98th ESA Annual Meeting (August 4 -- 9, 2013)

August 03 - 09, 2013

IGN 17

Scaling in Global Change Studies: Representation in Multiple Dimensions

Scaling is a fundamental issue in ecology; it requires understanding and representing ecological properties and processes at different scales and integrating this information across space, time and organizational levels. Over the past decades, scaling has become a critical research endeavor when evaluating a variety of threats to ecological systems across the planet. Global change involves a complex set of processes and mechanisms occurring at different spatial, temporal, biological and ecological scales. Integrating the information obtained at these different scales to achieve comprehensive understanding of the impacts of global change on systems is a key if we are to develop mitigation and adaptation strategies for sustainable development. Many studies have adopted scaling approaches, either up-scaling or down-scaling, to better monitor and understand mechanisms of global change across multiple scales. We propose to host a dynamic and engaging communication of ideas among researchers working at different spatial and temporal scales and on different global change topics. The session will be aimed at advancing a systems understanding of scaling, in multiple dimensions, and will be a timely effort to advance the endeavor of mitigating the adapting to global environmental change.