CAM Colloquium - Alan Hastings: Using Mathematics to Conserve and Sustain

Friday, December 4, 2015

CAM Notable Alumni Lecture Series

Driven by human forces, there are great challenges to maintain environmental systems and environmental services. Environmental management depends on predictions of the results of management actions which must also be made in the context of limited resources and in the face of conflicting desires of participants. I will begin with an overview of several challenging issues in environmental management including invasive species, fisheries management, and the provision of other ecosystem services. I will emphasize how prediction and management on appropriate time scales depends on relatively simple mathematical descriptions that incorporate relevant ecological and economic details. I will focus on several particular challenging systems that illustrate the general principles: algal-coral-grazer systems and the maintenance of healthy reefs and control of invasive species.