Environmental Policy and Management

A key goal of our work is to translate our work and to synthesize other science in the service of environmental policy, management, and conservation. We have contributed broadly across these topics, but a particular element has been our work with biodiversity law expert Eric Biber (UC Berkeley) on a range of topics related to the US Endangered Species Act, in particular taking a quantitative, data-driven approach to its administration.

Key Papers

Brosi BJ, Delaplane KS, Boots M, De Roode JC. 2017. Ecological and evolutionary approaches to managing honey bee disease. Nature Ecology and Evolution, 1, 1250–1262

This review lays out why we need to incorporate ecological and evolutionary considerations into the management of honey bee disease, including developing the idea that current management techniques may actually be selecting for more-virulent parasites and pathogens.

Strauss SH, Jones KN, Lu H, Petit JH, Klocko AH, Brosi BJ, Betts MG, Fletcher RJ, Needham MD. Reproductive modification in forest plantations: impacts on biodiversity and society. New Phytologist, 2017. 213(3): 1000–1021
Dicks LV, Viana B, Bommarco R, Brosi BJ, del Coro Arizmendi M, Cunningham SA, Galetto L, Hill R, Lopes AR, Pires C, Taki H, Cooper D, Potts SG. Ten policies for pollinators. Science, 2016. 354, 975–976.
Tallis, H, J Lubchenco, … BJ Brosi.2014. Working together: A call for inclusive conservation. Nature, 515(7525): 27–28.
Brosi BJ, Biber, EGN (2012). Citizen Involvement in the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Science, 37(6096): 802-803
Biber E, Brosi B (2010). Officious Intermeddlers or Citizen Experts? Petitions and Public Production of Information in Environmental Law. UCLA Law Review; UC Berkely Public Law Research Paper No, 1432652: 321-397
Brosi BJ, Biber EG (2009). Statistical inference, Type II error, and decision making under the US Endangered Species Act. Frontiers in Ecology and Management, 7(9): 487-494
Fischer J, Brosi BJ, Daily GC, Ehrlich PR, Goldman R, Goldsein J, Lindenmayer DB, Manning AD, Mooney HA, Pejchar L, Ranganathan J, Tallis H (2008). Should agricultural policies encourage land sparing or wildlife-friendly farming?. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 6(7): 380-385
Brosi BJ, Daily GC, Shih TM, Oviedo F, Durán G (2008). Optimal design of agricultural landscapes for pollination services. Journal of Applied Ecology, 45(3): 773-783.

Projects

With Eric Biber, we are currently working to understand the fine-scale biodiversity consequences of a potential repeal or weakening of the US Endangered Species Act, including among other considerations back-up measures provided by state-level biodiversity policies.