Institute for Rural Futures

Research Seminar

Time: Thursday, 6 November, 2014, 1.00pm.

 Location: Institute for Rural Futures Seminar Room (Building CO12)

Quantifying Intactness in Rapid Eco-regional Assessments: Tools and Lessons Learned

Dr E. Jamie Trammell

*Please join us.

Background:

Alaska is largely considered pristine, yet faces increasingly complex threats to its intact ecosystems.  The U.S. Federal Government has recently funded strategic regional projects called “Rapid Eco-regional Assessments” in order to understand the cumulative effect of change “agents” in Alaska.  This research summarizes the findings from multiple eco-regional assessments in Alaska, focusing on the cumulative effects of climate change, wildfire, invasive species and human land use and development.

To measure the impact of these change agents, we assess the potential responses of a suite of species and habitats.  We use these potential responses to then model how overall landscape integrity may change in the future.  The assessment is based in a Geographic Information System, with the goal of providing a spatially-explicit planning tool for more informed arctic planning in Alaska.

* Jamie Trammell is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies and a Landscape Ecologist with the Alaska Natural Heritage Program at the University of Alaska, Anchorage. He is a Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Rural Futures, BCSS, from 4 November to 12 November, and is keen to discuss collaborative research ventures with UNE academics and officers of the NSW government.