Category:Bio-diversity
Bio-diversity refers to total number and variety of species in an ecosystem, biome or on the planet as a whole. Many environmental issues have an adverse effect on biodiversity.
See also Wildlife, Ocean, Forests, as well as GMO's and New Species as well as Global Warming
New PBS series: M. Sanjayan (biology Ph.D., '97), executive vice president and senior scientist for Conservation International and host of EARTH A New Wild, will give the Alumni Weekend keynote in a talk entitled, "A New Wild: Saving Nature in a Human-Dominated World."
Contents
Background
the Importance of Biodiversity (video) by E.O. Wilson, eco-hero, wikipedia, his TEDwish is the Encyclopedia of Life. E. O. Wilson biologist TEDtalk video Audio: wonderful interview 11/08). Video of 2009 talk. "The Social Conquest of Earth" (video) 2012 LongNow talk.the Importance of Biodiversity (video). wikipedia, *** his TEDwish is the Encyclopedia of Life. Smithsonian talk new book "Half Earth" : devote half the surface of the Earth to nature, 2016. ***
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert, (video interview), [audio interview). extended video talk 3/14. NPR extensive audio interview." It's a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction. ****
40th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act (links).
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species The United Nations has designated 2010 the year of biodiversity, in a bid to turn around the rapid loss of the worlds various plant and animal species. The latest data from scientists indicates to us that the loss of species is occurring at anywhere between 100-1000 times faster than has traditionally been the case, about three per hour. Link to text and audio interview. 3/10 UN report on effects on medicine.
Center for Biological Diversity.
The Atlas of Global Conservation is being published by UC Press and The Nature Conservancy on this day. Presented here at Google by The Nature Conservancy's Lead Scientist, Dr. M. Sanjayan (a Slug!).
The Global Biodiversity Outlook is the flagship publication of the Convention on Biological Diversity. Drawing on a range of information sources, including National Reports, biodiversity indicators information, scientific literature, and a study assessing biodiversity scenarios for the future, GBO-3 summarizes the latest data on status and trends of biodiversity and draws conclusions for the future strategy of the Convention.
Wildlife Conservation Society's, State of the Wild is a collection of evocative essays featuring emerging issues in the conservation of wildlife and wild places. current is 2008, we own 2006 S&E Stacks QL82 .S738 2005
Bay Area organizations related to endangered species. Local and state resources
Overview by Julia Whitty, " Gone: Mass Extinction and the Hazards of Earth's Vanishing Biodiversity" from MoJo.
A seminal study last fall in Nature put climate in perspective of 10 biophysical systems crucial to human health -- and it found biodiversity loss more troubling than any other Link.
"The Future of Bio-Diversity" Pimm et al.
"Planet of Weeds" by David Quammen.
News/Reports
Sites:
Yale's Environment 360 has many great articles on bio-diversity, for example How humans are affected in unexpected ways by species loss.
Animal Lifeboats, zoos and biodiversity.
KQED Quest PBS.
Stories:
Due to Colony Collapse Disorder, UCSC Environmental Studies senior Forest Peri wanted to make a welcoming home for native bees.4/18.
Earth Has Entered Its Sixth Mass Extinction Event, Report Asserts: We’re witnessing a “frightening assault on the foundations of human civilization,” the authors say. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, biologists from Stanford University and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México investigated the health of Earth’s vertebrate population and described their findings as “biological annihilation.” 7/16.
Tens of Thousands of Species at Risk if Warming Exceeds 1.5°C 5/18 see Global Warming.
One-Third of Protected Areas 'Highly Degraded' By Humans, Study Finds 5/18.
Our addiction palm oil is decimating wildlife and threatening food security 10/17.
The Sixth Extinction: Climate Change May Wipe Out a Third of World's Parasites, which might pave the way for new parasites to colonize humans and other animals with disastrous health outcomes. 9/17.
Frogs Made Famous by Mark Twain Are Finally Laying Eggs Again also Rare Species Discovered Breeding in Santa Monica Mountains, also Yosemite see amphibians below
New Bio-Diversity report. 11/16.
EPA also not protecting bees 10/16.
Greenpeace Investigation Uncovers Studies Showing Neo-nic Pesticides Pose Serious Harm to Honeybees 9/16.
How Climate Change Could Make Sea Turtles Extinct Rising sea levels threaten to swallow up beaches that these gentle marine animals need to nest. 8/16.
1,000,000,000 Birds - Just Gone ; Audubon on climate.
The Planet's Food Supply Could Be Saved By a Kind of Bee You Probably Have Never Heard Of 6/16.
A fifth of all plants threatened as habitats shrink worldwide 5/16
One of the World’s Most Endangered Turtles Nearly Extinct With Fewer Than 10 Left in the Wild 5/16. see turtles below.
Rising Global Temperatures Threaten Survival of Birds and Reptiles 11/15.
THE MOST OBSCURE SPECIES COULD BE KEY TO SAVING THE PLANET: according to the Jenga hypothesis, first proposed in the journal Science in 2005, the keystone analogy is too static.
Climate Change Could Wipe Out 16 Percent of World's Species see Global Warming 5/15.
Pesticides Blamed for Bee Declines Widespread in US Waterways: Expert says neonicotinoids, even at EPA’s ‘safe’ levels, could devastate aquatic invertebrates. (See Bees in Insect category below).
RACING EXTINCTION: Academy Award-winning The Cove director Louie Psihoyos bears witness to another global problem—mankind's role in precipitating mass extinction.
