Bridging the Gap: Connecting People, Nature, & Climate
The greatest challenge to conservation science today is addressing gaps in information, understanding, and on-the-ground implementation. These gaps require bridging our efforts across multiple scales through inter-disciplinary study and effective practice. By sharing our conservation experience we can benefit from information about how effective our practices are, advance our understanding, and foster useful lines of inquiry.
We are facing many environmental and social challenges that have common underpinnings and mutually desirable outcomes, justifying a clear need to integrate biological, physical, and social sciences into the environmental problem solving process. Change is coming that will affect our climate, population, and natural capital. Fostering a stronger connection between conservation science and practice that addresses people, nature, and climate will improve the utility of our science in addressing the forecasted changes.
North America in particular will see changes that are likely to influence biodiversity at multiple scales, from large migratory routes to extirpation of locally adapted species. Our fresh water supplies will be stretched to accommodate population growth and infrastructure development, and may likely become seasonally less predictable. Changes such as these have implications for human communities, protected areas, working landscapes, and functioning ecosystem.
Developing conservation strategies to cope with our changing planet is arguably the greatest challenge facing the world and its biodiversity. Convening at NACCB 2012 will allow us to pool our collective experience and expertise in order to bridge knowledge and implementation gaps that impede our progress in conservation.
MEET OUR MASCOT, "STONY," AN AMERICAN PIKA
The American pika, Ochotona princeps, is a generalized herbivore found in the mountains of western North America. Pikas are lagomorphs, an order of mammals which also includes rabbits and hares. Pikas are diurnal, non-hibernating mammals that generally reside in alpine or sub-alpine boulder fields. They survive winter by caching hay piles within cracks and crevices amidst the rocks throughout summer and fall. They are considered ecosystem engineers in that they alter their environment by their daily activities. Large hay caches, which contain both plant and fecal matter, are not entirely consumed during the winter and thus leave deposits of decomposing biomass that may serve to provide natural fertilizers that increase soil nitrogen (a limiting resource for vegetative growth at high altitudes).
Due to their local abundance and widespread distribution, the IUCN Red List currently designates the American pika as a species of Least Concern. Similarly, a 2010 review by the US Fish and Wildlife Service determined that Endangered status was not currently warranted for the American pika or its five subspecies lineages. However, being largely alpine animals, pikas are extremely sensitive to high temperatures and also to situations where winter snow pack (which serves as an insulating blanket) fails to materialize. The combination of their sensitivity to warm temperatures, habitat specificity to talus or piles of broken rock (a habitat type which is often patchily distributed), low fecundity, and poor dispersal ability makes the pika a candidate indicator species for responses to global climate change (global warming). Research in the interior Great Basin indicates that some historic pika populations have gone locally extinct within the past century, most likely due to climatic influences. Other studies are finding pikas at numerous low-elevation sites, indicating that pikas have some behavioral capacity to accommodate to diverse climatic conditions. Presently many studies are being conducted throughout western North America to inventory and monitor pika populations, and to determine the sensitivity and responses of pikas to changes in habitat and temperature.
Photos © A. Tshcherbina
NACCB 2012 COORDINATING COMMITTEE
Steering Committee Chair
Adina Merenlender, UC Berkeley
Executive Committee
Don Arnold, Santa Clara Valley Water District
Tim Bean, UC Berkeley
Jodi Hilty, Wildlife Conservation Society
Aletris Neils, Conservation CATalyst
Paula Swedeen, Swedeen Consulting
Marit Wilkerson, UC Davis
Lead Staff Organizer
Denise Woods, Woods Biological Research & Services
Sponsor Solicitation Committee
Jodi Hilty (Chair), NA Director Wildlife Conservation Society
Kim Terrell, David H. Smith Conservation Research Fellow Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute National Zoological Park
Sara Souther, David H. Smith Conservation Research Fellow, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Kristy Deiner (chair-local) SCB Davis Chapter
Angee Doerr, SCB Davis Chapter
Don Arnold, SCB Central California Coast Chapter
Exhibitors Committee
Sarah Reed (Chair), Colorado State University and Wildlife Conservation Society
SCB Global Office Contact
Heather DeCaluwe, SCB Global Office
Lauren Krizel, Asst. Director SCB
Lori Strong, Burk Inc.
Social Media Manager
Christine Javier, UC Berkeley
External Communications
Nathan Spillman, SCB Global Office
Trainings/Short Courses & Workshops Committee
Kristin Byrd (Chair), U.S. Geological Survey
Susan Miller, The Nature Conservancy
Field Trips Committee
Allen Fish, Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy
Marilyn Hope Smulyan
Jim Thorne, UC Davis
Paper, Symposium, & Poster Review Committee Chairs
Carlos Caroll, Klamath Center for Conservation Research
Maria Santos, Stanford University
Benjamin Sikes, University of Texas at Austin
Brett Dickson
John A. Hall
Special Events/Fun Committee
Jessica Pratt (Chair), UC Irvine
Rebecca Sloan, Conservation Planning
Elyse De Franco
Erica Brand
Film Night Committee
Kristy Deiner (co-chair) SCB Davis Chapter
Steve Dunsky (co-chair) US Forest Service
Emily Paciolla SCB Davis Chapter
Rachel Fichman SCB Davis Chapter
Student Award & Contest Committee
Bogdan Cristescu, University of Alberta
Nyeema Harris, UC Berkeley
Tim Bean, UC Berkeley
Aletris Neils, U Arizona
Jessica Pratt, UC Irvine
Sadie J. Ryan, SUNY ESF
Marit Wilkerson, UC Davis
Conference and NA Section Treasurer
Paula Swedeen, Swedeen Consulting
Promotion Materials Committee
Sadie Ryan (Chair) , SUNY ESF
Carbon Offset Committee
Justin Kitzes (Chair), UC Berkeley
Volunteer Committee
Mary Matella (Chair), UC Berkeley
Marit Wilkerson, UC Davis
Website Coordination
Corey Zelunka, X-CD Technologies
Mexico Liaisons
Roberto Arreola Alemán, CONABIO
Carlos Galindo Leal, CONABIO
Canada Liaisons
Mark Boyce, University of Alberta
Coleen StClaire, University of Alberta
Members at Large
Karen Beardsley, Society for Conservation GIS
Jessica Blickley, SCB Davis Chapter
Joe Burns, U.S. Forest Service
Carlos Carroll, Klamath Conservation
Sube Cauhuu, UC Berkeley Chapter President
Barbara Dean, Island Press
Dominick Della Sala, North America Section President
Kathy Granillo, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
John Hall, NA Section Board Member
Judy Jacobs, NA Section Board Member
Jessa Madosky, Thomas University
Mike Manfredo, Colorado State
Susan Miller, The Nature Conservancy
Scott Morrison, The Nature Conservancy
Jim Quinn, UC Davis
Karen Richardson, Commission for Environmental Cooperation
We are tweeting at #NACCB2012