scholarly journals EDITORIAL : A research priority for biodiversity conservation

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 80-83
Author(s):  
Chris Margules
Keyword(s):  
Biodiversity Conservation ◽  
Conservation Biology ◽  
Smithsonian Institution ◽  
Scientific Discipline ◽  
National Academy Of Sciences ◽  
Research Priority ◽  
The Us ◽  
Moral High Ground ◽  
National Forum ◽  
Academy Of Sciences

Conservation biology emerged as a scientific discipline in the mid-1980s with the explicit practical goal of conserving species and habitats. The term ‘biodiversity’ was coined soon after, apparently at some time during the organization of the September 1986 National Forum on Biodiversity held by the US National Academy of Sciences and the Smithsonian Institution. The science of conservation biology was quickly taken up. Journals proliferated and textbooks soon followed. Laboratories within university biology and ecology departments specialized in conservation biology. Along with a great many other young biologists and ecologists, I climbed the moral high ground and set about research to help change the future by discovering how to protect biodiversity.

AGI's Framework on Addressing Equity in the Geoscience Societies and the Challenge of Defining Success

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Keane ◽  
Susan Sullivan ◽  
Leila Gonzales
Keyword(s):  
Earth Science ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Critical Component ◽  
National Academy Of Sciences ◽  
Professional Societies ◽  
The Us ◽  
Intimate Knowledge ◽  
Academy Of Sciences ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Federal Data

<p>The American Geosciences Institute in cooperation with its member societies has developed the Framework for Addressing Racial and Ethnic Equity in Geosciences Professional Societies.  The geoscience societies are a pivotal area to influence the culture of the geosciences, and in response to the events of June 2020, many societies determined they needed to directly act on the issue of equity in the geosciences. Being birthed from a federation of US-centric organizations, the Framework has clear US-aligned approaches and boundaries.  However, the baseline proposed actions are fundamentally universal and meet the goal of the authoring committee to provide a framework from which we hope geoscience organizations of all types would use it to craft their own specific action plan and policies.   A critical component of this framework for the committee was to ensure definable actions were included.   Some of these suggested actions and their intended extensions will be discussed.  Additionally, ongoing conversations among the societies, with the US National Academy of Sciences Board on Earth Science and Resources, and other science organizations have begun to examine what the path forward looks like.   One area that AGI particularly is concerned about is the process of measuring progress.   Understanding and recognizing the impacts of efforts like this is critical to ensure agile responses for success.   But with AGI's intimate knowledge of much of the U.S. federal data, some of the ambiguities and definitional challenges within the US system complicates the ability to directly measure progress and for which further discussion of what success looks like is critically needed.  </p>

Climate Geoengineering and the Role of Public Deliberation: A Comment on the us National Academy of Sciences’ Recommendations on Public Participation

Climate Law ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (2-4) ◽  
pp. 252-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
William C. G. Burns ◽  
Jane A. Flegal
Keyword(s):  
Public Participation ◽  
Public Deliberation ◽  
National Academy Of Sciences ◽  
World Community ◽  
Design Considerations ◽  
The Us ◽  
The World ◽  
Academy Of Sciences ◽  
Important Design

The feckless response of the world community to the mounting threat of climate change has led to a growing interest in climate geoengineering research. In early 2015, the us National Academy of Sciences released two major reports on the topic. While it is notable that both reports recommended some form of public participation to inform research, this article argues that the vagueness of these recommendations could mean that their implementation might not comport with optimal approaches for public deliberation. We outline some options for public deliberation on climate geoengineering and important design considerations.

scholarly journals LNTgate

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 239784731769499 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward J Calabrese
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Biological Effects ◽  
The United States ◽  
Cancer Risk Assessment ◽  
Response Model ◽  
Historical Evidence ◽  
National Academy Of Sciences ◽  
Linear Dose ◽  
The Us ◽  
Academy Of Sciences

This commentary summarizes a spate of recent papers that provide historical evidence that the 1956 recommendation of the US National Academy of Sciences Biological Effects of Atomic Radiation I Genetics Panel to switch from a threshold to a linear dose–response model for risk assessment was an ideologically motivated decision based on deliberate falsification and fabrication of the research record. The recommendation by the Genetics Panel had far-reaching influence, affecting cancer risk assessment, risk communication strategies, community public health, and numerous medical practices in the United States and worldwide. This commentary argues that the toxicology, risk assessment, and regulatory communities examine this issue, addressing how these new historical evaluations affect the history and educational practices of these fields as well as carcinogen regulation.

