BioScience articles from March 2005

BioScience archives from March 2005

Observations and biological futures.(Editorial)
March 1, 2005... Natural scientists by now need no reminding of the already documented effects of global warming on natural habitats and the species they support. Most biologists are also aware of the complications that land-use change will impose on attempts...

Moving headwater streams to the head of the class.(Viewpoint)
March 1, 2005... Everywhere on Earth, streams and rivers occur in hierarchical networks resembling the branching pattern of a tree, with smaller branches joining to form larger branches as water travels from uplands to lakes, estuaries, and seas. The finest...

Exploring issues in evolutionary science and society: educators flock to AIBS-cosponsored event.(Special Report)
March 1, 2005... The skirmish over evolution's place in biology classrooms continues in Kansas, Ohio, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Texas, and elsewhere, so it was no surprise that teaching sound science and coping with aggressive creationists were on the minds of...

Urban wildlife.
March 1, 2005... Next time you're in New York City, go and see Pelham Bay Park. You may be surprised to learn that this city park harbors a refreshingly natural landscape in the midst of one of the most densely populated and highly developed metropolitan areas...

Will NSF's science education initiative be left behind?(Washington Watch)
March 1, 2005... International assessments of student achievement in science regularly detail how high school graduates in the United States lag behind their peers in other industrialized nations. Despite some progress over the past few decades, the recently...

Reproductive modes in frogs and their unexpected diversity in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil.
March 1, 2005... Amphibians, and especially the anurans (frogs and toads), exhibit a greater diversity of reproductive modes than other tetrapod vertebrates. Twenty-nine reproductive modes have been recognized for the anurans; we propose 10 more, elevating by...

Can't see the forest for the stream? In-stream processing and terrestrial nitrogen exports.
March 1, 2005... There has been a long-term decline in nitrate (N[O.sup.-.sub.3]) concentration and export from several long-term monitoring watersheds in New England that cannot be explained by current terrestrial ecosystem models. A number of potential causes...

The view from the Cape: extinction risk, protected areas, and climate change.
March 1, 2005... In the past decade, a growing number of studies have modeled the effects of climate change on large numbers of species across diverse focal regions. Many common points emerge from these studies, but it can be difficult to understand the...

An ecosystem in transition: causes and consequences of the conversion of mesic grassland to shrubland.
March 1, 2005... Woody plant expansion is one of the greatest contemporary threats to mesic grasslands of the central United States. In this article, we synthesize more than 20 years of research to elucidate the causes and consequences of the ongoing transition...

Challenges in evaluating the impact of the trade in amphibians and reptiles on wild populations.(Forum)
March 1, 2005... Amphibians and reptiles are taken from the wild and sold commercially as food, pets, and traditional medicines. The overcollecting of some species highlights the need to assess the trade and ensure that it is not contributing to declines in...

Biotechnology in a globalizing world: the coevolution of technology and social institutions.(Special Book Section)
March 1, 2005... Major debates about the safety of biotechnology for human health, the environment, and socioeconomic systems have marked the introduction of genetically modified foods into the global economy. Since their advent in the early 1970s, techniques...

Thirty years and counting: bioremediation in its prime?(Special Book Section)
March 1, 2005... Bioremediation in its formal sense, meaning any use of living organisms to degrade wastes, has been practiced since humans first populated the world and had to dispose of their trash. Without knowing about the microorganisms in soil and water,...

Intelligent design's empty but explosive black box.
March 1, 2005... Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design. Barbara Carroll Forrest and Paul R. Gross. Oxford University Press, New York, 2004.401 pp. $40.00 (ISBN 0195157427 cloth). Biologists have been lulled into assuming that...

Shooting for the impossible dream: a comprehensive catalog of fungal diversity.
March 1, 2005... Biodiversity of Fungi: Inventory and Monitoring Methods. Gregory M. Mueller, Gerald F. Bills, and Mercedes S. Foster, eds. Elsevier Academic Press, Burlington, MA, 2004. 777 pp., illus. $99.95 (ISBN: 0125095511 cloth). Imagine trying to...

Priming for genetics in ecology.
March 1, 2005... A Primer of Ecological Genetics. Jeffrey K. Conner and Daniel L. Hartl. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, MA, 2004. 304 pp., illus. $34.95 (ISBN 087893202X paper). The field of ecological genetics became firmly established 40 years ago with...

Conservation and evolution redux.
March 1, 2005... Evolutionary Conservation Biology. Regis Ferriere, Ulf Dieckmann, and Denis Couvet, eds. Cambridge Studies in Adaptive Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, United Kingdom, 2004. 428 pp., illus. $95.00 (ISBN 0521827000 cloth). Evolutionary...

New titles.
March 1, 2005... Biomaterials for Delivery and Targeting of Proteins and Nucleic Acids. Ram I. Mahato. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, 2005.669 pp., illus. $189.95 (ISBN 0849323347 cloth). Colonization of Mucosal Surfaces. James P. Nataro, Paul S. Choen, Harry...

NEON featured at NCSE conference.(AIBS news)
March 1, 2005... Senior planners of the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) provided a project update at the National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE) conference in Washington, DC, 3-4 February 2005. NEON codirector Bruce Hayden...

New at www.neoninc.org.(AIBS news)
March 1, 2005... * Reports from the second meeting of the NEON Design Consortium (15-17 March 2005 in Boston) will be available online for public comment throughout April. Interested readers are invited to provide confidential comments to the NEON Project...

AIBS welcomes two new member organizations.(AIBS news)
March 1, 2005... In February 2005, the AIBS Board of Directors welcomed the International Association for Bear Research and Management (IBA) and the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Connecticut as member organizations in AIBS....

Recent articles online at www.actionbioscience.org.(AIBS news)
March 1, 2005... Original articles in English * "Using Case Studies to Teach Science," by Clyde Freeman Herreid, distinguished teaching professor, University at Buffalo, State University of New York * "Natural History Museum Collections in the...

Recent Public Policy Reports online at www.aibs.org.(AIBS news)
March 1, 2005... Public Policy Report for 14 February 2005 * Small increase for NSF research, but education account suffers * Between a mineral and a hard spot: A look at the USGS budget * Senate committee criticizes EPA budget cuts * NIH...

Recent Education Reports online at www.aibs.org.(AIBS news)
March 1, 2005... Education Report for January-February 2005 * NEON Education Committee requests feedback on initial ideas * National Evolutionary Synthesis Center opens, seeks education manager * Free book on student active learning available ...

Calendar of meetings.(Calendar)
March 1, 2005... March 12-16 20th Annual Symposium, US Regional Chapter of the International Association for Landscape Ecology, Syracuse, NY; Web site: http://iale.esf.edu/ home.htm April 6-8 Joint Spring Meeting, Helminthological Society of...

Global ecological patterns.(BioBriefs)
March 1, 2005... HABITAT LOSS Protecting the world's rapidly vanishing species while human activities continue to degrade their natural habitats is a daunting challenge. Powerful tools, such as land-use maps and global data sets, are aiding in the...