December 2005

The CSI International Environmental Educator Award has been given to PhD cultural anthropologist and creative nonfiction writer Richard Nelson. Nelson is the executive producer, writer, and narrator for Encounters, a weekly, half-hour radio series exploring the natural world and human relationships to the environment in Alaska. Encounters programs have been broadcast on public radio stations throughout Alaska since January, 2004. Nelson spent many years studying the connections between people and nature in Alaskan Eskimo and Athabaskan Indian villages. Based on these experiences he wrote Hunters of the Northern Ice, Hunters of the Northern Forest, Shadow of the Hunter, Make Prayers to the Raven, and The Athabaskans. He was associate producer and writer for an awardwinning Public Television series about Koyukon Indian life, titled Make Prayers to the Raven.

His book The Island Within, a personal journey into the natural world surrounding his home, received the John Burroughs Award for nature writing. A subsequent book, Heart and Blood: Living with Deer in America, which explores the complex and often controversial relationships between people and deer, received the 1998 Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award.

You can learn more about Richard Nelson's work by going to his web page (http://www.conservationinstitute.org/award_richard_nelson.htm) and more about the CSI International Environmental Educator Award at http://www.conservationinstitute.org/edaward.htm. We welcome nominations for this award at anytime.

The World Wildlife Fund invited CSI Fellow Malin Jennings to speak at its Climate Change Witness Symposium in Tokyo on October 8th. After the meeting, Jennings was interviewed by an editor from Seed magazine, a new science magazine. You can read more about Jennings at http://www.conservationinstitute.org/fellowjennings.htm.

CSI would like to welcome aboard our new Membership Program Coordinator, Matthew Jeffery. Matt is a conservation professional who has spent much of his life working with captive and wild animals. He holds a Bachelor's Degree with Second-Class Honors in Biological Science from King's College, University of London. Matt's career in conservation has led him to Thailand and Cambodia, where he spent nearly four years on the ground working toward a better habitat for Southeast Asia's wildlife populations. Matt also helped to establish the Cardamom Conservation Programme in southwest Cambodia, a 420,000-hectare (more than 1 million-acre) forest reserve of significant scientific interest. Matt particularly enjoyed working with the rangers and the local community in the field, but gained experience in many of the areas important for a conservation project. To learn more about Conservation Science Institute's membership program, to become a member, or contact Matt, send an e-mail to membership@conservationinstitute.org.

Conservation Science Institute would like to welcome our newest fellow, Jana Watson-Capps, PhD. Dr. Watson has spent most of her gradate career focused on theoretical behavioral questions; she is focusing to transition to more conservation-oriented research. Her main interests lie in how individuals move in relation to their environment and conspecifics. Understanding how animals use the habitat available to them or respond to anthropogenic activities, can help immensely in the protection of animals that move too great a distance to be protected by conventional methods of a single reserve. Watson sees advantages in using GIS to visualize animal movement data, model movement patterns in relation to other spatial variables, and applying this knowledge to wildlife management. Watson is interesting in discussing research opportunities that make the transition from theoretical behavior to conservation and management, and she can be contacted at email jjw4@georgetown.edu.

The European Chocolate Slug has established itself in Alaska. This introduced species was recently collected in King Cove, Alaska by Belkofski Tribe environmental staff. It is an invasive land mollusk that has been expanding its range into Alaska, probably hitchhiking on ornamental plants. They have been making themselves unwelcome in King Cove and other locations in Alaska.

Plankton are drifting organisms that inhabit the water column of oceans, seas, and fresh water bodies. Phytoplankton (plants) fix carbon present in the atmosphere in the presence of sunlight via the process of photosynthesis, releasing oxygen and producing organic carbon. This organic carbon reverts back to carbon dioxide when the phytoplankton die. Zooplankton (animals) also consume this organic carbon and transform it into calcium carbonate in the exoskeletons (shells) or internal skeletons (bones). When they die, this carbon is buried in the earth for long-term storage. This is a symbiotic relationship between plants and animals, and two forms of life that naturally locks down carbon dioxide levels resulting in a balanced system. As living or dead organic material is typically denser than ocean water it tends to sink, and in open ocean ecosystems this leads to the transport of carbon from surface waters to the deep. This process is known as the “biological pump”, and is one of the reasons that the oceans constitute the largest sink of atmospheric carbon in addition to the forests, other green plants, the permafrost, the earth's soil and atmosphere.

