Many current debates in Ecology and Conservation Science center on how to navigate the interface between science, policy and practice with the aim of using science to support viable, effective solutions to environmental problems. This dissertation has the general aim of contributing to devise ways to navigate the science-practice interface by taking an interdisciplinary approach to identify (1) how the academic debate on this subject has been framed, and (2) how scientists and decision-makers have been thinking about the relationship between science and practice. In chapter 1, I present a literature review, based on 1563 sentences describing causes of the science-practice gap extracted from 122 articles published in Ecology and Biodiversity Conservation journals. I use text analysis techniques to organize these causes into a process-based conceptual framework that describes three perspectives on the important processes, knowledges and actors in the science-practice interface. I then evaluate the predominance of these perspectives over time and across journals, and assess them in light of disciplines studying the role of science in decision-making, such as Political Science. The unchanged predominance over time of the perspective centered on a linear, unidirectional flow of scientific knowledge from science to practice suggests debates in Ecology and Conservation lag behind trends in other disciplines towards perspectives focusing on a bidirectional, integrative flow of knowledges between science and practice. In Ecology and Conservation, the integrative perspective seems primarily restricted to research traditions historically isolated from mainstream Conservation Biology, which in turn has been dominated by "evidence-based conservation" approaches. All identified perspectives represent superficial views of decision-making by not accounting for limits to human rationality, complexity of decision-making contexts, fuzzy science-practice boundaries, ambiguity brought about by science, and different types of knowledge use. Nonetheless, the integrative perspective emphasizing collaborative work between scientists and decision-makers may potentially allow for more democratic decision-making processes and explicit discussions of values. In chapter 2, I focus on scientists and decision-makers from Brazil, a tropical developing nation with a growing science and rich biodiversity, but currently facing several drawbacks in environmental policies. I used the three perspectives of the conceptual framework of chapter 1 to create a list of 48 statements describing how the science-practice interface should ideally be. Using Q-methodology from psychology, I asked 22 ecologists and environmental federal analysts to rank their agreement with these statements. Principal component analysis revealed three groups of participants with similar rankings of statements, thus holding shared ways of thinking about the science-practice interface. All ways of thinking assigned great importance to actors and knowledges from both science and prac...
Considering the emergence of ecosystems dominated by invasive species, there is growing interest in estimating the effect of biological invasions in ecosystem processes and provision of services. African grasses are the most invasive plants in the Cerrado (Brazilian savanna), but their impact on C and N stocks is poorly known. We compared patterns of C and N stocks in the aboveground biomass, root biomass and soil in open Cerrado (campo sujo) sites, both uninvaded and invaded by the African grass Urochloa decumbens. In both sites we estimated the aboveground biomass of U. decumbens and native grasses, as well as the root biomass up to 50 cm. We obtained C and N contents in the soil, as well as C and N stocks, up to 1 m depth, and variation in soil δ13C and δ15N. Although invasion did not affect the aboveground biomass, it did affect belowground biomass, leading to higher C stock in fine roots and soil N content close to soil surface, as well as higher C content along the soil profile. C and N soil stocks, soil δ13C and δ15N values did not significantly differ between invaded and uninvaded site. Even a relatively low level of invasion by U. decumbens changed the root distribution pattern and increased C and N contents in the upper soil, which may promote ecosystem changes by altering nutrient dynamics. Although still preliminary, our study shows that dominance by U. decumbens can have severe effects in the Cerrado belowground environment.
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