WATERLOO - The University of Waterloo's faculty of environment will launch Canada's largest transdisciplinary centre to study the inherent complexity of ecosystems and society's responses to environmental degradation during a special event next week in Toronto.

The new Centre for Ecosystem Resilience and Adaptation hosts its official launch on Thursday, Oct. 15, with guest speaker James Howard Kunstler, author of The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and other Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century. In his talk, Kunstler, who has lectured extensively on urban design, energy issues and new economies, will share details of his long-emergency survival guide. The event, which begins at 6 p.m., takes place at the Toronto Botanical Garden, 777 Lawrence Ave. E.

"Environmental degradation is destroying ecosystems and pushing species to the point of extinction at an accelerating rate," said Stephen Murphy, director of the centre and a professor of environment and resource studies. "To address this crisis and ensure a healthy environment for future generations, our researchers work on large-scale projects to repair damaged ecosystems, conserve rare habitats and protect species-at-risk. They are widely known for pioneering research on biosphere reserves, environmental modeling and engineering, planning and management in parks and protected areas, and new approaches to ecological restoration."

The new transdisciplinary centre will focus on conservation and restoration, protected areas and adaptation of humans and other organisms. Ecosystems, with their wealth of biological diversity, provide essential sources of food, materials and natural spaces for people.

The centre's researchers, drawn from the natural, physical, mathematical and social sciences, aim to help decision-makers develop better policy and governance to buffer ecosystems against unwanted and unprecedented change. Their innovative ecological work to date has resulted in advanced ecological modelling, new conservation and restoration policies for parks and protected areas, and multiple approaches for integrated management of invasive species. The researchers are based at Waterloo and at other universities and organizations.

In the future, the researchers will focus on:

* how ecosystems respond in the face of changes created by human activities,

* how organisms within ecosystems adapt to change,

* when, and how, people should actively assist ecosystems in order to boost resilience, and

* how human activities should change in order to improve ecosystem resilience.

Researchers will investigate new approaches to prevent and repair damaged ecosystems in order to maintain or restore resilience. Also, they will probe the role of protected areas in facilitating ecosystem resilience and adaptation, along with the capacity for ecosystem components to adapt to changes in the environment.

Work at the centre complements the diploma in ecological restoration and rehabilitation offered by Waterloo's faculty of environment. The diploma provides students with specific knowledge and opportunities to work on real-world projects.

The centre will also be part of Waterloo's new Summit Centre for the Environment, a state-of-the-art research and community/experiential learning facility, after its use as the site for the G8 Summit in Huntsville, Ont., next June.

For more information on the centre, go to http://environment.uwaterloo.ca/research/era/index.html .