Welcome to our inaugural online edition of Update!

CCB Researchers Predict Large-scale Bird Extinctions

In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Cagan Sekercioglu, Gretchen Daily and Paul Ehrlich predict that 14 percent of all bird species will be extinct in 2100. They also expect that one fourth of all bird species will become functionally extinct in that same amount of time; that is, species' ranges and populations will contract and decline to such an extent that they will no longer contribute to ecosystem health.

Although only a few bird species have gone extinct since 1500, the total number of individual birds has declined by 20-25 percent in that time. Ranges have contracted, individuals have become rarer and many species have become threatened or endangered. The authors' predictions of massive species extinctions are no more than a continuation of this historical trend.

Rapidly declining numbers of vultures and carrion birds in southern India demonstrate the effect of extinction on ecosytems. Because the vulture populations have crashed, other carrion-eaters have boomed, such as rats and feral dogs--animals that are historical reservoirs for diseases, such as rabies and bubonic plague.

Bird species thus provide many valuable services that keep ecosystems running smoothly. Aside from helping to dispose of carcasses, birds also disperse seeds, pollinate wild plants and control insect and rodent populations. The impacts of extinctions will be far-reaching. Bird species extinctions will lead to the failure of mutualist, pollination and seed dispersal systems, which could trigger the extinction of other species vital to ecosystems.

For more information:

• Sekercioglu, C. H., Daily, G. C. & Ehrlich, P. R. 2004. Ecosystem consequences of bird declines. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 101 (52): 18042-18047 [ pdf]
• Birdlife International
• IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
• Stanford Report article

Bay Area Conservation Biology Symposium held at Stanford

The Center for Conservation Biology and the Department of Biological Sciences hosted the 7th Bay Area Conservation Biology Symposium at Stanford University on January 22, 2005. The Symposium focused on the interface between research and policy. Two-hundred students and scientists around the Bay Area were welcomed by Donald Kennedy, president emeritus and professor of Biological Sciences emeritus of Stanford. Steve Palumbi presented the keynote address. He talked about his use of genetic tools, such as DNA analysis, to identify whale meat found in markets to species, and as an aid to management of the limited whale fishery that is currently allowed. His work uses genetic tools to infer the past population sizes of whales, before the onset of large-scale human harvesting. These results will allow scientists to determine the population level at which harvesting of a whale species can again be allowed. Over 50 presenters talked about their research in 41 talks, and 10 poster presentations. This year the talks included marine conservation projects and lunchtime workshops--both were new additions to the Symposium agenda.

Local experts presented five workshops; each workshop offered advice in applying research to policy practices. Terry Root, Jon Christensen and Steve Schneider offered advice on communicating research results clearly with the media. The organizers of Science In Policy talked about their activist responses to distortion of science in the news and politics. A third workshop, mediated by CCB Director Carol Boggs, focused on putting conservation into practice through land conservation, restoration and land-use planning. A CCB post-doctoral researcher, Cagan Sekercioglu, talked about using ecotourism to promote community-based conservation.

The Eighth Bay Area Conservation Biology Symposium is scheduled for late January 2006. The Symposium rotates among Bay Area campuses; next year's meeting is tentatively located at San Francisco State University. Please keep an eye on the Web site (bacbs.stanford.edu) for more details. Abstracts will be accepted in December, 2005.

The 17th Annual Boething Lecture on Forests and the Human Predicament

Dr. William Laurance of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Panama will give a talk titled The Future of the Amazon.

Dr. Laurance is interested in assessing the impacts of intensive land-uses, such as habitat fragmentation, logging, and fires, on tropical ecosystems, tropical plant and vegetation ecology. He also studies ecosystem science, especially relating to carbon storage in tropical forests and the effects of global-change phenomena on tropical communities.

April 7, 2005, 4 p.m.
Reception to follow. Location to be announced.