The work of NC CASC PI and CSP senior scientist Shelley Crausbay and colleagues is currently featured in a special issue of the high-impact journal BioScience. The publications also feature Amanda Cravens and Katie Clifford, two NC CASC project investigators. In a series of five articles, Crausbay and her co-authors provide an in-depth exposition of the Resist-Accept-Direct (RAD) framework. Designed for and by natural resource managers, the framework provides decision-support for managers grappling with the potential for irreversible ecological transformations. After all, global change is increasingly propelling ecosystems on strong trajectories away from once-familiar conditions. Managers urgently need an approach that expressly acknowledges the likelihood of transformation and helps them make informed, purposeful, strategic choices in these novel contexts. The mental models paper is work that the NC CASC co-funded with the National CASC.

These five RAD articles explore practical application, compatibility with existing tools and approaches, social barriers and opportunities, and future science needs. Shelley led one of the five articles to call for a new ecological and social science agenda centered on the questions encountered in a RAD decision-making process. They are available to view and download, free of charge for a limited time at the BioScience site. The bundle of articles is introduced with an invited, independent opinion piece, “RAD: A Paradigm, Shifting” and the five articles are available at the links below.

Schuurman et al. Navigating Ecological Transformation: Resist–Accept–Direct as a Path to a New Resource Management Paradigm 
(overview)

Magness et al. Management Foundations for Navigating Ecological Transformation by Resisting, Accepting, or Directing Social-Ecological Change (application)

Lynch et al. RAD Adaptive Management for Transforming Ecosystems (compatibility with existing approaches) 

Clifford et al. Responding to Ecological Transformation: Mental Models, External Constraints and Manager Decision-making (social barriers and opportunities) 

Crausbay et al. A Science Agenda to Inform Natural Resource Management Decisions in an Era of Ecological Transformation (science needs)