Rosina Bierbaum, Dean
School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan

Abstract

The physical impacts of climate change are beginning to be observed on all continents. Our understanding of how these impacts will alter ecosystems and affect human communities is improving, but we need to conduct many more place-based assessments to evaluate possible coping options appropriate to different locales. We are also learning that there may be nonlinearities or thresholds in how systems respond to a changing climate. This keynote talk will discuss the importance of considering climate change within the context of multiple environmental stresses such as habitat fragmentation, traditional pollutants, invasive species, and over-fishing in order to design adaptation mechanisms. Examples will be drawn from the United States as well as international estuarine and coastal regions.

While slowing the rate of climate change and limiting the total temperature increase are absolutely crucial, we must also be developing wise planning and management options to cope with changes already underway. It is crucial that both aggressive mitigation and adaptation approaches be pursued now. These must be designed with input from a broad array of disciplines and stakeholders to ensure they are both feasible and societally acceptable.

Biography

Before joining the University of Michigan, Dr. Bierbaum served both the U.S. Congress and the U.S. President through twenty years of science policy leadership in Washington, D.C. As Acting Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, she was the Administration’s senior scientific advisor on environmental research and development, with responsibilities for scientific input and guidance on a wide range of national and international environmental issues. She currently serves on the boards of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research; the National Research Council’s Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate; the Federation of American Scientists; the Environmental and Energy Study Institute; and the Energy Foundation. She is also a member of both the Design Committee for The Heinz Center’s The State of the Nation’s Ecosystems project and of the Executive Committee for the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement.

Dr. Bierbaum earned her Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolution at the State University of New York, Stony Brook.