Ecological Foundations of Sustainability in a Constantly Changing World workshop to be held during 2007, Woods Hole, Massachusetts

生态知识的应用对于实现地球生命支持系统的长期可持续性至关重要。在定义可持续发展的社会、经济和政治层面方面取得了很大进展，但很少有人尝试将最近在生态学方面的进展纳入可持续发展中。该项目将审查这些进展如何有助于实现可持续性。美国生态学会(ESA)2007年年会将举办一个关于在不断变化的世界中可持续发展的生态学基础的研讨会，发表研讨会论文，并对ESA在生态学方面的问题做出贡献。这项工作的更广泛的意义在于它对扩大生态学家和社会科学家之间关于可持续发展的交流的影响。该项目还包括计划由欧空局、环境问题科学委员会和联合国教育、科学及文化组织主办的一次关于可持续发展的重要国际会议。该项目的总体科学重要性在于，鉴于生态学基本理论最近取得的重大进展，对可持续性的生态学基础进行审查是及时和必要的。这将帮助生态学家有效地将基础生态学应用于环境、经济和政治可持续性的关键问题。

Application of ecological knowledge is essential to achievement of long-term sustainability of the earth's life support systems. There has been great progress in defining the social, economic, and political dimensions of sustainability, but there have been few attempts to incorporate recent advances in ecology into sustainability. This project will examine how those advances can contribute to the achievement of sustainability. A workshop on Ecological Foundations of Sustainability in a Constantly Changing World will be held, followed by a symposium at the Ecological Society of America's (ESA) 2007 annual meeting, publication of the symposium papers, and a contribution to ESA's Issues in Ecology.The broader significance of this work is its effect on expanding communication about sustainability between ecologists and social scientists. The project also includes planning a major international meeting on sustainability, sponsored by ESA, the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment, and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. The general scientific importance of the project is that a review of the ecological foundations of sustainability is timely and needed, given recent major advances in fundamental ecological theory. This will help ecologists effectively apply basic ecology to critical questions of environmental, economic, and political sustainability.