Lance Gunderson – Keynote Speaker
Lance Gunderson
Lance Gunderson is a systems ecologist who is interested in how people assess, understand and manage large ecosystems. He received BS, MS and PhD degrees from the University of Florida. He has worked as a research botanist for the US National Park Service in south Florida (1979-89), as a research scientist at the University of Florida (1992-98) and as founding chair (1999-2005) and faculty of the Department of Environmental Studies at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia (since 1999).
He is currently Co-Editor in Chief of Ecology and Society. He chaired the NAS/NRC committee on Ecological Effects of Road Density. He has also served as the executive director of the Resilience Network. He is a Beijer Fellow, with the Beijer International Institute for Ecological Economics, Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences.
He has been involved in the in environmental assessment and management of large-scale ecosystems, including the Everglades, Florida Bay, Upper Mississippi River Basin, and the Grand Canyon. His interests are in the human and institutional dimensions to resource ecology, and to that end, has co-edited books entitled, “Barriers and Bridges to the Renewal of Ecosystems and Institutions” that compares case histories of managing large, complex ecosystems; “Panarchy: Understanding Transformations in Systems of Humans and Nature” that attempts to synthesize interdisciplinary concepts that underpin sustainable actions and “Resilience and the Behavior of Large Scale Ecosystems” that documents non-linear dynamics in ecosystems. He has also edited “Foundations of Ecological Resilience”, published in 2009.
Abstract: Nurturing Resilience – Lessons from Managing Complex Ecosystems
Ecological resilience, adaptive cycles and panarchy are all concepts developed to explain abrupt and often surprising changes in complex systems of people and nature. These changes involve qualitative and quantitative shifts in system structure and processes. These types of shifts pose great problems and uncertainties for stakeholders, citizens and agencies who attempt to manage and intervene in these complex systems. From these precepts of complex ecosystems, practical approaches of adaptive management and adaptive governance have emerged. Lessons from the application of these ideas in the United States and Australia will be used to show why nurturing resilience may be a helpful organizing concept for fostering ecosystem management.
Stansbury Island Dust Storm - Charles Uibel
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