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Environmental Change and Adaptation ECA

Environmental Change and Adaptation ECA. Jane Molofsky , Plant Biology, Chair Nick Gotelli , Biology Saleem Ali, RSENR and Gund Institute Fellow Dennis Clougherty , Physics William Keeton, RSENR Beverley Wemple , Geography Leon Walls, Education

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Environmental Change and Adaptation ECA

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  1. Environmental Change and Adaptation ECA Jane Molofsky, Plant Biology, Chair Nick Gotelli, Biology Saleem Ali, RSENR and Gund Institute Fellow Dennis Clougherty, Physics William Keeton, RSENR Beverley Wemple, Geography Leon Walls, Education Lisa Aultman-Hall, Transportation Research Center Mary Watzin, Dean and Advisor

  2. ECA SPIRE: Environmental Change and Adaptation • GOAL: Create a nationally recognized program that will build UVM strength in the environment. Identify areas that are not already being done elsewhere. • CONSTRAINTS: resources are limited, faculty concern about Spires hogging all the resources.

  3. How can we reconcile the goals with the constraints? Identify what is being done at UVM Identify what is not being done elsewhere

  4. Defining the Spire: • New technological tools for forecasting and predicting environmental change • Socioeconomic indicators of environmental change • Ecological economics of change • Novel adaptive management of our existing resources. • Education and outreach

  5. What is being done elsewhere? Our research did not turn up any major US programs specifically examining environmental change and adaptation

  6. Internationally, we turned up one Institute that included adaptation in the title Consortium of Australian Universities Focus on pest management primarily so little overlap

  7. Existing UVM strength in Environmental Programs • Sierra magazine ranks UVM fourth"Coolest School" in country • UVM named one of nation's most environmentally responsible schools • and over 160 faculty doing environmental research14, it's not surprising that the Sustainable Endowments Institute ranked UVM one of the six greenest schools15 in the country. • 17% of UVM undergraduates have majors identified with the SPIRE

  8. UVM already has top scholars in the field of the environment • Faculty from more than 10 Departments/Programs would participate. • These faculty have already produced top quality papers: • 53 SCIENCE,NATURE, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences papers done by UVM faculty (excludes COM). • These faculty already bring in competitive research dollars • $35 million dollars in environmental grants last 5 years

  9. UVM already has a PhD program in the area of the SPIRE • UVM currently has over 90 PhD students in the area of the Spire • These students are dispersed in small departments • This makes it difficult to recruit • Affects the NRC rankings because individual programs too small

  10. Components of the Spire • Five inter-related components • Modeling, forecasting, computational tools, new technology • Develop socio-economic indicators • Joint modeling of ecological/economic impacts • Develop novel adaptive management • Increase educational/society outreach

  11. Forecasting environmental Change • Modeling, forecasting, computational tools, new technology • Examples: • Institute long-term monitoring studies (Beckage et al 2008 PNAS) • Use tools from complex systems • Development of sensors for better environmental monitoring

  12. Development of Socio-economic indicators • Faculty lead seminar in 2005 lead to several papers on socio-economic indicators • Vermont’s small size makes it possible for the development and testing of indicators

  13. Ecological and Economic impacts • Joint consideration of ecological/economic indicators (ecological economics) • GUND institute world leader in ecological economics • Models being developed at Transportation Research Center (TRC). • Large NSF project (run out of GUND) is considered cutting edge of this field (aries project)

  14. Adaptive management of ecosystems • How to make decisions in the face of uncertainty • Programs in place on Lake Champlain, forest carbon sequestration • Social networking can be considered a kind of adaptive management where social/societal pressure is used to drive decision making • Focus will be on finding best solutions

  15. What will the SPIRE do for the undergraduate community at UVM? • 14 majors at the University are related to the environment • 17 % of students have majors identified by the SPIRE • Greater coordination of programs, faculty offering cross-disciplinary courses, greater research/intern opportunities.

