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Conference on Long-term Ecology in Habitat Management
18-19th January 2010, University of Stirling, Scotland
Registration has now closed Programme Travel info & venue map (Iris Murdoch Building)
One area of ecology which has received relatively little attention in recent critical reviews of the evidence-base or in horizon-scanning exercises is time: many ecosystem processes and population dynamics operate over timescales far in excess of ecological datasets, which are commonly <10 yrs duration and rarely span 50 yrs. As a result, conventional monitoring systems may not provide sufficient information to reveal existing trends, the role of disturbance regimes in maintaining desired systems or the drivers influencing ecosystem function.
Over the past 15-20 years, a growing number of papers have described the potential contributions from palaeoecology and other long-term (>decadal) records to conservation, biodiversity and habitat management. They advocate the value of long-term ecological and environmental insights for setting baselines and restoration targets, understanding what shapes biodiversity and how ecosystems respond to climate change, establishing the impacts of long-term processes on genetic composition and implications of land-use legacies for current habitat composition and resilience. However, the use of long-term sources is far from commonplace in management or policy-making. Why is this?
- How do we overcome differences in conference & publishing agendas between palaeoecologists, ecologists & practitioners which tend to maintain communication barriers?
- Do we need to tailor research questions to practitioner’s needs better?
- How can we develop methods for translating long-term evidence into meaningful formats that allow knowledge exchange without losing detail or uncertainty?
- Do we need more networks to connect these groups? The ‘Bridging the Gap’ network is one of few.
This conference aims to bring together scientists who use long-term sources covering a variety of timescales, with ecologists and practitioners to encourage greater exchange of views on the theme of long-term ecology, environmental and land-use history in policy and management. The meeting will be structured around ‘revisiting’ studies, looking back over c.50 years of ecological recording, centennial and millennial studies to reflect the wide variety of spatial and temporal scales over which environmental processes and ecological responses occur.
- Are you involved in a long-term study which is influencing practice or being carried out in partnership with practitioners and ecologists?
- Can you offer insights into what approaches are effective or counter-productive in translating long-term datasets into forms that are more accessible and relevant to ecology, conservation or management?
- Can you offer an ecologist’s or practitioner’s perspective to long-term work that deals with a theme of current conservation or management concern?
Registration costs £28 (both days) or £14 (single day): this includes a conference pack, lunch and tea/coffee. The conference dinner will be held on 18th January at a cost of £20 per head.
Contact Dr. Althea Davies, School of Biological & Environmental Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling, Scotland FK9 4LA (a.l.davies@stirling.ac.uk or +44 (0)1786 467810) for more information.
The meeting is funded by the joint UK-Research Councils ‘Rural Economy and Land-Use’ (RELU) programme, in collaboration with the ‘Bridging the Gap’ network, established by Dr Jane Bunting (University of Hull) and Dr. Nicki Whitehouse (Queens University Belfast)
