March 2005 marked the conclusion of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (http://www.millenniumassessment.org/en/about.overview.aspx) sponsored by the United Nations to assess the health of the Earth's ecosystems in terms of biodiversity, services provided to humans, and future sustainability and restoration. Over 1,400 scientists from 95 countries around the world contributed to this program. The results from this program provide a somber overview of the size of the human footprint on the earth. However, for scientists and educators, it also provides a "call to arms" to provide new insights and innovative solutions to curb these effects, and to train the next generation of educators and scientists in this increasingly important issue.
 
Key Issues:
 
Human activities are continually degrading natural ecosystems. These activities include land development for housing and agriculture, energy and materials extraction, harvesting of plants and animals, and alteration of biogeochemical cycles and climate change. At the same time, these very ecosystems provide a wide variety of "services" to humankind, ranging from psychological and aesthetic to food (agriculture), sustainable energy (e.g., biofuels) and medicine products to control over important biogeochemical cycles (e.g., carbon, nitrogen) to direct human health benefits (reduction of pollutants, diluting emerging infectious diseases). Obviously, a balance must be reached. Humans need to continuously find ways to extract resources from the earth to sustain the burgeoning population and increase quality of life, but they need to do so in a more sustainable way.
 
Interactions:
 
Sustainable ecosystems are at a nexus of issues within the Centers

• Health: Healthy ecosystems are often correlated with healthy environments in which humans live. However, the connection can be more direct. Research conducted at Washington University and elsewhere shows a strong causal relation-ship between healthy ecosystems (biodiversity, ecosystem functioning) and infectious disease transmission.
• Energy: Energy use directly affects ecosystems and biocomplexity through habitat destruction (e.g., fossil-fuel extraction, hydroelectric dam construction), pollution, and alteration of the C-cycle, and its consequent global climate consequences. Alternatively, sustainable ecosystems can generate energy through biofuel production and other mechanisms.
• Rivers: Rivers provide a strong direct link with this center, as a "case study" of research on sustainable ecosystems.
• Local institutions: Within the St. Louis area, there are strong linkages with Missouri Botanical Garden in research on the evolution and maintenance of biodiversity (director, Peter Raven, is a strong proponent for ecological research on biodiversity), the St. Louis Zoo (both locally and internationally based conservation research), the Danforth Plant Science Center (many collaborations on crop plant production), and the other local universities (Saint Louis University, University of Missouri-St. Louis). In addition to research connections, educational opportunities in sustainable ecosystems are essential for the program, and the Washington University campus and Tyson Research Center provide urban and rural "test beds" for ways to intertwine humans with biodiversity.

Washington University Strengths:

• Generation and maintenance of biodiversity. Researchers from biology (Chase, Knight, Larson, Losos, Olsen, Raven, Templeton, Schaal), anthropology (Rasmussen, Richard Smith, Sussman), earth and planetary sciences (Blank, Josh Smith) and the Medical School (Berg, Cheverud, Conroy, Phillips-Conroy, Gordon, Fay, Groisman) are world-renowned in the area of the creation of diversity through genetic/evolutionary processes as well as the maintenance of diversity through ecological processes. Research also focuses on the causes and consequences of changes in diversity to ecosystem functioning.
• Biogeochemistry, climate reconstruction, and climate change. Researchers from anthropology (Kidder), earth and planetary sciences (Amend, Arvidson, Blank, Jen Smith, Criss), and environmental engineering (Giammar) are active in understanding past climates and possible future climate scenarios and the role of microbes and pollutants in biogeochemical cycles.
• Crop production and yield. Research on crop production and yield aims towards understanding human relationships with crops, increasing yield to decrease economic and environmental costs (e.g., pesticide, more land destroyed). Researchers in biology are studying the mechanisms of creating transgenic plants (Ho, Quatrano) and in the underlying genes in crop domestication (Olsen, Schaal). In addition, Washington University is a partner in the Danforth Center; where researchers who work on plant biology relevant to crop production are adjunct at Washington University (e.g., Beachy, Nielson). Research in anthropology (Fritz, Stone) also considers crop production and human use of plants.
• Human health and infectious diseases. A wide variety of human ailments are directly a result of infectious diseases (bacterial or viral), and these diseases are intimately associated with the surrounding environment. Furthermore, some of the most important human diseases are zoonotic, requiring either animal reservoirs or vectors (e.g., malaria, avian flu, cholera, plague, ebola), and many others are derived from related animal diseases (e.g., HIV). Human alterations to ecosystems invariably alter the relationships between these reservoirs and vectors, and can lead to changes in the disease. Researchers in biology (Chase, Templeton, Thatch), anthropology (Stoner), and the medical school (Storch, Diamond, Fremont, MRCE) study emerging infectious diseases in this context.
• A 'microcosm' for ecosystem sustainability studies. Tyson Research Center, owned and operated by Washington University, provides an excellent center for ecosystem sustain-ability studies. Research by biology (Chase, Knight, Losos, Schaal, Templeton) and earth and planetary sciences (Criss) already uses the site to study invasive species, rare species, biodiversity, and ecosystem functioning, emerging infectious diseases, and biogeochemical processes. However, an integrated research program that utilized the site more effectively could serve as a centerpiece for studies on ecosystem sustainability.
• Strong linkages with other institutions, NGOs, and government agencies. Washington University has strong research linkages with the St. Louis Zoo and Missouri Botanical Garden (several curators are adjunct at Washington University). Strong conservation commitment of these organizations greatly complements our research, and biology faculty often collaborate with these groups (Knight, Olsen, Schaal, Templeton). In addition, Schaal and Templeton serve on the board of The Nature Conservancy's local chapter, Knight serves on the board of the Center for Plant Conservation, and Templeton works closely with the Missouri Department of Conservation.
• Strong link between current research activities and outreach. Washington University's science outreach program provides a very strong linkage between cutting-edge research and the general public, including ecosystem sustainability.

Key Players:
 
Anthropology (Fritz, Kidder, Sussman) biology (Chase, Knight, Larson, Losos, Olsen, Templeton, Schaal) earth and planetary sciences (Amend, Criss, Jen Smith, Josh Smith) medicine (Cheverud, Gordon, Phillips-Conroy) engineering (Giammar). Missouri Botanical Garden (Hoch, Raven, Richardson, Salick), and the Danforth Center (Jez).
 
Areas that need development:

• Environmental economics and putting monetary terms of ecosystem functions and sustainability in the short and long terms
• Linkages with the social and political sciences
• Landscape architecture, city planning, and the issue of "reconciliation ecology"-integrating social, economic, and ecological functions into a single ecosystem.
• Key faculty hires, including an endowed research chair for the center, ecosystem ecologists, environmental economists, ecological psychologists.

Summary:
 
Washington University is poised to become a leader in sustainable ecosystems research and education. The Departments of Biology, Anthropology, and Earth and Planetary Science, and the School of Medicine have already established a research core on the generation and maintenance of biodiversity and the role of ecosystem processes. Furthermore, strong connections with Missouri Botanical Garden, the St. Louis Zoo, and the Danforth Center make St. Louis an ideal location to develop a center for excellence in this area. The University's Tyson Research Center will serve as a research and educational core of this group, and funding from a variety of private and public sources will make this center internationally recognized.