all ecology stories

Over the river, through the woods

jake — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 11:43:32 -0400

For close to 30 Hyde Park preschool children, a recent trip to the Arnold Arboretum, the majestic 265-acre botanical garden run by Harvard University in Jamaica Plain, meant a journey to a world alive with natural wonders and surprises.

In a grove of horse chestnut and buckeye trees flooded with late afternoon sunlight and autumn’s shades of ginger and honey, the eager 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds filed off a bus and paired with volunteer guides from the arboretum. Together they explored their colorful environment, examining the leaves on the trees, inspecting their trunks, and carefully studying the fallen chestnuts that littered the ground.

Popular causes not necessarily best

jake — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 13:48:00 -0400

Conservation policies favoring keystone animal species are insufficient to conserve the world’s biodiversity because many of these target animals don’t live in the world’s most biodiverse spots: lowland tropical forests under pressure from agriculture, logging, and other human activities.

Biologists remember landmark theory

404132862 — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 17:12:41 -0400

Forty years ago, Edward O. Wilson and Robert H. MacArthur described how size and isolation determine how many species an island can support. Last week, biologists gathered to mark the theory’s anniversary, calling it a “pivotal point” in ecology’s relatively short history.

Professor Lord Robert May of Oxford University said the word “ecology” — which describes the interaction between an organism and its environment — was coined just a little more than a century ago. By the 1960s, he said, the science of ecology was still mainly a descriptive one, lacking theories to tie together the observations by scientists in the field.

New tourism threatens desert ecosystems worldwide

50443248 — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 15:57:54 -0400

The Department of Urban Planning and Design at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) hosted a conference April 4-5 titled “Desert Tourism: Delineating the Fragile Edges of Development.” Panel discussions with leading architects, planners, and developers explored the relationship between tourism, social development, and the architecture and landscapes of arid regions around the world.

The discussions began with the premise that deserts have lost their stigma as inhospitable, inaccessible places and are becoming an ever-more popular tourist destination. The growth of tourism, however, jeopardizes the deserts’ fragile ecosystems and strains their scarce resources, affecting both the landscape and the local population.

World's largest oil firm chief touts research to make fossil fuels 'cleaner'

50443248 — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 10:39:26 -0400

The head of the world's largest oil company said that renewable sources can't meet the world's growing energy needs so research dollars should be aimed at both developing renewable sources and at making fossil fuels cleaner.

Abdallah S. Jum'ah, president and chief executive officer of the Saudi Arabian Oil Co., also known as Saudi Aramco, said that expected growth in the industrialized world coupled with a growing global population and industrialization of the developing world will significantly increase global energy needs over the next 25 years.

Harvard examining geospatial analysis technology programs

50443248 — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 15:06:18 -0400

n Moshi, Tanzania, hard-hit by AIDS, researchers are using detailed aerial photographs and global positioning system receivers to locate study subjects in a maze of houses without addresses and streets without names.
The project, a health program for children, families, and communities within Moshi by Harvard Medical School's Children's Health and Social Ecology (CHASE) program, seeks to improve children's health and slow the spread of AIDS by increasing community awareness of the threats the children face.

Third rock blues

50443248 — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 12:32:56 -0400

In 1999 Time Magazine named Peter Raven a "Hero for the Planet." It's a good thing because, as Raven himself tells it, the planet really needs a hero.
Raven, the Engelmann Professor of Botany at Washington University in St. Louis and director of the Missouri Botanical Garden, delivered the Kennedy School of Government's 2005 Gustav Pollak lecture on March 3. His topic: "Biodiversity and Sustainability: How to Forge the Link."

Barcelona works

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:35:47 -0400

A pioneer in his field, Richard forman has helped forge the basic concepts of landscape ecology, a science that sees the surface of the Earth as a complex mosaic linked by movements of people, animals, water, energy, nutrients, and other elements. It is a vision that goes well beyond urban planning in that, for example, it views cities as embedded in and dependent on natural processes. It also goes beyond traditional ecology in that it includes humans and their needs as very much part of the picture. "If ecological principles only apply to wilderness, then they're not very robust," said Forman, a professor at the Graduate School of Design who also teaches in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Environmental Science and Public Policy Program. Forman recently used his ecological principles to prepare a land-use study for Barcelona, Spain. The study was finished in early 2003, and a Spanish translation, "Mosaico territorial para la region metropolitana de Barcelona" has recently been published. "There are resources out there, places that people need for fresh food, clean water, and recreation. We want those resources within the urban region to improve over the next 10 and 50 years, despite growth and development. In the process, fish and wildlife movement and biodiversity can be enhanced."

