College of Natural Resources, UC Berkeley

[the stick insect Epidares nolimetangere from the rainforests of northwest Borneo, taken by Yu Zeng, a student in IB]

Instead of a big fuzzy panda bear beckoning as the symbol of the WWF (World Wildlife Fund), how about the giant flower-loving fly, or better yet, the California night-stalking tiger beetle? Images of iconic creatures such as the panda are commonplace in our society, and like many of our most venerated animals (think dinosaurs, puppies, and birds), they are vertebrates. But when’s the last time you heard of a “Save the Bugs” campaign, or a movie about a cartoon millipede? Why this bias against the spineless? It could be because it’s a lot easier to cuddle with a cat or dog than a hairy pine borer (it’s a beetle), or because we ourselves are vertebrates, and, well, we like us and things similar to us. Whatever the reason, Berkeley’s entomology students are on a mission to gain a little respect for the insects and other arthropods that dominate the earth, and their first salvo is the creation of a no-spines-allowed seminar series.

If popularity was measured in terms of pure diversity, the insects would be prom queen. With 1 million documented species and an estimated 9 million more awaiting discovery and description, insects comprise half of all the known biodiversity on Earth. The University of California’s own Essig Museum of Entomology houses over 5 million of the Berkeley Natural History Museums’ 12 million specimens. One of these museums, the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (MVZ), runs a highly successful seminar series dubbed “MVZ Lunch” on Wednesday afternoons, drawing guest speakers from around the world to discuss their research on ecology and evolution. And while the entomology students enjoy attending these talks, they have decided to answer with a seminar of their own in order to bring a little taxonomic parity to the table.

Starting Friday, November 13, and continuing on the second Friday of every month, the Essig Museum will host “Essig Brunch,” a seminar covering the ecology, evolution, and conservation of all arthropods (insects, spiders, snails, and other spineless wonders). The seminar will run from 10-11 in the Museum of Paleontology’s “fishbowl” (1101 VLSB, at the feet of the giant T. rex skeleton), is open to everyone, and will have coffee and other refreshments. Talks will run about 30 minutes, with time for mingling beforehand and questions afterward. The series opens with a talk from ESPM professor Kip Will on 11/13 titled “How Feronista got its upside-down genitalia and more of Kipling’s (Just So?) stories of pterostichine ground beetles.”

While all of Berkeley’s natural history museums enjoy close camaraderie, a little friendly competition can’t hurt, right? So does the upstart Essig Brunch have a chance of unseating MVZ Lunch as the premier meal-related seminar on campus?

“No way,” said MVZ Director Craig Mortiz. “But I look forward to them trying,” he added with his trademark grin.

Posted by Eva St. Clair at 10:00 PM | Permalink

Ask biologists how many species live in a pond, a grassland, a mountain range or on the entire planet, and the answers get increasingly vague. Hence the wide range of estimates for the planet's biodiversity, predicted to be between 2 million and 50 million species.

A new way of estimating species richness reported this month in the journal Ecology Letters by ecologist John Harte and colleagues, will make such estimates more precise for habitats of all sizes and types, from deserts to tropical rainforests.

"We know how to census the number of species in a square-meter plot or within an acre, but a major problem in conservation biology and ecology is estimating the diversity of biota at very large spatial scales, such as in the Amazon," said Harte, professor of environmental science, policy, and management. "This theory provides a much more accurate means of doing that."

Continue reading "Theory provides more precise estimates of large-area biodiversity" »

Posted by Susan Sabry at 3:22 PM | Permalink

A University of California, Berkeley, project to catalog nearly every living thing on the Polynesian island of Moorea is enlisting the help of the island's 5th graders and showing them that science is not for foreigners only.

While conducting research for his thesis and for the Moorea Biocode Project, ESPM graduate student Brad Balukjian has been teaching 5th graders at the Paopao Primary School about biodiversity and introducing them to the scientific study of the plants and animals they see every day.

The biocode project, run by UC Berkeley and French researchers and funded by a $5.2 million grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, aims to build a comprehensive inventory of all non-microbial life on the island by 2011.With samples taken from the mountaintops to the ocean depths, it would be the first complete inventory of a tropical ecosystem.

At an end-of-year science fair on June 25, Balukjian's students proudly presented their collections of Moorean insects and plants to parents and fellow students. Each student had also collected a specimen specifically for the Moorea Biocode Project database, so that its DNA profile could be entered along with the student collector's name.

