Scientific update
Scientific achievements
Guiding production and consumption choices that are consistent across scales and compatible with maintaining equitable access to multiple global ecosystem services is a scientific challenge that ESM is uniquely positioned to address. Its cluster of citizen science and modularly linked, land-resource assessment tools has provided vital advances for science as well as assistance to policymakers around the world.
In 2015, ESM research has addressed a diverse range of topics. Highlights include work on nutrient dynamics and their impacts on agricultural systems, which were investigated under ESM’s IMBALANCE-P project, as well as by teams using the IIASA model EPIC. ESM also contributed to an Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services report, a substantial body of work entitled: Policy support tools and methodologies for scenario analysis and modeling of biodiversity and ecosystem services based on a fast track assessment and a guide.
Agro-Environmental Systems
The Ecosystems Services and Management (ESM) Program’s Agro-Ecological Systems (AES) group worked to advance global and regional gridded crop modeling, investigating the impacts of future climate change and nutrient depletion. The vulnerability of crop production to climate change was a key focus for the group. More
Earth Observation Systems
The Ecosystems Services and Management (ESM) Program’s Earth Observation Systems (EOS) group has extended its work in harnessing the power of citizen science, modeling the effects of climate change on urban areas, and assessing forest carbon budgets. More
Environmental Resources and Development
The Ecosystems Services and Management (ESM) Program’s Environmental Resources and Development (ERD) group have applied stochastic GLOBIOM to examine the trade-offs between vital land-use factors, such as food and water security. Land use is also at the forefront of their work helping policymakers to develop viable strategies for implementing Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) policies. More
Methods for Economic Decision-Making under Uncertainty
The Methods for Economic Decision-Making under Uncertainty (MEDU) group, part of Ecosystems Services and Management (ESM), was involved in a number of assessments of the potential for emissions reductions from land use, land-use change, and forestry. More
Policy and Science Interface
The Ecosystems Services and Management (ESM) Program’s Policy and Science Interface (PSI) group aims to strengthen the role played by the ESM research program within the field of climate and land-use change. More
Research program