VT EPSCoR NSF EPSCoR
VT EPSCoR :: UVM
 
Responsibilities

  • Development of a group of scientists and engineers who apply complex systems modeling to science questions about ecosystem structure and function as illustrated in the Lake Champlain basin and who are the focus of our development of capacity in complex systems modeling for the State of Vermont.

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  • Outreach to 12-16 education through the Streams Project. This applies complex systems analysis to data collected by the participants in the project.

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  • Outreach to the private sector.

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  • Identify, document, and combine substantial volumes of existing climatologic, geologic, ecologic, geomorphic, and anthropogenic data into consistent and publicly accessible databases.

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  • Assimilate and analyze the data over variable temporal and spatial scales.

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  • Develop and apply complex systems analysis and modeling approaches for the highly nonlinear, dynamic, and spatially-variant processes that govern these systems.

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  • Identify critical gaps in the available data to guide additional experimentation that will help to refine and calibrate the models.

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Utilizing Complex Systems Modeling, the group is responsible for exploring the following questions:
  • How do non-linear processes generate spatial and temporal dynamics in phosphorus loading to surface waters in the Lake Champlain Basin?

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  • How can watershed patterns of biodiversity be explained and forecast by complex systems models of nutrient inputs and disturbance regimes?

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  • How much model complexity is necessary to usefully explain and predict the behavior of linked landscape-river-lake ecosystems?

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