Value of long‐term ecological studies

Long‐term ecological studies are critical for providing key insights in ecology, environmental change, natural resource management and biodiversity conservation. In this paper, we briefly discuss five key values of such studies. These are: (1) quantifying ecological responses to drivers of ecosystem change; (2) understanding complex ecosystem processes that occur over prolonged periods; (3) providing core ecological data that may be used to develop theoretical ecological models and to parameterize and validate simulation models; (4) acting as platforms for collaborative studies, thus promoting multidisciplinary research; and (5) providing data and understanding at scales relevant to management, and hence critically supporting evidence‐based policy, decision making and the management of ecosystems. We suggest that the ecological research community needs to put higher priority on communicating the benefits of long‐term ecological studies to resource managers, policy makers and the general public. Long‐term research will be especially important for tackling large‐scale emerging problems confronting humanity such as resource management for a rapidly increasing human population, mass species extinction, and climate change detection, mitigation and adaptation. While some ecologically relevant, long‐term data sets are now becoming more generally available, these are exceptions. This deficiency occurs because ecological studies can be difficult to maintain for long periods as they exceed the length of government administrations and funding cycles. We argue that the ecological research community will need to coordinate ongoing efforts in an open and collaborative way, to ensure that discoverable long‐term ecological studies do not become a long‐term deficiency. It is important to maintain publishing outlets for empirical field‐based ecology, while simultaneously developing new systems of recognition that reward ecologists for the use and collaborative sharing of their long‐term data sets. Funding schemes must be re‐crafted to emphasize collaborative partnerships between field‐based ecologists, theoreticians and modellers, and to provide financial support that is committed over commensurate time frames.     

Objectives versus realities: Spatial,temporal, financial and social deficiencies in Australia’s public revegetation investment model

Past and continuing fragmentation and modification of ecosystems, as well as other threatening processes, cause ongoing biodiversity losses and species extinctions in Australia. At the same time as biodiversity declines, government funding for conservation and restoration is diminishing, leading to reduced action and greater reliance on private investment and community groups. In order to maintain and restore biodiverse ecosystems and the essential services they provide, both conservation of existing vegetation and habitat reconstruction are required. In this paper, we summarise the available data on planting area and cost from the Australian Government’s 20 Million Trees programme (2014–2020), the largest recent national‐scale revegetation incentives programme in Australia. We find that the current spatial scale of effort and investment in habitat reconstruction is insufficient to match the scale required to meet national conservation objectives. Furthermore, the funding rate ($/ha) and contracting arrangements are inadequate for the establishment of high‐quality self‐sustaining vegetation needed for the recovery of Australia’s threatened species and ecological communities. We estimate that the minimum amount of funding required for habitat reconstruction is at least five times higher than is provided for current national flagship programmes such as 20 Million Trees. We provide recommendations, designed to assist future habitat reconstruction programmes achieve their long‐term biodiversity objectives.     

The Challenges of Research Informed Consent in Socio‐Economically Vulnerable Populations: A Viewpoint From the Democratic Republic of Congo

In medical research, the ethical principle of respect for persons is operationalized into the process of informed consent. The consent tools should be contextualized and adapted to the different socio‐cultural environment, especially when research crosses the traditional boundaries and reaches poor communities. We look at the challenges experienced in the malaria Quinact trial, conducted in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and describe some lessons learned, related to the definition of acceptable representative, the role of independent witness and the impact of socio‐economic vulnerability. To ensure children's protection, consent is required by the parents or, in their absence, by a legally mandated representative. In our setting, children's responsibility is often entrusted permanently or temporarily to relatives or friends without a tribunal mandate. Hence, a notion of ‘culturally acceptable representative’ under supervision of the local Ethics Committee may be more suitable. To ensure protection of illiterate subjects, an independent witness is required to confirm that the consent was freely given. However, in low‐literacy contexts, potential witnesses often don't have any previous relationship with patient and there may be power‐unbalance in their relationship, rather than genuine dialogue. In poor communities, trial participation may be seen as an opportunity to secure access to healthcare. Poverty may also lead to ‘competition’ to access the research‐related benefits, with a risk of disturbance at societal or household level. Adjusting consent procedures to sociocultural and socioeconomic realities is essential for fulfilling the underlying ethical principles. This requires a collaborative dialogue between researchers, regulators and ethics committees.     

