A Cognitive Model of an Epistemic Community: Mapping the Dynamics of Shallow Lake Ecosystems

We used fuzzy cognitive mapping (FCM) to develop a generic shallow lake ecosystem model by augmenting the individual cognitive maps drawn by 8 scientists working in the area of shallow lake ecology. We calculated graph theoretical indices of the individual cognitive maps and the collective cognitive map produced by augmentation. The graph theoretical indices revealed internal cycles showing non-linear dynamics in the shallow lake ecosystem. The ecological processes were organized democratically without a top-down hierarchical structure. The steady state condition of the generic model was a characteristic turbid shallow lake ecosystem since there were no dynamic environmental changes that could cause shifts between a turbid and a clearwater state, and the generic model indicated that only a dynamic disturbance regime could maintain the clearwater state. The model developed herein captured the empirical behavior of shallow lakes, and contained the basic model of the Alternative Stable States Theory. In addition, our model expanded the basic model by quantifying the relative effects of connections and by extending it. In our expanded model we ran 4 simulations: harvesting submerged plants, nutrient reduction, fish removal without nutrient reduction, and biomanipulation. Only biomanipulation, which included fish removal and nutrient reduction, had the potential to shift the turbid state into clearwater state. The structure and relationships in the generic model as well as the outcomes of the management simulations were supported by actual field studies in shallow lake ecosystems. Thus, fuzzy cognitive mapping methodology enabled us to understand the complex structure of shallow lake ecosystems as a whole and obtain a valid generic model based on tacit knowledge of experts in the field.Comment: 24 pages, 5 Figure

Interpreting the Ursinus Food Forest: Visualizing, Designing, and Realizing Signage at the Whittaker Environmental Research Station (WERS)

In the fall Ursinus will begin planting the initial species of its food forest on two acres at the Whittaker Environmental Research Station (WERS), an agricultural field currently characterized by livestock forage species, just off campus. By increasing biodiversity at the site and implementing a design that mimics the structure of a healthy forest ecosystem, this food forest intends to improve the wider ecosystem’s health and resilience, while also providing the local community with a source of harvestable food and craft materials. As the system matures and becomes available to the public, interpretive materials will become imperative to ensuring visitors interact with the site in a safe, appropriate, and meaningful manner. Successful interpretation should see visitors come away from the site with a deeper understanding of the system’s functioning, direct and indirect benefits to humans and wildlife, and ideally a greater appreciation for and willingness to care for the surrounding ecosystem. This project develops an interpretive signage protocol that includes a) a conceptual framework for understanding the food forest and its multiple goals, b) an inventory of specific signage topics (i.e. interpretable elements) and their placement within the site’s current layout, and c) the design parameters that should govern the textual clarity and visual appearance of these signs. The protocol is accompanied by finished signage models that illustrate these goals

The IUCN Red List of Ecosystems: motivations, challenges, and applications

Abstract In response to growing demand for ecosystem-level risk assessment in biodiversity conservation, and rapid proliferation of locally tailored protocols, the IUCN recently endorsed new Red List criteria as a global standard for ecosystem risk assessment. Four qualities were sought in the design of the IUCN criteria: generality; precision; realism; and simplicity. Drawing from extensive global consultation, we explore trade-offs among these qualities when dealing with key challenges, including ecosystem classification, measuring ecosystem dynamics, degradation and collapse, and setting decision thresholds to delimit ordinal categories of threat. Experience from countries with national lists of threatened ecosystems demonstrates well-balanced trade-offs in current and potential applications of Red Lists of Ecosystems in legislation, policy, environmental management and education. The IUCN Red List of Ecosystems should be judged by whether it achieves conservation ends and improves natural resource management, whether its limitations are outweighed by its benefits, and whether it performs better than alternative methods. Future development of the Red List of Ecosystems will benefit from the history of the Red List of Threatened Species which was trialed and adjusted iteratively over 50 years from rudimentary beginnings. We anticipate the Red List of Ecosystems will promote policy focus on conservation outcomes in situ across whole landscapes and seascapes

Ecosystem services in environmental discourse – Application of ecosystem services concept in Poland

Wydział SocjologiiGłówną motywacją leżącą u podstaw tej pracy jest przekonanie, że badanie punktów stycznych środowiska społecznego i przyrodniczego jest obecnie ważnym obszarem badań naukowych. Na przestrzeni lat opracowano kompleksowe koncepcje mające na celu zminimalizowanie ryzyka związanego z postępowaniem eksploatacji środowiska przyrodniczego np. koncepcja zrównoważonego rozwoju. Stosunkowo nową propozycją w tym zakresie jest koncepcja usług ekosystemów (ES) - różnych korzyści, jakie ludzie swobodnie czerpią ze środowiska przyrodniczego, np. las dostarcza grzybów. Jednakże niewiele wiadomo na temat zakresu, w jakim koncepcja ES jest wykorzystywana w procesie decyzyjnym. Bazując na tej motywacji, głównym celem pracy doktorskiej jest krytyczne podjęcie istotnego, ale dotychczas niezbadanego problemu badawczego: Jak koncepcja ES jest obecna w dyskursie środowiskowym w Polsce? Przeprowadzona w ramach tej pracy analiza ogólnopolskiego procesu konsultacji społecznych z udziałem różnych grup interesariuszy, wykazała, że w przypadku Polski, kraju, w którym w ciągu ostatnich 30 lat zaszło wiele reform systemu ochrony środowiska, koncepcja ES jest przydatnym narzędziem do zarządzania konfliktami oraz wdrażania polityki i zarządzania obszarami chronionymi. Pomimo tego, że koncepcja ES ma pewne słabe strony (np. niejasność), umożliwia ona różnym grupom interesariuszy (np. leśnikom, organizacjom pozarządowym, sektorowi prywatnemu) wspólne podejmowanie kwestii przyszłości obszarów chronionych, np. Natura 2000.The main motivation behind this work is the conviction that the study of social and environmental areas intersection is nowadays an important activity. Over the years, comprehensive concepts have been conceived aiming at minimizing the risks associated with exploitative development e. g. sustainability. A relatively new proposal of such a concept is the concept of ecosystem services (ES) - the various benefits that humans freely gain from the natural environment e. g. a forest provides mushrooms. However, little is known about the extent to which the concept of ES is utilized in decision making. Following the motivation, the general aim of this dissertation is to critically examine a significant but yet unexplored research problem: How does the concept of ES be present in the environmental discourse in Poland? The analysis of the Polish nation-wide consultation process with broad stakeholder involvement showed that, for Poland’s case, a country reforming and consolidating its environment protection system, the ES concept is a handy tool by offering a reference for conflict management and for policy implementation and management of protected areas. Although ES concept has some weaknesses (e.g. vagueness), it enables stakeholders from opposing stakeholders groups (e.g., foresters, NGOs, the private sector) to deliberate about the future of protected areas e. g. Natura 2000