Earth Faces Sixth ‘Great Extinction’ with 41% of Amphibians Set to Go the Way of the Dodo 12/14.
Conservation Biologists Using DNA Methods To Track Elusive Or Unwanted Species 3/15.
Everything we know about neonic pesticides is awful see bees below.
2 Million Animals Killed by Federal Wildlife Program in 2013 (graphic photo).
Przewalski's Horse Foal Born By Artificial Insemination 8/13.
Could These Mice Save Threatened Midwestern Prairies? (end. species PHOTOS).
Bringing Bison and Biodiversity Back to the Prairie A Montana-based nonprofit is moving to preserve 3.5 million acres of the Great Plains.
Update on species 7/13.
Crazy living rock is one of the weirdest creatures we’ve ever seen
Night Parrot, Nocturnal Bird In Australia, Seen Alive For First Time In Over A Century 7/13
Biotechnology to save species. See also Wildlife.
Plants have a secret underground communication network 5/13.
EPA sued over failure to protect bees from pesticides 3/13.
Extreme weather and GMO crops devastate monarch butterfly migration.
Peak Farmland is here 12/12.
Prison Inmates Save Endangered Species. 9/12
A new report, America’s Hottest Species, highlights a variety of American wildlife that are currently threatened by climate change from a small bird to a coral reef to the world’s largest marine turtle. "Global warming is like a bulldozer shoving species, already on the brink of extinction, perilously closer to the edge of existence," said Leda Huta, executive director of the Endangered Species Coalition which produced the report. "Polar bears, lynx, salmon, coral and many other endangered species are already feeling the heat." More
Mass Extinction website (extensive list of popular articles).
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (report download). Website
Midori biodiversity prizewinners announced.
Ten new species, including glowing mushrooms and jumping cockroaches. 5/11
Audio
RadioLab does brilliant work on a wide variety of topics, including green issues such as bats and rabies, endangered species *** and conservation.
Jesse Ausubel on Nature is Rebounding: Land- and Ocean-sparing through Concentrating Human Activities, talk at LongNow 1/13, 02015.
Science Could Soon Bring Species Back to Life: Advances in biotechnology may enable us to revive the passenger pigeon, the great auk, and even the wooly mammoth -- and help restore biodiversity and genetic diversity in the process. But critics say that de-extinction efforts distract from important conservation priorities like combating habitat destruction and saving existing species. Panel discussion: Professor Stanley A. Temple, Beers-Bascom Professor Emeritus in Conservation at the University of Wisconsin, and a senior fellow at the Aldo Leopold Foundation; Professor Stuart L. Pimm, Doris Duke Professor of Conservation Ecology at Duke University; Ryan Phelan, executive director and co-founder of Revive and Restore, a project within The Long Now Foundation. 9/13.
To the Best of Our Knowledge NPR **** January 25, 2015 Our planet is facing a mass extinction crisis. By the end of the century, we could lose up to half of all living species. But people are working hard to save endangered species and habitats, and a few scientists are even trying to bring lost species - like passenger pigeons and woolly mammoths - back to life (Shapiro UCSC).
Elizabeth Kolbert, "The Sixth Extinction." It's a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction. See Books below) *** (another audio interview)
Top Ten new species 5/12
Joe Roman, author of the new book, “Listed: Dispatches from America’s Endangered Species Act.” is interviewed here. Co-author of "Facing Extinction: Nine Steps to Save Biodiversity".
Books
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert, (video interview), [audio interview). ****
A review of Watching, from the Edge of Extinction
The Plant Messiah: Adventures in Search of the World's Rarest Species by Carlos Magdalena — It's a sad fact in conservation that endangered plants often don't get enough attention, whether it's from the general public, governments or even researchers. Maybe this impassioned memoir from Magdalena, a globe-trotting horticulturalist who spent his life saving endangered plants, will help to turn that around a little bit. 3/18.
Back From the Brink: Saving Animals From Extinction by Nancy Castaldo — Here's one for younger readers, the true stories of how humans came close to killing off species like wolves, alligators and the California condor, as well as how we kept them from disappearing forever. Good lessons if we want the next generation to succeed in saving the species around them.
Adams, Douglas. Best known for the amazing Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, he also wrote Last Chance to See about endangered animals. Intro Ch. 1 password required. Author reading about Komodo dragon encounter. Warning, some animals were harmed in the production of this book ;) NEW! at UC talk based on Last Chance experiences. The BBC has done a new series in which Stephen Frye retraces the original journey. Here are some of the original radio dispatches. Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams, author of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. H2G2 website. The BBC is doing a new version with Stephen Frye; its website which may have some of the media from the original series.
Peter Alagona, professor of environmental history at UC Santa Barbara and author of "After the Grizzly: Endangered Species and the Politics of Place in California."
What Has Nature Ever Done For US? advocates Putting an economic value on nature might be the only way to save it. 2011 audio interview includes Prince Charles."Taken together, the loss of natural services is believed to be costing the global economy more than 6 trillion dollars per year, or equivalent to around 11 per cent of world GDP. By contrast, the estimated cost of meeting global targets to avert the impending mass extinction of species is put at about US$76 billion, or about 0.12 per cent of annual GDP." see also Economics.
Sustaining Life: How Human Health Depends on Biodiversity. Edited by Eric Chivian and Aaron Bernstein. 2008 Oxford
The End of the Wild By Stephen M. Meyer
Nature Out of Place By Jason Van Driesche on invasive species.
