, Cornell University, John V. Westra, Louisiana State University, Steven A. Wolf, Cornell University
9:20 AMSYMP 22-4Fuzzy system boundaries and mechanisms to address the social sustainability of ecosystems on different scales
Cornelia Butler Flora, Iowa State University, Sara Kaplan, Iowa State University
9:45 AM Break
9:55 AMSYMP 22-5Biodiversity, global change, and a green revolution in Africa: Can interdisciplinary research respond at appropriate scales?
Sieglinde Snapp, Michigan State University
10:20 AMSYMP 22-6Examining trade-offs and synergies among multiple ecosystem services across scales
Ciara Raudsepp-Hearne, McGill University
10:45 AMSYMP 22-7New ontologies for sustainability? Toward making ecology explicitly political
Ryan E. Galt, University of California
11:10 AM Discussion

See more of Symposium

See more of The 94th ESA Annual Meeting (August 2 -- 7, 2009)