The big ecological questions inhibiting effective environmental management in Australia

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.

[1]  C. Page,et al.  Ocean acidification due to increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide , 2005 .

[2]  Alan Wade,et al.  Mind the sustainability gap. , 2007, Trends in ecology & evolution.

[3]  David Salt,et al.  Resilience Thinking : Sustaining Ecosystems and People in a Changing World , 2017 .

[4]  Dianne Simmons.  Australia burning : fire ecology, policy and management issues , 2004 .

[5]  C. Prahalad,et al.  To revitalize corporate performance, we need a whole new model of strategy. Strategic intent. , 1989, Harvard business review.

[6]  P. Newton.  Transitions: pathways towards sustainable urban development in Australia , 2008 .

[7]  M. Smith,et al.  Managing arid zone natural resources in Australia for spatial and temporal variability – an approach from first principles , 2008 .

[8]  Csiro. Sustainable Ecosystems.,et al.  Natural values: Exploring options for enhancing ecosystem services in the Goulburn Broken Catchment , 2003 .

[9]  Hong Kong..  Hong Kong: [Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry]. , 1960 .

[10]  E. C. Lefroy,et al.  Potential of current perennial plant-based farming systems to deliver salinity management outcomes and improve prospects for native biodiversity: a review , 2005 .

[11]  D. Lindenmayer.  On Borrowed Time; Australia's Environmental Crisisand what we must do about it , 2007 .

[12]  M. Chertow.  The IPAT Equation and Its Variants , 2000 .

[13]  M. Chertow.  The IPAT Equation and Its Variants Changing Views of Technology and Environmental Impact , 2001 .

[14]  D. Lindenmayer,et al.  Conserving Forest Biodiversity: A Comprehensive Multiscaled Approach , 2002 .

[15]  Other,et al.  Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a divided world , 2007 .

[16]  Robert J. S. Beeton,et al.  Australia: State of the environment 2006 , 2006 .

[17]  M. Dunlop,et al.  Implications of climate change for Australia's National Reserve System: a preliminary assessment , 2008 .

[18]  C. J. West,et al.  Environmental weeds in Australia and New Zealand: issues and approaches to management , 2000 .

[19]  W. Steffen,et al.  Global Change and the Earth System: A Planet Under Pressure , 2005 .

[20]  J. B. Opschoor,et al.  Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a divided world , 2007 .

[21]  L. Head,et al.  Culture as concept and influence in environmental research and management , 2005 .

[22]  K. Bjorndal,et al.  Historical Overfishing and the Recent Collapse of Coastal Ecosystems , 2001, Science.

[23]  N. White,et al.  A 20 th century acceleration in global sea-level rise , 2005 .

[24]  L. Hughes.  Climate change and Australia: Trends, projections and impacts , 2003 .

[25]  N. White,et al.  A 20th century acceleration in global sea‐level rise , 2006 .

[26]  R. Peters,et al.  The Greenhouse Effect and Nature ReservesGlobal warming would diminish biological diversity by causing extinctions among reserve species , 1985 .

[27]  Stephen Dovers,et al.  Managing water for Australia: the social and institutional challenges , 2007 .

[28]  M. Dunlop,et al.  Implications of climate change for Australia's National Reserve System : a preliminary assessment. Report to the Department of Climate Change, Canberra , 2008 .

[29]  Mark A. Burgman,et al.  Climate change as a threatening process , 2006 .

[30]  D. M. Orr,et al.  Northern Australian savannas: management for pastoral production , 1990 .

[31]  K. Bjorndal,et al.  Global Trajectories of the Long-Term Decline of Coral Reef Ecosystems , 2003, Science.

[32]  G. Orians,et al.  Ecology of Australia: the effects of nutrient‐poor soils and intense fires , 2007, Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society.

[33]  Edward C. Lefroy,et al.  Nature Conservation 3: Reconstruction of Fragmented Ecosystems, Global and Regional Perspectives , 1993 .

[34]  Menna E. Jones,et al.  The Role of Connectivity in Australian Conservation , 2004 .

[35]  S Lenton,et al.  The implications of climate change , 2008 .

[36]  C. K. Prahalad,et al.  Strategic Intent , 2007 .

[37]  D. Smith,et al.  A framework for the ecology of arid Australia , 1990 .

[38]  D. Simberloff,et al.  BIOTIC INVASIONS: CAUSES, EPIDEMIOLOGY, GLOBAL CONSEQUENCES, AND CONTROL , 2000 .

[39]  Thomas J. Stohlgren,et al.  The rich get richer: patterns of plant invasions in the United States , 2003 .

[40]  R. Steneck,et al.  Coral Reefs Under Rapid Climate Change and Ocean Acidification , 2007, Science.

[41]  Richard J. Hobbs,et al.  Reintegrating fragmented landscapes: towards sustainable production and nature conservation , 1993 .

[42]  A. Richardson,et al.  Impacts of climate change on Australian marine life , 2006 .

[43]  P. Spooner.  Managing and Conserving Grassy Woodlands , 2003 .

[44]  P. Raven,et al.  Australian biodiversity: threats for the present, opportunities for the future , 2007 .

[45]  Ove Hoegh-Guldberg,et al.  Low coral cover in a high‐CO2 world , 2005 .

[46]  Linda Courtenay Botterill,et al.  Beyond Drought: People, Policy and Perspectives , 2003 .

[47]  Jann A. Williams.  Linking science and practice: The pros and cons of the participatory research model , 2007 .

[48]  A. Gill,et al.  Flammable Australia: The Fire Regimes and Biodiversity of a Continent , 2009 .

[49]  David W. Macdonald,et al.  The identification of 100 ecological questions of high policy relevance in the UK , 2006 .

[50]  Hugh P. Possingham,et al.  Making monitoring meaningful , 2007 .

[51]  Michael Raw.  Resources and environment , 1989 .

[52]  T. Downing,et al.  Global Desertification: Building a Science for Dryland Development , 2007, Science.

[53]  David B. Lindenmayer,et al.  Australia Burning: Fire Ecology, Policy and Management Issues , 2003 .

[54]  Public health, the environment and the 21st century: a wider field of vision. , 2007, European journal of public health.

[55]  D. Lindenmayer,et al.  Conservation Biology for the Australian Environment , 1998 .

[56]  Robert A. Davis,et al.  Habitat Fragmentation and Landscape Change: An Ecological and Conservation Synthesis , 2006 .

[57]  Ted Henzell.  Australian Agriculture: Its History and Challenges , 2007 .

[58]  W. M. Lonsdale,et al.  GLOBAL PATTERNS OF PLANT INVASIONS AND THE CONCEPT OF INVASIBILITY , 1999 .

[59]  D. B. Lindenmayer,et al.  Functional Richness and Relative Resilience of Bird Communities in Regions with Different Land Use Intensities , 2007, Ecosystems.

[60]  G. Marshall,et al.  Understanding and promoting adoption of conservation practices by rural landholders , 2006 .