Linking model design and application for transdisciplinary approaches in social-ecological systems

This work was supported by the US National Science Foundation through the Mountain Sentinels Research Coordination Network (NSF #1414106), the Swiss National Science Foundation through MtnPaths – Pathways for global change adaptation of mountain socio-ecological systems (#20521L_169916), and the Center for Collaborative Conservation at Colorado State University.As global environmental change continues to accelerate and intensify, science and society are turning to trans- disciplinary approaches to facilitate transitions to sustainability. Modeling is increasingly used as a technological tool to improve our understanding of social-ecological systems (SES), encourage collaboration and learning, and facilitate decision-making. This study improves our understanding of how SES models are designed and applied to address the rising challenges of global environmental change, using mountains as a representative system. We analyzed 74 peer-reviewed papers describing dynamic models of mountain SES, evaluating them according to characteristics such as the model purpose, data and model type, level of stakeholder involvement, and spatial extent/resolution. Slightly more than half the models in our analysis were participatory, yet only 21.6% of papers demonstrated any direct outreach to decision makers. We found that SES models tend to under-represent social datasets, with ethnographic data rarely incorporated. Modeling efforts in conditions of higher stakeholder diversity tend to have higher rates of decision support compared to situations where stakeholder diversity is absent or not addressed. We discuss our results through the lens of appropriate technology, drawing on the concepts of boundary objects and scalar devices from Science and Technology Studies. We propose four guiding principles to facilitate the development of SES models as appropriate technology for transdisciplinary applications: (1) increase diversity of stakeholders in SES model design and application for improved collaboration; (2) balance power dynamics among stakeholders by incorporating diverse knowledge and data types; (3) promote flexibility in model design; and (4) bridge gaps in decision support, learning, and communication. Creating SES models that are appropriate tech- nology for transdisciplinary applications will require advanced planning, increased funding for and attention to the role of diverse data and knowledge, and stronger partnerships across disciplinary divides. Highly contextualized participatory modeling that embraces diversity in both data and actors appears poised to make strong contributions to the world’s most pressing environmental challenges.PostprintPeer reviewe

Adaptive Epistemologies: Scientific Practice and Environmental Restoration in a Changing Climate

The role of science in adaptation and change in socio-ecological systems has been under-conceptualized. While gathering data and increasing knowledge will undoubtedly help facilitate decision-making, adaptation within epistemic communities themselves also requires attention. This research explores how scientific practices and the knowledge infrastructures, institutions and organizations that support them are adapting to meet emerging societal goals and shifting environmental conditions. In this ethnographic study, I examine how salmon habitat restorationists in the Columbia River Basin, USA, are dealing with the uncertainty and complexity that climate change is introducing to their epistemic work. I historically situate the development of the field of ecological restoration, analyze how science relates to legal and political goals for salmon habitat restoration, and conceptualize how scientific practice adapts to the uncertainty and indeterminacy that results from climate change. To do this, I engage theoretical concepts from the field of science, technology, and society (STS) with environmental governance and management theory. By examining scientific practice, knowledge infrastructures, and institutions and organizations, I develop a conceptual framework for “adaptive epistemologies,” in which scientists alter the way they produce knowledge using the strategies of emergence, acclimation, and anticipation. I argue that we need to consider adaptation to environmental change more closely in scientific work itself, including considering how collective goals relate to knowledge production, thereby facilitating or hindering adaptation. This can be developed by extending the notion of collective empiricism to call for transdisciplinary engagements between disparate disciplines and fields.doctoral, Ph.D., Water Resources -- University of Idaho - College of Graduate Studies, 2018-0

L’État de droit en Europe, les figures de la crise

International audienc

The Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity of Novel Ecosystems: A literature review

Scientists, policy makers, and managers use ecosystem services and biodiversity metrics to inform management goals of novel ecosystems. Fragmented knowledge of the ecosystem services provided by novel ecosystems contributes to disagreement over these systems and how they should be managed. To address this gap, we conducted a systematic review of refereed articles to understand how novel ecosystems have changed ecosystem services and biodiversity. Despite anthropogenic drivers of change, we found that the literature on novel ecosystems is focused on ecological rather than social aspects of novel systems. Our review highlights the frequency that novel ecosystems enhance both ecosystem services and biodiversity. More than two-thirds of studies reported biodiversity equal to or above the reference state, while the portion of studies reporting increased cultural, provisioning, and regulating services was even greater. Still, we urge caution in interpreting these trends, as they exist in part due to degraded ecosystem baselines and inconsistent framing. Finally, the wide range of management recommendations we reviewed reflects both the diversity of novel ecosystems and substantial disagreement among researchers and managers about what novel ecosystems actually mean for society

