Many kinds of ecological change occur in natural and disturbed habitats, but many of these changes are subtle and slow. This makes it hard for scientists to document ecological shifts and difficult for the public to appreciate the scope and importance of ecological change. In the upper Midwest, there are exceptional records which make it possible to reconstruct longterm ecological change in more detail than most other areas of temperate North America. The investigators propose to compile and edit a book about ecological change, summarizing scientific results concerning changes in plant and animal communities across the habitats of the upper Midwest. The book will be titled "The Vanishing Present: Local perspectives on global ecological change." The proposed volume will present and synthesize findings from many studies but will be non-technical so as to appeal to a broad audience. A cademic scientists, agency professionals, social scientists, politicians, and journalists met together in October 2004 for a 2-day workshop to present results and to plan the contents and composition of the book.
NSF support will be used to ensure timely publication, quality graphics, and wide distribution of the book to schools and libraries. A primary aim of the book is to inform the public and decision-makers about the nature, scale and dimensions of current ecological change and to provide a model for similar future regional and large-scale studies.