During the past 20 years there has been a significant decline in the population of plankton. Primary production of plankton decreased in the North Pacific by 9% and by 7% in the North Atlantic. And all this has been attributed to warming of the ocean waters. A report in Nature, August 1995, suggested that the oceans may be losing fixed nitrogen, an essential fertilizer that allows phytoplankton to grow. The greatest loss of phytoplankton has occurred where ocean temperatures have risen most significantly between the early 1980s and the late 1990s. In the North Atlantic summertime, sea surface temperatures (SST) rose about 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit, while in the North Pacific the ocean's surface temperatures rose about 7/10ths of a degree. From California to British Columbia, unusual weather patterns have also disrupted the marine ecosystem. The normal northerly winds failed to show up this year (2005), preventing the usual upwelling of colder water that sustains the plankton.

Phytoplankton absorb and fix carbon that is then transferred to the deep ocean. If in fact the oceans are losing nitrogen as they are becoming warmer due to global warming, they will not be able to support plankton growth. The loss of natural plankton productivity in the oceans means the loss of “carbon sink”, an important factor in removing much of the principal greenhouse gas that has caused the world's climate to warm for the past century or more.

The loss of biodiversity globally continues to increase. Conservation scientists have documented the losses and in many instances have pinpointed the drivers of that loss. Despite this information, the trend has yet to reverse itself. James Miller from Iowa State University argues that one reason for this has to do with the extent to which humans have lost touch with nature.

Globally, nearly half of the world's population lives in urban environments. This number is expected to dramatically increase in the coming decades. As people move out of the countryside into more urban environments, their daily interactions with nature decrease. In the US, children spend less time outdoors today than they did several decades ago. A study conducted in Texas indicated that children were incapable of identifying common mammal species and did not have a good understanding of how urbanization affects habitat and species. Similar studies have shown that many children do not understand that milk comes from cows or that the cotton in their shirts comes from plants. Adults have similar misunderstandings about their natural surroundings. The advertising saturation in our daily lives has resulted in people having the ability of identify hundreds of corporations by their logos, but they do not have the ability to name more than a handful of common species where they live.

Evidence exists indicating that children will show a greater appreciation for natural environments if they have the opportunity to play in those environments in their youth.

Similarly, those people who connect with the environment in some meaningful way seem to have more motivation to protect those environments. This has implications for conservation of biodiversity. Miller argues that conservation scientists should devote more attention to understanding urban ecology, and to forge relationships with planners, policy-makers, and educators.

Many cities have the potential to provide meaningful engagement with nature. The Chicago metropolitan area, a highly urbanized environment, has developed the “Chicago Wilderness” that provides an example of what cities can do to incorporate natural areas into a city environment (www.chicagowilderness.org).

Conservation efforts have largely focused on protecting and connecting areas of habitat in an effort to promote biodiversity conservation. Promoting and enhancing biodiversity and natural areas in cities has received too little attention. While the drivers of biodiversity loss have been well documented, this information has not been enough to reverse the trend. The conservation of biodiversity will require broad based support for conservation measures and helping to form a tighter bond between people and their environment, especially in cities.

A few months ago we featured a story in the newsletter that looked at the efficacy of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The authors of the article argued that the ESA does in fact help to protect and recover species, particularly when species have an accepted recovery plan.

But others have called into question the effectiveness of the ESA. One of the most vocal opponents of the ESA is congressman Pombo (R-CA) who recently wrote and helped pass a bill in the House of Representatives that would dramatically reshape the ESA, posing fewer obstacles to development and property owners. But it is not only property rights advocates who feel the ESA needs reshaping, some conservationists do as well.

In an article published in the February 2005 edition of Bioscience, Michael Soule (one of the founders of the discipline of conservation biology) and

colleagues argue that the ESA does not do enough to address the interaction of species. Their article, titled Strongly interacting species: conservation policy, management, and ethics, argues that the ESA and other laws addressing conservation passed decades ago do not incorporate contemporary scientific understanding. The ESA addresses individual species but fails to assess the impact species have on an ecosystem level.

