BioScience articles from August 2004

BioScience archives from August 2004

Your convention needs you!(Editorial)
August 1, 2004... Researchers depressed about the extinction crisis might lift their spirits by volunteering to work on behalf of the Convention on Biological Diversity. Approved at the "Earth Summit" in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, the convention came into force the...

Real-time ecology.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2004... Gary Belovsky and colleagues (2004) are to be commended for their consensus document, "Ten Suggestions to Strengthen the Science of Ecology." Regarding their suggestion 10 ("Ecology as a fundamental science is sometimes seen as distinct from...

Response from Daniel B. Botkin, coauthor of "Ten Suggestions".(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2004... In his letter, Professor Roe raises an important and relevant point: the societal need for real-time responses by professional scientists to pressing environmental problems. Elsewhere (No Man's Garden: Thoreau and a New Vision for Civilization...

What if GBIF?(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2004... James Edwards makes a credible, convincing argument for digitization of museum data in "Research and Societal Benefits of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility" (BioScience 54: 485-486). I agree with most of his points, except the...

Environmental justice alert: do developing nations bear the burden of risk for invasive species?(Viewpoint)
August 1, 2004... One of the greatest sources of non-greatest native species in marine and freshwater ecosystems is ballast water discharged from ships. To maintain trim and stability when not fully laden with cargo, oceangoing vessels take on ballast water,...

No trivial pursuit.(Viewpoint)
August 1, 2004... Tom Fenchel and Bland Finlay are publishing in this journal a manuscript concerning the number and distribution of microbial species ("The Ubiquity of Small Species: Patterns of Local and Global Diversity," pp. 777-784). They assert with...

NSF facing budget cuts.(Washington Watch)
August 1, 2004... At the end of 2002, scientists had cause to celebrate: Congress had approved a massive 15 percent increase in research funding for the National Science Foundation (NSF) and passed legislation that would authorize similar increases for the...

Progressive nitrogen limitation of ecosystem responses to rising atmospheric carbon dioxide.
August 1, 2004... A highly controversial issue in global biogeochemistry is the regulation of terrestrial carbon (C) sequestration by soil nitrogen (IV) availability. This controversy translates into great uncertainty in predicting future global terrestrial C...

Quenching urban thirst: growing cities and their impacts on freshwater ecosystems.
August 1, 2004... The development of water resources to satisfy urban water needs has had serious impacts on freshwater ecosystem integrity and on valuable ecosystem services, but positive trends are emerging that point the way toward a solution. We demonstrate...

Wolves and the ecology of fear: can predation risk structure ecosystems?
August 1, 2004... We investigated how large carnivores, herbivores, and plants may be linked to the maintenance of native species biodiversity through trophic cascades. The extirpation of wolves (Canis lupus) from Yellowstone National Park in the mid-1920s and...

The role of biodiversity in the functioning of freshwater and marine benthic ecosystems.(Roundtable)
August 1, 2004... Empirical studies investigating the role of species diversity in sustaining ecosystem processes have focused primarily on terrestrial plant and soil communities. Eighteen representative studies drawn from post-1999 literature specifically...

The ubiquity of small species: patterns of local and global diversity.(Forum)
August 1, 2004... Small organisms (less than 1 millimeter in length) tend to have a cosmopolitan distribution. This is a consequence of huge absolute population sizes rather than any inherent properties of particular taxonomic groups. At the local scale, the...

A scientist's coming of age in the computerized era.
August 1, 2004... Strange Encounters: Adventures of a Renegade Naturalist. Daniel B. Botkin. Tarcher/Putnam, New York, 2003. 272 pp. $24.95 (ISBN 1585422630 paper). Most "good" science revolves around seeking answers to what so often appear to be fairly...

A modern, environmental Jeremiah.
August 1, 2004... Plan B: Rescuing a Planet under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble. Lester R. Brown. W. W. Norton, New York, 2003. 285 pp., illus. $15.95 (ISBN 0393325237 paper). It is the prophet Jeremiah--that archetype of doomsayers--from whose name...

Biomechanics made accessible.
August 1, 2004... Comparative Biomechanics: Life's Physical World. Steven Vogel. Prince ton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 2003. 582 pp., illus. $60.00 (ISBN 0691112975 cloth). A Provocative article published in 1998 focused on a disparate group of...

New titles.(Books)
August 1, 2004... Acid Rain Science and Politics in Japan: A History of Knowledge and Action toward Sustainability. Kenneth E. Wilkening. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2004. 340 pp., illus. $19.00 (ISBN 0262731665 paper). After the Fires: The Ecology of Change...

Society for Northwestern Vertebrate Biology joins AIBS federation.(AIBS news)
August 1, 2004... The Society for Northwestern Vertebrate Biology (SNVB) joined the ranks of MBS members in June, bringing the number of AIBS member societies to 86. Founded in 1920, the society is the oldest scientific association devoted to the study of...

AIBS welcomes new diversity and outreach program assistant.(AIBS news)
August 1, 2004... Yasmeen Qadim'asil joined the MBS Education Office in June as diversity and outreach program assistant. Qadim'asil is a graduate student in ecology at Howard University in the Biology Department; her adviser is George Middendorf. She was a...

Highlight on AIBS Scientific Peer Advisory and Review Services.(AIBS news)
August 1, 2004... AIBS's Scientific Peer Advisory and Review Services (AIBS SPARS) recently completed a move to new office space in Reston, Virginia. Growing in revenue and staff, AIBS SPARS signed a 10-year lease on approximately 10,000 square feet of space in...

Top educators join evolution symposium panels.(AIBS news)
August 1, 2004... Twenty-one new names have been added to the online program for the evolution symposium sponsored by AIBS, the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study, and the National Association of Biology Teachers, which will be held in Chicago, 12-13 November...

Calendar of meetings.(Calendar)(Calendar)
August 1, 2004... August 1 Ecological Society of America, Teaching Issues and Experiments in Ecology Author Workshop, Portland, OR; Web site: www.esa.org/program/wk7.htm 1-5 "Botany 2004" Botanical...

UC-Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology turns 100.(BioBriefs)
August 1, 2004... In 1908, Joseph Grinnell was selected to be the first curator of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (MVZ) at the University of California-Berkeley by the museum's founder, Annie Alexander, because his comprehensive approach to studying the...

The importance of scientific collections, from Dinos to DNA.(BioBriefs)
August 1, 2004... The Natural Science Collection Alliance, a nonprofit organization that represents museums, herbaria, botanical gardens, and other scientific collections, is launching a campaign this month to increase public awareness of the value of research...