The Science of Politics/The Politics of Science: Examining the Snowmobile Controversy in Yellowstone National Park

The snowmobile controversy in Yellowstone National Park not only pits snowmobilers against environmentalists, but it also pits the Bush Administration against the Clinton Administration. Caught in the middle are the National Park Service, scores of natural and social scientists, and Yellowstones permanent residents—the flora and fauna. The controversys political aspects are the focus of this paper; specifically, the tenuous relationship among research scientists, whose job it is to inform management and policy decisions; politicians, whose job it is to formulate those same decisions in the public arena; and public land management agencies, whose job it is to implement the decisions. The crux of the paper concerns the politicization of natural resource policy and ways in which research scientists tend to get caught up in it. Lessons learned from this Yellowstone episode regarding the role of science in policy-making processes are also considered. Two recent federal court rulings shed additional light on the politics surrounding Yellowstones snowmobile controversy, as does the importance of governmental checks and balances in resolving natural resource management disputes.     

Untersuchungen zur Aufnahme von HCB und Pyren durch den KompostwurmEisenia fetida und ausgew?hlte Regenwurmwildarten

Zusammenfassung  Ziel der beschriebenen Untersuchungen war die praktische überprüfung eines Methodenentwurfs zur Erfassung der Bioakkumulation von Umweltchemikalien mitEisenia fetida, der Eignung vonE. fetida als Modellorganismus und des OECD-Kunstbodens als Standardsubstrat. Als Testorganismen wurden aus eigener Zucht der KompostwurmEisenia fetida und nach FeldentnahmeAllolobophora caliginosa, Allolobophora chlorotica, Allolobophora longa undLumbricus rubellus eingesetzt. Testb?den waren der OECD-Kunstboden und ein Boden vom Versuchsfeld der BBA in Berlin-Dahlem. Beiden B?den wurden die Testsubstanzen Hexachlorbenzol und Pyren in einer Konzentration von 10 mg/kg Bodentrockengewicht zugemischt. Die Expositionszeit der Regenwürmer betrug 4 Wochen bei w?chentlicher Bestimmung der Konzentrationen der Testsubstanzen in den Würmern und B?den. Die fürE. fetida sowie die Wildarten errechneten Anreicherungsfaktoren (AF) beliefen sich bei HCB in Abh?ngigkeit des verwendeten Bodens auf Werte zwischen 10 und 17 und bei Pyren auf Werte zwischen 0,9 und 1,7. Durch Umrechnung der Bodenkonzentrationen auf Gehalte in der Wasserphase und Ableitung der entsprechenden Anreicherungsfaktoren kann ein Vergleich mit BCF-Werten, die aus QSAR’S anderer Regenwurmarten und Fischen berechnet wurden, hergestellt werden. Die Ergebnisse lassen den Schluss zu, dass der Regenwurmtest mitE. fetida (OECD 1984, ISO 1998) für die Untersuchung der Bioakkumulation geeignet ist. OnlineFirst: 31. 05. 2002     

The importance of biparental care in a precocial,monogamous bird,the bar-headed goose (Anser indicus)

Summary This study presents the first direct evidence of benefit derived from the male's parental effort during rearing of young in a monogamous, precocial bird species. We compared mothers accompanied by a mate (paired mothers) with single mothers, some of which were artificial widows, in a semicaptive flock of bar-headed geese (Anser indicus). Paired mothers were less often displaced by other birds and suffered fewer interruptions of brooding. Their goslings spent more time grazing and survived with a higher probability. Although one beneficial result of the male's parental effort may be the continued availability and survival of his mate, a more direct benefit arises from higher offspring survival between hatching and fledging.     

Can Large-Scale Climatic Models Be Linked with Multiscale Ecological Studies?*

On a global scale climatic changes driven by human activities are typically projected to increase from 1° C to 5° C per 100 years a rate of change that is an order of magnitude greater than that typically experienced naturally. Such a potentially dramatic change in climate could easily cause dramatic biological responses including extinction. Species show a wide range of responses to climate and consequently the response of different species of plants and animals to climatic change will be quite variable. This implies a likelihood for a disassembling of natural communities and for transient, nonequivalent restructuring of habitats as climatic change unfolds. Validated models that help forecast these events are needed to aid scientists in better understanding the ecological ramifications of global climatic change. Also, and perhaps more important for conservation biology, such validated models can help provide probabilities for the occurrence of these events, which will allow policy makers to make better, informed decisions. Typically, the study plots of most ecological field work are telecommunications, while the smallest resolved scales in global climatic models are about 500 × 500 km. Computer limitations preclude significant reduction in scales of climatic models. Consequently, more multi-species ecological studies are needed over broad geographic and long temporal scales. We provide an example of large-scale ecological response studies, namely the case of wintering North American birds. We also provide an example of attempts to translate results of large-scale climatic models (at a 500 × 500 km scale) to a mesoscale (50 × 50 km). Participation of climatologists with ecologists at early stages in research planning can help bridge the scale mismatch between climatic and ecological measurement, and provide more reliable estimates of community responses to century-long, time-evolving patterns of climatic change. We are convinced that many more such interdisciplinary research attempts are urgently needed if the scientific community is to produce information useful to the development of conservation strategies. Such strategies might help to mitigate potential negative consequences of global climatic changes before they manifest themselves irreversibly in nature.