Welcome to the first meeting of Applied Ecology and Environmental Management

Maurizio Mencuccini m.mencuccini@ed.ac.uk

https://www.geos.ed.ac.uk/people/person.html?indv=556

Introduction
GeoSciences course (dont use BTO barcodes!) Course Secretary: Helen McKeating The class: Ecological Science plus Biological Sciences plus visiting students Pre-requisite courses: none, but ask if you need concepts explained The course booklet on WebCT read it! Other WebCT pages

Course team

Maurizio Mencuccini (Course Organiser) Alistair Hamilton (SAC) Alan Gray (CEH) Bronwen Whitney (Edinburgh University) Georgios Xenakis (Edinburgh University) Barbra Harvie Seven tutors Helen McKeating (Course Secretary)

What is the course about?

Aspects of ecological science underpinning effective management of land use systems
examples from forestry, nature conservation, park management, animal husbandry in temperate and tropical regions principles more widely applicable to particular contexts

Course aims and learning outcomes

Learning outcomes are listed in the course book (describe land use systems, predict
outputs, causes of sub-optimal performance, interventions required, explain processes)

Get you to do what professionals do: make predictions for real situations; how do I achieve a particular objective? If I do this, what will be the outcome?

Some characteristics of the course

Finding information, evaluating alternatives, applying it to particular circumstances Requires thinking and judgement in addition to expanding your knowledge So take notes but also: listen, debate, participate in group discussions Choice of tutorials, essay topic, reading

Field work
1. Arthurs Seat
opportunity to put things learned in the class into practice

2. Silverburn
revision exercise

Beecraigs Nature P
Park management

Vane Farm (RSPB)

Reserve management

Assessment
Coursework (50%) and degree exam (50%)
simple aggregation of marks

Anonymous marking so please do not put your name on your work Hand everything into Helen (Crew 211) for date stamping and bar coding (not the BTO barcodes) Send an electronic copy as well (Course Work Submission Boxes in WebCT) Will use software to check for plagiarism Normal lateness penalties and marking criteria for the essay; tutorial work must be on time

Coursework
Essay (25%): more details on Friday Tutorials (17%)
attend two (one for each set of three/four) sign up via WebCT (sign-up links) aim is to discuss a topic in depth with an expert summary document produced by you in advance and handed in for marking and feedback summary specification in the coursebook (pay close attention to them) not used for exam questions

Group presentation (8%)

Ecosystem services in mangroves

Degree Examination
Answer four questions from six Advice on exam preparation and technique at the end of the course

Exercise 1
Imagine that Scottish Natural Heritage has commissioned you to write a short book to explain to the general public the key ecological concepts necessary to understand nature conservation in Scotland

 Open a Word document

name: AEEM ex1 <groupname>.doc

List FIVE important concepts or processes that might form the basis of a section in the book
e.g. succession, food webs, habitats etc.

For ONE concept or process summarise the key messages in two or three sentences and give a good example Report back after 5 minutes

Discussion
Content Process What has been learned?

Why is it difficult to manage ecological systems effectively?

Systems are not fully deterministic
stochastic (probably chaotic) consequences of rare events

Constant change
climate, dispersal, human pressures

Not only a biological issue

economics social factors

What is the role of science in land management?

1) Reduce uncertainty in understanding natural systems
Application of knowledge in making policies / taking practical decisions Produce new knowledge (experimentation)

2) Dealing with uncertainty

Quantify uncertainties Scenarios Communicate uncertainty

Two other relevant concepts

1) Evidence-based policy
stress on experiments but the evidence base may be weak

Two other relevant concepts

2) Adaptive management (learning-by-doing)
stress on monitoring but changes may be too slow to detect if things are not proceeding to plan or stressed ecosystems may change suddenly

Science, experience and management

Coffee break!

Exercise 2: conceptual tools for resource management

Techniques an applied ecologist should be familiar with include:
phase 1 habitat survey indicators of biodiversity ecosystem water balance

Open another file and list other techniques that you could use (5 minutes)

Professional/subjectspecific/practical skills
Plant and animal identification Systematics and taxonomic keys Recognition of main types of plant communities Sampling schemes and experimental design Techniques for population census Design of field surveys Indicators of biodiversity Use of field instrumentation for ecological and environmental studies Measurement of air, soil and water pollution Soil and water sampling Habitat surveys Environmental Impact Assessment Design of management plans GIS Nature conservation Cost-benefit analysis

Some more tools

(a) Knowledge and understanding (b) Professional / subject-specific / practical skills (c) Cognitive skills (critical thinking, analysis
and synthesis, hypothesis testing, numerical competence, written, oral and visual competence)

(d) Transferable skills

Transferable skills
Oral and written communication Computer skills Graphical and numerical skills Information retrieval and database skills Leadership Teamwork Inter-personal skills self evaluation Problem formulation/solving skills Independent learning Statistical design and analysis Time management Organisational skills Project Management

Sustainability
Is sustainability a concept applicable to natural ecosystems?

Exercise 3: What causes a

management system or practice (including managing for wildlife) to become unsustainable?

Unsustainable management if:

outputs exceed inputs the environment becomes unfavourable
physical (soil, weather) biological (pathogens, invasive species)

there is catastrophic change (disease, flooding, soil erosion) lack of profitability (proximate vs ultimate cause)

Next session
Productivity and its variability Introduction to the essay
read the course booklet / website before then to identify the habitat or species you are going to write about