Translational Ecology

It's difficult to define oneself in any field, but sometimes I find it especially hard to define myself, as I wear a number of different hats in my work.  Landscape designers don't conduct ecological surveys, and ecologists aren't called upon to draft construction documents.  Good to know I'm not the only one who is working to build a bridge between the gulf that separates science and action.

William H. Schlesinger from Science Magazine in this week's edition writes:
"Ecology is well into its second century as an organized scientific discipline, rich with observations, experiments, and a general understanding of how the natural world works. Today's environmental scientists have a powerful array of tools and techniques to measure and monitor the environment and to interpret vast and diverse data. Yet despite producing an enormous amount of new information, ecologists are often unable to convey knowledge effectively to the public and to policy-makers. Unless the discoveries of ecological science are rapidly translated into meaningful actions, they will remain quietly archived while the biosphere degrades.
Global warming, the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, invasive species—these are but a few of the issues concerning environmental scientists and, increasingly, the public. What is needed is a new partnership between scientists and advocacy groups that conveys ecological information accurately and in ways that stakeholders (including policy-makers, resource managers, public health officials, and the general public) can understand. Just as physicians use "translational medicine" to connect the patient to new basic research, "translational ecology" should connect end-users of environmental science to the field research carried out by scientists who study the basis of environmental problems. Translational ecology requires constant two-way communication between stakeholders and scientists. It should continually alert scientists to aspects of the environment in need of study to produce new data, while clearly synthesizing what is already known from field studies and its relevance to policy. The partnership's purpose should be to ensure that all stakeholders know the implications of scientific discoveries and understand their impact on alternative ecological diagnoses.

CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO

Good examples of translational ecology involve interdisciplinary teams of scientists, engineers, public health experts, and members of the end-user community. A recent study of the environmental impacts of mountain-top–removal mining involved a collaboration between ecologists and public health experts.^* Earth Justice and other nonprofit groups used this material to convince the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to issue new guidelines that will severely limit most such mining practices. In earlier years, research by wetland ecologists helped the EPA outline how to recognize and delineate wetlands, based on soil characteristics. Other scientists are now working with advocacy groups to help policy-makers understand the implications of human perturbations of the global nitrogen cycle. And we can be sure that scientific analysis of the impacts of deep-water petroleum extraction will also be forthcoming—in this case, unfortunately, as a retrospective.
Translational medicine grew from the recognition that basic research findings were not moving effectively into the development of drugs and treatments. To overcome this problem, in 2006 the U.S. National Institutes of Health established a Consortium for Transforming Clinical and Translational Research, which grants Clinical and Translational Science Awards. These awards have recently been increased to over $250 million for the next 5 years, expanding the consortium to 55 institutions nationwide. Translational ecology should similarly connect the end-users of environmental science with the major funders of environmental research.
This week, the Ecological Society of America concludes its annual meeting in Pittsburgh. The world's largest international organization of ecologists can play a critical role in spurring translational ecology. It has drawn together more than 3000 scientists, policy-makers, and citizens to explore the causes and consequences of this year's theme, global warming. Many of the sessions call for ecologists to take charge and improve science education and literacy, so that issues related to global warming are not misunderstood. Connecting ecology to stakeholders in these and other ways should enhance the understanding and application of ecological concepts, ensuring that scientific rigor is brought to bear on the world's many environmental challenges."

Original story at Science HERE
William H. Schlesinger is president of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, NY. 

