Join us this Friday in person and online for what is sure to be a fascinating talk from The Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery’s Director, Professor Yadvinder Malhi
News/events type: Nature series seminar
The biosphere was first described as “a planetary membrane for capturing, storing and transforming solar energy” (Vernadsky, 1926). Every living organism and organism function in the biosphere is united, and can be compared, by the cascade of captured sunshine that powers it. But beyond powerful imagery, can an energetics approach to ecosystems yield a practical contribution to understanding how increasing human pressure is altering ecological function, and be a tool for assessing effectiveness of nature recovery?
This talk explores this potential with a focus on plants, birds and mammals, the best documented taxonomic groups, in the context of terrestrial ecosystems. I draw on examples from Wytham Woods, intact and logged tropical forests in Borneo, and a broad regional examination of sub-Saharan Africa. An energetic approach to understanding life an earth can yield some surprising and provocative insights into our changing biosphere.
Biography:
Yadvinder Malhi CBE FRS is Professor of Ecosystem Science at the Environmental Change Institute, School of Geography and the Environment, and Jackson Senior Research Fellow at Oriel College.
Professor Malhi explores the functioning of the biosphere and its interactions with global change, including climate change. He has a particular fascination with and love for tropical forests, though he has recently been spotted in ecosystems ranging from savannas, the Arctic, tropical coral reefs and Oxfordshire’s woodlands and floodplain meadows.
He looks at how natural ecosystems may be shifting in response to global atmospheric change, and how protecting or restoring natural ecosystems can help tackle climate change, and help adaptation to the consequences of climate change.
His team at the Environmental Change Institute is known for collecting intensive field data from fascinating but sometimes tough and remote forests. They have ongoing programmes of research in Asia, Africa, the Amazon and Andes regions, and Oxford’s own Wytham Woods. A new recent focus has been on nature recovery and biodiversity restoration in the UK.
While addressing fundamental questions about ecosystem function and dynamics, his research findings are significant for conservation and adaptation to climate change. He is a Trustee of the Natural History Museum of London, President-Elect of the British Ecological Society, chairs a number of programmes on biodiversity at the Royal Society, and is a scientific advisor on nature restoration for the UK government and the government of Scotland.
He leads an active Ecosystem Dynamics research lab focussing on forest vegetation-atmosphere interactions, employing field studies, satellite remote sensing and ecosystem modelling.
Research:
The broad scope of my research interests is the impact of global change on the ecology, structure and composition of terrestrial ecosystems, and in particular temperate and tropical forests, though recently I have been spotted a few times in the Antarctic and Arctic … This research addresses fundamental questions about ecosystem function and dynamics, whilst at the same time providing outputs of direct relevance for conservation and adaptation to climate change. We apply a range of techniques including field physiological studies, large-scale and long-term ecological monitoring, social sciences methods, satellite remote-sensing and GIS, ecosystem modelling, and micrometeorological techniques.
My team has a reputation in collecting intensive field data from fascinating but sometimes tough and remote forests, and linking these data to models and satellite data to address global issues surrounding tropical forests.
My university post is supported by the Jackson Foundation, and our global research is funded by grants from the European Research Council, the Natural Environment Research Council, and others.
The Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery is interested in promoting a wide variety of views and opinions on nature recovery from researchers and practitioners.
The views, opinions and positions expressed within this lecture are those of the author alone, they do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery or its researchers.
In the past two decades, there has been a significant increase in studies using models to understand and predict the impact of environmental changes on biodiversity.
Typically, these studies begin by examining the relationship between species distributions and environmental variables, based on the assumption that the environment determines the limits of tolerance for species survival. As a result, alterations in environmental conditions are expected to lead to shifts in species distributions. However, a major shortcoming of existing models is their singular focus on individual species. Although these models can be applied to thousands of species at once, they often treat each species as an independent entity, reacting in isolation to environmental changes. This approach neglects the complex dynamics within ecological communities, where collective species responses to environmental changes are not merely the sum of individual responses. While incremental improvements to existing models are possible, progress necessitates the development of models that capture the responses of entire communities to environmental change. I suggest a promising direction would be to shift from the traditional environmental-limiting niche theory, which is applicable to individual species, to a resource-limiting niche theory. This approach considers the impact of the environment on the coexistence of multiple species within communities, providing a more comprehensive understanding of ecological dynamics.
