High tech ad hoc fixes face off against good old-fashioned prevention in the Baltic Sea
Posted 27 Jun 2012 / 0Nature Comment “Save the Baltic Sea“
A Minor Post, Biomes, Conservation BiologyThe ecological impacts of the BP-Deepwater Horizon oil spill quantified
Posted 27 Jun 2012 / 0Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences “Degradation and resilience in Louisiana salt marshes after the BP–Deepwater Horizon oil spill” Kudos to PNAS for making this important paper open access. There is some depressing data here, as oil-slicked marshes with complete die-off of grasses were quickly eroded. But for those that were not eroded, the Read More
A Minor Post, Anthropogenic Change, Biodiversity Loss, Bogs & Wetlands, Conservation Biology, Habitat DestructionPerhaps nestedness is just an artifact of ecological opportunity (and not stability)
Posted 27 Jun 2012 / 0One of my chief interests is stability: I am curious about what allows for the persistence of genes, individuals, groups, species, and communities. This is a broad question and it may not have single, simple answer, but it is exciting to think that there may be ‘rules of stability’ in nature that might help us Read More
A Major Post, Articles, Coevolution, Ecological Modeling, Interactions, Mutualism, Mutualistic Networks, Pollination, System StabilityCondors, hunters, and the National Rifle Association
Posted 27 Jun 2012 / 0Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences “Lead poisoning and the deceptive recovery of the critically endangered California condor” Nature News “California condors face lead menace“
A Minor Post, Anthropogenic Change, Conservation Biology, ExtinctionEvolution may be too slow: British Columbia begins assisted migration of forests
Posted 26 Jun 2012 / 0Discover “The Transplanted Forest: A Bold Experiment in Preemptive Climate Adaptation” Given the chances that we will fail to prevent climate change, it seems like the Canadians have the right idea here. Ironic that industries that rely on stable climate are less apt to deny its reality.
A Minor Post, Adaptation, Anthropogenic Change, Articles, Climate Change, Extinction, Habitat Destruction, Public Policy, Resilience, Risk & Uncertainty, Taiga (Boreal Forest), Temperate ForestExtensive long-term studies document the effect of biodiversity in ecosystem productivity
Posted 26 Jun 2012 / 0Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences “Biodiversity impacts ecosystem productivity as much as resources, disturbance, or herbivory“
A Minor Post, Biodiversity Loss, Ecosystem Ecology, Ecosystem Services, Habitat DestructionNational Geographic goes looking for heat-loving bacteria in a very cold place
Posted 26 Jun 2012 / 0National Geographic “Life in an Icy Inferno” This is an interesting article from the “great extents to which scientists go to do their work” perspective, but disappointingly it was not all that clear in this article what the purpose of finding thermophilic bacteria in Antarctica might be. I suppose that plenty of NatGeo expeditions can Read More
A Minor Post, Adaptation, Microbial EcologyNational Geographic’s “If They Could Only Talk” considers Easter Island’s many mysteries
Posted 26 Jun 2012 / 0National Geographic “If They Could Only Talk” National Geographic Easter Island – Video: Testing a Walking Theory The business about moving the statues is fun to think about, but the more interesting issue discussed here has to do with the rapid decline of the island’s earliest human inhabitants. The article does a good job of Read More
A Minor Post, Articles, Sustainability, System StabilityAre the population dynamics of Dupont’s lark dictated by multilevel selective pressures?
Posted 25 Jun 2012 / 0A fascinating new paper published this week in the journal PLoS One demonstrates how selection acting at least three different levels produces distinct selective pressures that shape the song behavior of male Dupont’s lark (Chersophilus duponti) in the Ebro Valley of northwestern Spain. Authored by Paola Laiolo and José Ramón Obeso and entitled “Multilevel Selection Read More
A Major Post, Articles, Behavior, Competition, Group Selection, Multilevel Selection, Population GrowthNew study published in Ecology Letters quantifies the effects of intensive agriculture on large-scale biodiversity
Posted 25 Jun 2012 / 0Ecology Letters “Intensive agriculture erodes β-diversity at large scales“
A Minor Post, Biodiversity Loss