Ecosystem Function in Heterogeneous Landscapes: The Tenth Cary Conference, April 28-May 2, 2003

该奖项将为题为“异质景观中的生态系统功能”的会议提供部分支持。这次会议将是卡里会议系列中的第十次，该系列会议为讨论生态和生态系统科学领域的前沿问题提供了一个论坛。本次会议将探讨景观中的空间异质性及其对生态系统功能的影响。这一主题是重要的和及时的，因为现在要求生态学家在景观、区域和全球范围内解决环境问题，尽管大多数生态研究是在小得多的范围内进行的。扩大规模需要对景观或区域中不同生态系统之间的相互作用做出假设，但生态系统生态学家从未系统地探索过这些相互作用的基本性质。会议将汇集约90名科学家组成的不同小组，在为期三天的集中讨论中讨论这一问题，这些主题包括如何处理其他学科的空间异质性，比较各种生态系统类型中空间异质性的重要性，考虑异质性是重要的环境问题，以及为未来确定共同的研究议程。大会的形式将在全体会议、讨论小组和个人之间的一对一互动中促进广泛的思考和深入的讨论。这次会议旨在通过在一个棘手的概念问题上取得进展，包括一群不同的演讲者和受邀者，并出版一本可用于培训下一代生态学家的书籍，在生态学领域产生广泛影响。

This award will provide partial support for a conference entitled "Ecosystem Function in Heterogeneous Landscapes." The conference will be the tenth in the Cary Conference series, which provides a forum for discussion of leading-edge issues in the field of ecology and ecosystem science. This conference will explore spatial heterogeneity within landscapes and its consequences for ecosystem function. This topic is important and timely because ecologists are now asked to address environmental issues on landscape, regional and global scales, even though most ecological research is performed on much smaller scales. Scaling up requires assumptions about the interactions among different ecosystems in the landscape or region, but ecosystem ecologists have never systematically explored the fundamental nature of those interactions. The conference will bring together a diverse group of about 90 scientists to consider this issue in three days of focused discussion on topics such as the treatment of spatial heterogeneity in other disciplines, comparison of the importance of spatial heterogeneity in various ecosystem types, environmental issues in which the consideration of heterogeneity is important, and defining a common research agenda for the future. The format of the conference will promote broad thinking and in-depth discussion in plenary sessions, discussion groups and one-on-one interactions among individuals. The conference is intended to have a broad impact in ecology by making progress on a difficult conceptual issue, including a diverse group of speakers and invitees, and producing a book that can be used to train the next generation of ecologists.