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In this lecture, Dr. Whendee Silver presents an overview of the focus and some key currencies used in the field of ecosystems science. She defines ecosystem ecology as the study of both the organisms and the abiotic environment, and interactions between them, in an area defined by the strength of the connections between components of the system. She notes that ecosystem ecology focuses on stocks, pools, and flows of the basic components of life, energy and nutrients. She uses the example of the carbon cycle as one physical process that is conceptualized and measured within ecosystem ecology, and one that has contemporary relevance in the context of understanding the impacts of global climate change. She notes that the conceptualization of cycles and impacts in ecosystem ecology functions at the human time scale, rather than the geologic time scale, in part because of measurement and data issues.
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About the Presenters
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Whendee Silver
Dr. Whendee Silver is the Rudy Grah Chair and Professor of Ecosystem Ecology and Biogeochemistry in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at the University of California, Berkeley. She received her PhD in Ecosystem Ecology from Yale University. Her work seeks to determine the biogeochemical effects of climate change and human impacts on the environment, and the potential for mitigating these effects. The Silver Lab is currently working on drought and hurricane impacts on tropical forests, climate change mitigation potential of grasslands, and greenhouse gas dynamics...
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Whendee Silver
Dr. Whendee Silver is the Rudy Grah Chair and Professor of Ecosystem Ecology and Biogeochemistry in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at the University of California, Berkeley. She received her PhD in Ecosystem Ecology from Yale University. Her work seeks to determine the biogeochemical effects of climate change and human impacts on the environment, and the potential for mitigating these effects. The Silver Lab is currently working on drought and hurricane impacts on tropical forests, climate change mitigation potential of grasslands, and greenhouse gas dynamics of peatlands and wetlands. Whendee is the lead scientist of the Marin Carbon Project, which is determining the potential for land-based climate change mitigation, particularly by composting high-emission organic waste for soil amendments to sequester atmospheric carbon dioxide. The Silver Lab was awarded the Innovation Prize by the American Carbon Registry (2015) for this work. Professor Silver is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union, the Ecological Society of America, and is a Kavli Fronteirs of Science Fellow.
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Supporting Materials
Presentation slides:
DocumentReading list:
Chapin, F.S. III, Pamela A. Matson and Peter M. Vitousek. “The Ecosystem Concept” in Principles of Terrestrial Ecosystem Ecology 3-22. New York: Springer, 2011. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9504-9
Presenters
Whendee Silver, University of California, Berkeley
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