Conservation Science

Fellow Story

Lerman on how native plants in urban yards offer birds "mini-refuges"

Yards with plants that mimic native vegetation offer birds "mini-refuges" and help to offset losses of biodiversity in cities, according to results of a study published today in the journal PLOS ONE. "Native" yards support birds better than those with traditional grass lawns and non-native plantings.
August 27, 2012
Fellow Story

Cornelisse advises on an iPad insect science game

Read Tara's blog post
August 20, 2012
Fellow Story

Johnson's organization launches invasive plant tracker app

In order to keep track of California’s weeds, and, more importantly, where they’re spreading, Cal-IPC has worked with state and local experts to evaluate a list of invasive and noxious plants. “We went through those plants, looking through all the quadrangles of various counties or regions and decided how generally abundant they are, whether they are spreading and if they are under management,” said Johnson.
August 13, 2012
Fellow Story

Grove on emerald ash borer research project using plane-mounted sensors to spot infestations

The beetle, which is native to Asia, first infested the region in 2003 via a tree nursery shipment from Michigan, leading to widespread infestation reports in Charles, Howard, Anne Arundel, Washington and Garrett counties. Past efforts to eradicate the insect in Prince George’s County have led to the destruction of 27 square miles of trees, according to Gazette records.
July 31, 2012
Fellow Story

Reed's work on effectiveness of conservation development featured

Editor's Note: The Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation helped fund Sarah's early work on Conservation Development with the Wildlife Conservation Society through a Leadership Grant.
July 31, 2012
Fellow Story

Elbroch on tracking big cats

Ecologist and master tracker Mark Elbroch says "there's nothing esoteric" about what he does. "It's really just looking for signs that betray the passage of an animal. And knowing where to look." He's looked at scat “for years and years and years,” and still comes across specimens he just can’t identify.
July 31, 2012
Fellow Story

At the Water's Edge

Scientists around the world are studying global climate change and developing various scenarios regarding its potential impact. But the real action and impact will occur at the local level. This is what Switzer Fellows Lisa Micheli and Healy Hamilton are working on in a project they call At the Water's Edge.
July 30, 2012
Fellow Story

Sagarin on octopus defenses and how animals adapt

Hear the interview
July 30, 2012
Fellow Story

Abramson on new warning to ships after fin whale's death

Editor's Note: Leslie's work with the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary is supported with a Leadership Grant from the Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation. Whales feeding on abundant krill are crowding the California coast in such unusual numbers that marine sanctuary officials are urging large ships to slow down as they approach San Francisco Bay. The "notice to mariners" was also broadcast Tuesday by the Coast Guard.
July 26, 2012
Fellow Story

Sugarland

Today the image of that Kona field system lives vividly in the imagination of Noa Kekuewa Lincoln. On a late afternoon at the Amy B.H. Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden in South Kona, Lincoln is striding among the forty-four different cultivars of ko that he helped replant the year before. The planting was done in the traditional Kona drylands style, with kuaiwi on one side of the ko and rows of kalo on the other. Lincoln pauses beside a particularly vibrant clump of cane that has green-andwhite- striped leaves and stalks with stripes of pink, white and pale green. It’s called laukona, he says.
July 25, 2012