Hans Rosling Makes Statistics Fun

I'm not joking when I say this is the coolest way I've ever seen to create graphics from data. Edward Tufte would be impressed. I know I usually keep my articles focused on environmental issues, but I have to stray this time. Hans Rosling gives a demonstration of his software Gapminder (now owned by Google) using data comparing third world statistics with those of the developed world. Often times the data on regions like Africa are lumped into one group on a visual scale, and Rosling shows that when split into more distinct countries, the similarities become less and less. What this means for the world, he explains, the that the policy for one country in need of aid should be based on the real information, not just generalized ideas about the region.
Not like any power point presentation I've ever seen. I imagine this kind of tool coulld be a great means of providing data for all sorts of projects. See for yourself, the possibilities for this tool are endless.
TED video with Hans Rosling, the world's first statics sports caster.
For the link to check out gapminder data visualization for yourself

Biomimicry Course in New York

The AIA New York Chapter will host Biomimicry Institute's own Dayna Baumeister and a team of biologists for a two day course, June 27 and June 28. The second day the course will be held at Interface flor, a company the Biomimicry Guild has worked with quite extensively.
This is the course where I first met with architects and worked on projects using my knowledge of ecology to design, here in SF. It was a great class, so if you're on the East Coast, be sure to check it out!
for more information from AIA NY

Nader Khalili Creates Homes from Natural Elements

Nader Khalili is looking to tradition for clues on how to produce ecologically friendly buildings. He is following what many peoples of pre-industrial age used, materials that were readily available, local, and free.
"To me it's obvious to use earth as a building block," says Khalili in an interview with AFP, "I don't consider that I have invented anything at all. All the Mediterranean civilizations used earth or natural materials in their architecture."
Nader Khalili came to th US in 1971, bringing with him ideas about architecture from his homeland of Iran. Traditionally in the Middle East, primitive houses were not only made of the abundant materials of the earth, but they were shaped differently. They used a shape from nature- the sphere. Like an egg that is strong when pressure is applied in equal amounts over its surface, the simple properties of physics in a dome shaped structure increase its strength. In our modern day of steel and braces, timber in mass production we began making our homes like cookie cutter productions. Khalili has shown us that domes lack the inherent flaws of cubes, making them resistant to wind, rains, and even earthquakes.
Its a simple concept, to fill bags with earth, stack them, and cover them with clay. The dome is fired, and the finishing touches put in. Khalili teaches these principles at CalEarth Institute in California. His students are able to build a beautiful home built for less than $4,000, safe to live in and good for the environment. They use natural light, passive heating and cooling, and are easy to build.
I learned about Khalil a few years ago and bought his book to check out how he does it. Ceramic Houses and Earth Architecture turned out to be a wonderfully comprehensive manual on how to build an earth dome, so detailed he even included instructions on how to make clay temperature gages for the firing process.
Khalil's latest project is to build domes on the moon for NASA.

for the original article in Yahoo News

Presidio School of Management

With environmental stewardship in the spotlight so much lately, large corporations are starting to realize that they, too, have a responsibility to protect the natural world. University programs and courses on sustainable business are popping up every time a new course catalogue is updated. But the Presidio School of Management in San Francisco is one to check out!
The mission statement of the school is "commitment to graduating ethical, entrepreneurial business leaders who have the passion and skills to make a healthy profit and return on investment that also supports social well-being and environmental sustainability".

Faculty include Hunter Lovins, Alexander Lazlo and Paul Sheldon to mention a few. Guest lecturers include Janine Benyus and Randy Hayes. Every teacher there has been on the board of large corporations, so if power through education is what you seek, there you will find it.
The first program to come out of PSM was DriveNeutral, a company that specializes in reducing carbon footprints for corporations and individuals. Their goal is to drive market-based solutions to global warming. DriveNeutral sponsors education programs and funds projects that tap unused renewable resources, like methane from landfills.

In 2006 Time Magazine did a special feature on Global Warming, and the project was mentioned there. To see full article

Frans Lanting Photographs the Ages of Life on Earth

For those of you who have been following my blog, you may recall my piece on the Long Now Foundation. These guys have a monthly lecture series where scientists, economists, and other experts in their fields give us a long view of a subject. I am so glad I went to this month's lecture, presented by National Geographic nature photographer Frans Lanting.
Lanting presented photos from his new book, 'Life: A Journey through Time' and gave us a narrative of what ancient lifeforms and the planet looked like in different stages of time.

