February 2016

Inland fisheries determined to surface as food powerhouse

Feb. 9, 2016

No longer satisfied to be washed out by epic seas and vast oceans, the world’s lakes, rivers, streams, canals, reservoirs and other land-locked waters continue a push to be recognized – and properly managed – as a global food security powerhouse.

In an article today by Environmental Reviews, authors, which include six who are either currently affiliated with Michigan State University (MSU) and/or are alumni, offers the first global review of the value of inland fish and fisheries.

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New science helps put spotlight on unseen global impacts

Feb. 4, 2016

As the world grows more connected, “out of sight, out of mind” looms as a perilous consequence of globalization. A sustainability scholar presents an integrated way to track the many footprints that are made in global transactions in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment this month.

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Lesson 5: What happens in Wolong doesn’t stay in Wolong

Perhaps the most revelatory lesson from pandas and people is that the lessons hold even without pandas.

The truths learned from 20 years in Wolong resonate in other parts of the world, even if the particulars are different. Consider Nepal: Benign pandas inspire adoration, while Nepal’s tigers have their own fans, but with an element of fear.  Pandas, after all, eat only bamboo. Tigers, on occasion, attack people.

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Lesson 4: It’s a small world, after all

Words that describe the Wolong Nature Reserve:  Remote. Rural. Rustic.

Global.

Yep. Global works. Understanding how the flora and fauna in Wolong coexists with the people who live there offers a model with how that web of connection spans the globe.

In today’s world of hyper connectivity, “remote” isn’t so much anymore. Let’s talk about the pandas themselves: Between 2004 and 2010 alone, 63 Wolong pandas have been loaned to zoos in China and throughout the globe (you can see them in Washington, DC, and San Diego, CA). 

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Lesson 3: The only constant is change

Elegant policy carefully informed by good interdisciplinary science sounds like a dream ending, right?

Think again.

Wolong has taught us even successful policy really is just a lovely introduction to a new chapter of a coupled human and natural system. The real test comes in sticking with that situation to carefully monitor and continuing the research. It needs to be just the beginning of holistic relationship. 

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Lesson 2: Don’t just research stakeholders – think like them

Science is all about data points, but insight comes from not just doing research – but living it.

In Wolong, the research team has dissected what motivates people to act in the best interest of the environment and questions such as the role money plays in sustainability – when it motivates, when it doesn’t and when other things matter more.

Yet data alone does not fully give insight that helps strike a successful balance between people and the environment.

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Lesson 1: Humans + nature turns sustainability failure to success

Understanding coupled human and natural systems is key to sustainability – and holds the promise of recovery – from natural disasters like earthquakes to the ecological affronts of mismanagement and exploitation.

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New environmental observation methods see the forest for the trees

Feb. 1, 2016

A marriage has occurred in the remote forests of China that promises to unite two important forces to better inform the health and future of biodiversity. The union is reported in this week’s journal Ecological Indicators by Michigan State University (MSU) researchers.

The marriage is between powerful data – the big-picture spaceship view of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), which sweeps the Earth’s entire surface every one to two days, and Landsat, which focuses on smaller pieces of land, but only produces pictures every 16 days. 

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