Literature Review: Multiparadigm Accounting Research

The objective of this paper is to explore all related literature with multiparadigm accounting research approaches. The literature search strategy begins by looking at literature from sources in the forms of books or sources originating from several databases or search engines including open knowledge maps, google scholar, and z-library. The keywords used for the search are “accounting: science with various paradigms, multiparadigm accounting research, accounting paradigm and paradigm accounting”.  From the results of searching and reviewing the literature, including books, journal articles and other electronic sources, various kinds of multiparadigm accounting research were obtained. By knowing the benefits of each of the paradigm viewpoints that have been described, it is good if we take a mixed paradigm approach in accounting research so that research results are of higher quality because they are not only based on one paradigm. Even though in one research using one accounting paradigm, those of us who strongly believe in a certain paradigm still have an open mind towards other paradigms thus enriching our views so that in studying accounting all paradigms are believed to complement one another. This research will greatly contribute to academics in viewing accounting from various perspectives. This literature review classifies multiparadigm accounting research based on more specific groups

Towards value pluralism, knowledge pluralism, and recognitional justice: improving integration of cultural benefits of ecosystem services in environmental decision-making

Includes bibliographical references.2022 Fall.This mainstreaming of the ecosystem services (ES) concept and approach is reflected in its adoption by governments and non-governmental organizations around the world, including in the United States: in 2015, a U.S. Federal Memorandum directed all Federal agencies to integrate ES information in their decision-making processes. In principle this momentum represents an opportunity for improved consideration of the cultural benefits of ES in decision-making, as part of the improved consideration of ES as a whole. However, there is concern that cultural benefits – and the plural values and multiple knowledge systems they reveal – are being left behind in processes of standardization in ES theory and practice. Cultural benefits challenge the emphasis on instrumental values common in the ES field. Further, in revealing the culturally contextual and situated character of all ES, cultural benefits challenge the universalizing and generalizing tendencies common in this field. More meaningful consideration of the cultural benefits of ES, as one strand of a larger movement toward value pluralism and knowledge pluralism, is a question of both equity and ecological outcomes. On-going conversations and critiques in the ES field around how to create space for multiple worldviews, including multiple human-nature relationships and well-beings, are critical to bringing environmental management into alignment with environmental justice, including distributional, procedural, and recognitional justice for current and future generations. In addition, ensuring a place for currently marginalized knowledge systems in ES theory and practice, including place-based and Indigenous ways of knowing, brings new solutions to the table and increases the adaptive capacity of managers and decision-makers at local and global scales as they face into growing global environmental challenges. To support movement toward knowledge pluralism in ES theory and practice, the three manuscripts presented in this dissertation offer: 1) a conceptual framework that reveals ES-knowledge as a system, seeking to support personal and collective reflexivity around the role of worldviews embedded in our institutions and the implications of this (Manuscript 1); 2) a theoretical model of learning opportunities for integration of a diverse forms of knowledge, and explores how some cultural-benefits-knowledge-forms are more likely to convey non-instrumental, relational value aspects or holistic value perspectives, and more likely to be effectively considered at particular stages of decision-making (Manuscript 2); and 3) an Opportunities Framework that can be used to systematically identify available forms of cultural-benefits-knowledge, and the opportunities that exist to integrate these knowledge forms in a particular decision context (Manuscript 3). This final manuscript both introduces the framework and illustrates its potential by applying it to a past decision process: Elwha River dam removal and restoration in Washington State, U.S.A. Next steps for research and application of a knowledge-pluralist ES approach are discussed in the dissertation's conclusion

Savings Clauses and Trends in Natural Resources Federalism

This article considers recent trends in federalism, with particular attention to natural resource law\u27s statutory savings clauses. It begins with a case study of elk management in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The elk controversy shows how a statutory savings clause can provide a state with traction to advance its interests, and demonstrates how the political winds of change can shift the balance of state-federal relations. The article then focuses on the common statutory savings clauses and their roles in circumscribing federal agency authority and establishing a basis for cooperation between federal and state governments. We analyze the interpretive approaches the judiciary may employ to make sense of the statutory savings language, and conceptualize them along a continuum of influence in resolving cases. The article concludes with an explanation of trends that set the direction for policy innovations in natural resources federalism and general thoughts about the future of federalism in natural resources law