Back from the Edge

Could our global ecosystem be careening towards a cliff? That’s what some scientists think. Erle Ellis, an associate professor of geography and environmental systems at UMBC, and a group of scientists from Australia and the United Kingdom are trying to talk their colleagues back from the edge in a new paper published this week in Trends in Ecology and Evolution.

There is growing agreement among scientists that we now live in an epoch called the Anthropocene – an age where humanity has transformed the world’s ecosystems, atmosphere and even its rocks. The question is whether humans are causing changes in Earth’s ecosystems that might soon trigger a global tipping point. Is the Anthropocene biosphere accelerating towards a point of no return?

While the idea of global tipping points is controversial, ecological tipping points at the local level are well studied. For example, “if you add nutrients to a lake it will continue on as before until you surpass a certain level of nutrients.  Then the lake’s ecosystem will suddenly shift to a new state — it will have reached its tipping point,” says Ellis. “The lake will go from having very clear water to very turbid water, the kinds of fish will change and the chemistry and the ecology of the lake will change almost completely. It is then very hard to get that lake back into its previous state.”

A planetary tipping point in Earth’s ecosystems could occur, say Ellis and his colleagues, if ecosystems across the planet responded to uniform human pressures in similar ways, or if there were strong connections across continents and ecosystems that enabled the rapid transmission of ecological impacts across the planet. 

Fortunately, Ellis and his colleagues are convinced that a planetary tipping point in ecology isn’t likely to occur on Earth. To begin with, organisms and ecosystems on different continents aren’t strongly connected. Animals, plants and microbes are greatly limited in their interactions by distance and barriers such as oceans and mountain ranges. Accordingly, responses to human pressures depend largely on local conditions.  Even global climate change is unlikely to produce a coherent global shift in ecology because local ecosystems respond so differently to changes in climate.

“Essentially, local changes aren’t acting to push each other over the edge, as is the case with tipping points,” Ellis says. “They are simply adding up to cause long-term global changes in ecology.”

While we still need to think about global impacts, Ellis’ research puts the emphasis back on managing ecosystems at the local and regional level. That assertion has significant policy implications and could help us avoid misguided conservation efforts. “The disadvantage of thinking in terms of global tipping points,”says Ellis,“is that if you think you are far from the brink, no need to act, and if you think you’ve passed the tipping point you might as well give up.”

(3/1/13)

On March 27th, Dominick Tolli of the American Red Cross visited UMBC to discuss four revolutionary mobile apps his team created to better serve people impacted by natural disasters and other emergencies. When Superstorm Sandy hit, tens of thousands of people accessed the apps for information on storm conditions, available shelters, first aid and even gasoline pick-up sites.

The Baltimore Sun reported on the event, organized by Richard Bissell of the Emergency Health Services Dept., who serves on the Scientific Advisory Council of the American Red Cross. Bissell commented that the app developers “are helping move the Red Cross into the public in a way that has never been done before.”

In an emergency situation, standard forms of communications are often unavailable, making it difficult for public health groups to serve those most in need of help. Bissell says using mobile devices is “actually a pretty robust way of getting information to the people,” because cell phone signals generally remain intact during power outages.

Sunil Dasgupta, director of UMBC’s political science program at the Universities at Shady Grove and non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, has published a new East Asia Forum commentary on India’s potential responses to civil war in Pakistan. Dasgupta writes:

In 1971, India intervened militarily on behalf of Bengalis in the civil war in East Pakistan, dividing the country in two and helping to create Bangladesh. In 2013, prospects of another civil war in Pakistan — this time one that pits radical Islamists against the secular but authoritarian military — have led once again to questions about what India would do. What would trigger Indian intervention, and who would India support?

Dasgupta explores several key factors and possible scenarios before concluding that, given present and foreseeable conditions, “India is likely to sit out a Pakistani civil war while covertly coordinating policy with the United States.” Read the full article to learn more.

Name:  Kate Hunsicker ’14
Majors: English and Dance
Scholarships: Alumni Association Scholarship (Legacy), Senatorial Scholarship, UMBC scholarship

Q: Why did you decide to attend UMBC?
A:  I decided to come to UMBC because this school was able to offer me everything that I wanted. I wanted a mid-sized campus, in-state and not too far from home, where I could major in both Dance and English. My dad, uncle, and older brother all went to UMBC, so I knew that it was a great school and that I would be happy in the community life here.

Q:  What has been the most amazing discovery you’ve made so far as a student here?
A:  The most amazing discovery that I have made at UMBC so far is the way that I’ve been able to extensively pursue both Dance and English at a school that is known for STEM. I have been able to balance both of my passions, and even go far beyond classroom learning for both of them. In dance, I have had many opportunities to perform since my first semester here, and have even been performing with Baltimore Dance Project (a professional faculty company) since my freshman year. I was also awarded the Summer Research award for dance from the department, and was able to study in New York for three weeks under Doug Varone and his dance company. In English, I was recommended to become a tutor and now I work in the UMBC Writing Center. Now, as an experienced tutor, I have been given the opportunity to become a Writing Fellow. I will be starting next semester and some fellow tutors and I will be assisting English 100 teachers and facilitating the writing lab sections of the Composition 100 classes. I am extremely excited about all of my opportunities and very happy that UMBC has allowed me to fulfill all of these things in both of my areas of interest.

