BioScience articles from April 2003

BioScience archives from April 2003

Elevated inputs of reactive nitrogen in the environment: causes, consequences, and controls. (Editorial).
April 1, 2003... The accumulation of reactive nitrogen in the environment is a critical problem in our efforts to develop and implement plans for the sustainable management of natural resources. Modern human activities associated with food production and fossil...

Letters.
April 1, 2003... Renewable Energy: Getting the Numbers Straight In "Renewable Energy: Current and Potential Issues" (BioScience 52: 1111-1120) Pimentel and colleagues came to the conclusion that their "assesment of renewable energy technologies confirms...

Correction.
April 1, 2003... In "The Biosecurity Trust' by Robert H. Sprinkle (BioScience 53: 270-277), the year of publication in the in-text reference to the article by Pomerantsev et al. should have been 1997 rather than 1977.

"Evo-devo" and the conundrum of sympatric speciation. (Viewpoint).
April 1, 2003... Evolution is a spatiotemporal dynamical process, albeit an extremely complex one--too complex to yield to the type of mathematical arguments that over the past 100 years have revolutionized our understanding of the physical universe. Yet facets...

Turbulence in the Klamath River Basin. (Features).
April 1, 2003... In the summer of 2001, potato fields in the arid upper Klamath Basin turned to barren dust in the sun. In that drought year, federal biologists insisted that water usually diverted to irrigate farms on the Oregon--California border instead...

Smithsonian science: first class on a coach budget. (Washington Watch).
April 1, 2003... Founded in 1846 "for the increase land diffusion of knowledge," the Smithsonian Institution is a world leader in scientific research spanning paleobiology to planetary science. Over the past year, three separate panels concluded that the...

BioBlitz: getting into backyard biodiversity. (Eye on Education).
April 1, 2003... How often does the public get to see scientists having fun doing science? And what if everyone who came to watch, young or old, went away with a much better understanding of biodiversity? It happens every year in many North American locations...

Yellowstone after wolves. (Articles).
April 1, 2003... With gray wolves restored to Yellowstone National Park, this ecosystem once again supports the full native array of large ungulates and their attendant large carnivores. We consider the possible ecological implications of wolf restoration in...

The nitrogen cascade. (Articles).
April 1, 2003... Human production of food and energy is the dominant continental process that breaks the triple bond in molecular nitrogen ([N.sub.2]) and creates reactive nitrogen (Nr) species. Circulation of anthropogenic Nr in Earth's atmosphere,...

Nitrogen pollution in the northeastern United States: sources, effects, and management options. (Articles).
April 1, 2003... The northeastern United States receives elevated inputs of anthropogenic nitrogen (N) largely from net imports of food and atmospheric deposition, with lesser inputs from fertilizer, net feed imports, and N fixation associated with leguminous...

Is nitrogen deposition altering the nitrogen status of northeastern forests? (Articles).
April 1, 2003... Concern is resurfacing in the United States over the long-term effects of excess nitrogen (N) deposition and mobility in the environment. We present here a new synthesis of existing data sets for the northeastern United States, intended to...

Nitrogen emissions, deposition, and monitoring in the Western United States. (Articles).
April 1, 2003... Nitrogen (N) deposition in the western United States ranges from 1 to 4 kilograms (kg) per hectare (ha) per year over much of the region to as high as 30 to 90 kg per ha per year downwind of major urban and agricultural areas. Primary N...

Ecological effects of nitrogen deposition in the Western United States. (Articles).
April 1, 2003... In the western United States vast acreages of land are exposed to low levels of atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition, with interspersed hotspots of elevated N deposition downwind of large, expanding metropolitan centers or large agricultural...

Laboratory studies with rodents: facts or artifacts? (Forum).
April 1, 2003... Rodents have been studied extensively in the laboratory as model species to address and, in some cases, develop paradigms in mammalian behavioral biology. However, the laboratory environment presents obvious limitations that can compromise...

Public ownership of US streambeds and floodplains: a basis for ecological stewardship. (Forum).
April 1, 2003... Larger US river-floodplain ecosystems are severely degraded. We analyze how public proprietary interests in streambeds and floodplains afford enormous untapped opportunity to protect them. We estimate that states hold in trust for the public...

The end of the Moa in Aotearoa. (Books).
April 1, 2003... The Lost World of the Moa: Prehistoric Life of New Zealand. Trevor H. Worthy and Richard N. Holdaway. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 2002. 755 pp., illus. $89.95 (ISBN 0253340349 cloth). New Zealand, or Aotearoa, the Maori "land...

Tropical nature preservation. (Books).
April 1, 2003... Making Parks Work: Strategies for Preserving Tropical Nature. John Terborgh, Carel van Schaik, Lisa Davenport, and Madhu Rao, eds. Island Press, Washington, DC, 2002. 511 pp., illus. $65.00 (ISBN 1559639040 cloth). The intent of the...

Almost everything is about restoration these days. (Books).
April 1, 2003... Wildlife Restoration: Techniques for Habitat Analysis and Animal Monitoring. Michael L. Morrison. Island Press, Washington, DC, 2002. 209 pp., illus. $25.00 (ISBN 1559639377 paper). Michael Morrison, field station manager of the University...

New titles.
April 1, 2003... Acid Rain: Are the Problems Solved? James C. White, ed. American Fisheries Society, Bethesda, MD, 2003.250 pp., illus. $49.00 (ISBN 1888569476 paper). Alternative Futures for Changing Landscapes: The Upper San Pedro River Basin in Arizona...

IBRCS releases white paper on NEON. (AIBS News).
April 1, 2003... The goal of the AIBS project on Infrastructure for Biology at Regional to Continental Scales (IBRCS) is to help the biological-scientific community determine the needs and means for increased physical infrastructure, scientific utilization, and...

Winners of 2003 AIBS Media Awards announced. (AIBS News).
April 1, 2003... Richard Stone and Robin White are the winners of the 2003 AIBS Media Awards. Richard Stone, European news editor for Science, won the award in the print journalism category for "Siberia's Deadly Stalker Emerges from the Shadows," which appeared...

Recent Public Policy Reports.
April 1, 2003... Online at www.aibs.org Public Policy Report for 17 March 2003 * AAAS resolution calls for "fair balance" on federal advisory committees * EPA requests nominations for Science Advisory Board Panel on valuing ecological services and...

A possible propensity for sexual selection. (Bio Briefs).
April 1, 2003... Why are the males of some species more prone to show themselves off with elaborate ornaments, such as the brilliant colors or long plumes of certain birds, or with ornate weaponry, such as the large unwieldy antlers of some ungulates? Charles...

Sexual selection of complex songs. (Bio Briefs).
April 1, 2003... The song of male zebra finches is another example of a sexually selected trait. Choosy female zebra finches prefer males with more elaborate songs (in these finches, females don't sing). What is so attractive about complex birdsong? Perhaps...

Calendar of meetings.
April 1, 2003... April 2-6 18th Annual Symposium of the International Association of Landscape Ecology-US Chapter, Alberta, Canada; Web site: www.zoo.utoronto.ca/US-IALE_2003 9-12 64th Annual Meeting of the Association of Southeastern Biologists...