Scientific achievements in 2013

Research on Evolutionarily sustainable consumption and the Integrated assessment of fishery systems examine options and challenges for the development of aquatic food resources (Food and Water).

Work on the Equitable governance of common goods investigate how top-down regulations for managing common goods or open-access resources can be improved by integrative assessments of stakeholder conflicts and by scaling up successful characteristics of self-organized and resilient bottom-up governance (Poverty and Equity).

Studies on the Eco-evolutionary dynamics of living systems, on Systemic risk and network dynamics, and on Evolutionary vegetation modeling and management open up new methodological avenues for the applied systems analysis of biodiversity, tangled interactions, and ecosystem dynamics (Advanced Systems Analysis).

The last project’s process-based modeling approach will enable novel features in next-generation dynamic global vegetation models, which are instrumental for assessing climate impacts (Energy and Climate Change).

Together, these projects show how innovative methods inspired by the dynamics of living systems can invigorate and integrate key facets of modern applied systems analysis.

Eco-evolutionary dynamics of living systems: Applications

Predicting how living systems respond to changing conditions is difficult, as such responses are often at odds with human intuition. Evolution and Ecology Program (EEP) research contributed to a mounting body of literature showing that eco-evolutionary dynamics can potentially exacerbate the worldwide biodiversity crises by causing secondary species extinctions. More

Eco-evolutionary dynamics of living systems: Theory

2013 saw the culmination of many projects aimed at the conceptual elucidation and technical underpinning of the links between individual-level mechanisms and their population-level ecological and evolutionary consequences, the initial phases of which have already been covered in earlier scientific updates. More

Equitable governance of common goods

Evolution and Ecology Program (EEP) research on the equitable governance of common goods analyzes the evolution of cooperation in joint enterprises and resource management, with particular emphasis on the nature and impact of governance measures such as positive or negative incentives. More

Evolutionarily sustainable consumption

While most of the Evolution and Ecology (EEP) Program's studies in the field of exploitation-induced evolution have addressed questions of aquatic food resources and fisheries-induced evolution, the phenomenon of exploitation-induced evolution is relevant for any wild animal or plant population utilized for human consumption. More

Evolutionary vegetation modeling and management

Evolution and Ecology Program (EEP) research on evolutionary vegetation modeling and management aims at improving models of the formation and maintenance of vegetation diversity, structure, and functioning. More

Integrated assessment of fishery systems

Fisheries play an important role in food security worldwide, but many aquatic food resources are not harvested sustainably. Research in 2013 by the Evolution and Ecology Program (EEP) addressed sustainability and management options in important fishing areas. More

Systemic risk and network dynamics

The Evolution and Ecology Program (EEP) is pursuing analyses on the risk of local failures contagiously spreading through an entire system, where systems are interconnected, as in financial markets, food-supply chains, disease dynamics, food webs, energy grids, transportation networks, and information flows, as well as the underlying network dynamics of such systems. More

Last edited: 22 May 2014