Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability

• Deforestation in Madagascar: Debates over the island's forest cover and challenges of measuring forest change

  Published on March 20, 2014
  This chapter investigates measurements of forest cover and its change on the island, and focuses attention on the technical challenges and social context of that scientific effort.

• Morphology and life history of the Great Slave Lake ciscoes (Salmoniformes: Coregoninae)

  Published on March 11, 2014
  The ciscoes (Salmoniformes: Coregoninae) have radiated into complexes of closely related species, life history types, and ecological variants

• Impact of Livestock on Giant Pandas and their Habitat

  Published on February 27, 2014
  We investigated the impact of an emerging livestock sector in China's renowned Wolong Nature Reserve for giant pandas.

• Natural recovery and restoration in giant panda habitat after the Wenchuan earthquake

  Published on February 24, 2014
  Natural disasters affect forest ecosystems in profound and complex ways.

• A meta-analysis investigation of the direction of the energy-GDP causal relationship: implications for the growth-degrowth dialogue

  Published on February 20, 2014
  The present study traces the implications of the Energy-GDP causality dialogue for the context of the growth-degrowth debate, where the energy-development link plays a decisive role

• Predation by alewife on lake trout fry emerging from laboratory reefs: Estimation of fry survival and assessment of predation potential

  Published on February 18, 2014
  This study tested the prediction that fry showing typical swimming and avoidance behavior over artificial reefs will differ in survival when alewives are present versus when alewives are absent.

• POPULATION AND ENVIRONMENT - Long­term dynamics of household size and their environmental implications

  Published on February 11, 2014
  Little is known about the environmental implications of long-term historical trends in household size

• Assessing the Effectiveness of Payments for Ecosystem Services: an Agent-Based Modeling Approach

  Published on January 31, 2014
  To assess the impacts of these interactions on the effectiveness of PES programs, we developed a spatially explicit agent-based model: human and natural interactions under policies (HANIP).

• Evaluating Conservation Effectiveness of Nature Reserves Established for Surrogate Species: Case of a Giant Panda Nature Reserve in Qinling Mountains, China

  Published on January 13, 2014
  Many nature reserves are established to protect the habitat needs of particular endangered species of interest but their effectiveness for protecting other species is questionable.

• ASIA AND THE PACIFIC POLICY STUDIES -- Forest Sustainability in China and Implications for a Telecoupled World

  Published on December 19, 2013
  Using the framework of telecoupling we found that China’s forest cover increase is affected by multiple telecoupling processes and their interactions with each other and with other factors.

• The Housing Bomb: Why Our Addiction to Houses Is Destroying the Environment and Threatening Our Society

  Published on November 15, 2013
  Explaining how and why our growing addiction to houses has taken the humble American dream and twisted it into an environmental and societal nightmare.

• Operationalizing sustainability in urban coastal systems: A system dynamics analysis

  Published on November 12, 2013
  We propose a system dynamics approach for Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD) in urban coastal systems

• Assessing spatiotemporal changes in tiger habitat across different land management regimes

  Published on October 18, 2013
  Human-induced habitat loss and degradation are increasing the extinction probability of many wildlife species worldwide, thus protecting habitat is crucial.

• Traits associated with drought survival in three Australian tropical rainforest seedlings

  Published on October 4, 2013
  Drought affects the distribution of plant species in tropical forests and will likely increase under climate change.

• An assessment of invasion risk from assisted migration

  Published on October 4, 2013
  To reduce the risk of extinction due to climate change, some ecologists have suggested human-aided translocation of species, or assisted migration (AM), to areas where climate is projected to become suitable.

• WINNER: One Fish, Two Fish, Where Fish for Whitefish?

  Published on September 28, 2013
  My dissertation research is developing a decision-support tool to ensure that the fish, the fishery, and the livelihoods dependent upon them remain sustainable in the face of climate change.

• Integrated assessments of payments for ecosystem services programs

  Published on September 26, 2013
  Using the Paddy Land to Dry Land (PLDL) program as a case study, Zheng et al. (1) quantify benefits and costs to both service providers and beneficiaries.

• Complex Forces Affect China's Biodiversity

  Published on September 19, 2013
  Enormous global efforts have been put into biodiversity conservation, but biodiversity loss continues rapidly in many parts of the world, including China

• A low-carbon road map for China

  Published on August 13, 2013
  Recycling, renewables and a reinvigorated domestic energy market will allow China to lead the world in cutting emissions.

• Bringing values and deliberation to science communication

  Published on August 13, 2013
  Decisions always involve both facts and values, whereas most science communication focuses only on facts. If science communication is intended to inform decisions, it must be competent with regard to both facts and values