The Institute of Ecosystem Studies will host an international conference on "Human as Components of Ecosystems" on 4 May through 7 May 1991. The conference is designed to provide a forum to explore how human influences on ecosystems can be incorporated better into basic ecological studies. Although there have been in the past periodic calls for the inclusion of humans and their effects in ecological studies, ecologists have not often responded. However, the field is now receptive due to the widespread acceptance of a view of nature accommodating the patchiness and openness of systems, and the role of allogenic and episodic processes. The Cary Conference seeks to stimulate the timely inclusion of humans as ecological factors. The specific goals of the conference are to: 1 Investigate the similarities and differences between human and non-human influences on ecosystems. 2. Integrate information from ecology with that from a variety of other disciplines by bringing together ecologists, human ecologists, historians, geographers, economists, and sociologists to exchange ideas, pose research questions, and share data and methodologies for studying human influences on ecosystems. 3. Produce an edited book containing ideas, data, research methodologies and conclusions from a diversity of disciplines relevant to the study of human influences on ecosystems. As in previous Cary Conferences, the emphasis of this meeting will be on the exchange of knowledge, discussion and the critical examination of the fundamental ideas in ecology. Speakers and other participants will be challenged to extend their thinking beyond the day-to-day limits of their own research fields. Such an open and critical evaluation will help to stimulate the ecological community, and encourage the integration of ideas from a diversity of disciplines, and will provide the foundation for new research directions.