Bio
Miguel B. Araújo is globally recognized as a leading expert in the study of the effects of climate change on biodiversity. His research has been instrumental in developing current best practices for predicting changes in biodiversity over time and assessing the broader impact of human activities on the natural world. His methodological innovations have inspired thousands of scientists, and his evaluations of climate change effects on biodiversity have significantly influenced public policies at various scales, from local to global.
Araújo’s scientific achievements are evidenced by his substantial publication record of approximately 300 publications, his consistent recognition as a ‘highly cited’ researcher by Thomson Reuters since 2014, his mentorship of nearly 80 researchers and postgraduate students, and his success in securing over €80 million in research funding.
Prof. Araújo has received several prestigious awards, highlighting his contributions to ecological research and biodiversity. These include the European Ecological Federation Ernst Haeckel Prize (2019) for senior scientists advancing European ecological research, the Pessoa Prize (2018) recognizing significant contributions in arts, literature, or science, the Rey Jaime I Prize (2016) awarded by the King of Spain for contributions to improving the ecological environment, the International Biogeography Society MacArthur & Wilson Award (2013) for notable contributions to biogeography, and the GBIF Ebbe Nielsen Prize (2013) for innovative work in biosystematics and biodiversity informatics.
He has also been elected to the Lisbon Academy of Sciences and appointed as an honorary member of the College of Biologists in Portugal, an honor unprecedented for a non-biologist. Since 2014, Prof. Araújo has served as the Editor-in-Chief of “Ecography”. He is the Chair of the Scientific Council for Natural Sciences at the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, a member of the Portuguese Council for the Environment and Sustainability, the Vice-Chair of the Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity’s Jury (supporting Angela Merkel as Chair), and a regular member of several evaluation panels, including those for the BBVA Foundation, ERC, and NATO Science for Peace and Security ISEG.
The Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery and Biodiversity Network are interested in promoting a wide variety of views and opinions on nature recovery from researchers and practitioners.
The views, opinions and positions expressed within this lecture are those of the author alone, they do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery/Biodiversity Network, or its researchers.
Abstract
As the world races toward environmental targets, including the 2030 targets in CBD’s Kumming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, the negotiated goals of the UNFCC COP 28, the objectives of the BBNJ Agreement, and even the largely ignored SDGs, the enormous emphasis on protection of intact nature and nature-based solutions belies the realities. Intact ecosystems are few, and piecemeal protection of them will never get us to where we need to be. This is especially the case in marine and coastal ecosystems, which are highly connected across wide geographies and which are suffering the death of a thousand cuts. A strategic approach to identifying priority areas for restoration – and investing in the problem-scoping necessary to know how to restore them, is our only option for enhancing ecosystem resilience. With examples from the insular Caribbean, I contrast the conventional conservation paradigm with an ocean health-oriented restoration approach and speak to lessons learned with potential applications in many other biomes.
Bio
Dr. Tundi Agardy is the founder of Sound Seas, a Washington DC-based group working at the nexus of science and policy to advance marine conservation around the globe. She also directs the Marine Ecosystem Services (MARES) Program of Forest Trends, which specializes in launching innovative financing for marine management. Tundi has published widely on MSP and related topics, including the 2010 book Ocean Zoning: Making Management More Effective.
The Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery is interested in promoting a wide variety of views and opinions on nature recovery from researchers and practitioners.
The views, opinions and positions expressed within this lecture are those of the author alone, they do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery or its researchers.
Abstract: Land tenure, deforestation, and monocultures: Menaces to food and territorial justice
Elena Lazos-Chavero (UNAM / Table Dialogues), lazos@unam.mx
When we eat organic food or when we buy a fair-trade product is that enough for food and territorial justice? Or what’s behind organic food production? And what’s behind a fair-trade product? Who is getting benefits of organic production and fair-trade products? I want to discuss the importance of relating organic and fair-trade products to land tenure, land grabbing, and even deforestation in the global south. The fragility and uncertainty of land tenure in many countries like Mexico have provoked the risks of land grabbing, either for expanding monocultures, accelerating deforestation rates, or for the establishment of protected areas for conservation.
