March 18, 2011

SNRE Dean Rosina M. Bierbaum co-chaired a Working Group on Biodiversity Preservation and Ecosystem Sustainability, which has submitted its report titled "Sustaining Environmental Capital: Protecting Society and the Economy."  The report states that the grand challenge is in maintaining ecosystems to assure the continued flow of ecosystem services, while also meeting society's demands for those services. "We need to view ecosystems comprehensively if we are to sustain the ecosystems that sustain us," the report states.

The presentation of the Working Group's report was videotaped and the link made available this morning by the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), which created the group and on which Dean Bierbaum serves. The Working Group's other co-chair was Barbara Schaal, the Mary-Dell Chilton Distinguished Professor in the Department of Biology at Washington University in St. Louis.

Watch the presentation of the report