Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
sustainability, in which their decisions make sense economically, socially, agronomically,
and environmentally. They are not there yet and in fact may never be under current crop-
ping systems, but the farmers' agenda has changed from one interested only in increasing
yields to one focused on maximizing profits as well as social benefits by reducing environ-
mental damages. Likewise, the story illustrates our transition as a research team, from one
working from an ecological perspective focused on global environmental change to a sus-
tainability perspective focused on meeting the needs of people while reducing negative
impacts on the environment.
The Yaqui Valley case study has been useful in terms of identifying the dynamics of
change in human
environment systems, and providing tools and approaches that can
help the people of the Yaqui Valley in decision-making for human and environmental
well-being. We did not fully design for the relevance of the work, at least not in the begin-
ning. While the research was initially designed to provide useful information to farmers
and decision makers, we only later began to learn how best to engage them fully in the
work. We identified critical missing members of our research team as we went, often too
late; having them at the beginning might have allowed us to answer additional critical
questions. In hindsight, there is no doubt we would at times have done things quite differ-
ently. On the other hand, thanks to the involvement of collaborators who have practical
and on-the-ground interests, the research is probably more directly useful than many such
studies might be. There is no doubt that ecologists working alone would have done sub-
stantially different experiments and probably yielded far less useful information!
Our additional intent was to contribute information and knowledge that is useful not just
in our place of study but beyond it as well. We believe that much of what we have learned in
the Yaqui Valley is transportable (Matson 2012)—indeed, we selected the Yaqui Valley in part
for its potential influence and relevance beyond its borders. Thus, the tools and metrics and
models, some of which use remote sensing, can be applied in many places. Beyond that, the
project has provided tremendous grist for general learning through a comparison with other
case studies, a strategy that has yielded significant new knowledge in the past few years. And
the Yaqui Valley project helped educate a new generation of researchers who understand eco-
systems to be integrated “human
environment systems,” who have learned what it means to
be multi- or interdisciplinary in their perspectives or approaches, and who are committed to
research for the sake of decision-making as well as for the sake of learning new things about
how the world works. For this younger generation as well as for the older ones among us, the
Yaqui Valley provided a real-life laboratory that allowed us to make serious contributions to
the scientific knowledge base and to problem-solving as well.
References
Ahrens, T.D., Beman, J.M., Harrison, J.A., Jewett, P.K., Matson, P.A., 2008. A synthesis of nitrogen transformations
and transfers from land to the sea in the Yaqui Valley agricultural region of northwest Mexico. Water Resour.
Res. 44, W00A05. doi: 10.1029/2007WR006661.
Beman, J.M., Arrigo, K.R., Matson, P.A., 2005. Agricultural runoff fuels large phytoplankton blooms in vulnerable
areas of the ocean. Nature 434, 211
214.
Clark, W.C., 2007. Sustainability science: A room of its own. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 104, 1737
1738.
CONAPESCA (Comisi
´
n Nacional de Acuacultura y Pesca), (2002). Available at
http://www.conapesca.sagarpa.
