Balancing the Biocomplexity of the Planet's Living Systems: A Twenty-First Century Task for Science

Colwell, Rita

doi:10.2307/1313389

Cited by 57 publications

(24 citation statements)

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“…The neologism "biocomplexity" (Colwell, 1998) characterizes, in a holistic way, the varied and complicated interactions between sciences, individuals, and methods for ecosystem studies, which are in themselves complex. Since then, interactions between sciences have effectively expanded resulting in the development of new statistical and modelling approaches and tools (joPP et al, 2011).…”

Section: Modelling Approaches and Toolsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forests as complex adaptive systems: implications for forest management and modelling

Messier¹,

Puettmann²

2011

ifm

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Section: Modelling Approaches and Toolsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forests as complex adaptive systems: implications for forest management and modelling

Messier¹,

Puettmann²

2011

ifm

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“…These studies have enormous repercussions for both science and society. No one has better emphasized this point than Rita Colwell (1998) who, in a plenary address for the 49th annual meeting of the American Institute of Biological Sciences, expounded upon what it means to understand biocomplexity: "It is not enough to explore and chronicle the enormous diversity of the world's ecosystems. We must do that-but also reach beyond, to discover the complex chemical, biological, and social interactions in our planet's systems.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The critical role of collaboration in understanding biocomplexity has been emphasized by Rita Colwell (2000), NSF director, who pointed to the need to collaborate on all fronts and across all disciplines and scales. Ultimately, biocomplexity research will benefit not only from collaboration among multiple disciplines but also from the development of truly interdisciplinary teams of scientists.…”

Section: Future Of Biocomplexity Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Defining and Unraveling Biocomplexity

Michener¹,

Baerwald²,

Firth³

et al. 2001

BioScience

142

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“…The study of biocomplexity reflects an intention to understand fundamental principles governing global behavior of these systems, expressed in terms of biological, physical, ecological and human dimensions, in terms of the interactions and resulting patterns and structures that collectively define system responses (Colwell [1998], Levin [1998], Manson [2001]). Several decades of study and appreciation of the rich nature of the interactions that drive many systems of vital interest to humanity have led to an increasingly sophisticated set of hypotheses on how these systems respond to the many perturbations and cycles that they are exposed to.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling biocomplexity – actors, landscapes and alternative futures

Bolte

Hulse

Gregory

et al. 2007

Environmental Modelling & Software

118

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Increasingly, models (and modelers) are being asked to address the interactions between human influences, ecological processes, and landscape dynamics that impact many diverse aspects of managing complex coupled human and natural systems. These systems may be profoundly influenced by human decisions at multiple spatial and temporal scales, and the limitations of traditional process-level ecosystems modeling approaches for representing the richness of factors shaping landscape dynamics in these coupled systems has resulted in the need for new analysis approaches. Additionally, new tools in the areas of spatial data management and analysis, multicriteria decision-making, individual-based modeling, and complexity science have all begun to impact how we approach modeling these systems. The term "biocomplexity" has emerged a descriptor of the rich patterns of interactions and behaviors in human and natural systems, and the challenges of analyzing biocomplex behavior is resulting in a convergence of approaches leading to new ways of understanding these systems. Important questions related to system vulnerability and resilience, adaptation, feedback processing, cycling, nonlinearities and other complex behaviors are being addressed using models employing new representational approaches to analysis. An emerging application area is alternative futures analyses, the study of how complex coupled human/natural systems dynamically respond to varying management strategies and driving forces. This methodology is increasingly being used to inform decision makers about the implications of policy alternatives related to land and water management, expressed in terms related to human valuations of the landscape. Trajectories of change become important indicators of system sustainability, and models that can provide insight into factors controlling these trajectories are rapidly becoming essential tools for planning. The complexity inherent in these systems challenges the modeling community to provide tools that capture sufficiently the richness of human and ecosystem processes and interactions in ways that are computationally tractable and understandable. We examine one such tool, Evoland, which uses an actor-based approach to conduct alternative futures analyses in the Willamette Basin, Oregon. Actor-based approaches, spatially-explicit landscape representations, and complexity science are providing new ways to effectively model, and ultimately to understand, these systems.

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Balancing the Biocomplexity of the Planet's Living Systems: A Twenty-First Century Task for Science

Cited by 57 publications

References 0 publications

Forests as complex adaptive systems: implications for forest management and modelling

Forests as complex adaptive systems: implications for forest management and modelling

Defining and Unraveling Biocomplexity

Modeling biocomplexity – actors, landscapes and alternative futures

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