Fall 2001 (Vol. 2, No. 4)
Nomina Insecta Nearctica
www.nearctica.com/nomina/main.htm
First published by Entomological Information Services in 1996-97 in four volumes, this online checklist is a complete listing (minus synonyms) of the approximately 90,000 species of insects of North America north of Mexico. The checklist is arranged alphabetically by taxonomic rank. Detailed information includes “the […] Read More »
Fall 2001 (Vol. 2, No. 4)
About 40 percent of people worldwide depend on rice, and ricefields have replaced natural wetlands in many areas. Conservation biologists frequently suggest that ricefields are suitable wetland habitat for wintering and migrating waterbirds. However, new research shows that waterbirds overwhelmingly prefer natural marshes to ricefields in the Camargue […] Read More »
Fall 2001 (Vol. 2, No. 4)
Bolstering evidence that climate warming is hastening biological signs of spring, new research shows that frogs are calling up to two weeks earlier near Ithaca, New York. This is the strongest evidence of a biological response to climate change in eastern North America.
“We have found a compelling connection […] Read More »
Fall 2001 (Vol. 2, No. 4)
Conventional wisdom says that tortoises and cattle don’t mix. But new research shows that the Texas tortoise and cattle can share rangelands as long as the grazing is managed.
“Generalities about the effect of cattle grazing on North American tortoises should be avoided,” say Richard Kazmaier of Oklahoma […] Read More »
Fall 2001 (Vol. 2, No. 4)
NASA’s views of Earth — from satellite images to photographs taken by astronauts — can give conservation biologists the big picture of how our planet and the life on it are changing, from forest fragmentation to the possible link between UV-B radiation and amphibian declines.
To explore NASA’s […] Read More »
Fall 2001 (Vol. 2, No. 4)
Over the last 20 years, the number of people visiting Utah’s Canyonlands National Park has more than tripled. Does this affect desert bighorn sheep, or do they get used to all the vehicles, mountain bikers, and hikers? New research shows that hikers have the biggest impact on the sheep, […] Read More »
Fall 2001 (Vol. 2, No. 4)
New research shows that hatchery-reared fish can spread a fungus implicated in the mass deaths of amphibian embryos in the Pacific Northwest. This is the first evidence that fish-stocking can spread amphibian diseases.
“Fish used in stocking programs could be important vectors for diseases responsible for amphibian losses,” say […] Read More »
Fall 2001 (Vol. 2, No. 4)
The bad news is that although New Zealand was one of the first countries to provide legal protection for its wildlife, 40 percent of its terrestrial birds are extinct and more than 40 percent of the remaining birds are threatened. Likewise, many endemic reptiles, invertebrates, and plants are threatened. […] Read More »
Fall 2001 (Vol. 2, No. 4)
The Arctic’s fragile ecosystems are threatened by disturbances from petroleum development to ecotourism. New research shows that even small disturbances may permanently damage tundra: for instance, the single pass of a heavy tank-like tracked vehicle can drain an Arctic meadow.
“In the increasingly accessible Arctic, we need to be […] Read More »
By Alifereti Tawake, John Parks, Pio Radikedike, Bill Aalbersberg, Veikila Vuki, and Nick Salafsky
Fall 2001 (Vol. 2, No. 4)
Early one morning, a small group of Fijian villagers gathers on the beach. In front of them are the mudflats, mangroves, and coral reefs that make up their qoliqoli-their traditional community-owned fishing grounds that […] Read More »
By Jason Van Driesche and Roy Van Driesche
Fall 2001 (Vol. 2, No. 4)
It wasn’t until we banked in close that I saw any sign of life. From a thousand feet up, there were a few trees clinging to the ridgetops and a close-shorn stubble of grass on the slopes. But what jumped […] Read More »
By Steven L. Peck
Fall 2001 (Vol. 2, No. 4)
You are facing a crucial decision on whether to allow harvesting of 200 hectares of forest. But you are concerned about a small population of Pseudo faux, the rare and beautiful phoenix. So you pull out a copy of the latest article, “The Movement and […] Read More »
By Jennifer M. Belcher
Fall 2001 (Vol. 2, No. 4)
Will the last white male leaving the DNR please put the toilet seat down! the sign on the men’s room wall announced, and I was reminded of just how difficult the job I had undertaken was going to be.
The year was 1993, and […] Read More »
By Timothy D. Schowalter with Jay Withgott
Fall 2001 (Vol. 2, No. 4)
Twenty-six years ago, Forest Service entomologists William Mattson and Norton Addy published a paper in Science that should have revolutionized the way land managers approached insects.
Mattson and Addy showed that low to moderate levels of herbivory do not harm most […] Read More »
