Professor Naeem is a scientific illustrator as well as an ecologist,  
and we were shown some of his illustrations from The Birders' Handbook  
as well as a drawing of a mite for a publication by Hoek.

Professor Naeem is engaged in the study of Biodiversity Ecosystem  
Functioning.
This discipline brings together people who study organisms with  
physical scientists such as chemists.

He pointed out that the earth is a closed system, and we have reached  
the point that we have become aware that ours is a closed system and  
we are at it's helm.

He understands our system  as being supplied by fossil fuel and fossil  
water and consisting of three components:

Natural capital
	Climate Regulation
	Pollination
	Biological Control
	Soil Production
	Natural Goods and Services

Humanity & Human Capital
	Labor
	Knowledge
	Culture
	Government

Man made Capital
	Agriculture
	Aquaculture
	Industrial Goods and Services
	Alternative Energy

His graph suggests that these components must function cooperatively  
in order to sustain life on our planet.

Simply put, the take-home point of his lecture was that the greater  
the diversity of plants, animals, microbes, insects, worms, etc. in  
the landscape, the greater the amount of CO2 being processed. Increase  
the biodiversity and you will increase the processing of CO2.

Experiments in closed systems have shown that when you increase CO2 or  
Nitrogen, you get more biomass, but the largest increase is from the  
number of species present in the system.  With diversity, invaders do  
not do well.

Studies in the rainforest showed that the amount of carbon is  
completely tied to the diversity of species present.

Meta analysis of all the biodiversity studies has been done by  
Cardinale et al. and was published in Nature in 2006.  It concluded  
that "a precautionary approach to preserving as much biodiversity as  
possible is warranted."

49-60% of the earth is being used for agriculture.

Marine systems are probably worse off than terrestrial systems.

A paper by Boris Worm et al. in Science 2006 projects the global  
collapse of all taxa currently fished by the mid 21st century.

Professor Naeem concluded his talk with a photograph of a "keep off  
the grass" sign from China.  It states:

Civilization is from every tiny thing.

*	*	*	*	*

In answer to the question whether promoting biodiversity is better  
than leaving things alone, he responded that fertilizer reduces  
biodiversity and does not always provide benefits to the targeted  
species.  Fire should be used in moderation, and  managing farms a bit  
differently can increase biodiversity.

Natural and social sciences are beginning to be fused, but funding  
hasn't caught up yet

*	*	*	*	*

A bit about Professor Naeem
http://leopoldleadership.stanford.edu/fellows/naeem

About the work of his team:
http://www.columbia.edu/~sn2121/Shahid_Naeem.html

A classroom lecture
http://vimeo.com/2400272

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