Conservation and restoration in a changing climate – complexity, resilience and restoring forwards

Jim Harris, Professor of Environmental Technology, Cranfield Environment Centre.

Wednesday 20th November, 1-2pm, Cottrell LT 2V1 and streamed on Teams (if the link does not work for you contact tony.robertson[a]stir.ac.uk). This seminar is open to all staff, students and affiliates of the University of Stirling. The seminar is hosted by Biological and Environmental Sciences (BES).

Title: Conservation and restoration in a changing climate – complexity, resilience and restoring forwards

Who this might appeal to: This is a broad presentation, with a strong theme of conceptual understanding and the philosophy of understanding land use change and management, utilising many of the tools and approaches utilised in the various cognate areas across the Department. As such I would hope that it would have a wide appeal.

Abstract: Climate change is moving the biophysical envelope all over the planet – and some species cannot keep up, being deeply embedded in those systems – we are moving swiftly from Red Queen to Court Jester environments, and we need to adapt management to suit.  Current approaches, such as management for one or a few species in a SSSI, or as part of a landscape character designation, may appear to produce resistant communities in a location for now, but in the longer term are more likely to induce fragility and potential collapse.  We should consider the role of diversity and complexity in all ecosystem components (abiotic and biotic) to sustain system function and provide emergent properties, particularly resilience.  We may have to consider that for some systems we accept shifting community structures in terms of which species flourish where, producing novel assemblages with the same ecosystem interdependencies – “same play, different actors”. We can ask: Is the system maturing, or capable of maturing, along a stable trajectory? Is the system resistant and resilient? Is the system providing ecosystem goods and services? Is it providing a safe space for species to thrive in response to climate change? Time to consider an ecosystems protection policy? Should we be engaged in a triage process due to limited resources? In this rapidly changing environment we need to bring flexibility to bear, adopting a “Principles and Guidelines” approach, rather than an adherence to Standards and species lists.

Bio: Jim is a systems ecologist interested in system complexity, function, and emergent properties – particularly resilience and how the principles learned from ecology can be applied to the “Five Capitals” of our socio-ecological system.  His work on defining and assessing soil health via measurement of biological, physical and chemical properties has been widely adopted. Although principally working in restoration ecology and ecosystem services research, he has focused on soil microbial ecology in relation to ecosystem processes across the land use spectrum, from natural systems through urban and agricultural, his interests are wide. This work has advanced our understanding of the effects of land management practices, provided better tools for assessing ecosystem status, and ecological restoration programmes aimed at enhancing natural capital to achieve net environmental gain. He has applied this particularly in the assessment and treatment of degraded systems, ecological restoration, quantitative assessment of ecosystem goods and services, and has pioneered work on catabolic profiling and the thermodynamics of soil microbial communities. His work has been funded by, NERC, BBSRC and EPSRC, local and central government, and industrial clients, including YARA, Systemiq and UKWRIP. He is Science Champion for CLIMATE SHAKE a programme supporting entrepreneurs in agriculture working to net zero and sustainability. He has worked extensively at national and international level in policy development: he has acted as Scientific Adviser to the UK Defra group at IPBES meetings in Colombia, Rome, and Bonn; a Lead Author in the IPBES Report on Land Degradation and Restoration; and past Chair of the International Society for Ecological Restoration.