BioScience articles from February 2009

BioScience archives from February 2009

Boosting biology.(Editorial)
February 1, 2009... When I first studied--if that is the word--biology, in high school in the 1970s, it seemed uncompelling: the lab demonstrations could not compare for spectacle or danger with more vivid offerings in chemistry and physics. Only an encounter with...

Intrinsic value can help conservation.(Letter to the editor)
February 1, 2009... To undermine the worth and importance of intrinsic value, as Lynn A. Maguire and James Justus do in their Viewpoint article (BioScience 58: 910-911), is to undermine conservation work. They themselves recognize the importance and usefulness of...

The tragedy of political services.(Letters)
February 1, 2009... Lant and colleagues (2008) correctly identify social inefficiencies that cause the underprovision of ecosystem services. Ecosystem services are a case of positive externalities. They are nonexcludable--people benefit from them whether they pay...

Successfully implementing a citizen-scientist approach to insect monitoring in a resource-poor country.(http:// academic.sun.ac.za/Iimbovane)(Viewpoint essay)
February 1, 2009... The involvement of citizen scientists--volunteers who do not necessarily have a science background--in ecological projects has been hugely successful in highly developed countries. These projects are ideal for gathering data that would be too...

Ecotourism and other invasions: Darwin's 200th birthday comes to a conflicted Galapagos with shorter horizons.
February 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "It seems to be a little world within itself, the greater number of its inhabitants, both vegetable and animal, being found nowhere else," Charles Darwin wrote. His reconnaissance of the Galapagos Islands in 1835 was...

On moral grounds: bioethics training for scientists.(Washington Watch)
February 1, 2009... The philosophical exploration of ethical concerns in the life sciences--"bioethics"--has focused largely on research protocols involving research subjects in medical studies. Now, however, the application of biotechnology to environmental...

Biological resource centers and systems biology.(21st Century Directions in Biology)
February 1, 2009... There are hundreds of biological resource centers (BRCs) around the world, holding many little-studied microorganisms. The proportion of bacterial strains that is well represented in the sequence and literature databases may be as low as 1%....

Optimal function explains forest responses to global change.(Report)
February 1, 2009... Plant responses to global changes in carbon dioxide (C[O.sub.2]), nitrogen, and water availability are critical to future atmospheric C[O.sub.2] concentrations, hydrology, and hence climate. Our understanding of those responses is incomplete,...

Connectivity of the American agricultural landscape: assessing the national risk of crop pest and disease spread.
February 1, 2009... More than two-thirds of cropland in the United States is devoted to the production of just four crop species--maize, wheat, soybeans, and cotton--raising concerns that homogenization of the American agricultural landscape could facilitate...

Effects of horseshoe crab harvest in Delaware Bay on red knots: are harvest restrictions working?(Report)
February 1, 2009... Each May, red knots (Calidris canutus rufa) congregate in Delaware Bay during their northward migration to feed on horseshoe crab eggs (Limulus polyphemus) and refuel for breeding in the Arctic. During the 1990s, the Delaware Bay harvest of...

The ecological role of the mammalian mesocarnivore.(Report)
February 1, 2009... Large mammalian carnivores are ecologically important because relatively few individuals can cause strong predation- driven direct effects or fear-driven indirect effects that can ripple through communities and, ultimately, influence ecosystem...

Mercury contamination in sport fish in the northeastern United States: considerations for future data collection.(Forum)
February 1, 2009... The northeastern United States is influenced by the atmospheric deposition of mercury. Subsequent integration of methylmercury into aquatic food webs results in contamination levels in fish that are high enough to present health concerns for...

Of old bones and young America.(The Legacy of the Mastodon: The Golden Age of Fossils in America)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... The Legacy of the Mastodon: The Golden Age of Fossils in America. Keith Thomson. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 2008. 424 pp., illus. $35.00 (ISBN 9780300117042 cloth). [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Keith Stewart Thomson, a...

Foraging isn't depleted.(Foraging: Behavior and Ecology)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... Foraging: Behavior and Ecology. David W. Stephens, Joel S. Brown, and Ronald C. Ydenberg, eds. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2007. 576 pp., illus. $99.00 (ISBN 9780226772639 cloth). [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Foraging:...

Ernst Mayr: some questions answered.(Ornithology, Evolution, and Philosophy: The Life and Science of Ernst Mayr )(Book review)
February 1, 2009... Ornithology, Evolution, and Philosophy: The Life and Science of Ernst Mayr 1904-2005. Jurgen Haffer. Springer, New York, 2008. 474 pp., illus. $59.95 (ISBN 9783540717782 paper). [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Every evolutionary biologist has...

New titles.(Bibliography)
February 1, 2009... The American West at Risk: Science, Myths, and Politics of Land Abuse and Recovery. Howard G. Wilshire, Jane E. Nielson, and Richard W. Hazlett. Oxford University Press, New York, 2008.640 pp., illus. $35.00 (ISBN 9780195142051 cloth). ...

Registration and poster submissions open for 2009 AIBS annual meeting.(AIBS news)(American Institute of Biological Sciences)(Conference notes)
February 1, 2009... The 2009 AIBS annual meeting, "Sustainable Agriculture: Greening the Global Food Supply" will be held 18-19 May at the Westin Arlington Gateway Hotel in Arlington, Virginia. The program chair is 2009 AIBS President May R. Berenbaum, of the...

New staff member joins AIBS public policy office.(AIBS news)(American Institute of Biological Sciences)(Brief article)
February 1, 2009... In December 2008, Jenna Jadin joined the AIBS Public Policy Office as a public policy associate. Originally from Wisconsin, Jadin completed her bachelor's degree in molecular biology, with a minor in women's studies, at the University of...

Recent articles online at www.actionbioscience.org.(AIBS news)
February 1, 2009... "Technology: An Educational Issue?" blog post * Twitter for Educators * Benefits of Social Networking

Recent Public Policy Reports online at www.aibs.org.(AIBS news)
February 1, 2009... Public Policy Report for 5 January 2009 * Inspector General finds political interference at Department of Interior * Decisions protect some marine species, not others * Some Obama science agency appointees will face challenges ...

Calendar of meetings.(Calendar)
February 1, 2009... March 22-26 National Shellfisheries Association, Savannah, GA; http:// shellfish.org/101stannualmeeting April 1-4 Association of Southeastern Biologists, Jacksonville and Birmingham, AL; www.asb. appstate.edu/meeting.php ...

[Cartoon].(Cartoon)
February 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "I hate having my calls monitored."

Biodiversity: boom or bust?(BioBriefs)(National Council on Science and the Environment )(Conference news)
February 1, 2009... Like a bear rousing itself in spring, conservation scientists and advocates gauged their strength last December as they contemplated a transformed political landscape. A national conference on biodiversity in a rapidly changing world, held by...