Ecosystem Services as Boundary Objects for Transdisciplinary Collaboration

The ecosystem services (ES) framework has potential to bring transdisciplinary teams together to achieve societal goals. Some label ES as “boundary objects” that help integrate diverse forms of knowledge across social groups and organizational scales. However, this classification masks complexities that arise from unique characteristics of ES types (i.e., provisioning, regulating, and cultural), which influence their ability to function as boundary objects. We argue that interpretive flexibility and material structures interact in distinct ways across ES types throughout a boundary object “life cycle.” Viewing a 2015 U.S. federal memorandum as a catalyst, we critically evaluate the evolution of ES and its role as a boundary object. We propose that provisioning and regulating services are transitioning out of boundary object status, moving into a more standardized state. However, we anticipate that cultural services may continue to behave as boundary objects if collaborators maintain them as such. This shift in the functionality of ES as boundary objects is an important consideration for future research that attempts to reach across social worlds and disciplinary perspectives. We urge collaborations to rely on the most relevant disciplinary knowledge, rather than allowing the ease of standardized solutions to dictate the boundary of a given problem

A Systems Thinking Approach for Eliciting Mental Models from Visual Boundary Objects in Hydropolitical Contexts: a Case Study from the Pilcomayo River Basin

Transboundary collaborations related to international freshwater are critical for ensuring equitable, efficient, and sustainable shared access to our planet’s most fundamental resources. Visual artifacts, such as knowledge maps, functioning as boundary objects, are used in hydropolitical contexts to convey understandings and facilitate discussion across scales about challenges and opportunities from multiple perspectives. Such focal points for discussion are valuable in creating shared, socially negotiated priorities and integrating diverse and often disparate cultural perspectives that naturally exist in the context of international transboundary water resources. Visual boundary objects can also represent the collective mental models of the actor countries and transboundary institutions and encompass their perspectives on the complex hydro-social cycles within specific “problem-shed” regions of the shared resources. To investigate and synthesize these multiple concepts, we developed a novel method of eliciting mental models from visual boundary objects in social-ecological contexts by combining content analysis with theoretical frameworks for boundary objects and systems thinking. Using this method, we analyzed visual boundary objects represented in publicly available documents formally related to decision making in the Pilcomayo River Basin in South America. The Pilcomayo River Basin is a unique case for investigating decision making in international collaboration among represented states, given the unique social and biophysical challenges that have plagued the region for over a century. Using our framework, we were able to develop insight into the collective mental models of stakeholders, organizations, and decision-making institutions, related to priorities, vulnerabilities, and adaptation strategies among the various socioeconomic, cultural, political, and biophysical drivers for different regions and scales of the basin

Racial Discrimination, Psychache, and Perceived Vitality in Diverse College Students: Is Mindfulness Protective?