Keys to the highway

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:26:59 -0400

Even though they have a massive effect on the natural world, roads have been pretty much ignored by ecologists, who prefer to focus on open areas - the territory between the roads. Nor have engineers and other specialists who design, build, and maintain roads been much concerned with the ecological effects of their creation. Richard Forman, a landscape ecologist at the Graduate School of Design, wondered why there was such a disconnect between these two groups and what could be done to get them talking. He decided that what was needed was a book that would bring together all that was known about roads and their impact on the landscape, but he knew that if such a book was to become the catalyst he hoped it would be, he could not be its sole author.

McElroy says it's time to stop seeing global warming as political issue

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:25:56 -0400

Michael B. McElroy, Gilbert Butler Professor of Environmental Studies and director of Harvard's Center for the Environment, is among the scientists who since the 1970s have been using paleoclimatic data to chart changes in the earth's atmosphere. To obtain these data, researchers drill several kilometers down into polar ice sheets and extract gases from the tiny air bubbles trapped inside. Through these, says McElroy, "you can not only infer a surrogate for temperature, but you can also measure the composition of the atmosphere at that point in the earth's history.

Beetle mania

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:25:38 -0400

Grain weevils alone cost the global economy about $35 billion, or a third of the world's grain crop, every year. Various other beetle species damage dozens of crops including bamboo, palm trees, bananas, grasses, sugarcane, pines, and irises. "My research is about the evolution of interactions of various sorts," Professor Brian D. Farrell says, "including those with plants, those with fungi that help insects attack plants, and those with bacteria that help insects digest plants." His main focus of late has been on bark beetles, which cause about $7 billion of timber damage in the United States alone. "We spend tens of millions of dollars every year studying all aspects of their biology," he says.

Heinz Center report presents environmental indicators

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:23:48 -0400

Statistics and reports on environmental damage and progress routinely come from dozens -- if not hundreds -- of nonprofit, government, and other agencies. Often the information disagrees with previously published data, creating difficulty in assessing the health of the nation's environment. A report, "The State of the Nation's Ecosystems," released Sept. 24, 2002, was an effort by 150 experts in business, government, environmental organizations, and academia to make sense of the picture. The 270-page document makes the argument that just as economic policies in the United States are set after the examination of key economic data, environmental policy ought to be based on similar broadly accepted indicators. "There's lots of data," said William Clark, chairman of the project and Harvey Brooks Professor of International Science, Public Policy and Human Development at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. "The analogy we're using is that we're [currently] doing environmental policy for the nation in a way that's equal to doing economic policy with just companies' annual reports and reports from chambers of commerce." If it's successful, Clark said, the report will shift environmental disputes from arguments over the accuracy or appropriateness of particular data to policy debates based on mutually agreed-on data.

A voice for the wilderness

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:18:42 -0400

Famed Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson is blunt about the dangers facing the world. He describes a 50-year "bottleneck" during which the Earth's human population will continue to grow -- perhaps to as high as 10 billion. During that time, humanity's increasing numbers will increase the pressure to convert the world's undeveloped areas to farmland, to log its forests or mine its wild places for resources, or to scour the remaining wilderness for animals to eat. But Wilson also sees room for hope. He points out that grassroots environmental awareness is rapidly increasing, as evidenced by the swelling memberships of nongovernmental conservation organizations.

Roads scholar visits most remote spots

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:12:26 -0400

In the United States there are 4 million miles of public roads, which are used by at least 230 million vehicles. Obviously, these roads have a huge effect on their environments, including aspects of the natural ecology that many people seldom think about. "They impact wildlife movement, biodiversity, vegetation, water quality, sedimentation of streams, and other natural things for miles around," says Richard Forman, Harvard University professor of landscape ecology. Forman ventures into the most remote regions of the United States in order to determine the effects of roads on wild areas. His work began after he was appointed to a committee of the National Research Council charged with studying the future of transportation in the context of a sustainable environment.