Q:  Tell us about a class or club that has really opened your mind (and why)…
A:  In the beginning of my freshman year, I joined a club called Intervarsity. This is one of the many Christian groups on campus, and it has really opened my mind and been a good thing for me on campus. Intervarsity has given me a place of refuge and rest, the opportunity to grow spiritually at school with people my age, and has allowed me to meet many amazing, supportive people; some of whom have become my closest friends. For the past two years, it has also given me the opportunity to be a leader in a campus club, and has influenced my abilities to speak in front of people, to manage my time, and to care for others on our campus.

Q:  What do you hope to do after graduation, and why?
A:  After graduation, I am hoping to find a way to incorporate both dance and English into my life/career. I am interested in finding an editing position for a magazine or for some type of published work. If I find a full time job in such a position, I would still like to be performing for dance with a local company or maybe even in community theater, as I also love to sing and act. I am also interested in the idea of writing dance criticism as a way to combine both of my interests and even if that is not a full time pursuit, I could potentially do freelance dance writing while performing or working at another job.

Q:  How important is it to you as a student to get scholarship support?
A:  As a student, it is so important to get scholarship support. Everyone wants to be able to complete their education and pursue their dreams, but financial concerns are always looming regarding student loans and making payments. Receiving scholarships significantly eases the financial burden of the college student, and allows us to carry out our studies with less stress about money and loans.

Q:  What would you say to the alumni who contributed to your scholarship?
A:  I would very much like to thank the alumni who contributed to my scholarship. Their generosity has given me the opportunity to continue my studies with less financial stressors above my head. Their willingness to make such contributions is an indication of the wonderful opportunities that they themselves once had at UMBC, and I think it is amazing that they want to help current UMBC students have an experience at this school as beneficial as their own experience here.

James Grubb, professor of history, is the recipient of a 2013 USM Regents’ Faculty Award for Teaching.

Regents’ Faculty Awards publicly recognize distinguished performance on the part of faculty members. This award is the highest honor presented by the Board of Regents to exemplary faculty members. The awardees are selected by the Council of University System Faculty and submitted to the Board of Regents for approval.

Teaching awards are given to faculty who have have demonstrated accomplishments in areas such as course development and pedagogy, faculty development, mentorship of faculty, direction of student research projects, and leadership in teaching improvement.

Previously, Grubb was selected as the Lipitz Professor of the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences for the 2010-2011 academic year. Watch Grubb give the annual Lipitz Lecture below.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RH1EpucL1_0]

Jessica Pfeifer, associate professor of philosophy, has been selected as the Executive Secretary and Treasurer of the Philosophy of Science Association (PSA).

The mission of the PSA is to promote research, teaching, and discussion of issues within the philosophy of science from diverse viewpoints. Pfeifer is interested particularly in improving the PSA’s institutional memory, facilitating the mentoring of philosophers of science at the start of their careers, and making the scientific community and the general public aware of the philosophy of science and its value in public discourse.

Pfeifer has published papers in a range of topics in philosophy of science, and co-edited, with Sahotra Sarkar, The Philosophy of Science: An Encyclopedia, Vols. 1 & 2 (Routledge, 2006). She has already assumed several of the jobs of the PSA Executive Secretary and Treasurer, and will soon assume all the duties of the position.

This appointment was made possible by generous financial support and co-sponsorship by UMBC and CAHSS.

Robert Provine, professor of psychology, is featured in a Globe and Mail story entitled “Why do Oscar Winners Cry Tears of Joy?”

Provine pointed out that it is important to distinguish between two kinds of crying – vocal crying, typical of a newborn demanding to be fed, which is an ancient behaviour shared with other animals, and emotional crying, the tears of happiness or sadness, which is a recent evolutionary development exclusive to humans.

“Only humans shed emotional tears,” he said.

The story appeared online on February 22.

Last week, PoliFact’s “Truth-O-Meter” assessed President Obamas assertion that the sequester “won’t consider whether we’re cutting some bloated program that has outlived its usefulness, or a vital service that Americans depend on every single day. It doesn’t make those distinctions.” Citing analysis by UMBC political science professor Roy T. Meyers and others, PolitiFact concludes that Obama’s statement is an oversimplication, but it is mostly true that sequestration cuts will be indiscriminate.

The site notes, “even the fact that some programs are exempted from the sequester supports Obama’s point.” How? Meyers explains that the list of exempted programs (e.g., Social Security, Pell Grants, food stamps) “is the result of tradition and legislative negotiations, rather than a defensible process of prioritizing cuts based on explicit criteria.” Further, agencies’ discression over how to make cuts within their programs will likely be based on expediency, Meyers says, “not on whether a program is more effective or has a higher priority than other programs.”

Meyers also provided expert analysis for another PolitiFact post last week on the potential of sequestration to impact health care.