PARENT SESSION
Contributed Oral Session 162: Landscape Ecology: Management; Vegetation Dynamics
Friday, August 12, 8:00 AM - 11:30 AM, Meeting Room 520 A, Level 5, Palais des congrès de Montréal

Designing and Implementing Large Scale Experiments in Land Use.

Stevens, Carly^*,1, Thomas, Mathew¹, Michley, Jonathan¹, Fraser, Iain¹, ¹ Department of Agricultural Sciences, Ashford, Kent, UK

ABSTRACT- Scale is clearly an important issue in ecology, however, there are many questions that remain to be answered. This project investigates the best potential methodologies for working at a large scale in ecology and land use studies. We evaluate different approaches taken to large scale investigations in ecology including observational, experimental and modelling approaches and how these can be combined to generate useful data. Different methods have different strengths and weakness, for example an observational study may be criticised for only giving correlational data and not causation; the results of an experimental study may not be applicable at a large scale because of the landscape context; a model may be limited in its complexity and accuracy by the observational and experimental data available. At a large scale there is increasingly a need to integrate ecological investigations with socio-economic issues. There is an increasing need for scientists and social scientists to integrate their studies in order for policy relevant outcomes of research to be achieved. Drawing on the outputs from an interdisciplinary workshop entitled Large scale investigations in ecology and land use, we discus the stage in an investigation at which scientists should consult with social scientists. We also discuss the difficulties for scientists and social scientists working together given the differing spatial and temporal scales at which they work presenting a set of guidelines for best practice in large scale ecological investigations.

Key words: Scale, experimental, land use, interdisciplinary