Biodiversity Commons^™

Marine Law Symposium: Can Offshore Wind Development Have A Net Positive Impact On Biodiversity? Regulatory And Scientific Perspectives And Considerations April 20-21, 2023, Roger Williams University School Of Law Marine Affairs Institute, The Nature Conservancy

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Weaving Indigenous And Western Science Knowledges Through A Land-Based Field Course At Bkejwanong Territory (Laurentian Great Lakes), Clint Jacobs, Candy Donaldson, Jessica T. Ives, Katrina Keeshig, Catherine Febria

Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research Publications

In response to a growing interest in building Indigenous-led educational experiences, we codeveloped a land-based field course that wove Indigenous ways of knowing together with Western ecological concepts. The spirit of the course was the one rooted in varied ways of knowing nature, on the land, the water, and the culture—to see the Great Lakes from an Anishinaabe perspective. Situated in the heart of the Laurentian Great Lakes Basin at Bkejwanong Territory (Walpole Island First Nation), in the Traditional Territory of the Three Fires Confederacy of First Nations (Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi) on Turtle Island (North America), this inaugural undergraduate …

Master’S Project: Exploring And Supporting Social And Ecological Dimensions Of Pollinator Habitat Enhancement In Burlington, Vt, Victoria Hellwig

Rubenstein School Masters Project Publications

Urbanization and other manmade impacts threaten critical pollinator species like the bumblebee, whose populations are significantly affected by habitat loss. In response, activists in the City of Burlington are enhancing habitat to increase biodiversity through collaborative partnerships in urban green spaces. In an effort to explore and support pollinator habitat enhancement in Burlington, I examined social interactions involved in a group highly motivated to enhance habitat at Lakeview Cemetery and Champlain Elementary School, with an emphasis on power dynamics and place meanings of these sites. In conjunction with this exploration, I created landscape designs, planted a native habitat garden, and …

Remote Ornithology: Studying Nesting Behavior Of Bermuda Petrels Via Live Webcam, Ragupathy Kannan, Bala Chander, Jack Jackson, Tara Chander

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

We observed over 167 hours of video of a Bermuda Petrel Pterodroma cahow nest during the 2019 nesting season. The publicly available webcam feed was provided live over the internet by Nonsuch Expeditions and Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Live webcams open new avenues of data collection resulting in observations previously deemed impractical. They help surpass logistic and financial hurdles in conducting field studies. From our offices and homes in Arkansas and New York, we documented behaviors and involuntary movements of the nesting pair in Bermuda. We noted relative roles played by each parent in incubation, and behaviors of the incubating …

Integrated Pest Management In The Academic Small Greenhouse Setting: A Case Study Using Solanum Spp. (Solanaceae)., Daniel S. Hayes, Ingrid E. Jordon-Thaden, Jason T. Cantley, Angela J. Mcdonnell, Christopher T. Martine

Faculty Journal Articles

Premise

Botanical faculty and staff at academic institutions are often tasked with establishing and/or caring for plant collections held in small greenhouse facilities. Once plants are in place, an especially acute challenge is managing plant pest/pathogen populations. Integrated pest management (IPM) approaches are an excellent option, but few examples exist in the literature of successful programs that have been developed in academic small greenhouse settings.

Methods and Results

Over several years, we developed an IPM program for two small research greenhouses on the campus of a primarily undergraduate institution where hundreds of plants have been grown for studies in the …

A Global Community Effort To Decipher The Unique Biology Of Annual Killifish, Nibia Berois, Graciela Garcia, Rafael O. De Sá

Biology Faculty Publications

Over the past 50 years, annual killifishes arose as alternative model organisms for studies of vertebrate biology. The annual fish offers exceptional advantages for studies of genetics, genomics, developmental biology, population dynamics, ecology, biogeography, and evolution. They inhabit extremely variable freshwater environments in Africa and South America, have a short lifespan and a set of unique and fascinating developmental characteristics. Embryos survive within the dry substrate during the dry season, whereas the adult population dies. Thus, the survival of the populations is entirely dependent on the buried embryos that hatch the next rainy season. Although Old and New World species …

Using Geospatial Analysis For High School Environmental Science Education: A Case Study Of The Jane Goodall Institute's Community-Centered Conservation Approach, Madison G. Vorva

Pomona Senior Theses

Given my experiences as a young conservation advocate, I saw a need to teach students the importance of interconnectedness, cultural awareness and systems-thinking skills through a spatial lens. I believe these skills are required for holistic, equitable and sustainable conservation decision-making in local and international contexts. This thesis uses geospatial tools to teach conservation ecology vocabulary and concepts from high school environmental science curriculum in two online resources. The purpose of my lesson plan is to show students how conservationists address complex conservation and land-use challenges using the Jane Goodall Institute’s community-centered conservation approach as a case-study. My hope is …

