SYMP 12-5
Ecological network research: A framework for studying sustainability of coupled natural-human systems
Most studies of the relationships of humans and ecosystems are presented in terms of human impacts ON ecosystems. However, our ability to understand and mitigate such impacts depends on research that identifies the roles humans play IN ecosystems including how they interact with other species. Analysis and modeling of food web structure and dynamics provides a useful framework for quantifying ecological roles of species including humans. Such research is providing a new way to explore questions related to the sustainability of coupled natural-human systems.
Results/Conclusions
I briefly discuss three “humans in food webs” projects and their implications for sustainability. These studies concern human interactions with species via different types of biotic resource extraction, including subsistence, agricultural, and economic. The first study provides a broad backdrop for changes in human behaviors and impacts over many millennia, with a focus on the Adriatic Sea food web. The second study concerns humans as foragers, with a focus on human hunter-gatherers in North Pacific marine food webs over the last 6,000 years. The third study, in its early stages, is using ecological network analysis and modeling to explore the interactions and feedbacks between species diversity, ecological interactions, the environment, and human cultural development during 1000 years of human habitation of South Pacific islands, with a focus on four well-studied islands in French Polynesia.