Here I’ll concentrate on the unbalanced power relations between small holders and transnational organic companies or fair trade certifiers, as well as the consequences of their control over food regimes, and therefore over food and territorial justice.
Biography: Elena Lazos Chavero is a professor-researcher at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico since 1992 and a coordinator of leading authors of the Values Assessment of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). She has been professor at the University of Zürich, Université La Sorbonne and at the University of Montreal. As an interdisciplinary researcher with degrees in biology and social anthropology (PhD in Social Anthropology and Socio-Economics of Development at the EHESS, Paris, France). She has a wide range of research interests that include the long-term evolution of rural commons, history of rural conflicts and rural development, the institutional dynamics of social-ecological systems, socio-environmental vulnerabilities, perceptions of risks of climate change, reforests in landscape regeneration, gender and environmental governance, the contradictions of traditional environmental knowledges, and the challenges of community-based management in order to achieve food sovereignty. She is also interested in the risks of agrodiversity loss, particularly, the loss of different maize populations, and culture and power around the conservation of natural commons.
She has currently 3 projects where a large group of students participate: a) Can livestock raising be sustainable in the tropical lands?; b) Are edible insects the future of food? The case of grasshoppers in Mexico; c) Loss of agrobiodiversity: food and land injustice in Central and South of Mexico. She has published 8 books and more than 120 articles and chapters. She has supervised more than 60 theses of a wide span of political ecology interests.
Her publications can be found here: https://www.iis.unam.mx/investigacion/investigadores/investigadores-de-estudios-agrarios/dra-lazos-chavero-elena/
The Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery and Biodiversity Network are interested in promoting a wide variety of views and opinions on nature recovery from researchers and practitioners.
The views, opinions and positions expressed within this lecture are those of the author alone, they do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery/Biodiversity Network, or its researchers.
Since ancient times, the Yawanawá have inhabited the headwaters of the Rio Gregório in the Western Amazon in Brazil. Their current population is approximately 1200 people in 12 villages. Their traditional culture and practices were decimated by the impacts of colonization since the first contact with non-indigenous people around the early 20th century (e.g., rubber tappers and missionaries). Additionally, COVID-19 caused the death of significant numbers of Indigenous people in the Amazon, many of them elders, raising fears of irreparable damage to Indigenous ancestral and sacred knowledge. Additionally, “development” projects, natural resource extractivism and politics ignore indigenous rights and impact their realities.
In this Seminar the Yawanawá will share how their traditional practices and sacred knowledge including local ecology such as native medicinal plants have been key in overcoming challenges like COVID-19, but how climate change also poses a threat to these plants and practices. For the Yawanawá traditional practices are directly related to the preservation of culture and are inseparable from the right to the territory, their relationship with nature, and sacred knowledge. In their experience, the health of the community is intimately connected to the health of the land and Earth. Today, the link between many humans & nature is greatly weakened. Indigenous practices can help to re-locate human beings in larger social environments, highlighting the ecological value behind these knowledges and cultures.
Nani Kateyuve
Pai (“father”) Nani as he is often called, is the principal Professor of the Yawanawá People. He is 60 years old and a healer of his people, who carries ancient knowledge passed along from generations. He is actively working to keep the Yawanawá’s traditions alive, planting different species of trees, harvesting, cultivating medicinal plants, and teaching the Yawanawá children. Pai Nani is a protector of the authenticity of the Yawanawá culture, focusing especially on the language, the prayers, the songs and in transmitting a very deep understanding of the Yawanawá ancestrality.
Yawatume
Yawatume is one of Nani’s daughters, steeped in rich cultural heritage from her birth. A vital aspect of Yawatume’s work is her commitment to the preservation of the Yawanawá language. She has 3 children and through her interactions and teachings, she safeguards that the language is passed down to the younger generation, ensuring its continuity. But beyond her many roles, painting emerges as Yawatume’s predominant talent. She adeptly translates the Yawanawá’ss kênes – the sacred visions and part of the Yawanawá’s identity – into intricate body and textile artworks, weaving a tapestry of tradition, belief, and history.