  16. What will the Spire do for education and outreach • Spire provides an opportunity to apply for GK-12 education grant • Faculty work with teachers to develop curriculum around area of the Spire • Sends PhD students into local schools to implement the program (grade, middle, high). • Multiple benefits • PhD students paid by grant, not TA support • Long-term changes in Curriculum

  17. What will the Spire do for the community? • Vermont can be a test lab for many programs developed at University • Energy Minder program (Hines, Engineering and Bongard, Comp. Sci.) • Paying farmers to not hay their fields (Strong, Donavon,RSENR) • Enhanced outreach with ECHO and Shelburne Farms • Greater grant money coming in to the University, greater and higher tech jobs for the community • Development of technology can lead to small business opportunities VCET

  18. Proposed activities • Provide faculty release time for trans-discplinary proposal development • Why release time and not grants? • Faculty associated with the Spire already have competitive grant support • NASA,DOE,DOD, EPA, NSF, AFRI, NOAA, DOT • Faculty need time and incentive to develop these cross-disciplinary proposals

  19. Proposed Activities • Four faculty hires are proposed • Forecasting and Technology • Ecological/evolutionary response of both human and natural systems (2 ) • Human decision making/adaptation • Why not more? • New faculty are expensive, especially in hard science where start-up money is substantial • New faculty can take up to 5-6 years to get important papers out in the area of the SPIRE. • Many UVM faculty already excellent in the areas proposed. • Don’t be greedy. Other programs on campus deserve University support. SPIRE should prove its worth before commanding so many resources

  20. Proposed Activities • Offer competitive graduate fellowships • Develop named post-doctoral fellows • Build a Spire community • Offer a first year Spire experience for graduate students • Bring in world-class researchers to interact with faculty and students • Start a short-faculty run workshop on a Spire topic to facilitate collaborations among faculty.

  21. Many Spire activities are designed to build the UVM Environment brand

  22. Making ECA Spire Visible • Initiate a summer institute • 10 day institute in areas of the Spire • Taught by UVM scholars and bring in 1-2 other experts to lead • Nano-sensors and the environment • Environmental forecasting • Development of Socio-economic indicators • Offer fellowships but also charge tuition. • Advertise in Science, Nature and other top journals etc.

  23. Making ECA Spire Visible • Develop a model of bringing working groups to campus (model already exists on campus 4-day summer workshops for faculty across campus). • Bring top scholars to UVM • Develop working relationship with these people that extends beyond the period of working group • At the end of each working group, one of the UVM faculty involved will have the responsibility of producing a review/opinion paper in the area of the topic. • These review papers are highly cited and establish policy/research guidelines for years to come.

  24. Making ECA Spire Visible • Named post-doctoral fellowships • Why? Few post-doctoral awards available • People at the beginning of their career often most creative and productive • Develop a life-long relationship with UVM. • Excellent scholars will go on to other big Universities • Will always be associated with UVM • Will recommend UVM as a place to do graduate work • Will establish long-term collaborative relationships with faculty on campus • If they receive competitive grants while in residence, UVM will benefit. • Advertising for the fellowships will put University on the map. • Similar programs exist at Berkeley, Harvard, Michigan.

  25. Why a UVM summer institute? • UVM has groups of internationally recognized scholars that could lead summer institutes that would be desirable for graduate students • Advertisement for the summer institute would create the “buzz” factor • Some students may choose UVM • Bring in some scholars in the area to supplement UVM scholars • Topic would vary among groups • Potential avenue to establish collaborative relationships with some of the other instructors • Bring in some funding, may be self-sustaining.

  26. We can create the ECA Spire right now! • We can create a Spire community by • 1. initiating a semester long faculty lead seminar series in Fall 2010 • 2. initiating a prominent seminar speaker series in Spring 2011. • 3. Developing a faculty lead workshop for beginning (first, second year graduate students) in May 2011. • 4. Advertising competitive graduate fellowships • 5. Plan for a summer institute in Summer 2011

  27. Thank you for your attention

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