Hi Kim,
Thanks for all the great work on the first lecture. Sorry that I haven't had the chance to respond until now. Generally, I think that the presentation contains tons of great information and covers most of what we want to talk about during the first week. Here are a few suggestions.

Comments (based on the latest version uploaded 1/12):

1. I would suggest inserting a slide between 10 and 11 that has a broad definition of what an ecosystem service is. Right now, this comes a little later, but I think that we should give this definition before moving on to examples of the particular services.

2. I would move slides 16-17 before 15, at which time a general discussion of what the MA is and details would happen.

3. Slide 20. The assessment of 25% here seems low based on some other things that I've read. Not to say that the MA didn't research this... but an assessment of the proportion of "arable" land, not just terrestrial area might be interesting. Young (1999) claims this number is around 75% for developing countries. [Young, A. 1999. Is there really spare land? A critique of estimates of available cultivable land in developing countries. Environment, Development and Sustainability 1:3-18.] This is your call. Might offer a different perspective for developing vs. developed nations.

4. I also like the slide of the themes and schools. I will proably go over this when I go thru the syllabus, but it might be useful to includde a slide that lists what all of the themes actually are. This way students can get thinking about it right away. (perhaps after slide 4).

5. Ditto do Margie's comment. What exactly do those red/blue/black arrows mean?

6. For the BEF stuff (slides 37-39) that Margie enquired about, my sentences would say something like, "Scientists have come to a general concensus that biodiversity is declining, but there is still much debate about how this influences ecosystem fuctioning. The different colored lines represent possible relationships (some empircal, some theoretical) for how biodiv and EF relate. It is especially complicated to study since the relationship is often not linear. Also, there are several factors associated with biodiversity loss such as extration and species invasion that may exacerbate the influences of biodiversity loss, or irrigation, biocides, and fertilizers which may enhance EF for short periods making the relationship between BEF even more tricky to determine".... or something like that. Kim, feel free to straighten me out if that is not the right idea.

7. I don't get slide 40.

8. Also, perhaps we should add some more photos? If others agree, I can forward some things that I have.

Thanks again!
Stacy

Kim (and John),
Ah! Forgot to mention - we say in the syllabus that we'll offer a very basic introduction to what meta-analysis is in the introductory lecture, and we currently have nothing. Perhaps John and I (the meta-analysis lecture organizers) could put together 1-2 slides for this?
-Stacy

Kim:

Great presentation!  I
really like the schematic of how the seminar is organized across the schools.  

I agree with Stacy that we should have a slide or two
introducing what a meta-analysis is. 
Stacy: unless you already have something I can work something up by Wednesday.

One other aspect that we don't mention in the intro lecture
is the distinction between "public good" (e.g. non-consumable resources
such as climate regulation) and "private good" (e.g. consumable resources)
services.  This relates to our thoughts
about on-farm vs. off-farm services and might make a good transition between
slide 14 and slides 16-17 that talk about scale.  But perhaps that is just a more economics
jargon way of saying the same thing, so maybe it's too fine a distinction to
bring up in the intro?  But if ya'll
think we should mention it here, I can come up with a slide.

[I know I need a picture for my avatar!]

 

John.

Stacy,

Regarding the meta-analysis, I wonder if we already have too much to cover on the first day? I was thinking of just mentioning it (in a very general sense) when I have the slide up about course resources and then pointing students to that TREE article I posted a while back (to be included in the 'supplemental' readings folder for week 1). But if folks think we need to go into more detail on the first day, I'd be happy to slip in a slide or two if you guys want to put something together.

I'm off to work on the lecture and address yours and Margie's comments. Watch this space....

Thanks,
Kim