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Announcements

Job Announcements

The Nature Conservancy seeks a Senior Project Ecologist for its projects in San Luis Obispo County, California. These projects cover approximately 350,000 acres in four regions of the county and include coastal, inland, and riparian communities. Responsibilities include making recommendations on terms of conservation easements, establishing priorities for land purchases, and implementing restoration and/or monitoring programs to ensure the long-term protection of conserved areas. Requirements include a M.S. or Ph.D. in biology, ecology, or a related field and significant on-the-ground experience (at least five years), with a heavy emphasis on planning, working with diverse groups of people, and implementing conservation strategies. Applicants should be outgoing, extremely people-oriented, politically knowledgeable, and strongly motivated to achieve tangible solutions. For further information or to apply, contact the human relations department of The Nature Conservancy, Telephone (415) 777-0487. Applications will be accepted until 30 June 2000 or until the position is filled.

Research Grants and Opportunities

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, through a cooperative agreement with the United States Golf Association, requests preproposals for projects that address wildlife conservation needs on golf courses. All projects must address issues of direct management concern to the golf industry, and should provide management recommendations applicable on at least a regional basis. Areas of interest include management and design techniques for increasing biodiversity on golf courses, wildlife corridors or barriers, management of specific species, monitoring the success of conservation programs, and the effects of golfer and maintenance activities. Requests should not exceed US$30,000 per year; multi-year funding is possible. Deadline for preproposals is 21 July 2000. Applicants will be notified in August if a full proposal is requested. Full proposals will be due in October 2000, with funding available in February of 2001. For preproposal guidelines, see http://www.nfwf.org/nfwfusga.htm.

Each year, the Gopher Tortoise Council awards the J. Larry Landers Research Award to the best student research proposal. Research should focus on some aspect of the biology of upland vegetation associations and the organisms that inhabit them. In recent years, successful proposals have included studies on red-cockaded woodpeckers, gopher frogs, southern hognose snakes, and several related to the gopher tortoise and its habitat. To apply, submit a detailed study proposal, budget, and curriculum vitae by 15 August 2000 to Bob Herrington, Research Advisory Chair, Department of Biology, Georgia Southwestern State University, Americus, GA 31709, bherring@canes.gsw.edu.

Educational Opportunity

Columbia University's Center for Environmental Research and Conservation (CERC) will offering a six credit summer ecosystem experience for undergraduates from 24 July-25 August 2000. Students may study in Brazil (tropical forest), Biosphere 2 (desert), or the Black Rock Forest in New York's Hudson Valley (temperate forest). All students will be linked via network to enable them to compare and expand their understanding of diverse biomes. For more information email dsieg@cerc.columbia.edu or see http://www.see-u.org.

New Organizations

The Committee for the U.S. National Institute for the Environment (CNIE) has changed its name to the National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE), declaring victory in translating its goals for improving science information for environmental decision-making into National Science Foundation (NSF) initiatives. CNIE formed in 1989 with the goal of establishing a new federal science funding agency-the National Institute for the Environment (NIE)-but in recent years shifted toward establishment of a semi-autonomous NIE within NSF. A recent National Science Board (NSB) report called for a tripling of NSF funding for environmental research, knowledge assessment, and education as well as structural changes to implement the report (http://www.nsf.gov/nsb/tfe). Because the NSB recommended implementation of "most of the activities initially proposed for a National Institute for the Environment," the CNIE announced that it fully supported implementation of the NSF report and was suspending its call for the creation of a NIE. The newly named NCSE will work to improve the scientific basis for environmental decision-making through (1) support for NSF and related initiatives, (2) activities to bring stakeholders together to develop a common understanding of science related to environmental issues, and (3) an online information dissemination system that provides clear, science-based information about the environment ( http://www.cnie.org). For more information contact David Blockstein, NCSE, 1725 K St. NW Suite 212, Washington, D.C. 20006-1401, Telephone (202) 530-5810, FAX (202) 628-4311, David@cnie.org.

The Institute of Biodiversity Science at Fudan University (IBSFU), the first institute of biodiversity in Chinese colleges and universities, was founded in 1996. Its main research areas are (1) urbanization, (2) processes and mechanisms of species endangerment, (3) genetics of crop plants and related wild strains, (4) biodiversity information systems, and (5) ecological services. Current projects on conservation of endangered plants in China and research on biodiversity conservation in key regions of China are funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China. The institute also is working with the Shanghai Environmental Protection Agency to establish a biodiversity database and protection strategies for Shanghai. M.S., Ph.D., and postdoctoral positions are available. For more information contact Jiakuan Chen, Director, IBSFU, HanDan Road 220, Shanghai 200433, People's Republic of China, Telephone and FAX 86-21-65642468, jkchen@fudan.edu.cn.

New Publications

MAGNOLIA 2000 (http://www.ibsfu.fudan.edu.cn/english/) is a prototype information system for storage and retrieval of data (in both Chinese and English) on plant diversity in China, with emphasis on algae and higher plants in Shanghai and eastern China. The system includes a set of interfaces to access both data on nucleotide sequences from the DNA Data Bank of Japan ( http://www.ddbj.nig.ac.jp/), which is linked with and updated daily from GenBank and EMBL, and phylogenetic information from TreeBase (http://www.herbaria.harvard.edu/treebase/). Version 1.0 of MAGNOLIA 2000, which consists of numerous single-purpose databases (e.g., wetland plants in Shanghai), has two main functions. First, it allows a user to search for plants in a particular location by entering the common or scientific name of the species, genus, or higher taxonomic levels. Second, it enables a user to obtain a brief description of a plant, including its morphological and ecological characteristics, a list of related nucleotide sequences, and phylogenies (trees) and corresponding original data matrixes. MAGNOLIA 2000 currently is being applied in biodiversity education. The number of fields in each database is being expanded, and more databases, such as macrophytes and algae, are being added into the system. Spatially explicit distributional data on these taxa will be incorporated in the future. The system also may be extended to cover bird and fish diversity in China. MAGNOLIA 2000 is coordinated by Bin Zhao, Yang Zhong, Xiaoyan Zhang, Wenwei Ren, and Jiakuan Chen, Institute of Biodiversity Science, Fudan University, Shanghai, People's Republic of China. For more information contact Yang Zhong, aquatic@263.net.