Taking the long view: an emerging framework for translational psychiatric science

Understood in their historical context, current debates about psychiatric classification, prompted by the publication of the DSM‐5, open up new opportunities for improved translational research in psychiatry. In this paper, we draw lessons for translational research from three time slices of 20th century psychiatry. From the first time slice, 1913 and the publication of Jaspers' General Psychopathology, the lesson is that translational research in psychiatry requires a pluralistic approach encompassing equally the sciences of mind (including the social sciences) and of brain. From the second time slice, 1959 and a conference in New York from which our present symptom‐based classifications are derived, the lesson is that, while reliability remains the basis of psychiatry as an observational science, validity too is essential to effective translation. From the third time slice, 1997 and a conference on psychiatric classification in Dallas that brought together patients and carers with researchers and clinicians, the lesson is that we need to build further on collaborative models of research combining expertise‐by‐training with expertise‐by‐experience. This is important if we are to meet the specific challenges to translation presented by the complexity of the concept of mental disorder, particularly as reflected in the diversity of desired treatment outcomes. Taken together, these three lessons – a pluralistic approach, reliability and validity, and closer collaboration among relevant stakeholders – provide an emerging framework for more effective translation of research into practice in 21st century psychiatry.     

TV is Moving in

Visual arts teachers engage in complex work on a daily basis. This work is informed by practical knowledge that is rarely examined or drawn on in research or in the development of policy. Focusing on the work of secondary visual arts teachers, this article reports on a research program conducted in a regional area of New South Wales, Australia. The research engages in a collaborative process of educational connoisseurship and educational criticism to examine and discuss classroom practice. The process is underpinned by a belief in research as an act of discovery and is guided by a framework that provides a language and grammar of practice. Drawing on qualitative data, discussion focuses on how the collaborative process enables the mobilization and generation of new knowledge. The article concludes by considering the relationship between teaching practice, research, and policy development and by recommending support for collaborative research-based initiatives that foreground the knowledge of teachers.     

Designing research funding schemes to promote global health equity: An exploration of current practice in health systems research

International research is an essential means of reducing health disparities between and within countries and should do so as a matter of global justice. Research funders from high‐income countries have an obligation of justice to support health research in low and middle‐income countries (LMICs) that furthers such objectives. This paper investigates how their current funding schemes are designed to incentivise health systems research in LMICs that promotes health equity. Semi‐structured in‐depth interviews were performed with 16 grants officers working for 11 funders and organisations that support health systems research: the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, Comic Relief, Doris Duke Foundation, European Commission, International Development Research Centre, Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, Research Council of Norway, Rockefeller Foundation, UK Department of International Development, UK Medical Research Council, and Wellcome Trust. Thematic analysis of the data demonstrates their funding schemes promote health systems research with (up to) five key features that advance health equity: being conducted with worst‐off populations, focusing on research topics that advance equitable health systems, having LMIC ownership of the research agenda, strengthening LMIC research capacity, and having an impact on health disparities. The different types of incentives that encouraged proposed projects to have these features are identified and classified by their strength (strong, moderate, weak). It is suggested that research funders ought to create and maintain funding schemes with strong incentives for the features identified above in order to more effectively help reduce global health disparities.     

Developing a vision for improved monitoring and reporting of riparian restoration projects

Representatives from agencies involved in natural resource management in the Murray‐Darling Basin gathered for a workshop in November 2010 to develop a vision for improved monitoring and reporting of riparian restoration projects. The resounding message from this workshop was that the effectiveness of riparian restoration depends on having sound, documented and agreed evidence on the ecological responses to restoration efforts. Improving our capacity to manage and restore riparian ecosystems is constrained by (i) a lack of ecological evidence on the effects of restoration efforts, and (ii) short‐termism in commitment to restoration efforts, in funding of monitoring and in expected time spans for ecosystem recovery. Restoration at the effective spatial scope will invariably require a long‐term commitment by researchers, funding agencies, management agencies and landholders. To address the knowledge gaps that constrain riparian restoration in the Basin, participants endorsed four major fields for future research: the importance of landscape context to restoration outcomes; spatio‐temporal scaling of restoration outcomes; functional effects of restoration efforts; and developing informative and effective indicators of restoration. To improve the monitoring and restoration of riparian zones throughout the Basin, participants advocated an integrated approach: a hierarchical adaptive management framework that incorporates long‐term ecological research.     