"They are immortalized in the biocode database," Balukjian said.

Continue reading "Growing young scientists in Tahiti" »

Posted by Cyril at 3:22 PM | Permalink

Most habitat conservation efforts focus on preserving large patches of wild landscapes, but it seems that conservationists would do well to improve the habitat quality of the surrounding land, as well.

The findings of two CNR researchers published recently in the Procedings of the National Academy of Sciences, contain several take-home lessons for conservation biologists and land managers.

One of the primary theories in island biogeography states that the size of an island and its degree of isolation are proportional to the amount of biodiversity the island can support. For oceanic islands such as Hawaii and Easter Island, this theory appears well supported by hard data. Ecologists have also tried to apply the same reasoning to continental ecosystems: Certain patches of land will have features such as a specific plant or certain environmental conditions that make it good habitat for a given species, and these patches are surrounded by relatively inhospitable lands that lack these amenities.

http://www.pnas.org/content/105/52/20770.abstract

Continue reading "Successful habitat conservation may depend heavily on non-conserved land" »

Posted by Cyril at 2:04 PM | Permalink

Monoculture farming leaves us highly dependent on honey bees, whose pollination affects 75 percent of fruits and vegetables and 30 percent of all food production. However, managed hives are being wiped out by colony collapse disorder at an alarming rate.

Professor Claire Kremen discusses how wild bees can boost the effectiveness of managed hives and play a critical role in pollinating the crops that keep California's economy humming.

Watch the video below or download the podcast.

Posted by Cyril at 11:36 AM | Permalink

A study prepared by Berkeley Economic Consulting, under the direction of David Sunding, professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics, outlines the statewide economic and water supply implications of ongoing water pumping restrictions imposed by federal courts in California to protect the Delta smelt. In early December, 2008, environmental and sport-fishing groups filed suit to force the complete and total shutdown of delta water pumping operations.

According to the study, statewide economic impacts can exceed $1 billion per year during drought years such as those currently facing the state, and may well exceed $3 billion should the state enter a prolonged dry period. Additionally, the report documents the severe water supply implications of the Court's orders. Even during average and wet periods the Court imposed restrictions exacerbate ongoing drought conditions by limiting the ability of water managers to replenish water storage facilities and groundwater reserves. The net result is a significant additional blow to the state economy and a greatly reduced ability to respond to severe drought and other emergencies.

"The export restrictions imposed in a effort to conserve the Delta smelt clearly add significant new risks to California's water supply system," said Sunding. "The water pumping restrictions not only worsen the current drought, they also ensure that water rationing, fallowed farm land and economic dislocation will be the norm. The study highlights the unsustainable nature of the state's current water system. Rather than a series of court-imposed restrictions aimed at individual species, California would benefit from a more comprehensive fix for the delta."

Posted by Cyril at 3:56 PM | Permalink

Global warming is causing major shifts in the range of small mammals in Yosemite National Park, one of the nation's treasures that was set aside as a public trust 144 years ago, according to a new study by University of California, Berkeley, biologists.

The study, published in the Oct. 10 issue of Science, compared small mammal populations in the park today versus 90 years ago and found that mammals like shrews, mice and ground squirrels have moved to higher elevations or reduced their ranges in response to warmer temperatures, essentially shuffling the species living together in any one spot.

"We didn't set out to study the effects of climate change, but to see what has changed and why" since the last full-scale survey in Yosemite in 1918, said study leader Craig Moritz, UC Berkeley professor of integrative biology and director of the campus's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. "But the most dramatic finding in the Yosemite transect was the upward elevational shift of species. When we asked ourselves, "What changed?" it hit us between the eyes: the climate."

Thanks to these detailed field notes recording not only when, where and what they saw and trapped but also what they failed to observe, the UC Berkeley biologists were able to perform a statistical analysis that makes the study results very solid, said coauthor and conservation biologist Steve Beissinger, UC Berkeley professor of environmental science, policy and management.

"One of the biggest problems we have when comparing the distribution of species now and in the past is false absences. If they didn't see something back then, is it because it wasn't there, or because it just wasn't detected?" he said. Employing occupancy models developed in the past few years, he added, "the Grinnell group's data allows us to go back and, night by night, reconstruct their trapping success for small mammals and develop a probability for detecting each species for Grinnell and for us. This is one of the first studies to use the model to look at climate change and historic changes in range."

