The Four-Dimensional Ecology Education (4DEE) framework expands upon traditional ecology education by acknowledging the importance to ecological research of computational skills, data acquisition and management, human-environment interactions, and cross-scale interactions, among other skills and concepts. Meanwhile, ecologists also are increasingly called upon to conduct translational and community-engaged research that has broader impacts for society. A challenge for educators is to devise ecology graduate programs that combine all of these aspects with core ecological concepts and practices in a way that is meaningful and impactful, while acknowledging constraints imposed by academic calendars and multiple demands on students’ time. The Climate Adaptation Science program at Utah State University, administered by the school’s Ecology Center, represents an attempt to weave together these critical, though seemingly disparate, elements into graduate education. In this presentation we offer as examples three student projects that encompass a range of data types, data sources, and analytical techniques to address real-world challenges in social-ecological systems, and to share their insights with relevant stakeholders.
Results/Conclusions
The Climate Adaptation Science (CAS) program prepares graduate researchers for careers that integrate science, management, and policy to advance climate-adaptive solutions for landscapes on the western United States. It incorporates coursework in communication, leadership, and other “soft skills”; regular interactions with agency, NGO, and industry scientists; and mentored internships that address climate change issues. In the second year of the program, students collaborate to define, execute, and disseminate research that advances understanding of an aspect of climate adaptation science. In 2019-20, the projects focused on: a climate-adapted stewardship plan for a Native American cultural site that seeks to restore culturally important landscape elements that had been lost due to European-American settlement; an analysis of climate drivers of and local concerns about water availability for cannabis in a region cultivation is economically important; and an assessment of how climate change combined with beliefs and behaviors of national forest users is likely to affect habitat management for a sensitive species, Northern Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis). The projects involved ecological, hydrologic, and climatological modeling along with social data-gathering using a variety of methods from ethnography to surveys to textual analysis. The resulting process is both challenging and rewarding for students while producing valuable information for land management agency and tribal cooperators.