Books
Spring 2002 (Vol. 3, No. 2)
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Responding to Bioprospecting: […] Read More »
The shipping industry moves four-fifths of the commodities worldwide — and also spreads invasive aquatic species in ballast water. New research suggests that a cost-effective ballast water treatment will please both ship owners and conservationists: purging the water of oxygen extends the life of ballast tanks while killing many invasive aquatic species.
“This novel deoxygenation […] Read More »
Many blame the nearly 200 large dams in the Columbia River Basin for the decline in Pacific salmon, whose population has dropped by more than 90 percent since the 1980s. But new research shows that dam operation can be made salmon-friendly and suggests that other significant factors are impeding the salmon’s recovery.
“Although the hundreds […] Read More »
You are peacefully eating or resting when up zooms a jetski. You’d fly away if you could — and that’s exactly what waterbirds do. But new research shows that waterbirds and watercraft can coexist as long as they are far enough away from each other.
“Wildlife viewing…may cause waterbirds to abandon sites that managers are […] Read More »
In an unexpected twist, new research shows that feral pigs are contributing to the decline of foxes on California’s Channel Islands. The story is that the pigs provide enough prey to support a breeding population of golden eagles, which are not native to the islands and find the foxes to be easy pickings.
“We suggest […] Read More »
New research shows that fragmentation of tropical forests can make trees wimpy. Seeds from isolated trees had less genetic diversity and were less likely to germinate, and the seedlings that did grow had smaller leaves. This is the first study of how forest fragmentation affects seedling quality.
“Fragmentation of tropical dry forests reduces genetic variation […] Read More »
The second paper showing that what’s around an area can be critical to conserving what’s in it is by Winsor Lowe and Douglas Bolger of Dartmouth College.
Lowe and Bolger studied how logging near 25 headwater streams in New Hampshire affects spring salamanders, which are pink, up to 8 inches long, and rarely seen. Because […] Read More »
While most conservation planners focus on preserving specific areas, new research shows that an area’s surroundings may be just as important. The need to include the “outside” in conservation planning is highlighted in a pair of papers in the February issue of Conservation Biology. Specifically, ant diversity near forest fragments is higher in shade than […] Read More »
By Ross Freeman
Spring 2002 (Vol. 3, No. 2)
In the spring of 1963, as teams of ironworkers rolled the last massive steel gate shut, Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona officially opened for business. Ten million tons of concrete formed a plug over 700 feet high, capable of detaining almost 2 year’s worth […] Read More »
By Cheryl Margolius, John Beavers, & Marie Claire Paiz
Spring 2002 (Vol. 3, No. 2)
In the Peten, the northernmost department of Guatemala, people stake their claim to land by establishing “ax rights.” If land is cleared, it indicates that it is not available to others. So when people come upon a forested area […] Read More »
By Lisa Lewisy
Spring 2002 (Vol. 3, No. 2)
In 28 B.C. the Chinese were using soil bioengineering to repair dikes. In the 21st century, conservationists are using those same techniques as an ecological alternative to traditional engineering.
Ever since the industrial revolution, the modern answer to roadside erosion has been concrete and steel. But […] Read More »
By Richard Manning
Spring 2002 (Vol. 3, No. 2)
There’s a good reason that the central organizing myth of agriculture is man against nature. Throughout much of the 10,000-year-old experiment that is farming, observers from Plato to the present have lamented what George Washington called farming’s “baneful effects.” The tenor of that litany is […] Read More »
By Leslie Bienen
Spring 2002 (Vol. 3, No. 2)
The idea that human travel and migration play a crucial role in spreading infectious diseases has, finally and permanently, set up shop in our modern consciousness. Numerous books-The Coming Plague, Secret Agents: the Menace of Emerging Infectious Disease, The Hot Zone, and even Hollywood movies […] Read More »