Project Prairie And Tallgrass Education On The Rice Lake Plains: A Journey From 1870 To Today And Beyond, Todd Farrell, Mark Rupke, Mark Stabb

The Prairie Naturalist

Project Prairie began in 2011 as a curriculum-linked integrated environmental studies program to showcase the Rice Lake Plains (RLP), a tallgrass prairie landscape of sandy rolling hills located at the eastern extent of the Oak Ridges Moraine in southern Ontario. Project Prairie provides educators both indoor and outdoor activities that support their curriculum and share the story of the RLP. Project Prairie provides teacher and student resources that focus on the RLP from the mid-nineteenth century to present day. Learning objectives of Project Prairie are developed from the subjects of science, social science, language arts, geography, history, and Aboriginal culture. …

Unalienated Recognition At The Core Of Meaningful Exchange Between School And Community. A Response To "Unalienated Recognition As A Feature Of Democratic Schooling", Robin R. Sears

Democracy and Education

I apply the concept of unalienated recognition as a form of democratic exchange, introduced by Rheingold (2012), to a different educational setting. Through a case study of the School for Field Studies international environmental programs, that are, like Rheingold’s study school, field based and community centered, I explore the hypothesis that today’s undergraduate students’ desire to serve and to solve can be usefully harnessed in formal coursework and research to address real problems at their foundation. I link the cases by building on Rheingold’s use of the concept of boundary objects as an organizing principle behind the success in motivating …

Genome Empowerment For The Puerto Rican Parrot – Amazona Vittata, Stephen J. O'Brien

Biology Faculty Articles

A unique community-funded project in Puerto Rico has launched whole-genome sequencing of the critically endangered Puerto Rican Parrot (Amazona vittata), with interpretation by genome bioinformaticians and students, and deposition into public online databases. This is the first article that focuses on the whole genome of a parrot species, one endemic to the USA and recently threatened with extinction. It provides invaluable conservation tools and a vivid example of hopeful prospects for future genome assessment of so many new species. It also demonstrates inventive ways for smaller institutions to contribute to a field largely considered the domain of large …

Icf Conservation Education: Bridging Crane Conservation And The International Education Community, Joan Garland, Korie Klink

Proceedings of the North American Crane Workshop

Education, at multiple levels with audiences in Wisconsin, Florida, Texas, and along the flyways where sandhill (Grus canadensis) and whooping cranes (G. americana) sometimes find themselves in close quarters with people, is the key to protecting North America's cranes. The migration of these birds highlights the dependence of cranes and other wildlife on wetlands along the migration routes. Most of these wetlands are privately owned, so the decisions and conservation outlook of future generations are critical to the survival of these cranes. The International Crane Foundation's (ICF) conservation education programs and materials focus on the importance of …

Three White Cranes, Two Flyways, One World, Sara Gavney Moore, Joan Garland, Zhang Juan, Maria Vladimirtseva

Proceedings of the North American Crane Workshop

The International Crane Foundation, together with Beijing Brooks Education Center in China and the Institute for Biological Problems of the Cryolithozone in Russia, is implementing a multi-year education project targeting local communities along the eastern crane flyways in the United States and East Asia. The education activities focus on the importance of wetlands, wildlife, and other natural resources from the perspective of local communities and are designed to enhance local leadership for education efforts. In the U.S. project activities are integrated with education programs centering on the eastern migratory whooping crane (Grus americana) population, integrating classroom activities and …

Slides: Economic Incentives For Demand Reduction, Christopher Goemans

Western Water Law, Policy and Management: Ripples, Currents, and New Channels for Inquiry (Martz Summer Conference, June 3-5)

Presenter: Christopher Goemans, Department of Agriculture & Resource Economics, Colorado State University

17 slides

Slides: Beyond Rethinking: Redoing Western Water Law, Janet Neuman

Shifting Baselines and New Meridians: Water, Resources, Landscapes, and the Transformation of the American West (Summer Conference, June 4-6)

Presenter: Professor Janet Neuman, Lewis & Clark Law School

17 slides

Slides: Threats To Biological Diversity: Global, Continental, Local, J. Michael Scott

Shifting Baselines and New Meridians: Water, Resources, Landscapes, and the Transformation of the American West (Summer Conference, June 4-6)

Presenter: J. Michael Scott, U.S. Geological Survey, Idaho Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, University of Idaho

38 slides

Wetlands Protection: The 404 Program, Patrick A. Parenteau

Water as a Public Resource: Emerging Rights and Obligations (Summer Conference, June 1-3)

13 pages.

Includes unsigned annotations by David Getches.