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Wednesday, July 6, 2022. 2:00 PM. Webinar: Ecological resilience in large ecosystems. Vadim Karatayev, University of Kansas. Sponsored by NOAA NMFS SWFSC. More information here. Register here.

Abstract: Ecosystems world-wide face intensifying environmental variation and human impacts. Which systems will fail to recover from disturbance and become locked in degraded states? How can we offset this risk? I will begin with California and New Zealand kelp forests, exploring how bridging dynamical models of animal behavior and kelp with large-scale field data helps us resolve how alternative stable states and resilience shape kelp forests. Turning to diverse ecosystems, I will next identify which feedback processes can drive alternative stable natural or degraded regimes in many-species food webs. To consider the human dimensions of resilience, I will then explore governance strategies that can buttress resilience by shifting societies to sustained environmental mitigation.

Bio(s): Vadim is an NSF postdoctoral fellow with a PhD in Ecology from UC Davis. He combines theory with large scale data to understand conditions that erode or reinforce resilience in natural and human-dominated systems. This involves fundamental questions at the interface of community and landscape ecology as well as applied science questions ranging from invasive species impacts to accelerating conservation in human societies.