Nicholas J. Reo

Research on Coupled Human and Natural Systems (CHANS): Approach, Challenges, and Strategies

William J. McConnell, James D. A. Millington, Nicholas J. Reo, Marina Alberti, Heidi Asbjornsen, Lawrence A. Baker, Nicholas Brozov, Laurie E. Drinkwater, Scott A. Drzyzga, Jose, Fragoso, Daniel S. Holland, Claire A. Jantz, Timothy Kohler, Herbert D. G. Maschner, Michael Monticino, Guillermo Podesta, Robert Gilmore Pontius, Jr., Charles L. Redman, David Sailor, Gerald Urquhart, and Jianguo Liu. (2011). Research on Coupled Human and Natural Systems (CHANS): Approach, Challenges, and Strategies. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America April: 218-228.

Re-thinking colonialism to prepare for the impacts of rapid environmental change

This essay demonstrates how key concepts from ecology can be applied within historical analyses in order to gain insights regarding contemporary environmental change. We employ a coupled human and natural systems conceptual framework in a nascent historical analysis of rapid societal and environmental change in colonial New England, where European colonization led to stark and rapid transformations. Introduced diseases reduced indigenous communities to a fraction of their pre-contact levels. European agriculture and associated pest species, deforestation and overharvest of ecologically influential species were among key aspects of the rapid changes in colonial New England. Cross-continental biotic introductions initiated reinforcing feedback loops that accelerated the transition of human and natural systems into novel states. Integrating colonial history and ecology can help identify important interactions between human and natural systems useful for contemporary societies adjusting to environmental change.

Conservation planning at the landscape scale: A landscape ecology method for regional land trusts

This paper illustrates a landscape ecology approach for land trusts undertaking conservation at the watershed scale. A conservation plan was created for the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy (GTRLC) in the headwaters of Michigans Manistee River Watershed (USA). Eight conservation drivers were devised to identify Conservation Focus Areas (CFAs) of highest ecological importance. The CFAs were ranked based on ecological importance, feasibility of protection and size. Parcels were ranked, totalling nearly 5000 ha, within the three highest-ranking CFAs in one key county. This approach is useful to land trusts trying to operationalize three distinct goals in conservation planning: to find areas of high ecological importance, to promote the landscapes spatial integrity and to delineate threats to ecological systems and processes.

The river is us; the river is in our veins: re-defining river restoration in three Indigenous communities

Indigenous communities are increasingly taking the lead in river restoration, using the process as an opportunity to re-engage deeply with their rivers, while revealing socio-cultural and political dimensions of restoration underreported in ecological and social science literatures. We engaged in collaborative research with representatives from three Indigenous nations in the United States, New Zealand, and Canada to explore the relationship between Indigenous ways of knowing and being (i.e., “Indigenous knowledges”) and their restoration efforts. Our research project asks the following: how are Indigenous knowledges enacted through river restoration and how do they affect outcomes? How do the experiences of these Indigenous communities broaden our understanding of the social dimensions of river restoration? Our research reveals how socio-cultural protocols and spiritual practices are intertwined with restoration methodologies, showing why cultural approaches to restoration matter. We found that in many cases, a changing political or legal context helps create space for assertion of Indigenous spiritual and cultural values, while the restoration efforts themselves have the potential to both repair community relationships with water and empower communities vis-à-vis the wider society. We show that restoration has the potential to not only restore ecosystem processes and services, but to repair and transform human relationships with rivers and create space politically for decolonizing river governance.

Mechanical Harvesting Effectively Controls Young Typha spp. Invasion and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Data Enhances Post-treatment Monitoring

The ecological impacts of invasive plants increase dramatically with time since invasion. Targeting young populations for treatment is therefore an economically and ecologically effective management approach, especially when linked to post-treatment monitoring to evaluate the efficacy of management. However, collecting detailed field-based post-treatment data is prohibitively expensive, typically resulting in inadequate documentation of the ecological effects of invasive plant management. Alternative approaches, such as remote detection with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), provide an opportunity to advance the science and practice of restoration ecology. In this study, we sought to determine the plant community response to different mechanical removal treatments to a dominant invasive wetland macrophyte (Typha spp.) along an age-gradient within a Great Lakes coastal wetland. We assessed the post-treatment responses with both intensive field vegetation and UAV data. Prior to treatment, the oldest Typha stands had the lowest plant diversity, lowest native sedge (Carex spp.) cover, and the greatest Typha cover. Following treatment, plots that were mechanically harvested below the surface of the water differed from unharvested control and above-water harvested plots for several plant community measures, including lower Typha dominance, lower native plant cover, and greater floating and submerged aquatic species cover. Repeated-measures analysis revealed that above-water cutting increased plant diversity and aquatic species cover across all ages, and maintained native Carex spp. cover in the youngest portions of Typha stands. UAV data revealed significant post-treatment differences in normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) scores, blue band reflectance, and vegetation height, and these remotely collected measures corresponded to field observations. Our findings suggest that both mechanically harvesting the above-water biomass of young Typha stands and harvesting older stands below-water will promote overall native community resilience, and increase the abundance of the floating and submerged aquatic plant guilds, which are the most vulnerable to invasions by large macrophytes. UAVs provided fast and spatially expansive data compared to field monitoring, and effectively measured plant community structural responses to different treatments. Study results suggest pairing UAV flights with targeted field data collection to maximize the quality of post-restoration vegetation monitoring.

