Coupled human and natural systems

Organizers:

Frank M. Hilker (Osnabrück University), Rebecca C. Tyson (University of British Columbia Okanagan)

Description:

Coupled human and natural systems (CHANS) model human and environmental systems as coupled, rather than independent. The feedback between the two is crucial, as humans are a key factor impacting ecological and environmental systems, e.g., through exploitation of natural resources, pollution, habitat deterioration, or greenhouse gas emissions. It is therefore imperative to gain a better understanding how human behavior affects the natural systems – and vice versa. Traditionally, many environmental models tend to oversimplify human systems, often in the form of parameters. Similarly, social science research tends to ignore the complexity of ecosystem dynamics. Considering in this interaction the key characteristics of both human and environmental systems is fundamental to maintaining ecosystems in a desirable state. A failure to do so can result in environmental mismanagement. This minisymposium features selected presentations that analyze the complex interactions in CHANS with novel mathematical models that highlight the significance of understanding the coupling and that address challenges arising from reciprocal effects, heterogeneities, uncertainties, and nonlinearities. The minisymposium begins with an overview of a mathematical framework. It then covers socio-climate systems and evolutionary harvesting dynamics motivated from fisheries. Last but not least, a “perspectives talk” on the mathematics of rewilding will illustrate the opportunities in this research area.

Diversity Statement:

The speaker list features gender parity. It is also diverse in terms of professional experience, ranging from PhD students (f, m) to full professors (f, m). The speakers’ disciplines comprise mathematics, biology, and environmental systems science (the latter is dedicatedly interdisciplinary). The affiliations are geographically evenly distributed between North America (USA, Canada) and Europe (UK, Germany), with the speakers’ ethnicities spanning another continent (India).