生态环境监测研究

环境保护包括环境污染防治和生态环境保护两个方面的内容。经过 30多年的工作 ,我国在环境污染防治、监理、监测方面形成了一套较为完整的工作方法 ,而生态环境保护方面的工作相对滞后 ,也没有一套行之有效的监测方法。生态监测是生态环境保护的基础 ,是生态科学管理的依据 ,是加强生态环境法制的重要手段。近年来 ,由于人为因素、气候变迁等原因 ,灾害性天气增加 ,水土流失加剧 ,江河泥沙含量增加 ,导致洪水泛滥 ,沙尘暴泥石流频发 ,森林植被锐减 ,干旱少雨 ,本来比较脆弱的生态环境面临严重的挑战。我国政府高屋建瓴 ,以对人类、对子孙后…     

Science policies: How should science funding be allocated? An evolutionary biologists’ perspective

In an ideal world, funding agencies could identify the best scientists and projects and provide them with the resources to undertake these projects. Most scientists would agree that in practice, how funding for scientific research is allocated is far from ideal and likely compromises research quality. We, nine evolutionary biologists from different countries and career stages, provide a comparative summary of our impressions on funding strategies for evolutionary biology across eleven different funding agencies. We also assess whether and how funding effectiveness might be improved. We focused this assessment on 14 elements within four broad categories: (a) topical shaping of science, (b) distribution of funds, (c) application and review procedures, and (d) incentives for mobility and diversity. These comparisons revealed striking among‐country variation in those elements, including wide variation in funding rates, the effort and burden required for grant applications, and the extent of emphasis on societal relevance and individual mobility. We use these observations to provide constructive suggestions for the future and urge the need to further gather informed considerations from scientists on the effects of funding policies on science across countries and research fields.     

Incorporating Socio‐economic Factors into Restoration: Implications from Industrially Harvested Peatlands

In establishing effective restoration goals, one of the four key issues of increased attention that Hobbs calls for is in the area of incorporating socio‐economic investigations and theories into restoration practice in a synergistic manner. Although often commented upon by restoration practitioners, this is an area of research that is poorly developed, and because it relies on an uneasy combination of empirical and interpretative research methodologies a multidisciplinary alignment may be problematic in practice. This opinion piece is drawn from experiences in examining the after‐use of industrially mined peatland landscapes, and synthesizes ideas that have emerged from socio‐economic research over several years in order to offer an opinion on how Hobbs' call may be addressed. Because socio‐economic concerns are at the root of all restoration projects, sociological methods may be useful as tools in stakeholder engagement in research and planning for landscape rehabilitation as a mechanism for reducing the potential for conflict and for facilitating participative or collaborative restoration.     

Restoring Rivers One Reach at a Time: Results from a Survey of U.S. River Restoration Practitioners

Despite expenditures of more than 1 billion dollars annually, there is little information available about project motivations, actions, and results for the vast majority of river restoration efforts. We performed confidential telephone interviews with 317 restoration project managers from across the United States with the goals of (1) assessing project motivations and the metrics of project evaluation and (2) estimating the proportion of projects that set and meet criteria for ecologically successful river restoration projects. According to project managers, ecological degradation typically motivated restoration projects, but post‐project appearance and positive public opinion were the most commonly used metrics of success. Less than half of all projects set measurable objectives for their projects, but nearly two‐thirds of all interviewees felt that their projects had been “completely successful.” Projects that we classified as highly effective were distinct from the full database in that most had significant community involvement and an advisory committee. Interviews revealed that many restoration practitioners are frustrated by the lack of funding for and emphasis on project monitoring. To remedy this, we recommend a national program of strategic monitoring focused on a subset of future projects. Our interviews also suggest that merely conducting and publishing more scientific studies will not lead to significant improvements in restoration practice; direct, collaborative involvement between scientists, managers, and practitioners is required for forward progress in the science and application of river restoration.     

