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The ancient Mississippi River paddlefish, Polyodon spathula, has long been thought to use its oversized rostrum for excavation. Recent studies provide an entirely new interpretation for the function of the [...]

Open-space ballot measures have been one of the most important trends in land conservation over the past decade, with voters authorizing $27.3 billion for open-space conservation between 1996 and 2004. [...]

Species persistence in the face of competitive or predatory pressure has long been assumed to be a consequence of either dynamic equilibrium or stochastic longevity. More recently, however, the complex [...]

A widely held belief is that only through interdisciplinarity can academics effectively address today's complex ecological problems, because these problems demand cross-disciplinary efforts and specialized knowledge from natural and social [...]

Grasshoppers are insect herbivores common to grassland ecosystems worldwide. They comprise important components of biodiversity, contribute significantly to grassland function, and periodically exhibit both local and large-scale outbreaks. Because of [...]

Most visitors to salt marshes along the southern California coast will spot Caspian terns, plovers, and sandpipers feasting on snails, crabs, and killifish at low tide. Only Kevin Lafferty and [...]

Although desertification is a global phenomenon and numerous studies have provided information on dynamics at specific sites, spatial and temporal variations in response to desertification have led to alternative, and [...]

Determining the characteristic spatial scales at which species respond most strongly to the amount of available habitat is crucial for developing cross-species scaling rules and for predicting species' responses to [...]

THE HUMAN FOOTPRINT IS A GLOBAL MAP OF HUMAN INFLUENCE ON THE LAND SURFACE, WHICH SUGGESTS THAT HUMAN BEINGS ARE STEWARDS OF NATURE, WHETHER WE LIKE IT OR NOT In [...]

We care because the broad events that had to happen, happened to happen in a certain particular way. Something almost unspeakably holy--I don't know how else to say this--underlies our [...]

A COMPREHENSIVE APPROACH TO BIOSECURITY IS NECESSARY TO MINIMIZE THE RISK OF HARM CAUSED BY NON-NATIVE ORGANISMS TO AGRICULTURE, THE ECONOMY, THE ENVIRONMENT, AND HUMAN HEALTH Biosecurity itself is more [...]

BIOWEAPON DISEASE OUTBREAKS COULD CAUSE THE EXTINCTION OF ENDANGERED WILDLIFE SPECIES, THE EROSION OF GENETIC DIVERSITY IN DOMESTICATED PLANTS AND ANIMALS, THE DESTRUCTION OF TRADITIONAL HUMAN LIVELIHOODS, AND THE EXTIRPATION [...]

BECAUSE THE DELIBERATE RELEASE OF DISEASE AMONG US LIVESTOCK COULD HAVE ENORMOUS CONSEQUENCES, SCIENTISTS AND POLICYMAKERS MUST SEEK TO PREVENT SUCH A TERRORIST ACT OR MITIGATE ITS EFFECTS One lesson [...]

As scientists and educators, we train our students to thoroughly examine all the available evidence and to consider alternative explanations for biological phenomena. In peer review, we critically assess whether [...]

SCALING UP AND TAKING A GENOMIC APPROACH TO THE MAJOR HISTOCOMPATIBILTY COMPLEX (MHC) OF BIRDS REVEALS SURPRISING DEPARTURES FROM GENERALITIES FOUND IN MAMMALS IN BOTH LARGE-SCALE STRUCTURE AND THE MECHANISMS [...]

St. Pete Beach, Florida, 4-9 November 2001 Every week since January 1959, a trawler has left Wickford Harbor, Rhode Island, to make a 30-minute net tow in the Narragansett Bay [...]

There is a rich body of scientific books and articles that have contributed to the education and training of biologists during the past century. Academics and other contributors to science [...]

Are things getting better or worse? Are the advances in our environmental understanding and ethics translating into improved relations with nature faster than population numbers are rising, new technologies are [...]

Agriculture is a defining characteristic of human civilization. Its development as a means of providing sustenance marked the transition from a nomadic existence to an urban lifestyle. And no other [...]

There is currently an ongoing discourse about 'the two cultures of ecology,' a discourse not in fact limited to ecology but involving many biologic disciplines: the analytic culture and the [...]

Ramesh Murthy gazes up at a stand of cottonwood trees growing in the high Sonoran Desert 35 miles northeast of Tucson, Arizona. Planted as 6-inch stumps, the 20 to 25-foot-tall [...]

Many biologists and other scientists shy away from the political process. The reasons for this lack of involvement include unfamiliarity with the legislative and other political processes, concerns that their [...]

Because both biological phenomena and the measurements researchers make in studying them are often quite variable, methods of statistical analysis have much to offer science. Statistical analysis has many aspects, [...]

