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Education
PhD,
Limnology and Marine Sciences, U. Wisconsin, 2002
MSc,
Land Resources, U. Wisconsin, 1999
BA,
Environmental Studies and Biology, Oberlin College, 1994
Office
Location: Macdonald-Stewart
Building, Room 2-062
Lab Location: Macdonald-Stewart
Building, Room 2-071
Lab webpage: http://www.bennettlab.weebly.com
Contact: elena.bennett@mcgill.ca
Research Interest: How do ecosystem services interact and how
can we manage landscapes to provide multiple services? This is the
question that drives the majority of research in the Bennett lab. We’re
interested in agricultural landscapes from which we demand not only food
and fiber, but also high quality water, biodiversity, recreation, and
other ecosystem services.
In many situations, a trade-off exists between agricultural production
and other ecosystem services. For example, in the case of agriculture and
water quality, production of food might require fertilizers which can
degrade water quality. Growing human population and wealth are driving
increased demand for agricultural production as well as other ecosystem
services, such as clean water, flood regulation, erosion control, and
carbon sequestration. What can we learn about these trade-offs and the
other interactions among ecosystem services that may help improve
management of ecosystems to provide multiple services? What if focusing
on maximizing the production of one ecosystem service (i.e., agricultural
production) can make ecosystems vulnerable to ‘regime shifts’, rapid
ecological reorganizations that causes unexpectedly large losses of
ecosystem services and are often difficult to reverse?
It is really important to me to do research that is, in some way,
providing a useful product (information, understanding, or some other
tool) to the public. Thus, I find myself also working on other issues in
ecosystem management, urban ecology, communication of science to the public
and other policy-makers, and building understanding of theories behind
ecosystem management (including the resilience of ecosystems and human
institutions, and the use of science in management decisions).
Please
see my lab web page, http://www.bennettlab.weebly.com,
for more information about the lab group, including information for
prospective students.
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