Meeting Report on the Conference on Fathers’ Role in Children’s Weight‐Related Behaviors and Outcomes

On September 22, 2017, “Engaging the Forgotten Parent: Conference of Experts on Fathers’ Role in Children’s Weight‐Related Behaviours and Outcomes” brought researchers, students, health professionals, community stakeholders, and knowledge users from Canada, Australia, and the United States together to Toronto, Ontario, for a 1‐day gathering focused on furthering scientific understanding of effective strategies to recruit, engage, and retain fathers in family‐based obesity research. Furthermore this conference focused on identifying key knowledge gaps and opportunities for collaborative research to further our understanding of fathers’ roles in the development of their children’s behaviors and weight outcomes. The following four themes emerged from the conference: (1) underrepresentation of fathers in family‐based obesity research, (2) fathers’ engagement in children’s weight‐related behaviors and desire to participate in research, (3) best practices in recruiting, engaging, and retaining fathers in research, and (4) key lessons learned from fatherhood research in developmental science.     

城市群生态网络协同构建场景要素与路径分析——以粤港澳大湾区为例

城市群生态网络构建是城市与区域协同发展面临的重要场景之一,合理的生态网络能加强生态源地间的连通性,提高生态系统的生态功能,有效缓解生态环境问题,对保障城市与区域生态安全,提升人类福祉具有重要意义。以粤港澳大湾区城市群为例,以场景为依托开展生态网络协同构建场景要素与协同路径分析,结合景观连通性和形态学空间格局分析方法（MSPA）获得生态源地,并基于最小累积阻力模型识别生态廊道与生态节点,构建大湾区生态网络总体格局,最后从跨区域协作角度探讨城市群生态网络协同构建的潜在路径。研究结果表明：（1）研究区生态网络由40个生态源地、780条潜在生态廊道与892个生态节点构成,生态源地面积1.88万km²,占湾区总面积比例为33%,所识别的生态源地及生态廊道与自然保护区、广东省万里碧道、珠江三角洲绿道网重合程度较高;（2）识别跨区域生态廊道552条,其中,跨越佛山与广州市的生态廊道较多,一半以上的廊道跨越三个及以上城市,跨陆海区域的生态廊道连接了湾区南部主要沿海城市,构成陆海生态网络的关键组成部分;（3）提出城市群生态网络协同构建的潜在模式,应结合生态源地、生态廊道、生态节点等构建主体,分析城市内、城市间生态网络构建过程涉及的协同需求、协同对象,探索差异化的协同路径;（4）以场景为依托识别城市群生态网络构建场景的主题、时空特征、对象、路径和价值,可为进一步开展生态网络协同构建与应用示范过程提供指导。本研究是对城市群生态网络协同建设的有益探索,基于跨区域生态廊道协同构建场景模式的探讨能够为今后进一步探索区域统筹协同机制、实现景观格局协同构建和优化、促进区域生态共建共享提供理论依据。     

基于科学知识图谱的生态足迹研究演进、框架与前沿中外比较

生态足迹是评估人类活动下生态可持续性的有效工具。基于1999-2020年CNKI中文核心期刊与1994-2020年Web of Science核心合集有关生态足迹研究文献共5104篇,运用CiteSpace可视化软件,绘制中外研究高频词时区、关键词聚类及突现词时间分布科学知识图谱,梳理中外生态足迹相关研究演进路径、基本理论框架与动态前沿。研究结果表明:(1)中外生态足迹研究演进路径均可分为三个阶段,但演进方式有所差异,且国内研究较国外相对滞后;(2)中外生态足迹研究均已形成以生态足迹模型方法为工具、以足迹测算为基础、以生态安全为落脚点、以促进人与生态协调发展为目标的基础框架体系,国外侧重基础框架构建、宏观尺度研究与微观机制分析,国内侧重模型和方法优化与外部环境分析;(3)当前国外前沿方向为环境库兹涅茨曲线假设验证研究与生态网络分析,国内为碳足迹和水资源足迹的测算、三维生态足迹模型下的自然资本评估以及生态补偿问题。     

Beyond Just Research: Experiences from Southern Africa in Developing Social Learning Partnerships for Resource Conservation Initiatives

