So finally decided... Topic of Katie’s MacArthur Award Talk

Finally sent in abstract for the MacArthur Award Talk — very excited for this August at the ESA conference in Louisville! Here is my topic:

RESILIENCE, RECOVERY AND THE ECOLOGY OF CHANGE

Our world is changing rapidly and the subsequent consequences for socio-ecological systems will be profound. A trio of threats loom: increased frequency of extreme events, shifts in baseline environmental conditions, and rapid turnover in biota. How do we adapt our science to better reflect this new normal? The challenges we face today require a reevaluation of many core ecological concepts, including recovery, coexistence, resilience, and stability. We must consider whether these ideas provide the appropriate framework to understand contemporary ecosystems and whether they allow our science to inform societal challenges such as restoration and conservation. For example, is resilience the ideal theory and objective for a changing world? Progress also requires us to better incorporate interdisciplinary concepts such as non-stationarity, self-organization and adaptive capacity. Expanding our science to better reflect and describe change will allow our work to be more relevant, inclusive, and robust as we collectively face environmental change as the new normal.