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PRESS RELEASE
Contact:
Friday, February 15 2002, 9:00 am Diana Wall
At AAAS Annual Meeting:
C/o Newsroom, Hampton Room, Boston Sheraton Hotel
Tel: 617-236-1550
Office:
Tel: 970 491 2504
Fax: 970 491 3945
Email: Diana@nrel.colostate.edu
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and white or color version
of the IBOY logo (3.9 MB tiff files). The logo may only be used in conjunction
with stories on the IBOY. For other uses, please contact Gina
Adams.
International Technology Provides Biologists with New Tools for Biodiversity
Conservation
Information Technology, or IT, is spurring a revolution in biodiversity
research that can deliver a more complete view of the world and help conserve
species, according to six biologists who will speak today at American
Association for the Advancement of Science Annual Meeting and Science
Innovation Exposition in Boston, MA. “Biodiversity research today
uses the latest IT as much as the traditional butterfly nets and flower
presses”, said Diana Wall, organizer of the symposium and soil ecologist
at Colorado State University, in an interview in advance of the symposium.
“It has given us the ability to draw on multiple pieces of information
from across the world.”
Each of the speakers at the symposium “Biodiversity Science and
Global Research: the International Biodiversity Observation Year”
leads an international research project as part of the International Biodiversity
Observation Year (IBOY) 2001-2002. IBOY is an initiative of DIVERSITAS,
the international program on biodiversity science. It seeks to network
scientists to improve knowledge about biodiversity and its importance
for healthy ecosystems and human societies.
The speakers will present findings across issues as varied as biodiversity
itself, but their unifying message is that IT has become a vital tool
to help understand global biodiversity issues that are crucial for sustainability.
Examples of the technologies being used include 3-D electronic images
of species that are accelerating identification of poorly known groups
of animals, ‘distributed’ or interconnected databases that enable
scientists to query data stored in multiple databases across the world
at the touch of a button, and GIS (Geographic Information Systems) a computer-based
tool used to map and analyze multiple and complex characteristics of landscapes,
including natural and anthropogenic impacts on biodiversity.
- Diana Wall will present
the preliminary findings of the Global Litter Invertebrate Decomposition
Experiment (GLIDE), the first world-wide network to examine the animals
that dwell in soils on plant material (litter) and regulate decomposition,
an ecosystem process essential for global nutrient cycles and maintenance
of fertile soils. Global distribution patterns of this highly diverse
group of animals are unknown, yet may be critical for identifying biodiversity
'hotspots' and how changes to habitats can affect ecosystem health.
Wall will reveal how, in just a few months, GLIDE researchers have analyzed
over 17,000 individual animals using new photo-imaging techniques, and
have found 28 orders of soil invertebrates from just nine sites. "The
enormous diversity of litter fauna once made global studies impossible,"
said Wall "but we use new 3-D imaging techniques and send images
to colleagues around the world to accelerate identification and make
the survey tractable."
- Oliver Ryder, a zoologist
from the Zoological Society of San Diego, will discuss the latest applications
of genetic technology and genomics for conserving biodiversity in its
native habitats. “DNA studies are an important tool for in situ
conservation,” explains Ryder. “They provide information on
genetic variation and the gene pools of species, which is important
for monitoring plant and animal populations and their viability, and
evaluating the effectiveness of nature reserve and wildlife corridor
designs. They also play a role through reproductive medicine.”
Ryder stresses that the success of these efforts may depend on starting
before populations, and therefore the gene pools, have declined significantly,
or in worse case scenarios, become extinct. He will report on the progress
of DNA Banks for Endangered Species, an international collaborative
effort that is working to anticipate the needs for, and secure long-term
access to, genetic materials for biodiversity conservation.
