Oswald J. "Os" Schmitz

Education & Curriculum Vitae

B.SC., M.S.C., University of Guelph, Ontario
Ph.D., University of Michigan

About

Oswald Schmitz is the Oastler Professor of Population and Community Ecology, in the Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. He studies the linkage between two important components of natural systems: biodiversity and ecosystem services. These issues are examined using field experimentation guided by formal mathematical theory of species interactions. His research explains how predator and herbivore species determine the species composition and productivity of plants in ecosystems, and ensuing ecosystem processes such as nutrient and carbon cycling. Research also focuses on elucidating how important environmental disturbances, such as global climate change and natural resource exploitation, alter the nature and strength of species interactions in ecosystems and ensuing ecosystem services. The scientific insights aid efforts to conserve vital services that species in ecosystems provide to humankind. His research evaluates how to rethink conservation strategies by considering species as part of a natural portfolio. This portfolio represents a wealth of potential alternatives to contemporary technologically intensive and expensive approaches in environmental management. His book “The New Ecology: Rethinking a Science for the Anthropocene” encapsulates much of his thinking about biodiversity and ecosystems and, heavily inspired by the writings of Aldo Leopold, makes ecological science accessible to a broader readership.

Courses