[ECOLOG-L] ATBC 2010 LIVE coverage: 20-23 July
If you are not able to attend the 2010 International meeting of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation in Bali, Indonesia, next week, please visit our online, interactive meeting instead. See: http://atbc2010.org/html/virtual.html Most verbal presentations at ATBC 2010 will be available for LIVE viewing via an online meeting server. Many posters will also be available for online viewing. For verbal presentations, you will be able to: * Download a PDF of the presentation, * Listen to live audio streaming of the presentation, * See the slides shown in the symposium room change in sync with the live audio stream, * Send a question to an operator at the back of the symposium room, who will then ask the question to the presenter. You will be able to hear the presenter answer live! First presentations will begin at 09:00 on 20 July (GMT+0800). For meeting schedule, information on symposia and plenaries, and more, please visit: http://atbc2010.org/
[ECOLOG-L] Assistant Professor of Ecology- Washington University
The Department of Biology at Washington University in St. Louis invites applications for a faculty position in Ecology at the Assistant Professor level. We are searching broadly, without regard to taxa or system, for individuals who integrate theory with empirical studies across levels of biological organization. The individual must possess a Ph.D., a strong commitment to developing an externally funded, internationally recognized research program, and a desire to contribute significantly to both the undergraduate and graduate curricula through teaching and mentorship. The successful candidate will join a growing initiative to enhance research and teaching in Ecology and will complement strengths in other areas of biological and environmental sciences at Washington University. Resources available include the Tyson Research Center (http:// www.tyson.wustl.edu/), a ~2,000 ha field station located less than 20 miles from the main campus and an ideal venue for large-scale experimental and observational studies on a variety of local ecosystems; the International Center for Advanced Renewable Energy and Sustainability (http://www.icares.wustl.edu/), which fosters cross-disciplinary research on energy, environment, and sustainability; and significant collaborative opportunities with regional partners, including the Missouri Botanical Garden (http://www.mobot.org) and the Donald Danforth Plant Sciences Center (http://www.danforthcenter.org). For further information on the Department of Biology, see www.wubio.wustl.edu. To apply, please collate the following into a single pdf file: a cover letter, curriculum vitae, a statement of research interests, and a statement of teaching experience and philosophy. Please send copies of 2-3 important publications and arrange to have 3 letters of reference sent in support of the application. All information should be sent electronically to: ecology.sea...@biology2.wustl.edu Review of applications will begin on October 15, 2010, and will continue until a suitable candidate is found. The Biology Department is also searching for a plant biologist at the assistant professor level and an endowed professorship in environmental biology at the senior level. For further information on the Department of Biology and these other searches, see www.wubio.wustl.edu. Washington University is committed to excellence through diversity, and we particularly encourage applications from persons from underrepresented groups. Washington University is an Affirmative Action Employer.
[ECOLOG-L] A Field Guide to Web Technology
Southeast Partners in Flight is pleased to announce the launch of a new field guide to web technologies for bird conservation. The guide is targeted at manager and administrator alike and provides simple, one-page summaries of a variety of general web tools (e.g., blogs, news feeds) as well as specific web-based applications (e.g., Facebook, eBird). Each summary provides a short overview of each technology, highlights of its strengths and weaknesses, examples of how each technology is being used in bird conservation, and links to sites with more detailed information. Users can download the entire guide or individual summaries as PDFs at: http://webtechguide.sepif.org/ Edward J. Laurent, PhD American Bird Conservancy http://www.abcbirds.org/
[ECOLOG-L] AGU Session: Carbon Dynamics in Fire-Prone Forests
Dear Colleagues, We are writing to encourage you to submit an abstract to the Fall 2010 American Geophysical Union (http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm10/) session: B05. Carbon Dynamics in Fire-Prone Forests The session theme is: How the interactions of climate change, wildfire, and management will impact future carbon fluxes across multiple spatial and temporal scales. Abstract submission opens on July 21, 2010. Sincerely, Matthew Hurteau and Harold Zald -- Matthew Hurteau Assistant Research Professor Department of Biological Sciences Northern Arizona University Box 6077 Flagstaff, AZ 86011 (928) 523-0497 matthew.hurt...@nau.edu http://oak.ucc.nau.edu/mdh22/
