Participant Costs: Building Global Ecological Understanding

University Of Delaware, Newark DE

Investigators

Abstract

Abstract Many problems societies face are increasingly regional to global in scope. Problems such as droughts, floods, and disease in one part of the world can have far reaching health and economic impacts on other regions. Understanding the relationship and linkages require an understanding of global scale biological processes and dynamics. International networks and "Observatories" have been emerging that could play a significant role in providing valuable data and expertise to develop this understanding. This workshop will bring together Observatory and Network scientists with the overarching goal of developing a road-map to explore a network-of-networks and observatory-of-observatories approach to answer regional to global ecological questions. The workshop will explore: i) what are the current ecological theories and grand challenge questions that span continents in order to provide a broader ecological understanding and prognostic capability to inform science and society; ii) how can Observatories/Networks be used to address among continent (global) grand challenges, iii) what attributes can be integrated among Observatories/Networks to foster a broader understanding; and iv) which are the near term strategic targets that should be followed by the scientific community. The workshop will identify related societal needs and benefits and how these networks/observatories can contribute data, knowledge and forecasts. The workshop will focus on ecological contribution of Observatories/Networks to societal benefits areas including: agriculture, biodiversity, climate, ecosystems, water, and weather.