Environmental Outreach 

Active Restoration

While global protection of habitat has increased over recent decades, passive conservation strategies are unable to counteract the multitude of anthropogenic impacts to ecosystem decline. As a result, active management approaches are now increasingly being proposed, including the breeding and reintroduction initiatives for endangered species; habitat-creation mechanisms; assisted evolution; and wildlife rehabilitation. I am curious about whether these expensive and energy-intensive initiatives can prevent irreversible environmental degradation if they can be coupled with other mitigation strategies.

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While active management seems like a 'hopeless,' last-ditch effort, it just may be essential in preventing mass extinction, if we can also concurrently address the main sources of habitat destruction. As we navigate complex problems, coming up with radical, novel solutions just may be the way forward.

My work aims to reframe the scientific questions of conservation: How can conservation not only preserve the environment but help people? For this purpose, we often must re-explore the ecosystem services provided by a functioning environment as an impetus for conservation.

I am particularly interested in how to demonstrate the full value of ecosystem services of foundational species such as seagrass, coral reefs and kelp forests as well as demonstrate that best management practices in many instances can be economically beneficial in the long-run.

Ecosystem level management is essential for preventing ecological collapse. Understanding the declines of foundational species and targeting the core stresses such as poor water quality and climate change are essential for effective resource management. I am particularly interested in how better land-use, such as soil rehabilitation and reducing chemical fertilizers and pesticides can address both climate change and coastal ecosystem decline. How can "greening" the environment effectively reach many solutions in one fell swoop?