吉姆拉索伊

研究焦点

詹姆斯·拉索(James Lassoie)被教育为森林树木生态生理学家，他早期的研究集中在温带森林树种的生态学、管理和生理学。他对空气污染和酸性降水对森林树木的生理影响特别感兴趣，并与博伊斯·汤普森研究所(Boyce Thompson Institute)的科学家合作，在那里他担任了多年的助理科学家职务。20世纪80年代中期，拉索开始改变他的研究项目，更多地关注国际环境和保护问题、可持续发展、生态旅游、基于社区的自然资源管理，以及树木在发展中国家和北美农村农业系统中的作用(即农林复合)。他目前研究了当地社区和土著人民在建立和管理公园和保护区方面的作用，可持续的自然资源管理，包括农林业和生态农业，以及跨学科科学在保护方面的应用。现在有三个普遍的问题激发了他的研究。首先，支持有关养护、自然资源和环境管理以及可持续发展的决策过程的主要生态和社会变数是什么?第二，地方社区如何能更有效地参与这类决策过程?最后，如何将“真实”的学习融入保护和可持续发展的课程中?他特别感兴趣的是研究涉及公园、保护区和其他脆弱景观管理的发展中国家和美国的人类和自然系统的耦合。他通常通过与研究生合作来追求这些兴趣，这些研究生中有许多来自正在调查的国家。 Lassoie has served as the major advisor for 41 Masters and 25 Ph.D. students, and presently advise eight graduate students (2 Masters and 6 Ph.Ds.) with projects in Bhutan, Central America, Mali, Mexico, Nepal, and United States. He has assisted with research and development projects in many other countries including Bolivia, Brazil, Cameroon, China, Costa Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Gambia, Ghana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Indonesia, India, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico, Sumatra, the Swazi Nation, and Zimbabwe. Lassoie and his wife, Dr. Ruth E. Sherman, worked with The Nature Conservancy between 2003 and 2004 to develop and monitor conservation strategies for parks and protected areas in Yunnan Province in south-central China. We were particularly focused on the ecological impacts of grazing and harvesting of non-timber forest products, including medicinal plants, on alpine ecosystems in northwestern Yunnan. He also helped to develop comprehensive ecological measures of success for different conservation interventions at both the project and ecoregional levels. In particular, Lassoie developed a ground-based, photo-monitoring methodology for assessing ecological changes across large ecoregions. They recently initiated new work in China with collaborators at Beijing Normal University, the Center for Mountain Ecosystem Studies, and The Nature Conservancy. His primary focus for the next five years will be to examine coupled systems in the Hindu Kush-Himalayas with collaborators at Beijing Normal University, where he currently holds an Adjunct Professor position. Lassoie also will continue to develop www.AgricultureBridge.org as a tool for connecting students and practitioners to enhance multidisciplinary experiential learning and collaborative problem-solving. This work involves collaborators at Cornell, the University of California – Berkley, and Ecoagriculture Partners (www.ecoagriculture.org).