Nicholas Faculty and Students to Present Research at Society of Conservation Biology Annual Meeting

Monday, July 19, 2004/ DURHAM, N.C. – Findings from five recent research studies by Nicholas School faculty members and students will be showcased at the 2004 Society of Conservation Biology annual meeting, July 29 to August 2, in New York City.

The SCB meeting is one of the world’s largest international gatherings of conservation biologists, annually attracting more than 1,500 researchers, conservationists and students. This year’s meeting theme is "Conservation in an Urbanizing World."

Reflecting the Nicholas School’s breadth of research and policy expertise, the five presentations by its faculty and students span a wide range of “hot button” environmental topics, from biodiversity conservation in the Amazon to the impact of fisheries bycatch and coastal development on threatened sea turtles.

A common theme to all five is the exploration and evaluation of new technologies and strategies to aid conservation efforts.

• “Integrating Ecology and Genetics to Define and Conserve Distinct Populations of Diamondback Terrapins” – A research team headed by coastal systems science and policy doctoral student Kristen M. Hart and faculty member Larry B. Crowder, Stephen Toth Professor of Marine Biology, examine the effect of coastal wetland development on diamondback terrapins. Using polymorphic microsatellite DNA markers from 300 individual terrapins, they provide the first delineation of fine-scale population structure for the species – knowledge that will help conservationists better manage the estuarine reptile, which is now listed as a Species of Special Concern in several states. King and Crowder’s co-authors are Tim L. King, Carole C. McIvor and Colleen R. Callahan, all of the U.S. Geological Survey.

• “Quantifying the Effects of Fisheries on Protected Species: The Impact of Pelagic Longlines on Loggerhead and Leatherback Sea Turtles” – Coastal systems science and policy doctoral student Rebecca Lewison, research associate Sloan Freeman, and faculty member Larry B. Crowder use international data to provide the first ocean-scale assessment of fisheries bycatch of protected sea turtles. Their findings suggest that more than 200,000 loggerheads and 50,000 leatherbacks were ensnared in fishing lines in 2000 – a number that is significantly higher than previous estimates. “Given 80 percent to 95 percent declines for Pacific loggerhead and leatherback populations over the last 20 years, this bycatch level is not sustainable in the Pacific and in other ocean regions,” they conclude.

• “How is the Precautionary Principle Used in Conservation Policies in the US and Europe – And Does It Matter for Biological Diversity” – Research scientist Kathryn Saterson of the Duke Center for Environmental Solutions examines international differences in the use of precautionary regulations such as the Endangered Species Act. What scientific, cultural or geographic factors might explain the differences, she asks? And have policymakers’ decisions to enact or reject precautionary regulations had significant impact on biodiversity conservation in their countries? “There has been considerable debate in recent years over the merits of precautionary regulations of environmental risks,” she notes. “Differing views on personal property rights, the amount of relatively undisturbed biodiversity remaining in a country, and cultural conceptions of nature” all influence the degree to which a country adopts and enforces them.

• “Rapid Tropical Forest Inventory: A Comparison of Techniques Using Inventory Data from Western Amazonia” – Environmental sciences and policy doctoral student Mark Higgins and co-author Kalle Ruokolainen of the University of Turku, Finland, assess four methods for abbreviating the important but labor-intensive process of plant inventory in western Amazonia tropical forests. They find that taxonomic scope abbreviations are the most efficient – they require only one-fifth the number of stems and taxa of diameter class-based methods and one-twentieth the number of a full inventory.

• “Habitat Use and Activity of the Giant Armadillo (Priodontes maximus): Preliminary Data from Southeastern Peru” – A team headed by research associate Renata Leite-Pitman of the Center for Tropical Conservation present data on diurnal and nocturnal movements and activities of the elusive, little known giant armadillo of the Amazonian lowlands, a globally threatened species. Leite-Pitman and her team are the first researchers ever to use telemetry data to record the species’ activities. Based on their findings, they conclude that local extinction of the giant armadillo may have cascading effects in the mammalian community by impoverishing the fossorial habitat.
For additional information, contact Tim Lucas at the Nicholas School’s Office of Communications, at (919) 613-8084 or tdlucas@duke.edu.