According to the Minority Stress Model, racist or discriminatory experiences can have negative downstream effects on mental and physical health. For example, perceived ethnic discrimination is associated with increased negative emotion and distress, including feelings of guilt and shame; such characteristics may contribute to the development of psychache, or unbearable psychological pain. In turn, subjective vitality, which is considered a dynamic indicator of physical (e.g., feeling energetic, alert) and psychological (e.g., thriving, purposefulness) well-being, may be eroded. Yet, adaptive individual-level cognitive-emotional mechanisms may buffer the negative effects of discrimination on well-being. One such protective factor is mindfulness, or the nonjudgmental awareness of moment-to-moment experience, which can ameliorate stressful reactions to challenging situations and emotional pain. At the bivariate level, we hypothesized that discrimination and psychache would be positively related, and that both variables would be negatively related to mindfulness and vitality. At the multivariate level, we predicted that psychache would mediate the relation between discrimination and vitality, such that experienced discrimination would be associated with greater psychache and, in turn, to less vitality. We also hypothesized that mindfulness would moderate all linkages, reducing risk. Our sample of U.S. college students (n=2,106) was collected from a Northeastern urban university and was primarily female (n=1,571, 74.7%) and Hispanic (n=1,289, 61.2%; Black: n=454, 21.6%; Asian: n=363, 17.2%). Participants completed self-report measures, including the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire, Subjective Vitality Scale, Psychache Scale, and General Ethnic Discrimination Scale. Bivariate correlations and moderated-mediation analyses were conducted, in each ethnic/racial group, covarying age and sex. In bivariate analyses, all variables were significantly related in hypothesized directions (p\u3c.05). ANOVAs revealed that ethnic groups varied significantly on discrimination (F(2, 1772=8.35, p\u3c.001), vitality (F(2, 1806)=5.28, p\u3c.01), and mindfulness (F(2, 1779)=9.70, p\u3c.001). Blacks (M=35.95) and Asians (M=36.10) reported greater discrimination than Hispanics (M=32.29), t(1775)=3.66, p\u3c.05; t(1775)=3.81, p\u3c.05. Hispanics (M=4.81) reported higher vitality than Asians (M=4.55), t(1809)=.26, p\u3c.05. Blacks (M=125.79) reported greater mindfulness than both Hispanics (M=122.95) and Asians (M=120.19) (t(1782)=2.83, p\u3c.05; t(1782)=5.60, p\u3c.05). In mediation analyses, the total effect of discrimination on vitality was significant (Asian: t=-2.36, p\u3c.05; Black: t=-2.87, p\u3c.01; Hispanic: t=-5.14, p\u3c.001), and the direct effect was nonsignificant when psychache was added (Asian: t=.42, p=.68; Black: t=-.23, p=.82; Hispanic: t=-.02, p=.98), indicating mediation. In moderated-mediation analyses, the linkage between discrimination and psychache was weakened by mindfulness (Black: a2=-.005[-.009, -.002], t=-2.77, p\u3c.01; Hispanic: a2=-.003[-.005, -.001], t=-2.38, p=\u3c.01; Asian: a2=-.008[-.012, -.003], t=-3.48, p\u3c.001). Among Asians, mindfulness also buffered the association between psychache and vitality (b2=-.001[-.002, -.001], t=-3.60, p\u3c.001). Across racial/ethnic groups, we found that, for college students who experienced discrimination, psychological pain may be exacerbated, with consequent deleterious impact on vitality. Yet, for all groups, mindfulness weakened the discrimination-psychache linkage and, for Asians, who reported the lowest mindfulness levels, weakened the psychache-vitality linkage. Our findings suggest the benefits of mindfulness for psychosocial functioning in the context of ethnic/racial discrimination. Interventions to reduce psychache (e.g., cognitive restructuring) and enhance mindful awareness (e.g., meditation, acceptance and commitment therapy) may promote physical and mental vitality indicating wellbeing, in college students experiencing discrimination

The ecosystem services and biodiversity of novel ecosystems: A literature review

Scientists, policy makers, and managers use ecosystem services and biodiversity metrics to inform management goals of novel ecosystems. Fragmented knowledge of the ecosystem services provided by novel ecosystems contributes to disagreement over these systems and how they should be managed. To address this gap, we conducted a systematic review of refereed articles to understand how novel ecosystems have changed ecosystem services and biodiversity. Despite anthropogenic drivers of change, we found that the literature on novel ecosystems is focused on ecological rather than social aspects of novel systems. Our review highlights the frequency that novel ecosystems enhance both ecosystem services and biodiversity. More than two-thirds of studies reported biodiversity equal to or above the reference state, while the portion of studies reporting increased cultural, provisioning, and regulating services was even greater. Still, we urge caution in interpreting these trends, as they exist in part due to degraded ecosystem baselines and inconsistent framing. Finally, the wide range of management recommendations we reviewed reflects both the diversity of novel ecosystems and substantial disagreement among researchers and managers about what novel ecosystems actually mean for society. Keywords: Novel-ecosystems, Biodiversity, Ecosystem-services, Trade-offs, Revie

The role of law in adaptive governance

The term "governance" encompasses both governmental and nongovernmental participation in collective choice and action. Law dictates the structure, boundaries, rules, and processes within which governmental action takes place, and in doing so becomes one of the focal points for analysis of barriers to adaptation as the effects of climate change are felt. Adaptive governance must therefore contemplate a level of flexibility and evolution in governmental action beyond that currently found in the heavily administrative governments of many democracies. Nevertheless, over time, law itself has proven highly adaptive in western systems of government, evolving to address and even facilitate the emergence of new social norms (such as the rights of women and minorities) or to provide remedies for emerging problems (such as pollution). Thus, there is no question that law can adapt, evolve, and be reformed to make room for adaptive governance. In doing this, not only may barriers be removed, but law may be adjusted to facilitate adaptive governance and to aid in institutionalizing new and emerging approaches to governance. The key is to do so in a way that also enhances legitimacy, accountability, and justice, or else such reforms will never be adopted by democratic societies, or if adopted, will destabilize those societies. By identifying those aspects of the frameworks for adaptive governance reviewed in the introduction to this special feature relevant to the legal system, we present guidelines for evaluating the role of law in environmental governance to identify the ways in which law can be used, adapted, and reformed to facilitate adaptive governance and to do so in a way that enhances the legitimacy of governmental action