Browsing by Author "Peters, Jody A."

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    Assessing opportunities and inequities in undergraduate ecological forecasting education
    Willson, Alyssa M.; Gallo, Hayden; Peters, Jody A.; Abeyta, Antoinette; Watts, Nievita Bueno; Carey, Cayelan C.; Moore, Tadhg N.; Smies, Georgia; Thomas, R. Quinn; Woelmer, Whitney M.; McLachlan, Jason S. (Wiley, 2023-05)
    Conducting ecological research in a way that addresses complex, real-world problems requires a diverse, interdisciplinary and quantitatively trained ecology and environmental science workforce. This begins with equitably training students in ecology, interdisciplinary science, and quantitative skills at the undergraduate level. Understanding the current undergraduate curriculum landscape in ecology and environmental sciences allows for targeted interventions to improve equitable educational opportunities. Ecological forecasting is a sub-discipline of ecology with roots in interdisciplinary and quantitative science. We use ecological forecasting to show how ecology and environmental science undergraduate curriculum could be evaluated and ultimately restructured to address the needs of the 21(st) century workforce. To characterize the current state of ecological forecasting education, we compiled existing resources for teaching and learning ecological forecasting at three curriculum levels: online resources; US university courses on ecological forecasting; and US university courses on topics related to ecological forecasting. We found persistent patterns (1) in what topics are taught to US undergraduate students at each of the curriculum levels; and (2) in the accessibility of resources, in terms of course availability at higher education institutions in the United States. We developed and implemented programs to increase the accessibility and comprehensiveness of ecological forecasting undergraduate education, including initiatives to engage specifically with Native American undergraduates and online resources for learning quantitative concepts at the undergraduate level. Such steps enhance the capacity of ecological forecasting to be more inclusive to undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds and expose more students to quantitative training.
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    Near-term ecological forecasting for climate change action
    Dietze, Michael; White, Ethan P.; Abeyta, Antoinette; Boettiger, Carl; Bueno Watts, Nievita; Carey, Cayelan C.; Chaplin-Kramer, Rebecca; Emanuel, Ryan E.; Ernest, S. K. Morgan; Figueiredo, Renato J.; Gerst, Michael D.; Johnson, Leah R.; Kenney, Melissa A.; McLachlan, Jason S.; Paschalidis, Ioannis Ch.; Peters, Jody A.; Rollinson, Christine R.; Simonis, Juniper; Sullivan-Wiley, Kira; Thomas, R. Quinn; Wardle, Glenda M.; Willson, Alyssa M.; Zwart, Jacob (Springer Nature, 2024-11-08)
    A substantial increase in predictive capacity is needed to anticipate and mitigate the widespread change in ecosystems and their services in the face of climate and biodiversity crises. In this era of accelerating change, we cannot rely on historical patterns or focus primarily on long-term projections that extend decades into the future. In this Perspective, we discuss the potential of near-term (daily to decadal) iterative ecological forecasting to improve decision-making on actionable time frames. We summarize the current status of ecological forecasting and focus on how to scale up, build on lessons from weather forecasting, and take advantage of recent technological advances. We also highlight the need to focus on equity, workforce development, and broad cross-disciplinary and non-academic partnerships.
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    The NEON Ecological Forecasting Challenge
    Thomas, R. Quinn; Boettiger, Carl; Carey, Cayelan C.; Dietze, Michael C.; Johnson, Leah R.; Kenney, Melissa A.; McLachlan, Jason S.; Peters, Jody A.; Sokol, Eric R.; Weltzin, Jake F.; Willson, Alyssa; Woelmer, Whitney M. (Wiley, 2023-04)
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    Predicting Spring Phenology in Deciduous Broadleaf Forests: NEON Phenology Forecasting Community Challenge
    Wheeler, Kathryn I.; Dietze, Michael C.; LeBauer, David; Peters, Jody A.; Richardson, Andrew D.; Ross, Arun A.; Thomas, R. Quinn; Zhu, Kai; Bhat, Uttam; Munch, Stephan; Buzbee, Raphaela Floreani; Chen, Min; Goldstein, Benjamin; Guo, Jessica; Hao, Dalei; Jones, Chris; Kelly-Fair, Mira; Liu, Haoran; Malmborg, Charlotte; Neupane, Naresh; Pal, Debasmita; Shirey, Vaughn; Song, Yiluan; Steen, McKalee; Vance, Eric A.; Woelmer, Whitney M.; Wynne, Jacob H.; Zachmann, Luke (Elsevier, 2024-01-01)
    Accurate models are important to predict how global climate change will continue to alter plant phenology and near-term ecological forecasts can be used to iteratively improve models and evaluate predictions that are made a priori. The Ecological Forecasting Initiative's National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) Forecasting Challenge, is an open challenge to the community to forecast daily greenness values, measured through digital images collected by the PhenoCam Network at NEON sites before the data are collected. For the first round of the challenge, which is presented here, we forecasted canopy greenness throughout the spring at eight deciduous broadleaf sites to investigate when, where, and for what model type phenology forecast skill is highest. A total of 192,536 predictions were submitted, representing eighteen models, including a persistence and a day of year mean null models. We found that overall forecast skill was highest when forecasting earlier in the greenup curve compared to the end, for shorter lead times, for sites that greened up earlier, and when submitting forecasts during times other than near budburst. The models based on day of year historical mean had the highest predictive skill across the challenge period. In this first round of the challenge, by synthesizing across forecasts, we started to elucidate what factors affect the predictive skill of near-term phenology forecasts.
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    Virtual Growing Pains: Initial Lessons Learned from Organizing Virtual Workshops, Summits, Conferences, and Networking Events during a Global Pandemic
    Meyer, Michael F.; Ladwig, Robert; Dugan, Hilary A.; Anderson, Alyssa; Bah, Abdou R.; Boehrer, Bertram; Borre, Lisa; Chapina, Rosaura J.; Doyle, Chris; Favot, Elizbaeth J.; Flaim, Giobanna; Forsberg, Philip; Hanson, Paul C.; Ibelings, Bas W.; Isles, Peter; Lin, Fang-Pang; Lofton, Dendy; Moore, Tadhg N.; Peel, Sara; Peters, Jody A.; Pierson, Don; de Senerpont Domis, Lisette N.; Schloss, Jeffrey A.; Shikhani, Muhammed; Smagula, Amy P.; Stockwell, Jason D.; Thomas, Perry; Thomas, R. Quinn; Tietjen, Todd; Weathers, Kathleen C. (Wiley, 2021-02-01)
    For many, 2020 was a year of abrupt professional and personal change. For the aquatic sciences community, many were adapting to virtual formats for conducting and sharing science, while simultaneously learning to live in a socially distanced world. Understandably, the aquatic sciences community postponed or canceled most in-person scientific meetings. Still, many scientific communities either transitioned annual meetings to a virtual format or inaugurated new virtual meetings. Fortunately, increased use of video conferencing platforms, networking and communication applications, and a general comfort with conducting science virtually helped bring the in-person meeting experience to scientists worldwide. Yet, the transition to conducting science virtually revealed new barriers to participation whereas others were lowered. The combined lessons learned from organizing a meeting constitute a necessary knowledge base that will prove useful, as virtual conferences are likely to continue in some form. To concentrate and synthesize these experiences, we showcase how six scientific societies and communities planned, organized, and conducted virtual meetings in 2020. With this consolidated information in hand, we look forward to a future, where scientific meetings embrace a virtual component, so to as help make science more inclusive and global.