The 2017 Innovation in Sustainability Science Award honors Ian Donohue, Helmut Hillebrand, José M. Montoya, Owen L. Petchey, Stuart L. Pimm, Mike S. Fowler, Kevin Healy, Andrew L. Jackson, Miguel Lurgi, Deirdre McClean, Nessa E. O’Connor, Eoin J. O’Gorman, and Qiang Yang for their review and synthesis of “Navigating the complexity of ecological stability,” published in Ecology Letters in July, 2016.
Ian Donohue stands at a field site on on the shores of Lake Bogoria in Kenya (a soda lake famous for its population of flamingos) in November 2016. He is an Associate Professor at Trinity College of Dublin, School of Natural Resources in Dublin, Ireland. Photo credit: Deirdre McClean
Ecological responses to human action are complex. To develop effective environmental policies, governmental organizations require metrics that describe the dimensions of disturbance and response. Metrics must be couched in terms that are simple and flexible, but meaningful.
One of the biggest challenges facing development of effective policy to address sustainability issues is that the concepts and vocabulary used by scientists to define and promote sustainability rarely translate into effective policy, because they do not include measures of success.
This challenge is particularly apparent in the concepts stability and resilience, which are frequently employed in policy statements. Stability and resilience have long been the subject of empirical and theoretical research in ecology, but have no easily defined and quantified metrics. They sound explicit and measurable, but are, in practice, ambiguous.
Dononhue and colleagues argue that much of the fault for this disconnect lies with the academic community. They summarize and analyze a number of examples to support their claim that ecologists have taken a one-dimensional approach to quantifying stability and disturbance, although these processes are actually multi-dimensional. This one-dimensional approach, they argue, contributes to the lack of adoption of clear policies. They propose three areas where future research is needed and make clear recommendations for better integrating the multidimensional nature of stability into research, policy and, actions that should become a priority for all involved in sustainability science.
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- Stuart Pimm taken inside a reinforced boma to protect cattle from lion attacks, in Namibia, in 2015. Pimm is looking at the structure as part of the work he does for National Geographic’s Big Cats Initiative. He is a Professor of Conservation Ecology at Duke University, Nicholas School of the Environment in Durham, North Carolina. Photo credit; Rudi van Aarde
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- Qiang Yang sampling benthic macroinvertebrates at Lake Lough Eske, Co. Donegal, Ireland in January of 2013. He is currently a PhD candidate at Trinity College Dublin, School of Natural Sciences in Dublin, Ireland. Photo credit; Dr. Deirdre Mcclean
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- Owen Petchey in his lab posing with the zoo of microorganisms that he uses to do his experimental microbial ecology on, February 2017. He is an Associate Professor at the University of Zurich, Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies in Zurich, Switzerland. Photo credit; Aurélie Garnie
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- Nessa O’Connor of Trinity College Dublin, Department of Zoology in Dublin, Ireland.
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- Mike Fowler canoeing down the River Wye in Wales, U.K., October 2016. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biosciences at Swansea University in Whales, UK. Photo credit; Noemi Casadesus Viola
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- Miguel Lurgi at Glenelg Beach, Adelaide, South Australia in 2015. He is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the CRNS Experimental and Theoretical Ecology Station in France.
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- Kevin Healy at Killiney hill, Dublin, Ireland, in summer 2016. He is a Research Fellow in Zoology at the Trinity College Dublin in Dublin, Ireland. Photo credit; Emily Keely
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- Jose Maria on a field trip in the National Park of the Pyrenees Arriege, in south France, to determine range shifts of vertebrates due to climatic warming, January 2016. He is the Senior Scientist at the National Center for Scientific Research and the leader of the Ecological Networks and Global Climate Change in Moulis, Frace. Photo credit; Nuria Galiana
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- Helmut Hillebrand at Carl-von-Ossietzky University Oldenburg as part of an onsite review of the university where he is a professor of Pelagic Ecology. Photo credit; Monika Feiling
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- Eoin O’Gorman carrying out his research on a set of geothermally heated streams in the Hengill valley in Iceland. This area acts as a natural experiment for studying the impacts of warming on freshwater communities. He is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow as the Imperial College, Department of Life Sciences in London, England. Photo credit; Dr. Kordas
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- Deirdre McClean using an algal fluorimeter to measure algal populations in her experimental treatments as part of her PhD research at Lough Eske, Co. Donegal, Ireland, January 2014. She conducts her research as a part of Ashworth Laboratories at University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland. Photo credit; Sarah Hearne
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- Andrew Jackson soaking up some “cosmic rays” at Sunset Cliffs, San Diego, California towards the end of his Fulbright research scholarship to Scripps Institution of Oceanography, August 2016. He is an Associate Professor at Trinity College of Dublin, School of Natural Sciences in Dublin, Ireland. Photo credit; Abaigeal Jackson.
- Donahue, I., H. Hillebrand, J.M. Montoya, O.L. Petchey, S.L. Pimm, M.S. Fowler, K. Healy, A.L. Jackson, M. Lurgi, D. McClean, N.E. O’Conner, E.J. O’Gorman, and Q. Yang (2016), Navigating the complexity of ecological stability. Ecology Letters, 19: 1172–1185. doi:10.1111/ele.12648
- Watch this space for announcements of more 2017 ESA awards — or find all 2017 award winners in the 1 March 2017 press release