- David Wake, a biologist
from the University of California at Berkeley, will describe the latest
information from AmphibiaWeb, a web-based informatics system that collates
data on amphibians from around the world. “During the past decade
awareness that amphibian populations at sites across the world are declining,
and even disappearing, has stimulated research activity,” says
Wake. “This single entry point to global data on amphibians is
helping us develop a world view.” AmphibiaWeb is helping scientists
understand global amphibian species distributions, conservation status,
the total number of species described, and rate of new species descriptions.
“Ironically,” notes Wake, “scientists’ heightened
concern for declining amphibian species is increasing research activity
and is producing an annual increase of 1.5 – 2% in the number of
species discovered and described.”
- Richard Mack, an ecologist
at Washington State University, will report the ongoing efforts of an
international team that is comparing data on invasive species around
the world to understand the factors that influence the rate at which
these species can occupy new ranges, the extent of these ranges and
their long-term environmental impact. Ultimately, the scientists hope
to identify the circumstances that make a species highly invasive or
make an ecosystem susceptible to invasion. Mack believes this information
will be invaluable in demonstrating the growth of invasions by these
taxonomically diverse species in clear, graphic projections. Such studies
will enable both investigators and policy-makers to quickly detect the
course and rate of an invasion.
- Walter Reid, Director of
the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, will describe the progress after
year one of this four-year program to assess the consequences of changes
to the world’s ecosystems for human well-being and to provide policy
options. An international task force of experts spent the first year
of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment designing a methodology for this
unprecedented assessment of the feedbacks between ecology and human
decision-making. Reid will outline this methodology, which integrates
perspectives from local, national and regional scales with data collected
at the global scale by remote sensing and modeling.
- Thomas Lovejoy, Senior Advisor
to the President of the United Nations Foundation and Chief Biodiversity
Advisor at the World Bank, will describe another new collaborative research
program that seeks to help conservation efforts by improving access
to data across international borders and disciplines. Amazonia GIS provides
continuously updated maps of the Amazon Basin with overlapping layers
of conservation activity, such as protected areas and national parks,
to individuals whose work affects conservation in this threatened ecosystem.
The symposium speakers hope that the new opportunities that information
technology affords will promote increased biodiversity research and policy
action at the global scale. “It has been a decade since the United
Nations Conference on Environment and Development, otherwise known as
the Earth Summit, called attention to the global problem of biodiversity
loss,” said Wall, “Yet the vast majority of research and policy
action on biodiversity remains local or regional.” Wall believes
a major effort is now essential to put these local pieces together to
understand issues such as how many species we share our planet with, which
species are particularly valuable or vulnerable, and how we can manage
changing ecosystems.
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Editor’s Note:
The Session “Biodiversity Science and Global Research: the International
Biodiversity Observation Year” takes place on Friday, February 15,
2002, at the AAAS Annual Meeting and Science Innovation Exposition, Boston,
MA.
More information on the International Biodiversity Observation Year (IBOY)
taking place in 2001 – 2002 can be found at http://www.nrel.colostate.edu/IBOY.
IBOY is chaired by Dr. Diana Wall, the co-organizer of this symposium.
The IBOY Secretariat is located at Colorado State University.
IBOY is an initiative of DIVERSITAS. Intellectual sponsorship is provided
by the International Union of Biological Sciences (IUBS), International
Union of Microbiological Sciences (IUMS), Scientific Committee on Problems
of the Environment (SCOPE), and the United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). IBOY has been endorsed by the Sixteenth
International Botanical Congress (IBC) and the Second World Conservation
Congress of the World Conservation Union (IUCN). The Fifth Conference
of the Parties to the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) invited
parties to participate in the IBOY. Financial sponsorship of IBOY is provided
by the US National Science Foundation (NSF) (under Grant No. DEB-0122141),
the International Council for Science (ICSU), Center for Applied Biodiversity
Science at Conservation International (CABS), the International Group
of Funding Agencies (IGFA), DIVERSITAS, and two anonymous US foundations.
We acknowledge the support of the US National Committee for DIVERSITAS
and the Board on International Scientific Organizations of the National
Research Council. - ### -
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