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INVESTIGATOR: Lee, L.; Brouder, S.; Volenec, J. J.; Gibson, K.; Prokopy, L.

PERFORMING INSTITUTION:
PURDUE UNIVERSITY
WEST LAFAYETTE, INDIANA 47907

GRADUATE EDUCATION TO MEET THE AGRO-ECOSYSTEM SERVICES (AES) CHALLENGE

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: Agro-ecosystems are among the most ancient and expansive of human-modified landscapes. For thousands of years humans have depended on agro-ecosystems to provide essential "provisioning" services such as food, feed, fiber, and fuel. Today, many of society's most pressing challenges - global climate change, energy and food security, and healthy communities - are now widely recognized to be intrinsically linked to the global agriculture enterprise as agriculture impacts a host of other ecosystem services (ES) ranging from greenhouse gas cycling to biological pest regulation. In research and education for the development and implementation of management practices and socio-economic policy, focus is finally shifting from a predominant emphasis on agriculture's provisioning services towards capturing greater value from an integrated and holistic understanding of all ES. Academic institutions which specialize in agricultural sciences and systems management have many existing capabilities necessary for mentoring the human capital to address these challenges. However, the treatment of agriculture within the curriculum needs to be broadened and explicitly interwoven throughout the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) disciplines. The goal of this National Needs Fellowship Program is to educate outstanding and diverse graduate students at the interface of agriculture and the environment, with a focus on Agro-Ecosystem Services (AES), which addresses the national targeted expertise shortage area (TESA) in Training in Integrative Biosciences for Sustainable Food and Agricultural Systems. AES Fellows would enter Purdue through the Ecological Sciences and Engineering Interdisciplinary Graduate Program (ESE IGP), which couples coursework and interdisciplinary research with a broad array of opportunities that facilitate professional development including skills in written and oral expression, team interactions, leadership, business management, and teaching. All students accepted into the ESE-IGP program are required to participate in a customized program of professional development activities. For AES fellows, the program will be further tailored to emphasize the ecological approach to the management of landscapes dominated by agriculture. The curriculum will encompass the study of the nature of value itself, qualitative and quantitative valuation of multiple services with a focus on confounding factors and spatiotemporal scaling, tradeoffs and management solutions to simultaneous optimization of multiple AES, the human dimension and economic-/trade- and policy-based incentives and strategies, and the cradle-to-grave process of acquiring and converting scientific knowledge to AES valuation. The AES fellows will graduate into a global economy that currently has a profound dearth and extreme need of such intellectual capability. A total of 2 MS and 4 Ph.D. AES fellow graduates with enhanced skills in critical and life cycle and resilience thinking, communication, and team building and a breath in science as well as societal elements (policy, economics,human dimension) are expected by 2014.

OBJECTIVES: Agro-ecosystems are among the most ancient and expansive of human-modified landscapes. For thousands of years humans have depended on agro-ecosystems to provide essential "provisioning" services such as food, feed, fiber, and fuel. Today, many of society's most pressing challenges - global climate change, energy and food security, and healthy communities - are now widely recognized to be intrinsically linked to the global agriculture enterprise as agriculture impacts a host of other ecosystem services (ES) ranging from greenhouse gas cycling to biological pest regulation. The goal of this National Needs Fellowship Program is to educate outstanding and diverse graduate students at the interface of agriculture and the environment, with a focus on Agro-Ecosystem Services (AES), which addresses the national targeted expertise shortage area (TESA) in Training in Integrative Biosciences for Sustainable Food and Agricultural Systems. This project will enhance programmatic emphasis on AES in the recently established Ecological Sciences and Engineering Interdisciplinary Graduate Program (ESE-IGP) at Purdue University (PU). The two overarching, intertwined goals of the ESE-IGP are to: (1) instill in students the critical and life cycle thinking skills that transcends disciplines, and (2) develop foundational scientific knowledge coupled with an understanding of the role of social, policy and economic facets in resolving environmental and natural resource issues. Such holistic capability is prerequisite to successfully addressing the complex environmental problems confronting society and is intended to shape graduates into tomorrow's leaders for federal and state government, industry, and nonprofit and private-sector organizations in the emerging, "green economy." ESE IGP couples coursework and interdisciplinary research with a broad array of pportunities that facilitate professional development including skills in written and oral expression, team interactions, leadership, business management, and teaching; all students accepted into the ESE-IGP program are required to participate in a customized program of professional development activities. For AES fellows, the program will be further tailored to emphasize the ecological approach to the management of landscapes dominated by agriculture. The curriculum will encompass the study of the nature of value itself, qualitative and quantitative valuation of multiple services with a focus on confounding factors and spatio-temporal scaling, tradeoffs and management solutions to simultaneous optimization of multiple AES, the human dimension and economic-/trade- and policy-based incentives and strategies, and the cradle-to-grave process of acquiring and converting scientific knowledge to AES valuation. The AES fellows will graduate into a global economy that currently has a profound dearth and extreme need of such intellectual capability. A total of 2 MS and 4 Ph.D. AES fellow graduates with enhanced skills in critical and life cycle and resilience thinking, communication, and team building and a breath in science as well as societal elements (policy, economics, human dimension) are expected by 2014.