Dr. Michael Sorice

FACULTY AFFILIATE   |   Global Change Center

Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation

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(540) 231-8303 •  m-sorice@vt.edu

Dr. Sorice is an Associate Professor in the Department of Forest Resources & Environmental Conservation. He currently teaches a graduate course entitled Social Ecological Systems. Dr. Sorice’s Conservation Social Science Lab examines personal, social, and structural characteristics that influence people’s choices in the face of biodiversity and habitat loss, invasive species, and landscape transformation. His research program focuses on explaining resource use decisions and the ways these decisions can be shaped to favor environmental integrity. Much of Dr. Sorice’s work focuses on the role of decentralized governance approaches that address environmental issues from the bottom up (e.g., volunteer associations and payments for ecosystem services).

Recent interdisciplinary research projects consider human-nature feedbacks in:

1. freshwater systems where nutrient fluxes influence water quality;
2. island environments where full cooperation of landowners is needed to eradicate invasive species;
3. landscapes where land management decisions facilitate landscape conversion and degradation in rangelands;
4. agricultural operations where increased pollinator services may also be associated with cultural ecosystem services; and
5. rural America where endangered, threatened, and imperiled species rely on private lands for critical habitat.