Plenary Speakers

Scott Nixon

Presentation Title:

Could Verrazzano See His Toes? - Changing Watersheds and Water

Professor of Oceanography
Graduate School of Oceanography
University of Rhode Island

Dr. Scott Nixon did his PhD work with the noted systems ecologist H. T. Odum at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill in the late 1960s. He came to the Graduate School of Oceanography at the
University of Rhode Island in 1969 and has been there ever since. His research focuses on the basic ecology, productivity, and biogeochemistry of coastal marine ecosystems in Rhode Island and many other parts of the world.

Morgan Grove

Presentation Title:

Socio-spatial approaches to urban ecology and decision making.

Research Forester
Northern Research Station
USDA Forest Service & Baltimore Ecosystem Study LTER

Dr. J. Morgan Grove is a Social Ecologist and Team Leader for the USDA Forest Service's Baltimore Field Station. He is a Co-Principal Investigator in the Baltimore Ecosystem Study (BES) LTER. Grove was a dual major in Architecture and Studies in the Environment from Yale College (B.A.), a M.F.S. in Community Forestry from the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, and a M. Phil. and Ph.D. in Social Ecology from Yale University. In other words, Grove is a Yale lifer. Dr. Grove has worked in Baltimore since 1989 and was a founding member of the BES LTER. Grove leads the social science team for BES, where his research focuses on long term dynamics of property regimes, land management, and watersheds.

Mark Anderson

Presentation Title:

Conserving the Stage: Towards resilient conservation in changing landscapes.

Director of Conservation Science
Eastern US Conservation Region
The Nature Conservancy

Dr. Mark Anderson provides science leadership, ecological analysis and landscape assessment tools for conservation efforts across eighteen states. He holds a Ph.D. in Ecology from University of New Hampshire where his researched focused on the viability and spatial assessment of ecological communities. He has worked as an ecologist for over 25 years, 19 with TNC. Mark is co-author of the National Vegetation Classification and has published numerous journal articles on biodiversity conservation and forest dynamics. His current research interests included resilience and adaptation, ecosystem transitions, disturbance processes, biophysical landscape properties and seafloor mapping. He manages a team of six scientists specializing in landscape ecology, aquatic biology, marine spatial planning and regional data management.