[ECOLOG-L] Humans in the definition of ecosystems
Well, truly sorry for your back, Wayne, but thank you for the discussion. I also thank Jim Crant for joining the discussion as well as Matt Chew for his contributions, notably a subtitle - misanthropy, etymology and environment. Their appearance is welcome, especially since the author of the original post has become notably absent. I'm frankly surprised that someone hasn't asked us to cut this short. For everyone's sake, I will. In order to respond to Wayne's questions, I'll attempt to have the last word, but regardless, no further response will be mine. Wayne, your overall sketch seems similar to that of Richard Manning in his book AGAINST THE GRAIN. He and others, like Daniel Quinn in the fiction ISHMAEL, have made the case that with domestication, agriculture, and Western Civilization as we know it, Homo sapiens abandoned their 'natural' place in the environment to their detriment. You may certainly go through the etymology of a term for a definition but in doing so you run risk of alienating your definition from the usage of a broader audience. There have been at least 2 different denotations of the word since its etymological underpinnings. Like any other language, English is fraught with words that mean something very different today than they did at their historical roots. So, as you say, the root of any intellectual discipline is consistency in definition and usage. We must then defer to that discipline whose field of inquiry requires such consistency. I cannot imagine a top anthropologist who couldn't adequately address the question of definition. Ignoring your aversion to authorities, I will again refer you and others to the text CULTURE, THE ANTHROPOLOGISTS' ACCOUNT by Adam Kuper. This contains a thorough etymology of the term 'culture' including the academic politics that separated its usage from 'society' and designated it as a field of study for Anthropology in reference to Sociology. Though a right of passage among Anthropologists is personalizing the definition... the most definitive and, in juxtaposition to society, clarifying definition of culture is that of Talcott Parsons - to define the concept culture... transmitted and created content and patterns of values, ideas, and other symbolic-meaningful systems as factors in the shaping of human behavior and the artifacts produced through behavior. On the other hand, we suggest that the term society... be used to designate the specifically relational system of interaction among individuals and collectivies (69). In my courses, I explain the distinction between 'culture' and 'society' with a gamut of the anthropogenic coercions on human behavior. Society includes those more tangible/explainable while culture those that are more intangible/unexplainable. A good example is a foreign exchange student with you who starts to do something that you quickly stop them from doing. They ask why. It's the law, is the clearest expression of society. We just don't do that here, is the clearest expression of culture. But the two demonstrably overlap and certainly make clear distinction problematic. Nevertheless, both terms refer to a broad diversity of human behaviors, culture itself including a diverse array of created and transmitted values, ideas, and symbols. Furthermore, Jim rightly states that culture has the characteristic of existing on multiple contextual levels from human culture, if there is such a thing, at the most grand to communities that exhibit cultural forms and dynamics on the most basic level. This is what makes your assertion that 'culture is pathological' so perverse. It suggests that whatever the diversity of values, ideas, and symbols, all are inferior and destructive to individual and collective interaction. We have already fairly discredited your assertion on numerous counts that I will revisit using these established definitions. Then I will disprove the assertion wrong on another. First, the statement is logically an over-generalization, ignores evidence to the contrary, and persists with additional logical fallacies. I wholeheartedly agree with everything Jim stated in his first response to this thread. Wayne, Jim well restates my own assertion that your statement is fallacious because you are essentially saying that culture must necessarily progress in that direction (if culture could reverse its pathological direction of progress, you couldn't say it was pathological by definition). Exactly what I've told you. While you may argue that Western Culture hasn't or that Western Culture specifically is incapable, you cannot scientifically prove that all culture is incapable or that all culture hasn't. The 'test' that you set is that culture is pathological when it undermine[s] the welfare of the species more than... ensures it. By what measure? You also set this measure already. I try to look at the question of 'humans in the definition of environment' in
