BioScience articles from December 2003

BioScience archives from December 2003

Border barrier.(Editorial)
December 1, 2003... A declared policy of the United States is the prevention of future acts of terrorism. Toward this end, the federal government has increased its scrutiny of individuals wishing to enter the United States. More individuals now undergo rigorous...

The millennium ecosystem assessment: science and policy for sustainable development.(Viewpoint)
December 1, 2003... The past two decades have seen a growing worldwide awareness of environmental problems such as loss and degradation of ecological habitats. Nations have responded by adopting multilateral agreements--the United Nations (UN) Framework Convention...

High-tech surveillance: adapting new technology for marine studies.
December 1, 2003... A USGS fishery biologist trudges along the muddy shores of Ship Creek, a popular salmon fishery in downtown Anchorage. In addition to the standard fieldwork uniform of his trade--jeans, hip waders, and a T-shirt--he's outfitted with a bright...

Third time a charm for NSF's National Ecological Observatory Network?(Washington Watch)
December 1, 2003... A National Academy of Sciences (NAS) panel recently completed its assessment of National Science Foundation (NSF) plans to develop a National Environmental Observatory Network (NEON). Although the committee delivered a glowing endorsement of...

The ecological consequences of socioeconomic and land-use changes in postagriculture Puerto Rico.(Cover Story)
December 1, 2003... Contrary to the general trend in the tropics, forests have recovered in Puerto Rico from less than 10% of the landscape in the late 1940s to more than 40% in the present. The recent Puerto Rican history of forest recovery provides the...

Integrating humans into ecology: opportunities and challenges for studying urban ecosystems.
December 1, 2003... Our central paradigm for urban ecology is that cities are emergent phenomena of local-scale, dynamic interactions among socioeconomic and biophysical forces. These complex interactions give rise to a distinctive ecology and to distinctive...

Multiscale experiments in coastal ecology: improving realism and advancing theory.
December 1, 2003... The Multiscale Experimental Ecosystem Research Center has conducted a series o]-mesocosm experiments to quantify the effects of scale--in terms of time, depth, radius, exchange rate, and ecological complexity--on biogeoehemical processes and...

Ecosystem responses to global climate change: moving beyond color mapping.
December 1, 2003... Current assessments of climate change effects on ecosystems use two key approaches: (1) empirical synthesis and modeling of species range shifts and life-cycle processes that coincide with recent evidence of climate warming, from which...

Bioethics: are our priorities right?(Plenary)
December 1, 2003... Neither biologists nor nonbiologists in today's society are paying adequate attention to the escalating ethical issues raised by the human predicament, and the expertise of biologists seems to demand they make additional contributions to...

Conservation planning for US national forests: conducting comprehensive biodiversity assessments.(Forum)
December 1, 2003... The US Forest Service has proposed new regulations under the National Forest Management Act that would replace a long-standing requirement that the agency manage its lands "to maintain viable populations of existing native and desired...

Disciplinary research strategies for assessment of learning.(Education)
December 1, 2003... Science faculty who want to improve instructional strategies need to design appropriate methods for assessing and analyzing classroom data to determine the effectiveness of their approaches to learning. We used systematic strategies derived...

An ode to Odum.
December 1, 2003... Eugene Odum: Ecosystem Ecologist and Environmentalist. Reprint ed. Betty lean Craige. University of Georgia Press, Athens, 2002. 226 pp., illus. $17.95 (ISBN 0820324736 paper). Last year saw the death of Eugene Odum, often hailed as the...

Looking at life through (and in) a cell.
December 1, 2003... The Way of the Cell: Molecules, Organisms, and the Order of Life. Franklin M. Harold. Oxford University Press, Oxford, United Kingdom, 2003. 320 pp., illus. $17.95 (ISBN 0195163389 paper). The author of this book, Franklin M. Harold, is a...

New classic about plant resins.
December 1, 2003... Plant Resins: Chemistry, Evolution, Ecology, and Ethnobotany. Jean H. Langenheim. Timber Press, Portland, Oregon, 2003. 586 pp., illus. $49.95 (ISBN 0881925748 cloth). This new work by Jean H. Langenheim is destined to become this...

New titles.(Books)
December 1, 2003... Atkins' Molecules, 2nd ed. Peter Atkins. Cambridge University Press, New York, 2003.244 pp., illus. $30.00 (ISBN 0521535360 paper). The Bioarchaeology of Tuberculosis: A Global View on a Reemerging Disease. Charlotte A. Roberts and lane E....

Results of the AIBS Board of Directors election.(AIBS news)
December 1, 2003... AIBS welcomes the following new members to its Board of Directors in 2004. The president-elect serves a one-year term and automatically succeeds to a one-year term as president in 2005, then a one-year term as immediate past-president in 2006....

IBRCS issues report on NEON coordination and implementation.(AIBS news)
December 1, 2003... The AIBS IBRCS (Infrastructure for Biology at Regional to Continental Scales) program has released its report on the next steps for the coordination and implementation of the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON). The report (online at...

AIBS seeks postdoctoral fellow for project on history of AIBS.(AIBS news)
December 1, 2003... The American Institute of Biological Sciences seeks to partner with a postdoctoral fellow to apply for funding in February 2004 from the National Science Foundation's Science and Technology Studies (NFS STS) program. If funded, the grant will...

2004 annual meeting adds marine invasions, Heinz Center report.(AIBS news)
December 1, 2003... Two exciting program components have been added to the 2004 AIBS Annual Meeting (16-18 March, in Washington, DC), the theme of which is "Invasive Species: The Search for Solutions." James T. Carlton, Director of the Maritime Studies Program at...

Cornell Center for the Environment joins AIBS.(AIBS news)
December 1, 2003... AIBS welcomes its newest member, the Cornell Center for the Environment. The center represents Cornell University's broad talent and capacity in an array of disciplines that advance environmental knowledge and help solve environmental problems....

Recent Public Policy reports online at www.aibs.org.(AIBS news)
December 1, 2003... Public Policy Report for 10 November 2003 * EPA developing strategy for valuing ecological benefits * Texas does not mess with biology textbooks * House of Representatives recognizes contributions of Congressional Science Fellows...

Calendar of meetings.(Calendar)
December 1, 2003... January 2004 5-9 Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology 2004 Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA; www. sicb.org/meetings/2004/index.php3 February 2004 9-12 Annual Meeting of the Weed ...

Building better phylogenetic trees.(BioBriefs)
December 1, 2003... As genome sequences become available for more organisms, old questions about the relationships between species are beginning to be answered with more certainty. Until now, molecular data have led to phylogenetic trees based on comparisons of...

Discovering life on earth.(BioBriefs)
December 1, 2003... Here is the paradoxical situation we face: While in the midst of a mass extinction event on a par with the disappearance of dinosaurs, we can identify at best only 10 percent of the species on our planet. This grim situation spurred bold action...