BioScience articles from September 2003

BioScience archives from September 2003

Isotopes for ecosystems.(Editorial)
September 1, 2003... Industrial activity and changes in land use are altering Earth's carbon cycle at spatial and temporal scales that are difficult to study and understand. Rising atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (C[O.sub.2]), a trend since the start...

Taxonomy, DNA, and the bar code of life.(Viewpoint)
September 1, 2003... DNA sequence analysis is enormously useful in studies of evolutionary history. Extensive sampling of DNA sequences has helped establish the diversity of life and allowed researchers to analyze evolutionary relationships within groups in detail....

Bioethics in a changing world: report from AIBS's 54th Annual Meeting.(Feature)
September 1, 2003... Ethics, according to Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, are "the principles of conduct governing an individual or group." The prefix "bio," says this same source, means simply "life." It would seem an easy step, then, to derive the...

New legislation advocates free access to scientific publications, but at what cost?(Washington Watch)
September 1, 2003... The mission statements of most scientific societies encompass the need to raise awareness of their field of research. So why, then, is a campaign aimed at broadly distributing the results of scientific research coming under fire from those same...

Protected area sssessments in perspective.
September 1, 2003... The exponential increase in the number and coverage of protected areas worldwide represents the past century's most notable conservation success. Nonetheless, many protected areas are ineffectively managed. Assessments of management...

Taxonomic chauvinism and the methodologically challenged.(Forum)
September 1, 2003... In tropical ecology, the effect of uneven development of research protocol across faunal groups is a major contributor to the taxonomic bias evident in the contemporary biological literature. Methodological problems can seriously hinder...

On science and literature: a lesson from the Bernard-Zola case.(Biology in History)
September 1, 2003... Life sciences and literature have long been seen as disciplines at opposite ends of the spectrum of human creativity. However, even excluding science fiction, the former has often inspired or influenced the latter, and vice versa. One of the...

Working with K-12 schools: insights for scientists.(Professional Biologist)
September 1, 2003... This article explains some basic issues and complexities associated with working with K-12 administrators, teachers, and students. It also explains important aspects of schools, teaching, and learning, including state-mandated curriculums and...

Stewardship for the earth: a review of some recent books on biology and values.(Special Book Article)
September 1, 2003... It is not easy being the heir to a throne. All of that status and attention is but a heartbeat away, and yet until the time comes, you must dribble your life away in the shadow of your parent. Prince Hal in Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1,...

The environment: collateral victim and tool of war.(Special Book Article)
September 1, 2003... I make two assumptions in this article: First, that a few BioScience readers, but not many, will have had some involvement with the ecology of war and will want to know more about the current literature; and second, that some readers, perhaps...

Stories of global change.
September 1, 2003... The Earth Remains Forever: Generations at a Crossroads. Rob Jackson. University of Texas Press, Austin, 2002. 169 pp., illus. $18.95 (ISBN 0292740557 paper). Environmental scientists often write essays intended to inform the general public...

Is population ecology a mature science?
September 1, 2003... Complex Population Dynamics: A Theoretical/Empirical Synthesis. Peter Turchin. Monographs in Population Biology 35, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 2003. 536 pp. $29.95 (ISBN 0691090211 paper). In the preface to this book, Peter...

Nonsolutions for nonecologists.
September 1, 2003... A Citizen's Guide to Ecology. Lawrence B. Slobodkin. Oxford University Press, Oxford, United Kingdom, 2003. 256 pp. $40.00 (ISBN 0195162862 cloth). Larry Slobodkin is professor and chair of the Ecology and Evolution Department at the State...

Retired agricultural economist speaks out.
September 1, 2003... Terrorism, Radicalism, and Populism in Agriculture. Luther Tweeten. Iowa State Press, a Blackwell Publishing Company, Ames, 2003. 176 pp., illus. $59.99 (ISBN 0813821584 cloth). Luther Tweeten, a widely known and highly regarded...

The Beaver: Natural History of a Wetlands Engineer.(New Titles)
September 1, 2003... Dietland Muller-Schwarze and Lixing Sun. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 2003. 192 pp., illus. $35.00 (ISBN 080144098X cloth).

Birds of the Salton Sea: Status, Biogeography, and Ecology.(New Titles)
September 1, 2003... Michael A. Patten, Guy McCaskic, and Philip Unitt. University of California Press, Berkeley, 2003. 393 pp., illus. $65.00 (ISBN 0520235932 cloth).

A Brand New Bird: How Two Amateur Scientists Created the First Genetically Engineered Animal.(New Titles)
September 1, 2003... Tim Birkhead. Basic Books, New York, 2003. 288 pp., illus. $26.00 (ISBN 0465006655 cloth).

Drafting a Conservation Blueprint: a Practitioner's Guide to Planning for Biodiversity.(New Titles)
September 1, 2003... Craig R. Groves. Island Press, Washington, DC, 2003.420 pp., illus. $35.00 (ISBN 1559639385 paper).

Missing Links: Evolutionary Concepts and Transitions through Time.(New Titles)
September 1, 2003... Robert A. Martin. Jones and Bartlett Publishers, Sudbury, MA, 2003. 303 pp., illus. $34.95 (ISBN 0763721964 paper).