Fire History and Age Structure of an Oakpine Forest on Price Mountain, Virginia, USA

ABSTRACT: Fire history is an important aspect of the natural disturbance pattern of many types of forested ecosystems. Nonetheless, many forests and corresponding management plans lack quantitative information on fire interval, frequency, and seasonality. This project examined the fire history at Price Mountain, Virginia, using fire scar samples and tree-ring analyses from live tree chronologies. Additionally, this project investigated the fire scarring potential of two little-studied species, black gum (Nyssa sylvatica) and sourwood (Oxydendrum arboreum), as well as described the age-structure of the current stand. We hypothesized that fire frequency would be high prior to the fire suppression era, given the proximity to an historical railroad track at the base of the mountain and susceptibility to lightning due to elevation. Six major fire years occurred between 1861 and 1925 at an average interval of 14 years, followed by a period of no fires. Two-thirds of the fires burned early in the season. There was an initial establishment of sourwood and chestnut oak (Quercus prinus) from 1930–1940 as well as another establishment peak between 1950 and 1960 after a major logging event. Pine (Pinus pungens and Pinus rigida) species established between 1870 and 1930. Reconstructed fire history and age structure informs land managers that repeated fires occurred in this Appalachian ridge top forest and that modern forest structure is in part the legacy of historic fires and fire suppression.

Factors that support Indigenous involvement in multi-actor environmental stewardship

Regional, multi-actor environmental collaborations bring together diverse parties to achieve environmental protection and stewardship outcomes. Involving a range of participants helps involve alternative forms of knowledge, expertise, and perspectives; it may also present greater challenges in reaching agreements, particularly when both Indigenous and non-Indigenous parties are involved. The authors conduct a cross-case study of 39 regional partnerships involving Indigenous nations from the Great Lakes basin of North America with the aim of determining the factors that enable Indigenous partners to remain engaged in multi-actor collaborations. Six characteristics influenced Indigenous nations’ willingness to remain engaged: respect for Indigenous knowledges, control of knowledge mobilization, intergenerational involvement, self-determination, continuous cross-cultural education, and early involvement. Being attentive of these factors can help partnerships achieve their environmental goals by keeping important partners at the table.

Anishnaabe Aki: an indigenous perspective on the global threat of invasive species

Conservation discourses tend to portray invasive species as biological entities temporally connected to colonial timelines, using terms such as “alien”, “colonizing”, “colonial”, and “native”. This focus on a colonial timeline emerges from scientific publications within conservation biology and invasion ecology and is enacted through invasive species management by state and NGO actors. Colonialism is influential for indigenous nations in myriad ways, but in what ways do indigenous understandings of invasive species engage with colonialism? We conducted ethnographic research with indigenous Anishnaabe communities to learn about the ways Anishnaabe people conceptualize invasive species as a phenomenon in the world and were gifted with three primary insights. First, Anishnaabe regard plants, like all beings, as persons that assemble into nations more so than “species”. The arrival of new plant nations is viewed by some Anishnaabe as a natural form of migration. The second insight highlights the importance of actively discovering the purpose of new species, sometimes with the assistance of animal teachers. Lastly, while Anishnaabe describe invasive species as phenomenologically entangled with colonialism, the multiple ways Anishnaabe people think about invasive species provide alternatives to native–non-native binaries that dominate much of the scientific discourse.

Complex interactions between biota, landscapes and native peoples

The papers presented here originated with a symposium held at the Ecological Society of America’s annual meeting in Portland, Oregon, in 2012. They describe how native people and indigenous researchers view and understand the cultural and biological complexity inherent in coupled socio-ecological systems. The researchers note that interactions between native peoples and their environments consist of a complex network of linkages, feedbacks, and change, and they describe synthetic approaches to problem solving. These approaches often spring from long cultural traditions and recent adaptations to environments. There are examples of native peoples successfully managing biota and ecosystems for thousands of years. Yet, current societal conditions often challenge indigenous-based efforts to continue managing ecosystems and biota. Nonetheless, in the face of the new challenges native people continue to innovate and manage their environments and biota.