This brings to light some interesting questions about research funding and the viability of proposed research projects in the short-term. Many researchers are focusing on climate change scenarios when looking at conservation issues and habitat modeling. The 'elephant in the room' / 'naked emperor' seems to be the predicted collapse of our North American economies.
People can argue that economic growth is inevitable, or perhaps that this recent downturn in the N.A. economy is some type of short-order recession. It may also be argued that the perfect storm of the 'credit crunch', rising oil prices, and import-dependent economies will spark a more serious economic depression. We may be seeing the beginnings of the latter play out right now. Within the ecological research community, we have not discussed this topic in the depth that it deserves. I can see some immediate issues arising: 1) how will research be conducted when the price of gas is high, e.g. >2.50/L. (I drove >20,000km in 3 months on a project recently) This will increase the cost of research, especially at the landscape scale, quite significantly. 2) where will researchers find funding when support from philanthropic organizations dries up because of poor returns on their own invested assets? 3) how will land use, traffic models, and habitat quality shift with changes to the rural/urban economy? there is some interesting research on the African bushmeat economy that we could learn from; e.g. how will communities respond to higher food costs...how will added hunting pressure for all sorts of game affect predator prey dynamics, especially in protected areas where poaching pressure will rise? I think it is past-time to bring to light a holistic discussion of how ecology will survive, and what it will look like, as various economic scenarios are played out. Thank you, Adam T. Ford Wildlife Research Associate Banff Wildlife Crossings Project Western Transportation Institute-MSU Bozeman Banff National Park PO Box 900 Banff, AB T1L 1K2 Canada
