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We at PERC are most excited to announce that Mark Davis will be giving a keynote presentation at the upcoming ‘Feral<\/a>‘ conference.\u00a0Mark is the DeWitt Wallace Professor of Biology at Macalester College, where he has been a faculty member since 1981.\u00a0 His research, writings, and presentations focus on the ecology of introduced species and the field of invasion biology. Mark is the author of Invasion Biology<\/a><\/em>, and numerous journal articles. Below is the abstract for Mark’s presentation.<\/p>\n Defining Nature in a Globalizing World<\/strong><\/p>\n In addition to the global movement of people and cultures, globalization involves the redistribution of non-human species throughout the world.\u00a0 Today many organisms once found only in particular regions of the world have been transported to new regions where they inhabit new ecosystems and interact with the long-term residents, often referred to as native species.\u00a0 In contrast, the transported species have commonly been described as aliens or exotics.\u00a0 In the fields of ecology and conservation the tendency has been to view the new arrivals as unwanted guests, species that threaten the native species and some of which threaten human health or cause economic harm.\u00a0 This preference for native species has sometimes been referred to as nativism.\u00a0 In the 1980s, three sub-disciplines of ecology emerged\u2014restoration ecology, conservation biology, and invasion biology\u2014and all three embraced the nativism paradigm.\u00a0 By the early 2000s, historians, sociologists, and philosophers interested in the development of science began to examine the growing field of invasion biology and usually were critical of it.\u00a0 In the past few years, a new perspective has been taking hold in the field of ecology.\u00a0 Referred to as \u2018ecological novelty\u2019 it emphasizes that many factors are producing ecologically novel environments.\u00a0 A much more simply descriptive concept, it is currently competing with the nativism paradigm to define nature.\u00a0 Whether the nativism or ecological novelty paradigm emerges as the dominant perspective going forward will determine how nature and biodiversity are managed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We at PERC are most excited to announce that Mark Davis will be giving a keynote presentation at the upcoming ‘Feral‘ conference.\u00a0Mark is the DeWitt Wallace Professor of Biology at Macalester College, where he has been a faculty member since 1981.\u00a0 His research, writings, and presentations focus on the ecology of introduced species and the field of invasion biology. Mark … <\/p>\n