Toward an Ecology of Livelihood Diversity

Abstract

Dr. Bill Burnside is broadly interested in the economy of nature and in insights about human-environment interactions from different fields. His graduate research, at the University of New Mexico, examined how metabolic constraints affect ecological interaction rates in small ectotherms, foraging patterns in seed-harvester ants, and macroecological patterns in traditional and industrial human societies. At SESYNC, Bill researches ecological, economic, and social correlates of sustainability in socio-environmental systems. Sustainability efforts and understanding tends to focus on specific cases or regions, in part reflecting the relative youth of sustainability science. Nevertheless, common principles and practices should characterize systems that persist and thrive. In consultation with relevant stakeholders, Bill is assembling a database with a range of ecological and socioeconomic variables and sustainability metrics for a number of systems, from working biosphere reserves to cities, and test predictions about the influence of human population changes, connectedness, resource use, ongoing assessment, and background ecology on different aspects of sustainability. The resulting database and insights will inform the wise development and management of the coupled human and natural systems in which we all have a vital stake.

Presenters

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William Burnside

Postdoctoral Fellow

Dr. William (Bill) Burnside is an independent scholar and a Senior Editor at Nature Sustainability.  Before joining the journal, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at SESYNC, working on macroecological approaches to sustainability science. Bill majored in Human Biology at Stanford University and holds an MS in Natural Resources & Environment from the University of Michigan. His PhD, in biology from the University of New Mexico, focused on the metabolic basis of large-scale ecological patterns and processes, including of humans. Much of this work has been interdisciplinary and has involved...

Image

William Burnside

Postdoctoral Fellow

Dr. William (Bill) Burnside is an independent scholar and a Senior Editor at Nature Sustainability.  Before joining the journal, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at SESYNC, working on macroecological approaches to sustainability science. Bill majored in Human Biology at Stanford University and holds an MS in Natural Resources & Environment from the University of Michigan. His PhD, in biology from the University of New Mexico, focused on the metabolic basis of large-scale ecological patterns and processes, including of humans. Much of this work has been interdisciplinary and has involved collaborations with environmental social scientists, anthropologists, and computer scientists. He is co-editor of Foundations of Socio-Environmental Research: Legacy Readings with Commentaries, forthcoming from Cambridge University Press, an anthology he started at SESYNC and that the Center has continued to support.

External Links:
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=uajiA-oAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
https://www.nature.com/natsustain/about/editors

Date
Time
4:00 p.m. ET
Location
SESYNC – 1 Park Place, Suite 300 Annapolis, MD 21401
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