Vanderpool, C.K., M. Rao, T. Yamaguchi, E. Wolff, C. Harris, L. Geason, and M. McCoy
Presented at the Campus Symposium (2001-04-19 )
An integrated model of agricultural and natural resource ecosystems requires a multidisciplinary systems approach which studies the points of interaction between natural and social systems. Key points of integration within various natural and social ecosystems include chemical, biological, geomorphological, and human dimensions. Both natural and social systems have histories and the essence of long term ecological research is to mark changes in agricultural and natural ecosystems. Human dimensions that have long term impacts on these ecosystems are explored at both a micro and a macro level. At the micro level, the understanding that farmers have of agro-ecological processes are related to their management of land. The farmer is seen as embodying: 1) the imperatives of culture of the local community, 2) the incentive structure by agricultural institutions, and 3) the constraints imposed by the social organization of agriculture. These factors from the farm impact the agroecosystem through the farm operator’s decision-making about the farm.
Social dimensions are demographic (population size, distribution, migration); Economic (markets, division of labor, capital growth); Cultural (norms, values, knowledge); Social structural (networks and relationships, power structures, inequality).
At the macro level, we explore how historical patterns of global environmental change in agricultural and natural resources are impacted by long term transformations in the complex interactions among demographic, economic, socio-cultural, and legal changes and the environment. Changes in property rights, worldviews that consider resources as unlimited, and short-term economic logic produce adverse impacts on the ecosystem. Sustainability requires the emergence of conservation ethics that follow a longer -term economic logic, which asserts the rights of whole communities to take responsibility over the environment. Shifting social trends interact with each other and with changes in landscape and land use, water quality, and natural resources issues. The results are increasing conflicts and debates over public or private control over the environment, its resources, and their development and management. These complex interactions are approached in a set of conceptual models defining the human dimensional impacts on global environmental change and key points of integration between natural and social systems.
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