The Banana Slug Alice Bryant Harper. A Close Look at a Giant Forest Slug of Western North America. Available at the Baytree Bookstore. Article
The Evolution Explosion: How Humans Cause Rapid Evolutionary Change shows how rapid evolution is central to emerging problems in modern society by Stanford's Steve Palumbi.
Monster of God What this world needs," opined the nature writer David Quammen in a 1984 column for Outside magazine, "is a good vicious 60-foot-long Amazon snake." He was kidding, thankfully; the rest of the column goes on to describe the human tendency to massively exaggerate the size of anacondas in the Amazon. Now, though, 19 years later, Quammen has written Monster of God, a book arguing that precisely what the world does need is very large, very predatory animals. In his last book, The Song of the Dodo, Quammen managed to turn the arcane field of island biogeography into a best-selling page-turner; in Monster of God, he reverses the trick, transforming stories of man-eating tigers and 20-foot crocodiles from tabloid perennials into a thoughtful exploration of the ecological and psychological roles of the beasts that eat us whole review.
In Resilience Thinking, scientist Brian Walker and science writer David Salt present an accessible introduction to the emerging paradigm of resilience. The book arose out of appeals from colleagues in science and industry for a plainly written account of what resilience is all about and how a resilience approach differs from current practices. Rather than complicated theory, the book offers a conceptual overview along with five case studies of resilience thinking in the real world. It is an engaging and important work for anyone interested in managing risk in a complex world. See also Systems Thinking
Ghost Bears by UCSC people.
Images/Maps
The Art of Biophilia: Extraordinary Mosaics Incorporating Earth’s Most Colorful Creatures, gorgeous images. see Art .
Worst Invasive Species: 10 Frustrating Plants And Animals That Make You Scream (PHOTOS).
2014 Nat Geo photo contest winners.
Scariest animals 10/14.
Top 10 new species for 2011. 2012 odd ones.
New species found in Southeast Asia, but also a region in trouble.
Gulf oil spill lest we forget.
New Map of Life, interactive of 25K species. See also.
A New Map of the World’s Ecosystems 1/15.
Hotspots from WWF.another version. See Bio-Diversity.
Center for Biological Diversity map of endangered species in US.
National Geographic has biome map and one of 200 hotspots designated by WWF.org.
Video
PBS Nature (full episodes online) list by species.
E. O. Wilson biologist TEDtalk video Audio: wonderful interview 11/08). Video of 2009 talk. "The Social Conquest of Earth" (video) 2012 LongNow talk.the Importance of Biodiversity (video). wikipedia, his TEDwish is the Encyclopedia of Life. Smithsonian talk new book "Half Earth" 2016.
TEDtalks Natural Wonders, example: ReWilding by Journalist George Monbiot is author of the book Feral: Rewilding the Land, the Sea, and Human Life. Insects, Ocean Wonders.
Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah is one of the largest independent film festivals in the world, attracting some 50,000 attendees, created by eco-hero Robert Redford]; One of the standouts premiering at the festival is Racing Extinction. There have been five mass extinctions in the history of our planet and we may be in the midst of a sixth. We could lose up to half the world’s species and humans are to blame. RACING EXTINCTION: Academy Award-winning The Cove director Louie Psihoyos bears witness to another global problem—mankind's role in precipitating mass extinction. ***
Watch a Caterpillar Become a Butterfly in Under 3 Minutes 6/16.
PBS Newshour has significant environmental coverage, including invasive mussels.
Banana Slugs unpeeled (video).
E.O Wilson, brilliant researcher and teacher, TEDtalk video is working on an Encyclopedia of Life
Rachel Sussman is on a quest to celebrate the resilience of life by identifying and photographing continuous-living organisms that are 2,000 years or older, all around the world. TEDtalk.
Dmitry Lisitsyn fought to protect Sakhalin Island's critical endangered ecosystems while also demanding safety measures from one of the world's largest petroleum development projects. Learn more at Goldman Prize.
Jason Clay is a World Wildlife Fund vice-president who works with big corporations to transform the global markets they operate in, so we can produce more with less land, less water and less pollution. Convince just 100 key companies to go sustainable, and global markets will shift to protect the planet our consumption has already outgrown. TEDtalk
Will Wright, creator of SimCity will soon release Spore, a game for investigating complexity TEDtalk video.
Peter Ward argues that most of Earth's mass extinctions were caused by lowly bacteria. The culprit, a poison called hydrogen sulfide, may have an interesting application in medicine. TEDtalk video.
Adam Savage talks about his fascination with the dodo bird, and how it led him on a strange and surprising double quest. the host of "MythBusters" on the Discovery Channel, is a longtime special-effects artist and a minor obsessive.
Insects are awesome! (11 TEDtalks) Bugs! Some say they're a nuisance, but we think they're a wonder. These insect-obsessed speakers share how ants form societies, how bees pollinate flowers, and how termites can be quite ... tasty.
Silence of the Bees PBS documentary on colony collapse syndrome. More Than Honey offers an extreme close-up of the life of bees. He films bees at a stunning micro level as they mate mid-air, emerge from cocoons and inject honey into honeycomb cells. He also visits beekeepers around the world and dispenses poetic perspectives on the nature of bees.
The varieties of wheat, corn and rice we grow today may not thrive in a future threatened by climate change. Cary Fowler takes us inside a vast global seed bank, buried within a frozen mountain in Norway, that stores a diverse group of food-crop for whatever tomorrow may bring. TEDtalk.