Continue reading "Warming in Yosemite National Park sends small mammals packing to higher and cooler elevations" »

Posted by Cyril at 10:08 AM | Permalink

BERKELEY — Even a quiet stroll in the park can dramatically change natural ecosystems, according to a new study by conservation biologists. These findings could have important implications for land management policies.

The study compared parks in the San Francisco Bay Area that allow only quiet recreation such as hiking or dog walking with nearby nature reserves that allow no public access. Evidence of some native carnivore populations - coyote and bobcat - was more than five times lower in parks that allow public access than in neighboring reserves where humans don't tread, the researchers report.

Continue reading "Outdoor enthusiasts scaring off native carnivores in parks " »

Posted by Cyril at 9:08 AM | Permalink

BERKELEY – The population of wild Puerto Rican parrots, among the most endangered birds in the world, has languished for decades, with several dozen remaining birds unable to break through the bottleneck that prevents their numbers from growing.

A new study by an international team sheds light on the factors influencing the stalled growth of this parrot's population and, in turn, provides an analytical tool that could help pinpoint the biggest factors hindering the recovery of other endangered species.

"This is the first time a framework has been developed to integrate simultaneously the multiple factors impacting the decline of a species," said Steven Beissinger, professor of conservation biology at UC Berkeley's Department of Environmental Science, Policy & Management and lead author of the paper. "The Puerto Rican parrot's wild population has only increased, on average, by about one bird a year, and it can't seem to get out of that funk."

Continue reading "New study analyzes why endangered parrot population isn't recovering " »

Posted by Cyril at 10:02 AM | Permalink

BERKELEY – An international team of researchers has developed a remarkable new roadmap for finding and protecting the best remaining holdouts for thousands of rare species that live only in Madagascar, considered one of the most significant biodiversity hot spots in the world.

In their conservation plan, the researchers not only included lemurs - those large-eyed, tree-hopping primates that have become poster children for conservation - but also species of ants, butterflies, frogs, geckos and plants.

Continue reading "New Madagascar conservation map protects maximum number of species in biodiversity hot spot" »

Posted by Cyril at 10:45 AM | Permalink

California farmers depend on bees to pollinate the state's multi-million dollar fruit and nut crops, but last season thousands of bee colonies disappeared around the country.

The KQED science program Quest recently featured CNR ecologist Claire Kremen, and her research on bee pollination. In addition, an online-only special features the urban bees of entomologist Gordon Frankie.

Better Bees: Super Bee and Wild Bee

Posted by Cyril at 1:28 PM | Permalink

Public curiosity about bees kept UC Berkeley graduate student Alex Harmon-Threatt on her toes at an annual wildflower festival at the Sunol-Ohlone Regional Wilderness, south of Livermore, on April 7. Kids and adults alike peered through her magnifying glass at a collection of native wild bee species on display: bumblebees, mining bees, sunflower bees, leaf-cutter bees, yellow-faced bees — even bees that "land on you lightly and drink your sweat," she told incredulous young visitors.

Continue reading "Bees keep her busy as a, well, a bee" »

Posted by Cyril at 2:45 PM | Permalink

In the News & Views blog of the Ecological Society of America, Professor Steve Beissinger discusses his and Zachariah Peery’s Feb 07article Reconstructing the historic demography of an endangered seabird.

He writes:

It’s a simple question that I often get asked about an endangered species: “What caused it to decline?” but I find it to be one of the hardest to answer without giving a hand-waiving response. Determining causes of decline for a species based on data-driven conclusions rather than informed opinion is challenging because it first requires figuring out which demographic rate is depressed and then requires evidence linking it to one or more causes. Yet, to provide clear recommendations for recovering a threatened species, is there any more meaningful question to answer than what is causing it to decline?

Posted by Cyril at 11:40 AM | Permalink| Comments (0)

From The San Francisco Chronicle [original URL]
By Alison Rood

When Professor Gordon Frankie wants to impress schoolchildren with the importance of bees, he lays out an array of foods such as berries, grapes, pears and chocolate alongside a couple of dried-out tortillas and rice cakes and asks them which foods they prefer.

"Invariably the kids go for the fruits and chocolate," he said. "Then I tell them: In a world without bees, the only choice they'd have would be the dried-out tortillas or rice cakes, since wheat and rice are self-pollinated. Even chocolate, from the cacao plant, depends on the pollination of bees. That gets their attention."

