The big ecological questions inhibiting effective environmental management in Australia
The big ecological questions inhibiting effective environmental management in Australia
复制标题
DOI：
10.1111/j.1442-9993.2008.01938.x
复制
发表时间：
2009-02-01
期刊：
影响因子：
1.5
通讯作者：
Woinarski, J. C. Z.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Morton, S. R.;Hoegh-Guldberg, O.;Woinarski, J. C. Z.
澳大利亚迫切需要改善环境管理，因为人类健康、福祉和社会稳定最终都依赖于维持生命的生态过程。生态科学可以为这一努力提供信息，但当社会和经济问题复杂时，人们倾向于等待科学提供答案，然后再采取行动。越来越多的管理者和政策制定者将被要求利用科学知识的现状，为基于不完善知识的行动提供合理的推论。因此，一个挑战是更有效地利用现有的生态知识；第二个挑战是解决尚未回答的关键生态问题。与知识不是政策制定和管理的主要障碍的领域不同，本文确定了环境管理的领域，这些领域因科学无法回答基本问题而受到严重阻碍。在本文确定的22个大问题中，超过一半与气候变化直接相关。其中几个问题涉及我们对海洋系统动力学的有限了解。已经有足够的信息可用于制定有效的政策和管理，以解决几个重大的生态问题。我们敦促生态学家在与政策制定者和土地管理者的对话中更好地利用现有知识。由于挑战是巨大的，生态学家将越来越多地利用广泛的其他学科来帮助确定通向可持续未来的道路。
The need to improve environmental management in Australia is urgent because human health, well-being and social stability all depend ultimately on maintenance of life-supporting ecological processes. Ecological science can inform this effort, but when issues are socially and economically complex the inclination is to wait for science to provide answers before acting. Increasingly, managers and policy-makers will be called on to use the present state of scientific knowledge to supply reasonable inferences for action based on imperfect knowledge. Hence, one challenge is to use existing ecological knowledge more effectively; a second is to tackle the critical unanswered ecological questions. This paper identifies areas of environmental management that are profoundly hindered by an inability of science to answer basic questions, in contrast to those areas where knowledge is not the major barrier to policy development and management. Of the 22 big questions identified herein, more than half are directly related to climate change. Several of the questions concern our limited understanding of the dynamics of marine systems. There is enough information already available to develop effective policy and management to address several significant ecological issues. We urge ecologists to make better use of existing knowledge in dialogue with policy-makers and land managers. Because the challenges are enormous, ecologists will increasingly be engaging a wide range of other disciplines to help identify pathways towards a sustainable future.