LongNow talk on rewilding by Stewart Brand.
Jesse Ausubel ,Nature is Rebounding: Land- and Ocean-sparing through Concentrating Human Activities January 13, 02015. LongNow.
Interactive/Maps
Atlas for the End of the World (article); link 4/17.
New Map of Life, interactive of 25K species.
Tree of Life species map.
Science for Citizens is searchable. Environmental projects. See also Citizen Science
Encyclopedia of Life is an online, collaborative project where you can learn about any species on Earth, as well as contribute information and submit photos. This global initiative seeks to create an "infinitely expandable" resource for all of our planet’s 1.9 million known species. Encyclopedia of Life and a video tour.
Wildlife Watch allows you to input data and see results of others
Maps/Geospatial (see also Place Page)
Center for Biological Diversity map of endangered species in US.
The Atlas of Global Conservation is being published by UC Press and The Nature Conservancy on this day. Presented here at Google by The Nature Conservancy's Lead Scientist, Dr. M. Sanjayan (a Slug!).
Google Earth by Edge of Existence
New Map of Life, interactive of 25K species. See also.
Plants
See also Forests page.
A fifth of all plants threatened as habitats shrink worldwide 5/16
when good forests go bad - an obituary for California oak trees 5/16
Six Ways Mushrooms can save the world (TEDtalk video). see Mushrooms page
Redwoods and climate change is a UC project. 6/11 (video)
How Plants Use Math to Survive.
Plants Communicate with Help of Fungi
Trees Make Sounds When They're Running Out Of Water, Lab Experiments Suggest
== Animals == See also Wildlife and New Species
A Gap in Nature Author Tim Flannery on extinction (see link to audio interview)
Diane Ackerman The Rarest of the Rare: Vanishing Animals, Timeless Worlds
Bats are in trouble in North America. UCSC's Winifred F. Frick, in a study published in the August 6 issue of Science, writes that a disease is spreading quickly across the northeastern U.S. and Canada and now affects seven bat species. NPR.org interviewaction link. White-nose syndrome has devastated bat populations on the East Coast, and the disease is steadily making its way west. Researchers here are keeping close tabs on the Bay Area's 16 bat species, including one thriving colony south of Sacramento. 4/11 audio, text, images. Bats in the Bay Area (video) 5/11. THE MOST OBSCURE SPECIES COULD BE KEY TO SAVING THE PLANET: according to the Jenga hypothesis, first proposed in the journal Science in 2005, the keystone analogy is too static, including bats helping farmers.
Wolves
Never Cry Wolf : Amazing True Story of Life Among Arctic Wolves Farley Mowat
Cowboys vs. Gray Wolves: Predator Once Again Prey. PBS NewsHour video 9/11 Includes unprecedented de-listing of an endangered species by Congress, not scientists.
The Wolf That Changed America PBS Nature (video)
Amphibians
Overview another brief. Climate change, habitat loss and a pathogen combine to make this the most endangered branch of tree of life, the canary in the coal mine.
Frog farming craze in Great Depression, wild harvest now 10/17.
Frogs Made Famous by Mark Twain Are Finally Laying Eggs Again also Rare Species Discovered Breeding in Santa Monica Mountains, also Yosemite 3/17.
'Good' bacteria could save amphibians hit by fungal diseases UCSB More. even more.
How Climate Change Could Make Sea Turtles Extinct Rising sea levels threaten to swallow up beaches that these gentle marine animals need to nest. 8/16.
Slug Kathlyn Franco (2012) since graduation she has worked at SAVE THE FROGS! It is a local nonprofit dedicated to amphibian conservation. She is now the SAVE THE FROGS! Education Coordinator and hopes to get more students involved in amphibian conservation.
Uncool: Earth Faces Sixth ‘Great Extinction’ with 41% of Amphibians Set to Go the Way of the Dodo 12/14 (audio interview).
CA Captive Breeding Program May Ensure Survival for African Frogs 8/13.
Clever Frog Makes Leaf Umbrella.
Evolution may be too slow to cope with climate change 7/13.
TEDtalks on rewilding or de-extinction, including the Tasmanian Tiger and brooding frog. Pioneered by UCSC's Soule.
Can regenerate body parts, could help us. 5/12.
Atrazine affects hormones in frogs, what about us? 2/12.
Atrazine: At the University of California, Berkeley, and in ponds around the world, professor Tyrone Hayes studies frogs and other amphibians. He's become an active critic of the farm chemical atrazine, which he's found to interfere with the development of amphibians' endocrine systems. TEDtalk video. PBS Frontline Thin Green Line in Salinas Valley CA #1 in use of pesticides. Hayes has been viciously attacked by industry hacks.
Pesticide Threatens Frogs. The common pesticide Atrazine is disrupting the sexual development of male frogs, turning one in 10 of them into females, according to a UC Berkeley study released this week. Audio interview w/ integrative biology professor Tyrone Hayes, one of the researchers. KQED Quest.
The Thin Green Line, PBS Nature documentary about frogs.
Amphibian Specialist Group is doing a worldwide survey, hoping to find some species thought extinct. npr interview 8/10 Facebook
Save the Frogs moves to Santa Cruz.
Disappearing frogs (2008 video report).
Crocodile incubator saves species from extinction 3/12
UCSC's Barry Sinervo and students are creating games to teach about lizard behavior. Recent research shows early effects of global warming 5/10. More links(audio) on Sinervo's work. He also co-wrote a paper showing how rock-scissors-paper dynamic works in biology. Investigation of disappearing amphibians 3/13.
