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Featured Speakers and Events
Plenary Session Speaker
Landscape Ecology: An Evolving Science
Dr. Jerry Franklin
Professor of Ecosystem Analysis, College
of Forest Resources
University of Washington, Seattle, Washington
Wednesday, March 31, 2004 9:00 AM - 9:45 AM
The discipline of landscape ecology (LE) originated in the static landscapes
of Europe. LE quickly took on a more dynamic landscape perspective
when introduced to North America in the late 1970s, related to
changing land
uses, disturbances, and succession. LE continues to evolve rapidly,
facilitated by new analytic tools (e.g., GIS and LIDAR imaging)
and expanding scientific knowledge. Applications of LE in development
of natural resource policies and plans has been a
powerful influence, often identifying important scientific issues
in LE. Current challenges in LE include expansion of it's conceptual
foundations
and empirical bases. Landscapes as patch works has been the dominant
conceptual model (patch-matrix-corridor) but this needs to be
expanded to views of landscapes as networks and gradients. Riverscapes
provide
an excellent illustration of how all 3 concepts can be usefully
integrated in addressing large spatial-scale ecological phenomena.
Similarly, conservation planning needs to adopt a view of landscapes
as gradients
of habitat suitability or ecosystem function, moving away
from the simple black-and-white dichotomy of patches as either "habitat" or "nonhabitat".
In this way, management of portions of the landscape identified
as ecological reserves and as unreserved (the "matrix") can
be effectively integrated.
US-IALE Banquet Speaker
Ethical concerns in biological conservation : a view from the trenches.
Edwin P. (Phil) Pister
Desert Fishes Council
Thursday, April 1, 2004, 6:30 PM - 9:00 PM
The various fields of environmental science are more abundantly
endowed with technological expertise than with a broad ethical
and philosophical base to guide application of this technology. Many "judgment
calls" must be made, often without the benefit of legal or procedural
guidelines, and under strong political pressure from development interests
to compromise the basic natural resource. Compounding this problem
is a general failure of most university resource management curricula
to require (or even offer) courses in the rapidly emerging fields
of environmental ethics or philosophy, thereby producing (in effect)
missiles without guidance systems. Evidence of this syndrome is universal,
and potential resource impacts are enormous. Case histories are discussed,
and remedies are suggested. Aldo Leopold's "The Land Ethic" (A
Sand County Almanac) underlies the presentation, which also draws
heavily upon the thinking of contemporary environmental scientists
and philosophers.
Plenary Session Speaker
Transdisciplinary approaches
to urban ecosystems: Hydroecology in the 'burbs
Dr. Lawrence Band
Voit Gilmore Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department
of Geography,
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Friday, April 2, 2004 8:00 AM - 8:45 AM
Cities are rapidly expanding in both area and population on a global
scale. Currently, about 80% of the US population lives in urban
areas. Lower density urban development includes an assemblage
of residential, commercial and industrial land use interspersed
with residual
agricultural
and forest land, and other unmanaged vegetation. As heterogeneity
in form and process is characteristic of all landscapes, we treat
urban ecosystems as specific cases of general ecosystems, varying
in the length
scales and patterns of heterogeneity and in the degree of influence
of specific ecosystem "agents". We consider the activity of
individual and institutional behavior on ecosystem mass budgets
by both the direct addition and abstraction of water, nutrients and
carbon,
as well as
the indirect effects of the built environment in altered land
cover patterns, hydrologic flowpaths and civil infrastructure.
Both
direct
and indirect effects contribute to a shift in the spatial and
temporal heterogeneity of biogeochemical sources and sinks. We
describe a hierarchical
framework for representation of spatial ecosystem heterogeneity
and the role of human activity within urban landscapes. We illustrate
the
framework with observations from the Baltimore Ecosystem Study,
part of the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) network. Similar
to other
LTER sites, we concentrate on patterns and processes of water,
carbon and biogeochemical storage and flux within the landscape,
and their
interactions with the ecological community. The joint influence
of socioeconomic and environmental characteristics of a community
on individual and institutional
behavior is considered as an important feedback in the urban
ecosystem.
Special Session Speaker
Connectivity in Desert Aquatic Ecosystems : The Devil's Hole
Story
Dr. James E. Deacon
Distinguished
Professor Emeritus
Departments of Environment Studies and Biology, University
of Nevada Las Vegas
Friday, April 2, 2004 11:15 AM - 12:00 PM
Devil's Hole is one of those special places on earth where
landscape processes through geological time concentrate a
huge storehouse of
information. When human events focused attention on Devil's
Hole, the knowledge produced validated the awe and wonder
with which the
place had been regarded by people for millennia. This smallest
habitat in the world to contain the entire population of
a vertebrate species
(Devil's Hole pupfish), provides a window into the regional
groundwater aquifer. Precipitation in the recharge area interacting
with the geological
characteristics of the aquifer produced carbonate deposition
on the walls of Devil's Hole that gives us the longest known
continuous continental
climatic record on earth. Those deposits also reveal a wealth
of information about the timing and suitability of the place
as a habitat for plants
and animals. Orientation of the geological fault that produced
Devil's Hole strongly influences annual cycles of primary
productivity, animal
reproduction, and dynamic processes of habitat change. The
Devil's Hole pupfish, interacting with the dynamic processes
creating this
unique environment, has managed to survive here for millennia,
living on the edge of its ability to survive and reproduce.
Each winter,
when the limited sunlight stimulates precious little photosynthesis,
food limitations dependably reduce population size to fewer
than 200 individuals. Spawning substrate is created, maintained,
or withheld
by floods and earthquakes, and the size and suitability of
this little corner of the world is ultimately determined
by the tectonic stretching
of the Earth's crust and the vagaries of climate.
Welcome Mixer
Marjorie Barrick Museum of Natural History,
University of Nevada Las Vegas
The Yucca Mountain Boys
Tuesday, March 30, 2004 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM
The Yucca Mountain Boys are a bluegrass band based in Boulder City,
Nevada. The band members are George Rhee (guitar, vocals), Tom
Flagg (bass), Marty Warburton (banjo, vocals) and Myron Stewart
(violin). The Yucca Mountain Boys play bluegrass music (songs
and instrumentals) as well as original compositions. Individually
and as a band
they have
won several awards. In 1996 they performed at and won the band
contest at the Rocky Mountain Bluegrass festival, one of the
most prominent
festivals in the western United States. The Yucca Mountain Boys
have
released a CD entitled "Sundance" on the Earth Orbit label. The
recording was produced with a grant from the Nevada State Council
on the Arts
and an award from ASCAP. Marty Warburton has won contests on
banjo guitar and mandolin and is the recipient of the Governor's
arts award. Myron
Stewart has played professionally all his life including an appearance
on the Tonight Show.
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