Division of Ecosystem Sciences
Read the 2009 ES Newsletter
Ecosystem Sciences is the largest of the three
divisions in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and
Management (ESPM), consisting of 36 faculty members and extension
specialists with interest in applying ecology and biogeochemistry
to environmental problems. The overall mission of the Ecosystem
Sciences Division is to increase knowledge of the biological,
chemical, and physical processes that determine terrestrial
ecosystem dynamics in order to provide a scientific basis for
management and to analyze adverse stresses placed on terrestrial
ecosystems by society. Central to this mission is a collaboration
in full partnership between biological and physical scientists,
leading to an integrated understanding of ecosystem composition,
structure and function, as well as to the extension of basic
research findings through modeling, implementation, and extension
activities.
The major focus of the Ecosystem Sciences Division is terrestrial,
in that the principal research and teaching efforts are directed
toward forests, grasslands, and agricultural lands, including their
interactions with contiguous aquatic, wetland and marine ecosystems
and the atmosphere. The investigation of these ecosystems is
carried out over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales, with
an emphasis on extending the mechanistic understandings of
processes derived from research at smaller scales to landscape,
regional, and global scales. The role of human activities,
including ecosystem management scenarios, is an integral component
of this focus. The integration of biological and physical
disciplines over a range of spatial scales makes the Ecosystem
Sciences Division unique.
A long-term goal of research and teaching in the Department of
Environmental Science, Policy and Management (ESPM) is to provide
the scientific foundation for managing terrestrial ecosystems, both
natural and human-dominated. The challenge facing the State of
California, as it strives to retain its national position at the
vanguard of technological development, is to find acceptable
compromises between the often-conflicting goals of maximizing
economic benefit to its citizens, minimizing environmental stress,
and sustaining natural resources. To meet this challenge, basic and
applied research in ESPM must provide information to support
decisions that are scientifically and economically viable,
environmentally sound, socially and politically tenable, and
conserving of renewable resources.