Morehead Electronic Journal of Applications in Mathematics (MEJAM), a new interdisciplinary journal sponsored by Morehead State University, provides a refereed outlet for undergraduates in any discipline to publish quality papers rapidly. MEJAM accepts papers from all disciplines that emphasize the applications of mathematics. Papers may be historical, expository, or completely original in nature but must adhere to strict academic standards. For more information contact R. Duane Skaggs, Department of Mathematical Sciences, Morehead State University, Morehead, KY 40351, Telephone (606) 783-2848, d.skaggs@morehead-st.edu, http://www.morehead-st.edu/colleges/science/math/mejam/.

Meetings

The conference The good in nature and humanity: connecting science, religion, and the natural world will be held 11-14 May 2000 at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. The meeting is a collaborative effort of the Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, the Yale University Divinity School, the Wilderness Society, and the National Religious Partnership for the Environment. The meeting will generate a dialogue among scientists and practitioners whose everyday decisions can reflect an integration of practical, scientific, and ethical perspectives. For questions about registration contact Roberta Hudson, Yale University Conference Services, Telephone (203) 432-0465, Email confserv@yale.edu. For other questions see www.yale.edu/natureandhumanity or contact Stephen Kellert, School of Forestry and Environmental Sciences, Telephone (203) 432-5114, FAX (203) 432-3817, Email stephen.kellert@yale.edu.

The 2000 Stockholm Water Symposium, Water Security for the 21st Century-Innovative Approaches, will be held 14-17 August 2000 in Stockholm, Sweden. The symposium will identify actions and solutions in transitioning from problem focus to opportunity focus in water issues. Topics will include increased effectiveness in water use, restructuring of industry and small-scale agricultural production, reuse of human waste, and technologies for potable water. For more information, contact SIWI, Telephone +46-8 522 139 60, FAX +46-8 522 13961, sympos@siwi.org, http://www.siwi.org.

The seventh annual conference of The Wildlife Society, Excellence in Wildlife Stewardship through Science and Education, will be held 12-16 September 2000 in Nashville, Tennessee. Topics will include habitat classification systems, status and trends of wildlife in the interior Columbia River Basin; biometrics education, urban wildlife management, alternatives to statistical hypothesis testing, and GIS software applications for wildlife. Contact The Wildlife Society, 5410 Grosvenor Lane, Bethesda, MD 20814, Telephone (301) 897-9770, FAX (301) 530-2471, tws@wildlife.org, http://www.wildlife.org.

An international roundtable to develop a protocol on chelonian relocation and heritage collections will be held 26-28 September 2000 in Orlando, Florida. The objective of the meeting is to produce a practical document that addresses seven major areas: ethics, disease, genetics and systematics, environmental issues, socioeconomics, intra-specific impacts, and heritage collection. Send abstracts (100 words or less) for papers or posters to Pat Ashton, PSASHTON@aol.com. For more information contact Ray Ashton or Ghislaine Guyot, Ashton Biodiversity Research and Preservation Institute, 5745 SW 75th Street #331, Gainesville, FL 32608, Telephone (352) 495-7449, FAX (352) 495-7433, Tortfarm2@aol.com.

An international symposium on the scientific basis for participatory improvement and conservation of crop genetic resources will be held 8-14 October 2000 in Oaxtepec, Morelos, Mexico. For further information contact Adi Damania, Genetic Resources Conservation Program, University of California, Davis, CA 95616-8602, Telephone (530) 754-8506, FAX (530) 754-8505, abdamania@ucdavis.edu, http://www.grcp.ucdavis.edu/projects/indexe.htm.

A conference on wildlife health and management in Australasia will be held 2-6 July 2001 at Taronga Zoo, Sydney, Australia. Session topics are conservation biology in Australasia, wildlife utilization, marine wildlife and birds, recovery and reintroduction programs and vertebrate pests, and wildlife health in Australasia. The deadline for contacting session convenors about presenting a paper or poster is 30 June 2000. For more information contact Larry Vogelnest, Taronga Zoo, P.O. Box 20, Mosman NSW 2088, Australia, lvogelnest@zoo.nsw.gov.au

The First International Conference on Distance Sampling will be held 30 July - 3 August 2001 at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. The theme of the conference is estimating wildlife abundance for ecology, management, and conservation. Contact Rhona Rodger, Telephone + 44 1334 463228, rhona@dcs.st-and.ac.uk, http://www.ruwpa.st-and.ac.uk/icods/.

Managing River Flows for Biodiversity: A Conference on Science, Policy and Conservation Action will be held 30 July - 2 August 2001 at Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado. The conference is designed for managers, biologists, non-governmental organizations, and others influencing water management decisions. Topics will include meeting ecosystem needs and human demands for water, flow requirements for biodiversity conservation, and case studies. The conference will include poster sessions; a call for abstracts will be announced soon. To receive further announcements via email, send a request to nsilk@tnc.org

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