Frankie, an entomologist at UC Berkeley and a specialist in the behavior of native bees, has been the leader of a decadelong urban bee research project. By documenting bee diversity and populations in urban gardens throughout California, he's discovering which flowering plants attract native bees and determining whether urban gardens can support bees. He said the declining native bee population is comparable to global warming in terms of a potential ecological catastrophe.

READ THE ARTICLE

Posted by Cyril at 1:33 PM | Permalink

Launch ABC News Video

To better understand why an endangered seabird's numbers plummeted over the past century, researchers at CNR turned to museums for help.

By studying marbled murrelet specimens collected around the early 1900s, biologists now have reconstructed the seabird's rates of reproduction and survival before its dramatic decline, providing for the first time a baseline measure of health by which contemporary populations can be compared.

Continue reading "Biologists shed light on health of marbled murrelet population in early 1900s" »

Posted by Cyril at 3:40 PM | Permalink

Watch Video

Continue reading "Video: Pest Affecting Honeybees, Food Supply" »

Posted by Cyril at 10:18 AM | Permalink

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Matteo Garbelotto of UC Berkeley prepares a fungal sample from the Venice Museum of Natural History to send to his lab for sequencing and analysis.

Posted by Cyril at 10:52 PM | Permalink

Matthew Stuckey, fourth year in Environmental Economics and Policy and Conservation Resource Studies, is researching how the butterfly Colias behrii colonized the Sierra Nevada.

Through mentorship with Professor George Roderick and graduate student Sean Schoville, Stuckey has been working on cloning nuclear genes to assess genetic variation within and among populations of C. behrii.

Roderick’s team is using genetics to understand how organisms have colonized new areas. SPUR funds have helped provide chemicals and lab supplies necessary for molecular cloning – a technique essential for Stukey’s research.

The SPUR program also benefits the mentors who work closely with undergraduates on their research. For Schoville, a Ph.D. candidate in the department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, having Stuckey's help has been a huge benefit. “These undergraduates are some of the brightest students,” he says. “Working with them gives me a great opportunity to see their minds grow and mature.”

To support student experiences like this, make a gift now.

Posted by Cyril at 10:49 AM | Permalink

The study is the first global estimate of crop production that is reliant upon animal pollination. It comes one week after a National Research Council (NRC) report detailed the troubling decline in populations of key North American pollinators, which help spread the pollen needed for fertilization of such crops as fruits, vegetables, nuts, spices and oilseed.

Continue reading "Pollinators help one-third of world's crop production" »

Posted by Cyril at 4:11 PM | Permalink

Baboons, duiker antelopes and cane rats are available by the pound in markets in major cities in North America and Europe, reports ESPM professor Justin Brashares.

While the meat showing up in cities from New York to London represent just a sliver of the illegal bushmeat trade, it highlights the strong demand that still exists for illegally hunted meat, the ecologist says.

Bushmeat (wild animals hunted for food) can be problematic when the animals killed are endangered or carrying disease. Most concern about bushmeat centres on western and central Africa, where great apes are among the animals eaten, and where it represents a serious threat to many animal populations.

Read the full story at Science News.

http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20050226/bob9.asp

Posted by Cyril at 9:59 AM | Permalink| Comments (0)

The effects of overfishing may have driven marbled murrelets, an endangered seabird found along the Pacific coast, to increasingly rely upon less nutritious food sources, according to a new study by biologists at the University of California, Berkeley.

The results, to be published online by early March 2006 in the journal Conservation Biology, suggest that feeding further down the food web may have played a role in low levels of reproduction observed in contemporary murrelet populations, and has likely contributed to the seabirds' listing as an endangered species, the researchers said.

Read the Full Story at the UCB NewsCenter

Posted by Eva St. Clair at 2:43 PM | Permalink| Comments (0)

by Sarah Yang

The effects of overfishing may have driven marbled murrelets, an endangered seabird found along the Pacific coast, to increasingly rely upon less nutritious food sources, according to a new study by biologists at the University of California, Berkeley.

The results, to be published online by early March 2006 in the journal Conservation Biology, suggest that feeding further down the food web may have played a role in low levels of reproduction observed in contemporary murrelet populations, and has likely contributed to the seabirds' listing as an endangered species, the researchers said.

Read the full story

Posted by Eva St. Clair at 9:21 AM | Permalink