There is a well-acknowledged communication or knowledge gap between scientists and decision-makers. Many scientists who take on the challenge of narrowing this gap operate on the understanding that their role is to communicate their findings in a one-way flow of information: from science to decision-makers. However, to be effective scientists must engage in an ongoing social learning process with decision-makers, and regard themselves as facilitators, and also as one among many stakeholders who have valid and important ecological knowledge. The developing world poses some particular challenges in this regard, specifically in terms of the large number of local level subsistence resources users who are important de facto decision-makers. We examine four natural resource management case studies from South Africa that differ in spatial scale and complexity, ranging from a single village to a whole biome. We distil seven lessons to help guide development of social learning processes and organizations in similar situations relating to natural resource planning and management. The lessons pertain to: maintaining 'key individuals' within social learning processes; the role of researchers; the formulation of research questions that social learning processes require adaptive long-term funding and capacity support; that local resource users are key decision-makers in developing countries; some perspectives on knowledge; and the need to measure research success.     

Who pays for community care? The same old question.

Trends in mental health service funding over the past 40 years show that the programme of hospital closures has not resulted in a significant release of resources to fund community based services. Far from being excessive, the current provision of residential services (both NHS and non-NHS) for mentally ill people is now below levels recommended as sufficient by the government, the Royal College of Psychiatrists, and the National Schizophrenia Fellowship. What clinical research evidence there is suggests that more rather than fewer residential places are required. This situation is likely to be compounded by the recent transfer of responsibility for funding private and voluntary residential care from the Department of Social Security to local authority social services departments.     

Improving the Quality of Host Country Ethical Oversight of International Research: The Use of a Collaborative ‘Pre‐Review’ Mechanism for a Study of Fexinidazole for Human African Trypanosomiasis

Developing countries face numerous barriers to conducting effective and efficient ethics reviews of international collaborative research. In addition to potentially overlooking important scientific and ethical considerations, inadequate or insufficiently trained ethics committees may insist on unwarranted changes to protocols that can impair a study's scientific or ethical validity. Moreover, poorly functioning review systems can impose substantial delays on the commencement of research, which needlessly undermine the development of new interventions for urgent medical needs. In response to these concerns, the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi), an independent nonprofit organization founded by a coalition of public sector and international organizations, developed a mechanism to facilitate more effective and efficient host country ethics review for a study of the use of fexinidazole for the treatment of late stage African Trypanosomiasis (HAT). The project involved the implementation of a novel ‘pre‐review’ process of ethical oversight, conducted by an ad hoc committee of ethics committee representatives from African and European countries, in collaboration with internationally recognized scientific experts. This article examines the process and outcomes of this collaborative process.     

The importance of ecological research for ecosystem management: The case of browsing by swamp wallabies (Wallabia bicolor) in commercially harvested native forests

Summary Ecosystem management often proceeds within the context of sub‐optimal relationships between ecologists and ecosystem managers, and management outcomes could be improved with greater collaboration between members of these disciplines. This paper identifies an ecosystem management problem resulting from the interaction between timber harvesting and browsing wallabies, and this case study is used to exemplify how ecological data and expertise can contribute to the process of ecosystem management. It is argued that appropriate use of existing ecological data, establishment of strategic new research and the implementation of management actions as experimental hypothesis tests can facilitate achievement of management objectives, but greater collaboration between ecologists and managers is required before this can occur. Reasons for sub‐optimal relationships are outlined, and the potential for structural change within large State‐run ecosystem management agencies to improve interactions between managers and ecologists is discussed.     

Good news for the people who love bad news: an analysis of the funding of the top 1% most highly cited ecologists

The most highly cited ecologists and environmental scientists provide both a benchmark and unique opportunity to consider the importance of research funding. Here, we use citation data and self‐reported funding levels to assess the relative importance of various factors in shaping productivity and potential impact. The elite were senior Americans, well funded, with large labs. In contrast to Canadian NSERC grant holders (not in the top 1%), citations per paper did not increase with higher levels of funding within the ecological elite. We propose that this is good news for several reasons. It suggests that the publications generated by the top ecologists and environmental scientists are subject to limitations, that higher volume of publications is always important, and that increased funding to ecologists in general can shift our discipline to wider research networks. As expected, collaboration was identified as an important factor for the elite, and hopefully, this serves as a positive incentive to funding agencies since it increases the visibility of their research.