Knowledge to action in the anthropocene [electronic resource] : understanding and managing biogeochemical cycles under anthropogenic global change

Through rapid and persistent anthropogenic global change, we now recognize that human activities risk fundamentally altering the functioning of the earth system, with potentially devastating consequences for human livelihoods. Rapid environmental change has led to growing interest in the development of new governance approaches to manage the biogeochemical dimensions of these challenges, from carbon and sustainability accounting to the use of ecosystem service valuation in decision-making. Yet our understanding of what makes such approaches successful and what kinds and forms of scientific information are needed to inform them is still nascent. My dissertation seeks to inform this understanding, asking: What are the conditions under which governance approaches to the management of human alterations of the carbon and nitrogen cycles work best, and what social, technical, and institutional barriers exist to successful adaptive approaches to address the challenges of the Anthropocene? Using a variety of methodological approaches, ranging from controlled experimental designs to social scientific studies of conservation decision-making, I essay to contribute to our understanding of sustainability science both by producing new, management-relevant scientific knowledge about anthropogenic global change, and by simultaneously critiquing and crafting new and emergent forms of environmental decision-making. In my first two chapters, I use observational and experimental approaches to understand how carbon cycling responds to a variety of anthropogenic stressors at different scales in two different ecosystems - an Arctic coastal sea and a California grassland - with an eye toward the incorporation of such information into ecosystem management frameworks and earth system modeling. In my next two chapters, I assess the treatment of one particular ecosystem service -- carbon sequestration in coastal ecosystems -- in two specific governance contexts: the implementation of the National Environmental Policy Act and the work and missions of coastal conservation organizations. The results of this research show that ecosystem carbon storage is currently viewed as an implicit offset that can be used when it is convenient to mitigate other greenhouse gas emissions. The results also highlight that even where there are win-wins between habitat conservation and climate mitigation, there exists local-scale resistance to commodification of ecosystem services when storing carbon doesn't align with a conservation mission built from a sense of place. Both of these results have implications for our understanding of what can make adaptive environmental management work in the political, ecological and social contexts of rapid global change, as well as for the development of future guidance on environmental impact accounting. My final two chapters focus on a case study of water quality management in the San Francisco Bay estuary. The results from both experimental and observational studies challenge existing literature on the ecological consequences of wastewater discharge, showing that high levels of ammonium (NH4+) loading are not the cause of declines in ecosystem production. As such, they directly inform both our understanding of phytoplankton ecology in human-impacted estuaries and the development of new metrics and indicators to assess and control anthropogenic impacts on estuarine water quality.

Advisor: Arrigo Kevin R. primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Caldwell Margaret R. primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Ardoin Nicole M. (Nicole Michele) advisor. Thesis advisor
Field Christopher B.
Wara Michael