Pollinators in Harlem

Hey, this sounds familiar!

Singleton 2010

Barred Owl Space Use and Habitat Selection in the Eastern Cascades, Washington

Barred owls (Strix varia varia) compete with spotted owls (Strix occidentalis caurina). The range of barred owls is expanding from the deciduous forests of eastern North America to the coniferous forests of western north America. Now the ranges of barred owls and spotted owls largely overlap. Spotted owl populations are declining, particularly where barred owl populations are most abundant. The effects of expanding ranges of barred owls on spotted owls includes: consumptive competition, displacement, and hybridization. Other major threats to the spotted owls include habitat loss, infestations of defoliating insects, and forest management practices.

The objective of this study was to obtain more information about barred owl ecology to inform management practices. The authors looked at space use patterns of barred owls, factors that determined habitat selection by barred owls, and the relationship between these factors and the probability of habitat use by the owls.

The study area was a mixed conifer vegetation zone in Chelan County WA. The site was chosen because it encompassed a range of environmental conditions. The birds were located using recorded calls. The birds were then captured and fitted with radio tracking devices. Spatial data was obtained using GIS.

The findings of this study were consistent with findings of previous studies. Barred owl habitat is moist, structurally diverse, closed canopy forests on gentile slopes. Habitat use was most strongly associated with highly productive moist forest. In contrast, spotted owls prefer dry forest habitats. The differences in ecology may be related to prey types.

Forest managers may use this information to protect areas of forest where spotted owls are most likely to be found and where barred owls are least likely to exclude them.

Fleischner 2005

This article was a nice change from the traditional rigid and emotionless articles that we are usually immersed in. Written in poetic prose, Fleischner begins by recounting a life changing experience that he had in Alaska. He was hired by the National Marine Fisheries Services to find out the basic natural history of bowhead whales.

Natural history seems so basic and simple, yet it is fundamental if we want to learn anything about life on earth. Natural history is studying life at the level of the individual and how it interacts with its’ environment. It asks who, what, where, when, and how?

Although natural history has been around since civilization, it has gone in and out of fashion. As science advances, studies have become increasingly experimental and theoretical. Many people perceive ecology as mostly descriptive and an archaic form of science. These people are forgetting that theories mean nothing if they are not based on sound natural history.

Breakthroughs in our understanding of biology have been made by individuals who spent painstaking hours just observing. Darwin and Wallace both completely engrossed themselves in their systems before they had their revelations. Barbara McClintock discovered transposable elements by staring at corn squashes endlessly. She said that she felt like she was physically in there with the transposable elements.

For conservation biologists, knowing the natural history of at risk organisms is essential to making management decisions. You need to know where and how many individuals there are. This year is a census year in our country. The census is a kind of natural history survey of people. Policy makers need to know how the population is distributed in order to find what communities are most in need.

The best source of reliable natural history information is indigenous people. Their knowledge is local and reliable because they are one with their surroundings. Their survival depends on it. Their level of being in tuned with their surroundings is something most people never ascertain.

There have been moments in the field when I felt like I was completely in touch with my surroundings. I felt so small and insignificant. Those were some of the most primal and euphoric moments in my life so far. We need to return to natural history. We need to return to loving the earth.

For all you NPR Wh… um… Junkies

Did anyone else have NPR on in the background while working on their Community Ecology papers this weekend? In case you didn’t, Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me (the oddly informative news quiz) had two community ecology related segments this weekend. Not quite peer review caliber, but worth a listen. I’m not great with figuring out how stable links are, but you should be able to hear the show (on the internet or via podcast) and/or see the transcripts from the show’s website www.npr.org/programs/waitwait .

The first community ecology-ish bit was in the Bluff the Listener segment, where Adam Felber recounts a story of a mega-mall which has evolved its own “…weather, indigenous plant life, and at least two unique species of poison resistant, highly aggressive rats.” It is also quoted as having “become a sort of retail Galapagos.” The other community eco-ish bit was towards the end of the Panel Round Two segment, where host Peter Sagal quotes a Pentagon study that a decline in science education in the country has lead to fewer “nerds” being produced. Sagal then spins a yarn that “High school is just like any other complex ecosystem, it balances out. Without nerds to stuff into lockers, jocks will have to feed on the burnouts, allowing the marijuana crops to flourish and multiply, which in turn leads to stoned cheerleaders. Then, the jocks, with no one to cheer for them, begin to die out, freeing nerds to rise again.”

And if all of this is not enough reason to listen to this week’s show, the Not my Job guests were two members of the band (and cultural icon) The Village People!

Diadromous fish and “eco-social anomie”

Here is a link to a brief article I received earlier today. Although not heavy on the community ecology end, it offers some interesting insight on species conservation.

Enjoy

http://e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2258

"Dependency webs" of NYC, past and present

Below is a link to fascinating presentation by Dr. Eric Sanderson (Wildlife Conservation Society), author of Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City. Abrams, New York (among numerous other works). In the presentation, Dr. Sanderson discusses food webs, but also introduces a new concept entitled Muir webs, which incorporate all dependencies in a system (abiotic and biotic), not just feeding relationships. He also discusses methods for describing and predicting the historical biota of NYC.

http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/news-events/events/colloquium/on-muir-webs-and-mannahatta-ecological-networks-service-new-york-city

GIS lite!

Copy the entire link from http.... to GARDENS.. It's a long link..

http://www.oasisnyc.net/map.aspx?zoomto=garden:Select&categories=PARKS_OPENSPACE&mainlayers=Cache_Transit,PARKS,NJ_FOREST,GARDENS,PLAYGROUNDS,STREETGREEN,GOLFCOURSES,FIELDS,COURTS,CEMETERIES,LOTS,GARDENS&labellayers=PARKS,PLAYGROUNDS,LOTS,GARDENS

A neat interactive map. Lots of layers available for anyone who might be looking into urbanization based research. Super easy to use. Kind of a GIS lite...