Material and Financial Hardship and Income-Based Poverty Measures in the USA

2004 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
KATHLEEN S. SHORT
Keyword(s):  
Longitudinal Survey ◽  
Program Participation ◽  
National Academy Of Sciences ◽  
Poverty Measure ◽  
Single Indicator ◽  
Poverty Measures ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Academy Of Sciences ◽  
The Relationship

Individuals and families may encounter difficulty making ends meet on many dimensions and there are a large number of measures designed to identify this group. In general, there is agreement that all of the approaches capture different pieces of the puzzle, while no single indicator can yield a complete picture. In an attempt to understand this multidimensional aspect of poverty, several measures are examined in this article: the official US poverty measure, a relative poverty measure, an experimental measure following recommendations of the US National Academy of Sciences, an index of material hardship, a measure of household debt, and responses to a question about inability to meet expenses. This study uses the 1996 panel of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). The SIPP is a longitudinal survey that allows us to examine all of these various indicators for the same people over the period from 1996 to 1998. The study uses regression analysis to assess the relationship between and among the various indicators of economic hardship.

The merging of taxonomy and conservation biology: a synthesis of Australian butterfly systematics (Lepidoptera: Hesperioidea and Papilionoidea) for the 21st century

Zootaxa ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2707 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
MICHAEL F. BRABY
Keyword(s):  
Biodiversity Conservation ◽  
Conservation Biology ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Research Effort ◽  
Logistic Function ◽  
Species Group ◽  
Oceanic Islands ◽  
Scientific Discipline ◽  
Valid Species ◽  
Systematic Research

Taxonomy is a major scientific discipline that underpins the preservation of biological diversity, but the discipline of taxonomy itself has, until recently, remained somewhat disconnected from conservation biology. Checklists summarise available taxonomic and systematic knowledge and in part provide a framework to optimise efforts and scarce resources for biodiversity conservation. Butterflies have been identified as a key bioindicator group of invertebrates for monitoring, assessing environmental change and for biodiversity conservation. A revised checklist of the butterflies (Hesperioidea: Hesperiidae and Papilionoidea: Papilionidae, Pieridae, Nymphalidae, Riodinidae, Lycaenidae) of Australia is presented, incorporating recent changes to both the higher and lower systematic levels of classification based on review of the literature, mandatory changes of specific epithets to achieve gender agreement, together with recommended common names. A total of 1,134 available species group names are listed, of which 423 are junior synonyms. Currently, 596 valid lower taxa (i.e. species and subspecies) are recognised in the fauna. Of the valid species, 430 are recorded from Australia, of which 404 occur on the mainland and Tasmania and 26 are restricted to remote oceanic islands. Gender changes affect 40 species/subspecies group names, of which 27 are valid taxa and 13 are junior synonyms. Comments are made on the size and composition of the fauna, taxonomic impediment, species concepts and utility of subspecies. Modelling the rate of species accumulation based on taxonomic research effort over the past 100 years using a generalized logistic function suggests that about 91% of the Australian butterfly fauna has been catalogued so far. A detailed review of known problems concerning the taxonomy among the lower systematic levels (i.e. genera, species and subspecies) is presented as candidates for future systematic research. Although Australian butterflies are relatively well-known taxonomically, it is estimated that there are approximately 40 species yet to be formally recorded/recognised and more than 60 problems at the lower systematic levels in which the nomenclature, taxonomic status of species/subspecies or monophyly of genera need to be resolved.

Melvin Calvin. 8 April 1911 — 8 January 1997

2008 ◽  
Vol 54 ◽  
pp. 59-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glenn T. Seaborg ◽  
Andrew A. Benson
Keyword(s):  
American Chemical Society ◽  
Chemical Society ◽  
National Academy Of Sciences ◽  
Carbon 14 ◽  
Melvin Calvin ◽  
The Us ◽  
Asking Questions ◽  
The University ◽  
Academy Of Sciences ◽  
Radiation Laboratory

Melvin Calvin died in Berkeley on 8 January 1997, at the age of 85, from a heart attack following years of declining health. He was widely known for his mental intensity, skill in asking questions, and impressive presentation of his research and ideas. During the period1946–57 Calvin directed laboratories utilizing carbon–14 and other radio–isotopes in the University of California's Radiation Laboratory, founded by Ernest Orlando Lawrence. Among his achievements was the delineation of the path of carbon in photo synthesis, for which he was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1961. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1954. Among his many honours were the Priestley Medal of the American Chemical Society in 1978, the US National Medal of Science in 1989, and the Davy Medal of the Royal Society in1964.

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