August 7-12, 2005, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Densely populated rural, suburban and urban landscapes now cover nearly 15% of earth's land surface and their extent is increasing rapidly. Long-term ecological changes in these anthropogenic landscapes have global impacts on biogeochemical processes, climate and biodiversity that are coupled with regional and local water and air pollution, deforestation, and habitat loss. This symposium will characterize the global extent and ecological importance of anthropogenic landscapes and demonstrate a variety of multi-scale approaches toward the measurement and forecasting of long-term ecological changes across these landscapes around the world, including East Asia, Eastern Africa, Europe and North America. The session will focus special attention on measuring the global and regional impacts of changes in biogeochemical processes driven by household level decisions, including the use of fertilizers, biomass fuels, land clearing, tillage, grazing, construction, tree-planting and land abandonment.
Organizers:
Peter Verburg,
Wageningen University
Richard A. Houghton,
Woods Hole Research
Center
Speakers
08:00
Erle C. Ellis
Introduction
08:05
Smil, V. University of Manitoba, Canada.
The impact of local processes on global biogeochemical cycles
08:35
Houghton, R. A. The Woods Hole Research Center, USA.
The impacts of local and regional changes in land use on the global
carbon cycle
09:05
Foley, J. University of Wisconsin, USA.
Land use practices have negative, global-scale effects on ecosystem
services and human welfare
09:35: BREAK
09:50
Verburg, P. H. Wageningen University, Netherlands.
Scenario analysis of European scale changes in land use and its
impacts on landscape and biodiversity
10:15
van de STEEG, J. International Livestock Research
Institute, Nairobi, Kenya
Farming system dynamics as result of demographic change in the
densely populated highlands of Kenya
10:40
Ellis, E. C. University of Maryland, USA.
Linking local measurements with regional data to measure
long-term biogeochemical changes across China's densely populated
agricultural landscapes
11:05
Summary, Discussion & Synthesis. Ellis, Verburg, Houghton
11:30: ADJOURN
EV-18: Long-Term Ecological Changes across China’s Rural Landscapes
Time: Wednesday, August 10, 8 PM - 10 PM
Place: Meeting Rooms 516d-e, Level 5, Palais des congrès de Montréal
China’s ancient rural landscapes are undergoing
unprecedented ecological changes driven by
industrialization, population growth and economic
reform. This session will illustrate the local, regional,
and global consequences of these long-term
ecological changes based on four years of
international collaborative research at five field
sites across China. Researchers from across China will present
results from high-resolution landscape change
measurements, land manager interviews, and soil and
vegetation sampling. These results will then be integrated with
regional datasets to quantify the global impacts of
long-term changes across regions including the
adoption of chemical fertilizers and fossil fuels,
along with dramatic increases in perennial
vegetation cover and impervious surfaces. All ecologists are invited to interact
directly with field-seasoned Chinese researchers in
strengthening collaborations for ecological research
across the most extensive densely populated
ecosystems on earth.
Schedule:
8:00 - 8:15: Mixer
8:15 - 9:00: Informal presentation + questions
9:00 - 10:00: Poster mixer
Project Website:
http://ecotope.org/projects/china_2000