A New Island Biogeography of the Sea of Cortes.(New Titles)
September 1, 2003... Ted J. Case, Martin L. Cody, and Exequiel Ezcurra, eds. Oxford University Press, New York, 2003. 669 pp., illus. $95.00 (ISBN 0195133463 cloth).

Sperm Whales: Social Evolution in the Ocean.(New Titles)
September 1, 2003... Hal Whitehead. University of Chicago Press, 2003. 456 pp., illus. $30.00 (ISBN 0226895181 paper).

Lectures from 2003 AIBS annual meeting on bioethics now online for free viewing.(AIBS news)
September 1, 2003... Video and audio recordings of the plenary lectures from the 2003 AIBS annual meeting, "Bioethics in a Changing World," which was held last March, have now been added to the AIBS Virtual Library and are online for free viewing. To view the...

AIBS convenes NEON coordination and implementation conference, invites comments.(AIBS news)
September 1, 2003... The Infrastructure for Biology at Regional to Continental Scales (IBRCS) project at AIBS convened a conference on 4-6 September 2003 at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, to explore the implementation and...

Candidates' statements for 2003 AIBS board elections.(AIBS news)
September 1, 2003... This month, September 2003, ballots are being mailed to the membership, and online voting at www.aibs.org is being activated. The polls close on 17 October 2003. As a member-governed organization, the American Institute of Biological...

AIBS participates in new coalition for increased funding of USGS.(AIBS news)
September 1, 2003... Since January 2003, AIBS has participated with other national organizations in a workgroup spearheaded by the American Geological Institute to consider ways to increase funding for the US Geological Survey (USGS). These workgroup activities...

AIBS launches new funding drive for the AIBS Public Policy Office.(AIBS news)
September 1, 2003... MBS members: Contribute to the AIBS Public Policy Office to gain important benefits for your society or organization; become a Supporter, a Participant, a Collaborator, or a Partner. See below and www.aibs.org/publicpolicy/funding.html....

AIBS Public Policy Office funding levels and benefits.(AIBS news)
September 1, 2003... AIBS Member Core Benefits (For individual members and member societies and organizations) Annual contribution required: This cost is already included in the standard AIBS individual member dues and regular AIBS member society and...

Testimonials from AIBS members on the benefits of working with the AIBS Public Policy Office.(AIBS news)
September 1, 2003... The membership of the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) for a decade has been eager to have a policy presence that is effective, responsive enough to operate on punctuated legislative time scales (long waits coupled with...

Recent Public Policy Reports online at www.aibs.org.(AIBS news)
September 1, 2003... Public Policy Report for 18 August 2003 * Enjoy research funding? Now is the time to tell your members of Congress * Attention Texans: Evolution education threatened * Botanical Society of America issues statement on evolution ...

Calendar of meetings.
September 1, 2003... September 10-14 Inaugural Meeting of the Cell Stress Society International, held jointly with the North American Hyperthermia Society, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada;...

Diversity deters invaders.(BioBriefs)
September 1, 2003... What determines whether an exotic plant species will be a good invader? The answer may depend on the composition of the plant community it encounters, according to a new study. Joseph Fargione, from the University of Minnesota, and his...

Hybrid vigor in corn.(BioBriefs)
September 1, 2003... Hybrids can be much more than the sum of their parents. In fact, the corn, or maize, grown today--a result of blending northern flint and southern dent strains to varying degrees to produce different corn varieties--is so different from its...

Potato gene for blight resistance cloned.(BioBriefs)
September 1, 2003... A remedy for potato late blight may be within reach. Scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and their colleagues have cloned a gene that confers resistance to Phytophthora infestans, the oomycete that is responsible for causing the...

Tracing changes in ecosystem function under elevated carbon dioxide conditions.
September 1, 2003... Responses of ecosystems to elevated levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide (C[O.sub.2]) remain a critical uncertainty in global change research. Two key unknown factors are the fate of carbon newly incorporated by photosynthesis into various...

Systems for assessing the effectiveness of management in protected areas.
September 1, 2003... Since the mid-1990s, numerous methodologies have been developed to assess the management effectiveness of protected areas, many tailored to particular regions or habitats. Recognizing the need for a generic approach, the World Commission on...

Rapid assessment of protected area management effectiveness in four countries.
September 1, 2003... Assessing the management effectiveness of a protected area system can enable policymakers to develop strategic, systemwide responses to pervasive management problems. The World Wide Fund for Nature international has developed the Rapid...

Assessing management effectiveness and setting priorities in protected areas in KwaZulu-Natal.
September 1, 2003... KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife is the governmental agency responsible for managing protected areas in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Province, South Africa. The agency recently conducted an assessment of the management effectiveness of all 110 protected areas...

Are we conserving what we say we are? Measuring ecological integrity within protected areas.
September 1, 2003... Managers of protected areas are under increasing pressure to measure their effectiveness in conserving native biological diversity in ways that are scientifically sound, practical, and comparable among protected areas over time. The Nature...