Insects
Due to Colony Collapse Disorder, UCSC Environmental Studies senior Forest Peri wanted to make a welcoming home for native bees.4/18.
Fun facts/ stories from Atlas Obscura.
E.O Wilson an amazing mind, has spent his life studying insects, especially ants. TEDtalk video is working on an Encyclopedia of Life. 2010 interview about his novel Anthill.
Watch a Caterpillar Become a Butterfly in Under 3 Minutes.
'What’s The Smartest Bug In The World?' 6/16.
How Climate Change May Affect West Nile Spread, for example in CA 9/13. Dengue Fever is also incresing in Florida.
Insects are awesome! (11 TEDtalk videos) Bugs! Some say they're a nuisance, but we think they're a wonder. These insect-obsessed speakers share how ants form societies, how bees pollinate flowers, and how termites can be quite ... tasty.
Giant Tarantula Discovered: Venomous Sri Lankan Spider Threatened By Deforestation. 4/13.
Insects as human food source. 4/13.
We are learning mosquitoes are basically invincible, but are responsible for more than half a million deaths a year, transmitting malaria and other diseases. 2/13.
When the sun goes down, dung beetles rely on a galactic source—light from the Milky Way—to navigate.
Entomologist Brian Fisher braves raging rivers, and dense tropical forests as he travels the world searching for new species of ants before they are lost to habitat destruction in Madagascar. (Video). TEDxSF talk. The Secret Life of Ants. Helped create Antweb.org, and you can collect ants for research.
Insectopedia (Orion Award winner) combines the close observation of natural science with an unapologetic search for meaning and an untamed sense of wonder. Hugh Raffles travels the world seeking insects and the variety of ways humans relate to them.(audio interview).
Amy Stewart is the author of Wicked Bugs: The Louse that Conquered Napoleon's Army and Other Diabolical Insects author interview audio 5 min 5/11. Followup to Wicked Plants.
Adventures Among Ants By Mark Moffett University of California Press audio interview 6/10 Includes Argentine ants (audio), which live in enormous "supercolonies" and are considered an invasive species. (One colony stretched 560 miles down the coast of California.)
Darwin's Moth PBS Nature.
Wasp deals with annoying ant (video).
Marlene Zuk, the author of Sex on Six Legs: Lessons on Life, Love and Language from the Insect World and many other books writes beautifully in the LA Times of the alates, winged ants that fly from their colonies in groups so large they interrupt big human human sporting events to find the torrid romance that will perpetuate their genes, but which ultimately ends in doom for many. The fate of romantic failure and even doom, Zuk says, is something non-humans face all the time, the “millions of ants, millions of robin’s eggs, millions of flower seeds,” that never reach their goal is something we seldom even consider. Personally it reminds us a bit of Daytona Beach at Spring Break: torrents of hopeful youth migrating to meet and mate, not all of whom can possibly be successful. 5/12.
Butterflies
Save the Monarchs 2/15.
6/14 update, ties to GMO's. UCSC research by College 8 faculty.
Watch a Caterpillar Become a Butterfly in Under 3 Minutes.
Subject: Tell The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to Protect the Threatened Monarch Butterfly, which stop at Natural Bridges near campus. 9/14.
Possible rebound? White House Protects Pollinators (and also the Monarch).
Butterflies are in trouble, you can help 11/13. 12/13 Update on Monarchs (video) that come to Santa Cruz's Natural Bridges park very near campus, bus-able.
Extreme weather and GMO crops devastate monarch butterfly migration.
Plight of the Monarch Butterflies from EDF. 5/13 (images).
Will the devastated monarch butterfly take flight again? 12/12. Help map Monarch butterflies see also Journey North.
Bees [thanks Sabra ]
Grist news search 11/16.
EPA also not protecting bees 10/16.
Greenpeace Investigation Uncovers Studies Showing Neo-nic Pesticides Pose Serious Harm to Honeybees 9/16.
'What’s The Smartest Bug In The World?' 6/16
The Planet's Food Supply Could Be Saved By a Kind of Bee You Probably Have Never Heard Of 6/16.
Why Are Bees Disappearing? TEDtalk 9/15.
For the First Time Ever, a U.S. Food Company Has Committed to Phasing Out Bee-Killing Seed Coatings. 10/15.
Pesticides Blamed for Bee Declines Widespread in US Waterways: Expert says neonicotinoids, even at EPA’s ‘safe’ levels, could devastate aquatic invertebrates.
Almonds Require a Ton of Bees .
The White House is buzzing with plans to save the bees 5/15.
Land use design 11/15.
Climate change could be disrupting the relationship between bees and plants, according the research from the University of East Anglia (UEA). 11/14.
Paul Stamets is a sort of godfather for shrooms; 2014 Bioneers talk on extinctions, including bees) video.
New ‘F’ Word Means More Bad News for Bees 10/14
Bee update on Neo-nics, the new DDT. 8/14 Everything we know about neonic pesticides is awful see also audio/text interview 6/14.
White House Protects Pollinators 6/14.
Bee Killers Sponsor National Pollinator Week (And 3 Ways They Are Killing Bees)Insecticides known as neonicotinoids, or “neonics” for short, are the smoking gun of Colony Collapse Disorder. see Greenwashing.
Supermarket without bees images. 6/14.
USDA (sort of) 2012 report. Note CropLife.
Could Spider Venom Save the Bees? 6/14.
