You are invited to participate in an open public lecture as a part of Seagrass 2004, an International Conference on the Status and Future of Seagrasses Globally.
Everyone Welcome.
Where? Jupiters Convention Centre (Ballroom 1), Townsville, 5pm Friday 24th September, 2004.
Presented by: Professor William C. Dennison
At the edge of the sea -- the major global environmental challenge
The edge of the sea is a region of strong environmental gradients and major human impacts, with increasing population and development pressures. The edge of the sea is also home to some of the planet’s most productive and sensitive ecosystems, including coral reefs, seagrass meadows, mangrove forests, salt marshes, and kelp beds. It is becoming increasingly apparent that the human ecological footprint encompasses the entire globe, and this pressure is greatest at the edge of the sea. Human impacts are now the dominant feature of our current era, coined the ‘anthropocene’, which requires a paradigm shift in the way we approach environmental problems so that sustainable solutions can be achieved. For scientists, this represents a shift towards solving, not just studying problems. This will require more ‘science practitioners’ who can use credibility, tenacity, creativity, and virtue to effect solutions.
Seagrass scientists are often effective science practitioners since seagrasses are globally distributed along tropical and temperate coastlines and are sensitive biological indicators of water quality. Science practitioners need to partner with leadership from the community, as well as political and agency realms so that knowledge, power, and passion are developed, focused, and shared. As we rapidly expand our data gathering capacity (an ‘observation revolution’), the effective transfer of data into information, knowledge, and wisdom to apply to environmental problem solving is needed. Coastal management case studies from around the world demonstrate that environmental challenges like cost, multiple jurisdictions, and population pressures can be overcome. Many coastal regions of the world now support ongoing research, monitoring, and management programs. These coastal ecosystem management programs can be viewed as critical “experiments” that could lead to some global standards for effective management of the land-sea interface. In many respects, the future ecosystem and human health of the world hinges on our ability to conduct and learn from these “experiments” at the edge of the sea.
About the speaker
| William C. Dennison is a Professor of Marine Science and Vice President for Science Applications at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. Since obtaining his PhD on seagrass ecophysiology from the University of Chicago in 1984, he has been conducting coastal marine research on a diversity of topics that focus on ecosystem health. He was based for one decade on the east coast of the US and another decade based on the east coast of Australia. He has worked on various major coastal environmental studies on both continents. In addition to scientific publications, he has also produced a variety of science communication products: conceptual diagrams, books, newsletters, posters, video/DVDs, and web sites. The focus of this effort has been to develop tools and techniques to solve environmental problems associated with the land-sea interface. Professor Dennison serves on various international panels and reviews, including the Land-Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone program. He is currently leading the effort to develop an Integration and Application Network (www.ian.umces.edu), which aims to involve scientists in solving, not just studying environmental problems. |  |
