Session Overview: Forest Ecosystems

The core assumption of this symposium is that science can provide insight to management. Nowhere is this link more formally established than in regard to the science and management of forest ecosystems. The basic questions addressed are integral to our understanding of nature; the applications of this understanding are crucial to effective stewardship of natural resources (Carpenter and Turner 1998, Christensen and others 1996). For example, the challenge of managing Sierra Nevada forests motivated an unprecedented ecosystem assessment of the entire bioregion with the explicit goal of generating management options (SNEP 1996). Yet despite the attraction of “the ecosystem approach” as both a fundamental ecological concept (Pickett and Cadenasso 2002) and a philosophical management paradigm (Rauscher 1999), the complexity of ecosystems perplexes scientists and managers. Ecosystems by definition are multidimensional (Pickett and Cadenasso 2002). They cross spatial and temporal scales, ignore political borders, and transcend the expertise of any one discipline. At the same time, ecosystems are real places where boundaries are defined, services are expected, and managers are held responsible.