Where do the lichens belong in the biological sciences? They are composed of fungus and alga, but neither mycologists nor phycologists have been eager to claim them. In most lichens, [...]

The 21st century is an exciting time for biological scientists and other researchers interested in complex systems. Relating biodiversity to ecological function and sustainability, understanding the dynamics of coupled human [...]

Events or Conditions located within: An Environmental Domain can lead to Consequences Elsewhere; The Propagation of these Influences through Environmental Space are the Linkages that Integrate Ecological Relationships Over Time [...]

Despite the centrality of the term 'gene' to modern biology, its definition remains a matter of controversy. A univocal definition may not be necessary or even desirable; different 'gene concepts' [...]

During the Second World War and the initial post-war years, the physical sciences were the most influential of the sciences in shaping public policy in the United States. In the [...]

Soil biodiversity has received considerable attention recently because of greater recognition that soil species and their interactions can influence a number of ecosystem processes (e.g., decomposition, net primary production, and [...]

Small invertebrates are functionally important in many terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems (Wilson 1992, Freckman et al. 1997, Palmer et al. 1997, Postel and Carpenter 1997). In freshwater sediments, benthic invertebrates [...]

Paul Plotz sits in his office in the clinical center at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and recites the opening stanza of Woody Guthrie's song, 'So Long, it's Been [...]

The cell theory, or cell doctrine, which states that all organisms are composed of similar units of organization, called cells, was first enunciated in 1839 and has remained one of [...]

Counts, indices, and estimates of populations lie at the core of monitoring programs. These numbers serve as guides for managing harvested and endangered species, measuring the effects of management activities [...]

It is early June, and the goslings have just begun to hatch at the lesser snow goose breeding colony at La Perouse Bay, in the Hudson Bay lowlands. An early [...]

Implications for restoration Historically, much of south-central Florida was dominated by a contiguous wetland system that extended from the headwater lakes of the Kissimmee River basin to Florida Bay. During [...]

Managed flooding reorganizes riparian forest ecosystems along the middle Rio Grande in New Mexico A centuries-old Indian pueblo named Isleta stands on a small rise of land west of the [...]

Assessing the relative importance of habitat destruction, alien species, pollution, overexploitation, and disease Biologists are nearly unanimous in their belief that humanity is in the process of extirpating a significant [...]

In the last few decades, an increasingly vocal American public have made their opinion about forest management and, in particular, timber harvesting known loud and clear: They do not like [...]

Conflicts over biodiversity policy are fierce. Every proposal to protect habitat from development or to develop existing habitat has strong opponents and proponents. Some will argue that the economic costs [...]

An unusual mode of symbiosis in which a DNA virus causes host insect immunosuppression and allows the parasitoid to develop Endoparasitic wasps develop within other insects and, invariably, kill their [...]

Reciprocal interactions between host and symbiont lead to the creation of a complex light-emitting organ Microbiologists have long recognized that one of the principal ecological niches of bacteria is the [...]

...the neoteny (juvenilization) hypothesis is largely, if not totally, a bankrupt concept when it comes to a careful analysis of human development and evolution (Shea 1989). Many technical arguments...indicate that [...]

Decomposition processes in terrestrial and aquatic systems occur at different temporal and spatial scales Stream and soil ecologists can learn much by understanding each others' perspective Ecologists usually study systems [...]

Success seen as different ways to eat without being eaten An unparalleled diversity of feeding habits is influenced by the diversity of plants and their chemistry, and by natural enemies [...]

What are the ecological effects of anti-predator decision-making? A complete understanding of predator-prey interactions requires an appreciation of the behaviorally induced nonlethal effects of predators Predator-prey interactions have long captured [...]

Understanding why animals avoid preying on relatives offers insights into the evolution of social behavior Cannibalism - the ingestion of all or part of a conspecific - is common, occurring [...]

Interspecific modifications of the tadpole larva have revealed some of the mechanisms of evolutionary change in development Both adultation and tailless development have evolved multiple times, suggesting that they are [...]

A continuing look at techniques for exploring the brain Functional magnetic resonance imaging, described in part I of this two-part series (for part I, see BioScience 47: 330-334) is the [...]

From comparative studies of both vertebrates and invertebrates, a common theme has emerged: Brains have evolved rather conservatively compared with other morphological features. Edwards and Palka (1991) likened neural evolution [...]

TROPICAL TEAMWORK, DISENCHANTING FORESTRY Conservationists have proposed various strategies for tropical forest management, but after examining the ecology and economics of mahogany logging in Bolivia, a team of researchers recently [...]