How A Rise In Backyard Beekeeping Can Help Teach City-Dwellers About Climate Change 6/14. NASA's Honeybee Net, citizen science. More citizen science opportunities. Open Source DIY beehives(with mobil app!) 7/14.
Honeybees Protecting Humanity by detecting chemicals super well, communicate by dancing 5/14.
Harvard School of Public Health found that two widely used neonicotinoids appear to significantly harm honeybee colonies over the winter 5/14. PR scams.
Domesticated honeybees are giving bumblebees their dirty diseases 2/14.
Wild bees and how to help them video).
Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org. (see Eco-heroes) has a new book Oil and Honey:the Education of a Unlikely Activist excerpt on bees, drawing on Honeybee Democracy, NPR story audio, excerpt, video talk by author. McKibben points out that bees are not only an interesting model for decision-making, but are a remote sensing early warning system.
Treehugger coverage includes bad news update 11/13.
CCD update: fungicides 7/13.
Positive buzz: One bumblebee species makes a comeback 7/13.
Oh beehive: This pollinator porn will make you fall in love with bees, (at least for a while). 6/13 new documentary More then Honey.
Your supermarket without bees (image) National Pollinator Week Fail.
This dog in a beekeeper suit is not just being adorable (but he’s also adorable).
Bees are in trouble (so we will be too) but you can help gather data.
Beekeepers sue EPA over neonicotinoids pesticides. 4/13. update
CCD Update 4/12.
Honeybee Democracy by Thomas D. Seeley, which "carefully narrates his many seasons of experiments using plywood next boxes ...how the swarm 'votes' to decide which nest to occupy. . . . Honeybee Democracy is a brilliant display of science at work, with each experiment explained and illustrated. -- New Scientist"
Colony -- No Bees. No Honey. No Work. No Money investigates colony collapse.
Silence of the Bees PBS documentary on colony collapse syndrome. Colony -- No Bees. No Honey. No Work. No Money investigates colony collapse effect on beekeepers.
Bee update, a potentially game-changing research for understanding Colony Collapse Disorder. 1/11
Man nurses sick bee (Video)
Filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg shows us the intricate world of pollen and pollinators with gorgeous high-speed images from his film "Wings of Life" (TEDtalk video).
The Beekeeper's Lament Hannah Nordhaus' lyrical, haunting book about the complicated lives and deaths of America's honeybees review.
Nordhaus is interviewed in this audio documentary which provides a good overview and current status of CCD. Also Gretchen Lebuhn, San Francisco State University professor & founder of The Great Sunflower Project, a citizen science project you can join. 3/12.
More Than Honey offers an extreme close-up of the life of bees. He films bees at a stunning micro level as they mate mid-air, emerge from cocoons and inject honey into honeycomb cells. He also visits beekeepers around the world and dispenses poetic perspectives on the nature of bees.
Reptiles/Turtles/Tortoise
Why Just One? Help Save the World’s Last Dinosaur 6/16.
Africa's man-eating Nile crocodiles have slithered into the Everglades 5/16.
One of the World’s Most Endangered Turtles Nearly Extinct With Fewer Than 10 Left in the Wild 5/16.
Turtle tumors 1/16.
Rising Global Temperatures Threaten Survival of Birds and Reptiles 11/15.
Slug Michael Geneau, ’11, has had a few different environmental jobs since graduating. He work as a contracting biologist on the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generation Facility, and then worked at the Irvine Ranch Conservancy. Most recently he worked for the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research at the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center.
3D-Printed Shell Will Help Injured Tortoise Live A Happier Life 3/15.
Baby Tortoises Born On Galapagos Island For The First Time In A Century though In 2012, Lonesome George, the famous giant Galapagos tortoise, died. He was the last member of his species, and he had become an important symbol in the fight to protect endangered animals. 3/15.
RadioLab does brilliant work on a wide variety of topics, including green issues such as bats and rabies, Galapogos Tortises *** and conservation.(audio).
Our Ocean Backyard: Pacific leatherback sea turtle numbers continue to decline By Dan Haifley Santa Cruz Sentinel Santa Cruz Sentinel 2/13.
Tortoise vs solar farm. Update 1/14 (video).
Ocean Plastic's Impact on Wild Sea Turtles
Meet Brookesia micra, one of four newly identified species of ultra-small chameleons that live in Madagascar.
New lizard found in cold Andes.
There Goes Lonesome George, Last Tortoise of His Kind but...
Galapagos Tortoise Species Can Be Revived, Scientists Say 11/12
The race to save the tortoise 12/12 Turtles and tortoises have been roaming the planet for 200 million years, but now many of them are endangered by poachers who can sell some animals for as much as $60,000. Excellent 60 Minutes video segment.
Nesting turtles. images.
A new report, America’s Hottest Species, highlights a variety of American wildlife that are currently threatened by climate change from a small bird to a coral reef to the world’s largest marine turtle. "Global warming is like a bulldozer shoving species, already on the brink of extinction, perilously closer to the edge of existence," said Leda Huta, executive director of the Endangered Species Coalition which produced the report. More
Florida's endangered speciesThe most eye-catching creature among the 60 listed is the alligator snapping turtle, a ferocious looking reptile that can get as big as 165 pounds and has a menacing hooked beak. It lives in the rivers of the state's panhandle, FWC officials reports. The snapping turtle is considered a "species of concern" as its numbers have dwindled due to fishing injury, dredging, and pollution.
