BioScience articles from October 2003

BioScience archives from October 2003

The decline of oak forests.(Editorial)
October 1, 2003... Forest pathologists often use the word decline to refer to a specific disease complex responsible for a gradual deterioration in the health of individual trees. But in the past century, decline of a different sort has been affecting entire oak...

Biodiversity hotspots revisited.(Viewpoint)
October 1, 2003... The biodiversity hotspots thesis was first published a long while ago (Myers 1988, 1990), and greatly revised and expanded recently (Mittermeier et al. 2000, Myers et al. 2000). Along the way it has generated an unusual amount of interest among...

Harmful algal blooms: biosensors provide new ways of detecting and monitoring growing threat in coastal waters.(Feature)
October 1, 2003... Deep in the southwest of Scotland ripples a pool of moss-green water. Soulseat Loch, as this small lake in the United Kingdom is known, glows with unearthly green water--green because pixies, or elves, once washed their clothes in the loch. Or...

USGS: science serving society.(Washington Watch)
October 1, 2003... The mission and responsibilities of the US Geological Survey (USGS), an agency once recognized almost exclusively for giving the public information about geologic hazards, have grown over the years. Now, as the natural resource science and...

Plant blindness.(Eye on Education)
October 1, 2003... Plants fuel life on Earth by tapping the sun's energy. But if plants are the main mediators between the physical and biological worlds, why do most people tend to appreciate animals so much more than plants? That question is at the center...

Where has all the white oak gone?
October 1, 2003... Before European settlement, vast areas of deciduous forest in what is now the eastern United States were dominated by oak species. Among these species, white oak (Quercus alba) reigned supreme. White oak tended to grow at lower elevations but...

Assessing the response of terrestrial ecosystems to potential changes in precipitation.
October 1, 2003... Changes in Earth's surface temperatures caused by anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases are expected to affect global and regional precipitation regimes. Interactions between changing precipitation regimes and other aspects of global...

Phytoplankton photopigments as indicators of estuarine and coastal eutrophication.
October 1, 2003... Human development of coastal watersheds has greatly increased nutrient loading and accelerated estuarine and coastal eutrophication. These waters are also affected by climatic perturbations (e.g., droughts, hurricanes, floods), which may be...

What Darwin's finches can teach us about the evolutionary origin and regulation of biodiversity.(Plenary)
October 1, 2003... Darwin's finches on the Galapagos Islands are particularly suitable for asking evolutionary questions about adaptation and the multiplication of species: how these processes happen and how to interpret them. All 14 species of Darwin's finches...

Has coral bleaching delayed our understanding of fundamental aspects of coral-dinoflagellate symbioses?(Forum)
October 1, 2003... Tropical reef corals are ecologically important examples of mutualistic symbioses whose success is defined by the interwoven biologies of their symbiotic partners. These associations are exquisitely regulated, yet the equilibrium is sensitive...

A multiple resource inventory of Delaware using airborne laser data.(Biologist's Toolbox)
October 1, 2003... Estimates of forest wood volume and biomass, and estimates of the surface area of asphalt, concrete, roof, and open water, were generated from a single set of airborne laser-profiling data acquired during the summer of 2000. Estimates of...

Biology's most beautiful.
October 1, 2003... BioScience presents readers with an unusual (and, we hope, stimulating) challenge: to nominate candidates for a short fist of the most beautiful biology experiments. Essays on those that we judge most plausible will be published in future...

Wildlife encounters by Lewis and Clark: a spatial analysis of interactions between native Americans and wildlife.(Biology in History)
October 1, 2003... The Lewis and Clark journals contain some of the earliest and most detailed written descriptions of a large part of the United States before Euro-American settlement. We used the journal entries to assess the influence of humans on wildlife...

Searching for scales in fisheries.
October 1, 2003... Hierarchical Perspectives on Marine Complexities: Searching for Systems in the Gulf of Maine. Spencer Apollonio. Columbia University Press, New York, 2002. 229 pp. $29.50 (ISBN 0231124899 paper). The outlook for fisheries in many marine and...

Six legs of one, half a dozen of the other.
October 1, 2003... Physiological Systems in Insects. Marc J. Klowden. Academic Press, San Diego, 2002. 415 pp., illus. $59.95 (ISBN 0124162649 paper). Insect Physiology and Biochemistry. James L. Nation. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, 2002. 485 pp., illus....

Ethical environmental futures.
October 1, 2003... Bryan G. Norton. Cambridge University Press, New York, 2003. 554 pp., illus. $30.00 (ISBN 052100778X paper). Searching for Sustainability: Interdisciplinary Essays in the Philosophy of Conservation Biology examines the quest for...

Mircrobial muddles.
October 1, 2003... Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan. Basic Books, New York, 2002. 240 pp., illus. $28.00 (ISBN 0465043917 cloth). Over 40 DNA was discovered in chloroplasts and mitochondria. This led Hans Ris, a former supervisor of Lynn Margulis, to revive the...

New titles.
October 1, 2003... 50 Years of DNA. Julie Clayton and Carina Dennis, eds. Nature Publishing Group, NewYork, 2003. 120 pp., illus. $30.00 (ISBN 1403914796 cloth). AIDS: Science and Society, 4th ed. Hung Y. Fan, Ross F. Conner, and Luis P. Willarreal. Jones...

AIBS President Gary S. Hartshorn named World Forestry Center president.(AIBS news)
October 1, 2003... The Board of Directors and staff of AIBS congratulate President Gary S. Hartshorn on his new appointment. The press release from the World Forestry Center is reprinted below. PORTLAND, Oregon--The World Forestry Center's board of directors...

Vote now! AIBS board election under way.(AIBS news)
October 1, 2003... Ballots for the 2003 AIBS board election have been mailed to all AIBS members. Online voting at www.aibs.org has been activated. As a member-governed organization, AIBS can continue fulfilling its scientific mission to its members and the...

AIBS launches new Web site.(AIBS news)
October 1, 2003... AIBS has launched all exciting redesign of the AIBS Web site at www.aibs.org. The new site was built entirely by AIBS IT (information technology) staff and has been organized with these additional benefits: * An opening page that displays...

Two new societies join the AIBS Federation.(AIBS news)
October 1, 2003... The Kansas (Central States) Entomological Society and the Southwestern Association of Naturalists joined the ranks of AIBS members in July and August, respectively, bringing the number of AIBS member societies to 88. Kansas (Central...

Recent public policy reports online at www.aibs.org.(AIBS news)
October 1, 2003... Public Policy Report for 15 September 2003 * Senate appropriations cuts funding for NSF BIO research; declines funding for NEON * ACTION ALERT: Your support could mean an additional $37 million (250 grants and two NEON prototypes) for...

Calendar of meetings.
October 1, 2003... October 1 2004 Ocean Research Conference, cosponsored by the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography and the Oceanography Society. To have an abstract considered for acceptance, participants must register for the conference (15-20...

Scientists recommend "go slow" with introduction of nonnative oysters in Chesapeake Bay.(BioBriefs)
October 1, 2003... What's the best way to bring oysters back to Chesapeake Bay? Do you continue to tackle the various problems plaguing the native oyster, Crassostrea virginica, which include loss of habitat, overfishing, reduced water quality, sedimentation,...