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Dale, Virginia H

Publications and source records attributed to Dale, Virginia H.

6 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2017

Ensuring that ecological science contributes to natural resource management using a Delphi-derived approach

This chapter approaches participatory modeling in environmental decision making from an atypical perspective. It broadly addresses the question of how to assure that science conducted to assist practitioners improves resource management. More specifically, it describes a case involving environmental science and natural resource management at Fort Benning, a U.S. Army installation in the southeastern United States where disparate environmental research projects were funded by a single federal agency to enhance the ability of Fort Benning resource managers to achieve their resource management goals. The role of our effort was to integrate the scientific studies in a manner that would be meaningful and useful for resource managers. Hence we assembled a team consisting of an anthropologist, ecologist, microbiologist, statistician, and geographic information systems specialist who developed a common framework that served as the basis for this integration. The team first used a Delphi expert elicitation, which evolved into an approach more akin to facilitated negotiation. This second approach arose organically, particularly when our team took advantage of an opportunity for face-to-face interaction. Although the shift in our approach was unplanned, it proved to be highly productive. We discuss the potential utility of our approach for other situations and suggest that it would be useful to initiate at the beginning of research where the aim is to produce scientific results that meet practitioners needs, specifically in the realm of environmental science and resource management.

Delphi approach↗
DOE OSTI2015

Climate change and the future of natural disturbances in the central hardwood region

The spatial patterns and ecological processes of the southeastern upland hardwood forests have evolved to reflect past climatic conditions and natural disturbance regimes. Changes in climate can lead to disturbances that exceed their natural range of variation, and the impacts of these changes will depend on the vulnerability or resiliency of these ecosystems. Global Circulation Models generally project annual increases in temperature across the southeastern United States over the coming decades, but changes in precipitation are less consistent. Even more unclear is how climate change might affect future trends in the severity and frequency of natural disturbances, such as severe storms, fires, droughts, floods, and insect outbreaks. Here, we use a time-series satellite data record to map the spatial pattern and severity of broad classes of natural disturbances the southeast region. The data derived from this map allow analysis of regional-scale trends in natural and anthropogenic disturbances in the region over the last three decades. Throughout the region, between 5% and 25% of forest land is affected by some sort of disturbance each year since 1985. The time series reveals periodic droughts that themselves are widespread and of low severity but are associated with more localized, high-severity disturbances such as fire and insect outbreaks. The map also reveals extensive anthropogenic disturbance across the region in the form of forest conversion related to resource extraction and urban and residential development. We discuss how changes in climate and disturbance regimes might affect southeastern forests in the future via altering the exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity of these ecosystems. Changes in climate are highly likely to expose southeastern forests to more frequent and severe disturbances, but ultimately how vulnerable or resilient southeastern forests are to these changes will depend on their sensitivity and capacity to adapt to these novel conditions.

Dale, Virginia H↗
DOE OSTI2014

Take a Closer Look:Biofuels Can Support Environmental, Economic and Social Goals

The US Congress passed the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) seven years ago. Since then, biofuels have gone from darling to scapegoat for many environmentalists, policy makers, and the general public. The reasons for this shift are complex and include concerns about environmental degradation, uncertainties about impact on food security, new access to fossil fuels, and overly optimistic timetables. As a result, many people have written off biofuels. However, numerous studies indicate that biofuels, if managed sustainably, can help solve pressing environmental, social and economic problems (Figure 1). The scientific and policy communities should take a closer look by reviewing the key assumptions underlying opposition to biofuels and carefully consider the probable alternatives. Liquid fuels based on fossil raw materials are likely to come at increasing environmental cost. Sustainable futures require energy conservation, increased efficiency, and alternatives to fossil fuels, including biofuels.

Dale, Bruce E.↗
DOE OSTI2014

Ecological Principles and Guidelines for Managing the Use of Land

The many ways that people have used and managed land throughout history has emerged as a primary cause of land-cover change around the world. Thus, land use and land management increasingly represent a fundamental source of change in the global environment. Despite their global importance, however, many decisions about the management and use of land are made with scant attention to ecological impacts. Thus, ecologists' knowledge of the functioning of Earth's ecosystems is needed to broaden the scientific basis of decisions on land use and management. In response to this need, the Ecological Society of America established a committee to examine the ways that land-use decisions are made and the ways that ecologists could help inform those decisions. This paper reports the scientific findings of that committee. Five principles of ecological science have particular implications for land use and can assure that fundamental processes of Earth's ecosystems are sustained. These ecological principles deal with time, species, place, dis- turbance, and the landscape. The recognition that ecological processes occur within a temporal setting and change over time is fundamental to analyzing the effects of land use. In addition, individual species and networks of interacting species have strong and far-reaching effects on ecological processes. Furthermore, each site or region has a unique set of organisms and abiotic conditions influencing and constraining ecological processes. Distur- bances are important and ubiquitous ecological events whose effects may strongly influence population, com- munity, and ecosystem dynamics. Finally, the size, shape, and spatial relationships of habitat patches on the landscape affect the structure and function of ecosystems. The responses of the land to changes in use and management by people depend on expressions of these fundamental principles in nature. These principles dictate several guidelines for land use. The guidelines give practical rules of thumb for incorporating ecological principles into land-use decision making. These guidelines suggest that land managers should: (1) examine impacts of local decisions in a regional context, (2) plan for long-term change and unexpected events, (3) preserve rare landscape elements and associated species, (4) avoid land uses that deplete natural resources, (5) retain large contiguous or connected areas that contain critical habitats, (6) minimize the intro- duction and spread of nonnative species, (7) avoid or compensate for the effects of development on ecological processes, and (8) implement land-use and management practices that are compatible with the natural potential of the area. Decision makers and citizens are encouraged to consider these guidelines and to include ecological per- spectives in choices on how land is used and managed. The guidelines suggest actions required to develop the science needed by land managers.

Ecology↗