Invasive Species
Dena Spatz New UCSC study maps the world’s most vulnerable island species and identifies invasive species as a key threat to their survival 10/17.
UCSC research: Sleuthing a killer shrub. Students like Jennifer Thompson—who researched why Scotch Broom is toxic to Douglas fir—take advantage of a unique opportunity at UC Santa Cruz: the ability to do research as an undergraduate.
Invasive Species Are Killing People, Decimating Wildlife and Costing Billions of Dollars in Damage Around the Globe In the U.S. alone, invasive species cost the economy $120 billion every year. 9/17 update
Africa's man-eating Nile crocodiles have slithered into the Everglades 5/16.
Groundbreaking Study Says Asian Carp Could Make Up One-Third of Lake Erie Biomass
Conservation Biologists Using DNA Methods To Track Elusive Or Unwanted Species see Wildlife
Worst Invasive Species: 10 Frustrating Plants And Animals That Make You Scream (PHOTOS).
“The Vine That Ate the South” Heads North (video). 12/13.
Air-dropping drugged mice on snakes.
Mojo coverage includeswhy invasive species matter and Florida Hunt Nabs 50 Invasive Pythons.
"What Invasive Species Are Trying to Tell Us" by Julia Whitty.
Invasive starfish ravages Great Barrier Reef PBS video *** 10/12
Invasive species could be responsible for Devonian extinction.
Toxic Bufo Toad Poses Danger To Other Animals (VIDEO) 10/12. (See Cane Toads)
Invasive Species In Europe Account For 22 Percent Of Mammals, Study Finds 9/12.
Strange Days on Planet Earth episode, narrated by Edward Norton.
Guam spider outbreak because of invasive snakes 9/12.
PBS Nature Doc Invasion of the Giant Pythons in Florida.
Nature Out of Place book by Jason Van Driesche on invasive species.
Biological control of invasive weeds by bugs. 3/11
Asian Carp in Great Lakes goes to the Supreme Court. One solution, eat them (audio) 4/10.Midwest lakes and rivers, including Great Lakes Mississippi. 2/12 Asian Carp update 2/12. (amazing video) 11/13 update.
ReWilding/De-extinction
Jurrasic Park update 6/15.
Beth Shapiro and Ed Green of UCSC’s Paleogenomics Lab at UCSC used ancient DNA extracted from fossils to study evolution. This year they sequenced the genome of a horse that lived 700,000 years ago, and found intriguing evidence that polar and brown bears mated at the end of the last ice age, eventually transforming a local polar bear population into a group of brown bears.
Beth Shapiro, associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, and her colleagues analyzed genome-wide DNA sequence data from bears, and found that polar bears are a remarkably homogeneous species with no evidence of brown bear ancestry, whereas the ABC Islands brown bears show clear evidence of polar bear ancestry. She's also working with a project within Long Now called “Revive & Restore,” which is pushing to make de-extinction a reality, starting with the fabled passenger pigeon and moving on to the woolly mammoth. How to Clone a Mammoth. 6/15. See “TEDxDeExtinction” (See re-wilding in Soule below).
Michael Soule (short bio), one of the founders of conservation biology, Paul Ehrlich's student, and currently an advocate of Rewilding, that is bringing back extinct ecosystems and even species This idea has been picked up by Stewart Brand.A Soule Interview. Co-author of Ghost Bears. tropic cascades. See also Wildlands Network, working to connect islands of bio-diversity. UCSC pioneered the idea of rewilding, including bringing back extinct species. This has been taken up by LongNow, and was basis of TEDx conference.
DNA makes possible resurrecting extinct species See also Lazarus Project brooding frog NPR audio 3/13. Stewart Brand muses.
Stewart Brand, author of Whole Earth Discipline and founder of the Whole Earth Catalog, is working on a new project to bring back extinct animals. From the passenger pigeon to the wooly mammoth, Brand explains why and how the project, "Revive and Restore," plans to bring back some extinct species.audio and text interview. 6.12. Rewilding is a UCSC idea (see Soule).
LongNow talk on rewilding by Stewart Brand.
Stewart Brand, author of Whole Earth Discipline and founder of the Whole Earth Catalog, is working on a new project to bring back extinct animals. From the passenger pigeon to the wooly mammoth, Brand explains why and how the project, "Revive and Restore," plans to bring back some extinct species.audio and text interview. 6.12.
History
Nikolay Vavilov, the Indiana Jones of Botany: Update: his repository is in trouble. See here 8/10
The Murder of Nikolai Vavilov: The Story of Stalin's Persecution of One of the Great Scientists of the Twentieth Century by Peter Pringle audio interview
Where Our Food Comes From: Retracing Nikolay Vavilov's Quest to End Famine reflects on What is the Relevance of Vavilov in the Year 2010?:Link.
Specimens: This series by Richard Conniff looks at how species discovery has transformed our lives.
UCSC People
E. O. Wilson biologist TEDtalk video Audio: wonderful interview 11/08). Video of 2009 talk. "The Social Conquest of Earth" (video) 2012 LongNow talk.the Importance of Biodiversity (video). wikipedia, his TEDwish is the Encyclopedia of Life. Smithsonian talk new book "Half Earth" 2016.
Students and Alumni
EARTH A New Wild explores how humans are inextricably woven into every aspect of the planet's natural systems. With 45 shoots in 29 different countries, the show took UCSC alum Sanjayan from a preserve in India, land of the wild tiger, to the wilds of Montana, where he observed a specially trained group of cowboys who are helping ecosystems recover with their ranching practices. Until recently, Sanjayan served as the lead scientist for The Nature Conservancy, where he spent 16 years specializing in development and conservation strategies, focusing on Africa, wildlife ecology, and media outreach.
