For over three decades, the Ecological Society of America has proactively addressed demands to develop citizens who are ecologically literate and able to solve real-world environmental problems. Defining basic ecological literacy has been difficult because ecology is interdisciplinary, is rapidly changing, and is influenced by ecologically idiosyncratic views (Klemow 1991). Berkowitz and others (1997) followed ESA President Paul Risser’s 1986 lead by posing a framework for K-12 ecoliteracy criteria that incorporated how science works with our understanding of natural processes and systems within an integrated framework of human culture and public policy. In the ensuing two decades, several other attempts have been made to define ecological literacy, though none have gained universal acceptance. In 2013-2014, members of ESA’s Committee for Diversity and Education (CDE) formed a Fundamental Ecology Concepts Task Force that convened six meetings of diverse environmental professionals to develop and, with feedback from the ESA Board of Professional Certification and the broader ESA community, refine the proposed framework (http://www.esa.org/4DEE).
Results/Conclusions
The results of the ESA’s Fundamental Ecology Concepts Task Force’s efforts include the Four Dimensional Ecology Education (4DEE) framework, intended for introductory ecology courses, as well as an outline version and definitions that follow a “traditionally organized” hierarchy in ecology. It leads students to integrate ecological knowledge across four dimensions: fundamental concepts regarding biotic/abiotic, population, community and ecosystem phenomena and processes; cross-cutting themes such as evolution, biogeography, natural history, systems and scale; the human dimension including human impact, ecosystem services, ethics, management and restoration, and skills and practices such as field identification, statistics and data analysis, bibliographic, computer and research design skills. At this ESA annual meeting the Task Force will also engage ESA leadership and membership in special and organized oral sessions on how the 4DEE framework compares to today’s practices. Further discussion on how to implement and evaluate the integrative learning necessary to meet the demands of the environmental workforce is ongoing and will be highlighted with case studies aligned to the 4DEE framework. We will also discuss how the 4DEE framework addresses recent ESA membership opinions on skills and traits that ecology graduates should have (Reiners et al 2013) and how it can facilitate developing a diverse environmental workforce (Hansen et al 2018).