Projects
Below is a sampling of current projects, which range from field studies to modeling exercises, and from local Vermont work to global efforts. All tend to combine natural and social sciences and to link rigorous research with real-world conservation problems.
Crop pollination services - ecology and economics
Roughly 70% of the world's most economically important crops benefit from animal pollination. As managed honeybees decline in North America and elsewhere, it has become increasingly important to understand how communities of wild bees provide pollination services and what determines their dynamics in agricultural landscapes. We conduct field studies in Vermont and elsewhere to understand the ecological importance and economic value of crop pollination services. We work with a global group of collaborators to distill general lessions from these field studies. And we are developing simple models that predict pollination services across agricultural landscapes and are using them to estimate consequences of land use change. We aim to use these models to support land use decisions and policies both in Vermont and around the world.
Key collaborators:
Eric Lonsdorf, Claire Kremen, Jim Regetz, Rufus Isaacs, Neal Williams
Key publications:
Lonsdorf, E., Kremen, C., Ricketts, T.H., Winfree, R., Williams, N. and Greenleaf, S. (2009). Modeling pollination services across agricultural landscapes. Annals of Botany 103(9): 1-12. PDF
Ricketts, T.H., J. Regetz, I. Steffan-Dewenter, S. A. Cunningham, C. Kremen, B. Gemmill, S. S. Greenleaf, A. M. Klein, M. M. Mayfield, L. A. Morandin, A. Ochieng', R. Winfree. (2007). Landscape effects on crop pollination services: Are there general patterns?. Ecology Letters 11:499-515. PDF
Ricketts, T.H., G.C. Daily, P.R. Ehrlich, and C. Michener (2004). Economic value of tropical forest to coffee production. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - US. 101(34):12579-12582. PDF
Ecosystem Services: ecological dynamics and economic values
Ecosystems provide multiple interacting services that support human economies and livelihoods (e.g., carbon storage, water purification, recreation opportunities, coastal protection). We collaborate widely to map sources of ecosystem services across landscapes, estimate their economic value, quantify trade-offs among them, and predict consequences of likely land use and climate change. This work includes spatial cost-benefit analyses for forest conservation across regions, as well as global studies to analyze the congruence of important regions for ecosystem services and biodiversity. Our largest effort in this area is the Natural Capital Project, a collaboration among universities and NGOs to develop simple models to map and value ecosystem services and to apply them around the world to support conservation. The ultimate goal of this work is to make quantifying ecosystem services so straightforward and routine that they are mainstreamed into all major resource decisions by governments, banks, and NGOs.
Key collaborators:
Andrew Balmford, Nirmal Bhagabati, Gretchen Daily, Brendan Fisher, Jon Foley, Peter Kareiva, Robin Naidoo, Steve Polasky, Mary Ruckelshaus, Heather Tallis
Key publications:
Kareiva, P., H. Tallis, T.H. Ricketts, G.C. Daily, & S. Polasky, eds. (2011). Natural capital: Theory and practice of mapping ecosystem services. Oxford University Press. 432 pp. LINK
Daily, G.C., S. Polasky, J. Goldstein, P. M. Kareiva, H.A. Mooney, L. Pejchar, T.H. Ricketts, J. Salzman, R. Shallenberger (2009). Ecosystem services in decision-making: Time to deliver. Frontiers in Ecology and Environment 7(1):21-28. PDF
Naidoo, R., A. Balmford, R. Costanza, B. Fisher, R.E. Green, B. Lehner, T.R. Malcolm, T.H. Ricketts (2008). Global mapping of ecosystem services and conservation priorities. PNAS. 105: 9495-9500. PDF
Ecosystems and Human Health
Ecosystems not only provide economic benefits to people, they support human health as well. Forests, reefs, and wetlands can provide nutrition to rural communities, regulate air and water quality, and control infectious diseases. We are just beginning a collaborative project to investigate the linkages between ecosystems and human health. As part of HEAL, a broad consortium of universities and conservation organizations, we are developing models to estimate and predict changes in human health outcomes due to ecosystem degradation.
Key collaborators:
Sam Myers, Steve Osofsky, Kate Brauman
Key publications:
Global biogeography and conservation priorities
Understanding the distribution and abundance of organisms, and the mechanisms driving those patterns, is fundamental to ecology. It also helps identify conservation priorities, understand global extinction dynamics, and optimize research and conservation investment. We continue to explore how biodiversity is distributed, how these patterns relate to important drivers of change, and how this understanding can strengthen conservation efforts. Projects vary from identifying vertebrate species facing most imminent extinction to quantifying levels of global concordance among richness and endemism for different taxa.
Key collaborators:
Robin Abell, Eric Dinerstein, Jon Hoekstra, John Lamoreux, Colby Loucks
Key publications:
Abell, R., M. Thieme, T.H. Ricketts, N. Olwero, R. Ng, P. Petry, E. Dinerstein, C. Revenga, J. Hoekstra (2011). Concordance of freshwater and terrestrial biodiversity. Conservation Letters 4:127-136. PDF
Lamoreux, J.F., J.C. Morrison, T.H. Ricketts, D.M. Olson, E. Dinerstein, M.W. McKnight, H. H. Shugart (2006). Global tests of biodiversity concordance and the importance of endemism. Nature 440:212-213. PDF
Ricketts, T.H., E. Dinerstein, T. Boucher, T.M. Brooks, et al. (2005). Pinpointing and preventing imminent extinctions. PNAS. 102:18497-18501. PDF
Last modified February 26 2013 09:16 AM