Plant-Animal interactions
René van der Wal
Aberdeen Centre for Environmental Sustainability (ACES)
University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK
René van der Wal is a senior scientist with great interest in the ecology of grazing systems. A large part of his work has been on the role played by herbivores in a wide range of ecosystems such as temperate mountain, forest, moorland and seabird islands and arctic tundra. His work covers controversial topics such as overgrazing, predation, rewilding, non-nativeness, and stakeholder views/participation, notably in the context of people-wildlife conflict. He has obtained his PhD in 1998 at the University of Groningen, NL, and worked as an ecologist for the NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology from 1998 until 2007. Currrently, Van der Wal is senior lecturer within ACES (Aberdeen Centre for Environmental Sustainability), a collaborative initiative of Aberdeen University and Macaulay Institute focusing on the delivery of high-quality interdisciplinary science. Here he leads an active research group working on the causes and consequences of ecosystem perturbations from global change, i.e. changes in land-use, nitrogen enrichment, climate and invasive species notably in high altitude and latitude systems. His studies aim to provide innovative perspectives on ecosystem function and diversity by using a field experimental approach, connecting above and belowground ecosystem components, working at different spatial scales and integrating disciplines across the natural sciences. As many of his research questions are either influenced by or central to people, an increasing part of his work is conducted in close collaboration with social and environmental economic scientists and involves a wide range of stakeholders and/or members of the general public.
Title: Double trouble: Biotic amplification of global environmental change
Abstract:
Changes in land-use, climate and pollution currently transform the majority of northern environments. A general pattern is emerging, which suggest that Global Change has its greatest impact on these ecosystems through amplification of the direct effects by additional factors such as grazing or disease. I will illustrate this concept of 'biotic amplification' on the basis of three contrasting, yet thematically related case studies:
1) Fragility of Arctic Goose habitat: Impacts of Land use, conservation, and Elevated temperatures - High Arctic Spitsbergen;
2) Interplay between nitrogen enrichment and sheep grazing causes habitat degradation -Scottish Highlands;
3) Climate warming renders island ecosystems sensitive to plant invasion and species loss - Scottish islands.
All three studies bring out strongly the dramatic change in either ecosystem function or diversity resulting from multiple challenges that amplify each other. Understanding interactions between drivers of change and the principles behind biotic amplification is essential to minimize further erosion of values associated to northern environments.
