Bridging the GAPS between ecology and human security - Environmental and Human Security in the Arctic - page 137

the purposes of career advancement within academia are so significant that
the USA-based Council of Environmental Deans and Directors has produced
a set of guidelines advising on interdisciplinary hiring, tenure and promotion
(Pfirman et al . 2007). Nevertheless, there is ongoing interest in and sup-
port for interdisciplinary collaboration, and the National Research Council
of the USA has recently commissioned a project overseen by the Board on
Behavioral, Cognitive and Sensory Sciences, of the US National Academies,
on The Science of Team Science (BBCSS 2012).
Are ecological messages so unpalatable that they
cause most people to cover their ears?
Ecological research is generally based in biology or biology-related depart-
ments and faculties in the natural and physical sciences. Consequently, a
first step in examining just how well the messages of ecology are being com-
municated and mobilized is to assess how well the public comprehends and
understands science in general. This is a central question in the research field
of science literacy as well as the public understanding of science. Various
researchers have pointed out that the level of ecological literacy and, more
broadly, science literacy among the populations of the USA and elsewhere is
largely unknown (Hutton 1996; Popli 1999; Jordan et al . 2009; Ladle and
Gillson 2009). There is renewed interest in scientific literacy because of inter-
est in the public perception of the science of climate change and its ecological
implications (Leiserowitz 2009; Kahan et al . 2012).
If improved ecological literacy among the broader public is desirable
(Otto 2011), then how could ecology be made more accessible, not only to
the broader public, but also more widely across academia? The language of
ecology is peppered with technical terms such as feedbacks , non-linear dynamics
and disturbance . All of these terms have highly specific, often mathematically
defined meanings. In addition to the ecological concept that limits will even-
tually be reached by every population (Krebs 1988; Box 8.1) , complexity
is accepted within the field, even if it is not understood by all ecologists.
Most practising ecologists would probably prefer to study a nice simple food
chain rather than a messy, complex web in an ecosystem with multiple tra-
jectories and pathways full of uncertainty (Box 8.1 ). While few ecologists
directly observe ecosystems exhibiting 'non-linear' dynamics, where they flip
from one stable-state to another, rapidly and unexpectedly, there are well-
documented examples of this occurring. Meanwhile, ecologists are concerned
that this very thing is occurring with global climate change: namely that
ecosystems will change too rapidly for human response, posing a very real
concern amongst not just ecologists, but the broader scientific community.
Harte (2007) explains how this process is likely to play out, given that human
population growth is dynamic and non-linear, and not passive and linear, and
reinforces destabilizing feedbacks (Figures 1-4 in Harte 2007). When read by