Lisa Belenky, Senior Attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, works on protecting rare and endangered species and their habitats under state and federal law. Lisa holds a law degree from the University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law and a bachelor’s in philosophy from the University of California at Santa Cruz.
Heather M. Briggs, Bee research 7/13.
John Francis, vice president of research, conservation, and exploration for the National Geographic Society works with Crittercam.
Bruce Lyon uncovers "Soap opera in the marsh": Coots foil nest invaders, reject impostors.
Bruce Stein maps biodiversity.
Shaye Wolf, Staff Biologist, at the Center for Biological Diversity, works with the Center’s Climate Law Institute. She graduated with a bachelor’s in biology from Yale University and received a doctorate in ecology and evolutionary biology and a master’s in ocean sciences from the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she examined the effects of ocean climate change on seabird populations. During her graduate studies, Shaye worked with the biodiversity protection groups in México and California; before that she was a wildlife biologist on projects with seabirds, songbirds, raptors, and spiders.
Chris Darimont, a postdoctoral researcher in environmental studies, and his co-authors found a dramatic acceleration in trait changes among species heavily hunted or fished by humans, which could inform hunting policy. Chris Darimont does research on human super-predatory activities on fisheries.
UCSC Fullbright scholars study global warming, agroecology, and biodiversity.
UCSC research: Sleuthing a killer shrub. Students like Jennifer Thompson—who researched why Scotch Broom is toxic to Douglas fir—take advantage of a unique opportunity at UC Santa Cruz (with Ingrid Parker).
Myra Finkelstein studies marine bycatch.
Brad Keitt is director of Island Conservancy, which grew out of pioneering work by Don Croll and Bernie Tershy.
Allison Luengenstudies toxins in the ocean.
Sara Maxwell studies the relationship between seamounts and other large bathymetric features and the migratory and foraging patterns of large pelagic animals, such as seals, seabirds and whales. She am working with the Tagging of Pacific Pelagics (www.toppcensus.org) program, and won the 2010 Graduate Research Prize as did Valerie Brown for statistical study of fish populations.
Hoyt Peckham studies endangered turtles.
Faculty
Rachel Barnett-Johnson, a fisheries biologist, investigates salmon population.
Dan Costa and his students are tagging marine life to send back realtime information never before available. You can follow activities at TOPP and see Video from KQED's Quest as well as PBS's Ocean Animal Emergency.
James Estes and John Terborgh in a new book explore the importance of predators in Trophic Cascades: Predators, Prey, and the Changing Dynamics of Nature. They explain how top predators play an essential role in maintaining ecosystem well-being, and how this natural regulatory system is often drastically disrupted by human interventions-when wolves and cougars are removed, for example, populations of deer and beaver become destructive.
R. Edward Grumbine is the author of Ghost Bears (Island Press, 1992). He teaches environmental studies at Prescott College and directed the Sierra Institute, University of California Extension, Santa Cruz, for more than a decade. He has written a new book on China, Where the Dragon Meets the Angry River.
Bill Henry and Myra Finkelstein are researching plastic in the oceans.
Paul Koch has done some great research on pre-history which may have implications for our time, such as helping condors survive in the wild.
John Mock works to remove landmines and preserve wildlife in Afghanistan.
Birds: Todd Newberry renowned Santa Cruz birder, who worked with a student on a book project to teach some of the basic skills of becoming a “nature detective” at the Arboretum. oral history. hummingbird event 2/16.
Ingrid Parker studies invasive plant species.
Colleen Reichmuth has worked with marine mammals since 1990, conducting research in the areas of comparative cognition, bioacoustics, and behavioral ecology.
Joe Sapp's research is on the socially parasitic "slave-making" or "amazon" ant's fascinating and bizarre system: workers conduct raids on nearby Formica nests. Because of chemical signals, stolen brood work in the parasitic slave-maker nest as if it was their own.
Barry Sinervo and students are creating games to teach about lizard behavior. Recent research shows early effects of global warming 5/10. More links(audio) on Sinervo's work. He also co-wrote a paper showing how rock-scissors-paper dynamic works in biology. Investigation of disappearing amphibians 3/13.
Don Smith and graduate student, Molly Church, who is now at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Veterinary Medicine have established lead poisoning in condors from ammunition.
Erika Zavaleta, environmental studies, conceived new Conservation Scholars Program will partner with other organizations including Santa Cruz-based SACNAS: Advancing Chicano/Hispanics & Native Americans in Science. 11/15.
ReWilding:
To the Best of Our Knowledge NPR **** January 25, 2015 Our planet is facing a mass extinction crisis. By the end of the century, we could lose up to half of all living species. But people are working hard to save endangered species and habitats, and a few scientists are even trying to bring lost species - like passenger pigeons and woolly mammoths - back to life (Shapiro UCSC).
UCSC's Soule (retired) pioneered the idea of rewilding, including bringing back extinct species. This has been taken up by LongNow, and was basis of TEDx conference.
Erin Vogel studies primate population.
Chris Wilmers and Terrie Williams, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UCSC, will team up to explore questions of puma behavior, physiology, and ecology using radio collars. Cougar GPS story.
See also Wildlife
Articles in category "Bio-diversity"
The following 4 pages are in this category, out of 4 total.