Wiahu
Wiahu is an expert and talented keeper of medicinal plants from the forest, wisdom that he received from his father Jorge Yawanawá a healer recognised for knowing different traditional medicines. Wiahu has deep knowledge of the Yawanawá language and is a keeper of the ancestrality and culture of his people especially within the Yawanawá spirituality.
The Yawanawá will be selling some traditional indigenous artisanal goods during the reception, if you are potentially interested in purchasing anything please note that it will be cash only transactions
Conservation Optimism and the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery present a screening of inspiring and empowering stories from across the natural world.
In the face of environmental erosion and human negligence, it is all too easy to regard our planet with despair. But nestled amongst the prevailing stories of loss and destruction, there are inspiring stories of regeneration — of communities who nurture the planet, and who benefit from it in turn.
Join us for the Good Natured Conservation Optimism Short Film Festival, where you can watch inspiring and empowering stories from across the natural world.
The Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery is interested in promoting a wide variety of views and opinions on nature recovery from researchers and practitioners.
The views, opinions and positions expressed within this lecture are those of the author alone, they do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery, or its researchers.
Abstract:
Ecologists study living organisms and their interactions with the physical environment, but as ecologists we seldom attempt to understand ecosystems in their entirety. This seminar will present a system-level overview of the ecological processes operating in a Malaysian rainforest, and explain how we are converting this knowledge into a digital twin ecosystem – the virtual rainforest.
Biography:
Rob Ewers is Professor of Ecology at Imperial College London who specialises in biodiversity and whole-system ecology. His vision is to integrate diverse data sources, modelling approaches and interdisciplinary collaborations to develop a holistic understanding of ecological systems. He applies his research to address pressing environmental challenges and to promote sustainable land use practices.
The lecture will be followed by an drinks reception and everyone is welcome
The Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery is interested in promoting a wide variety of views and opinions on nature recovery from researchers and practitioners.
The views, opinions and positions expressed within this lecture are those of the author alone, they do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery, or its researchers.
Global historical reconstructions of human transformation and use of landscapes confirms that most of terrestrial nature as we know it, including Earth’s most biodiverse landscapes, are cultural legacies of centuries to millennia of sustained human use.
Efforts to build a better future for people and the nature begin by recognizing that cultural natures, including those sustained by indigenous peoples for millennia, not natures without people, are the greatest planetary opportunities for recovering and sustaining Earth’s biodiversity in the Anthropocene. Even the most intensively used working landscapes on Earth, including cities and farms, are central to a nature positive future.
Biography
Erle Ellis is Professor of Geography and Environmental Systems at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). A global Highly Cited Researcher, his work investigates the ecology of human landscapes to inform sustainable stewardship of the biosphere. He teaches environmental science and landscape ecology at UMBC and has taught landscape ecology at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. He is a Lead Author of the IPBES Transformative Change Assessment, a founding member of the Anthropocene Working Group of the ICS, Fellow of the Global Land Programme and Senior Fellow of the Breakthrough Institute. His book, Anthropocene: A Very Short Introduction, was published in 2018.
The lecture will be followed by an drinks reception and everyone is welcome
The Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery is interested in promoting a wide variety of views and opinions on nature recovery from researchers and practitioners. The views, opinions and positions expressed within this lecture are those of the author alone, they do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery, or its researchers.
Over the past half decade, the UK has set a net zero goal and nature restoration targets, both of which require very substantial land use change. However, the UK uses 70% of its land surface, and an equivalent area overseas, to produce the food we eat. On the face of it, the UK is headed for land use conflict, and it is not alone: most countries face the same climate-nature-food challenge.
This talk, which draws on analysis done for in the National Food Strategy and subsequent work done at Green Alliance, a leading UK environmental think tank, will show how land use in the UK and other European countries can change to give us everything we want from land, and what trade-offs policymakers will have to make to enable land to change rapidly enough to meet our goals.
Background
I was the chief analytical advisor for Henry Dimbleby’s National Food Strategy, and, with my team, have subsequently built a set of land use models that allow us to construct scenarios that meet net zero, restore nature to different levels, meet dietary and import/export preferences, model bioenergy demand, and quantify the costs of doing it all.
The lecture will be followed by an drinks reception and everyone is welcome