The authors use three case studies as examples of strongly interacting species and to demonstrate their ecological importance. Sea otter populations of the western U.S. coast declined dramatically in the 18th and 19th centuries as a result of the fur trade. Their removal from large areas of the ocean had dramatic impacts, particularly on kelp forests. Sea otters prey upon sea urchins and help to keep their population numbers stable. The decrease in sea otter numbers lead to increased sea urchin populations, which dramatically impacted kelp forests, sea urchins' preferred food source.

The removal of the gray wolf from virtually its entire historic range in the U.S. has had widespread consequences. In the absence of a top predator, elk and other ungulate populations exploded in places like Yellowstone National Park. Aspen recruitment failed for decades and excessive browsing of riparian cottonwood and willow species, eliminating beaver-created wetlands in some areas.

Prairie dog populations were decimated as a result of land conversion, human poisoning, and disease. The small mammal was an important prey species for predators and also played a significant role in shaping soil chemistry and structure, thereby increasing available habitat for a multitude of other species.

These case studies provide examples as to how the extirpation of one species can dramatically influence the viability of other species. The

authors argue that conservation efforts should incorporate these interactions and that they should determine appropriate population densities as conservation goals. Sea otters in certain areas need only small populations to maintain sea urchin herbivory on kelp, while in other areas larger populations are required.

The authors argue that strongly interactive species should receive special conservation attention and that the interactions of species be considered in recovery planning. The ESA and other laws addressing conservation require the incorporation of recent scientific knowledge. In summary, the authors urge those working on the conservation of species to incorporate this new understanding of species interaction into the recovery process.

The scientific community has done a good job of identifying and documenting species in decline. This documentation has been done all over the world in an array of biological communities. However, due to financial shortcomings, insufficient data, and other limiting factors, conservationists cannot address every biodiversity need that presents itself.

Freshwater systems hold great potential for biodiversity but also often face impending threats. Two researchers from the World Conservation Union (IUCN) have proposed a methodological framework that conservationists can utilize to start the process of prioritizing which freshwater systems to protect first.

The list of species identified as threatened on the IUCN Red List includes “20% of amphibians, 30% of fish species, 27% of mollusks (mostly freshwater species) and 20% of crustaceans.” Given the biological richness they possess and the threats they face, prioritizing freshwater sites for conservation will likely become increasingly important in the future.

After identifying the overall conservation goal, the authors propose utilizing a species prioritization method of site identification for freshwater conservation that includes seven steps. They include: defining the geographical boundaries and identifying important sites therein, defining the larger ecological context within that area, mapping inland habitat types, identifying distribution and conservation status of prioritized taxa, use species-based selection criteria to identify sites, select inland water habitats among selected sites and ensure the inclusion of keystone species.

The IUCN has initiated a Freshwater Biodiversity Assessment Program, which has the explicit mission of assessing the loss of biological diversity in freshwater systems. The regional and global assessment of threatened species will help direct conservation efforts, and the species prioritization method will help direct conservation efforts once freshwater systems have been sufficiently studied and threatened species identified.

After identifying biodiversity conservation targets and specific sites the authors propose recommendations for the conservation planning process. They suggest prioritizing those freshwater systems that have cultural or socio-economic importance. To buttress conservation efforts, selection of new sites should attempt to connect freshwater protected areas with pre-existing terrestrial protected areas. Although particular sites may have high biodiversity potential at present, future change, particularly with respect to climate, could limit or diminish future biodiversity conservation. Risk analysis of site locations should therefore be considered in the selection process. Similarly, sites unsuitable today may hold restoration or rehabilitation potential and that should also be reviewed. The culmination of this process should be the generation of a country map indicating the most important sites for freshwater conservation efforts.

The authors argue that this approach, which utilizes existing data and the expertise of participating organizations in biodiversity conservation efforts, will help to provide decision-makers with the appropriate knowledge to make wise conservation decisions in freshwater systems.