SYMP 9
Fostering Transdisciplinary Science to Meet 21st-Century Challenges: How Can Ecology Learn from the 'Science of Team Science'?

Tuesday, August 11, 2015: 1:30 PM-5:00 PM
309, Baltimore Convention Center
Organizer:
Sharon Kingsland
Moderator:
Ann Kinzig
The need to pursue ecological problems through transdisciplinary research has become urgent over the past 30 years due to the complexity of environmental problems. Recently a new field has emerged that focuses on the “Science of Team Science,” which studies when and why inter- and transdisciplinary science teams work together effectively. This field explores ways of enhancing research across disciplines by cultivating the integration of knowledge across areas of expertise, while fostering a climate of trust and communication that enables people from different disciplines to work together. Much of this literature has emerged in the context of biomedical or military sciences, but there are obvious applications to ecology, where a key goal is to build a scholarly foundation for solving problems that possess both social and environmental challenges. This symposium aims to inform ESA members of some of the findings of this new field and to open dialogue about how these findings might be used to strengthen ecology. We also explore new types of institutions that foster transdisciplinary research. After a historical overview that highlights the lessons of the past, the symposium focuses on innovative transdisciplinary research directions, insights emerging from the “science of team science,” current and future challenges in ecology, and case studies illustrating transdisciplinary approaches. The symposium is sponsored by the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center, Annapolis, Maryland.
2:00 PM
Ecologists accelerating discovery: Ecological synthesis paves the way to transdisciplinary socio-environmental synthesis
Margaret A. Palmer, University of Maryland; Jonathan Kramer, National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center; James Boyd, Resources for the Future
2:30 PM
Supporting team science by coordinating cognition across levels of analysis
Stephen M. Fiore, University of Central Florida
3:00 PM
3:10 PM
3:40 PM
The social ecology of community resistance to environmental injustice: The case of Val Verde, California
Daniel Stokols, University of California - Irvine; Raul P. Lejano, New York University
4:10 PM
The biological and socio-economic consequences of alternative land management practices in central Kenya: A conceptual framework and early results
Brian F. Allan, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Heather Tallis, The Nature Conservancy; Rebecca Chaplin-Kramer, Stanford University; Steven Huckett, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; Virginia A. Kowal, Ecological Services and Markets, Inc.; Jessica Musengezi, The Nature Conservancy; Sharon Okanga, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; Richard S. Ostfeld, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies; Steve Polasky, University of Minnesota; Jennifer Schieltz, Princeton University; Spencer A. Wood, University of Washington; Felicia Keesing, Bard College
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