I'll let Stewart Brand tell you the rest, as he is far more eloquent than I, and has been doing this since before I was born.
"It began on a New Jersey beach. Frans Lanting was photographing horseshoe crabs for a story about how they are being ground up for eel bait and at the same time their blood is used for drug testing---a $100 million industry. The crabs have primordial eyesight, which they employ mainly for finding sex partners. Photographing the horseshoes having a spawning orgy one spooky twilight, Lanting felt like he was suddenly back in the Silurian, 430 million years ago...


So Lanting and his wife Chris Eckstrom set out in search of "time capsules," places on the present Earth where he could find and photograph all the ancient stages of life. A two-year project expanded to seven years.

On a live volcano in Hawaii he found the naked planet of 4.3 billion years ago--- molten rock flowing, zero life. "Your boots melt. You smell early Earth." On the western coast of Australia he shot a rare surviving living reef of stromatolites, made of the cyanobacteria who three billion years ago transformed the Earth by filling the atmosphere with oxygen. Lanting took pains to photograph without blue sky in the background, because the sky was not blue until the cyanobacteria had generated a planet's worth of oxygen.

Life's journey through time is a story of innovations, Lanting said. Lichens were the first to colonize land, followed by shelled creatures who could carry ocean inside them--- crabs, turtles, and snails. In Australia Lanting photographed mudskippers---amphibious fish who use their pectoral fins to crawl around on mud and even climb trees.

Dinosaurs once browsed on land plants that defended themselves with ferocious spiky leaves. A survivor of that battle is the Araucaria tree in Chile. Lanting planted one in his garden near Santa Cruz and photographed it there.

Study of the first feathered reptile, the archaeopteryx, suggested that the contemporary bird with the most similar flight style is the frigatebird, and Lanting photographed one looking like an airborne fossil in the Galapagos Islands.

Asteroids and climate change made new niches and new innovations. Following the Cretaceoous extinction 65 million years ago, mammals deployed their toothed jaws. Drier climate 25 million years ago created grasslands. When the forests dried, some apes took to walking upright in the savannahs of Africa. And some of those got around to analyzing DNA and noticing that life's entire history is written there.

Lanting ended his dazzling show with two demonstrations. One was an 8-minute segment of an hour-long orchestral version of "Life's Journey Through Time," composed by Philip Glass, with a brilliant multi-media version of Lanting's photos. The music and the image dynamics gain complexity stage by stage in synch with the growing complexity of life. (It would be glorious to see this performed locally with the San Francisco Symphony. The ideal occasion would be the opening of the new California Academy of Sciences building in Golden Gate Park next year.)

Lanting also did a quick demo of the timeline version of his photos (and videos) on his website. The level of its sophistication drew cheers and applause from the Web-savvy San Francisco audience. See for yourself: http://www.lifethroughtime.com/experience.html
--Stewart Brand"


The Long Now Foundation - http://www.longnow.org
Seminars & downloads: http://www.longnow.org/projects/seminars/

Biomimicry Institute

Humans love to engineer our world, so much that we've discovered ways of altering our entire planet. But how have other animals managed to supply all the necessities of life without the benefit of our spectacular technologies inventions? That's the challenge set forth by the folks at the Biomimicry Institute in Montana: to find ways of bringing nature's solutions into the world of humans, for a world more inhabitable to us all.
The Institute currently holds lectures and workshops for architects and engineers, classes for children, college courses at universities, and soon they'll have a 2 year degree program. They're also developing their own version of an X prize for biomimicry, and a database where professionals can find solutions from nature to solve their own design challenges.
I'm excited because I've been accepted into the program, and next month will be attending a week long course called Biologists at the Design Table. It's a series for biologists, naturalists and ecologists (like me) to teach them how to use their knowledge to assist engineers, architects and designers in their work. This is perfect for a girl like me, who can identify the botanical name and habitat of just about every plant she sees, yet has a hard time relating that as anything but useless trivia to anyone else! We'll be out in the fresh air of Montana, playing and learning, and you'll be missing my blog, since I'll be far from a port (I hope).

Go to the Biomimicry Institute Homepage