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“All Politics Is Local.” Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill, Jr.

The Challenge of Scale: Is Biodiversity Big Science? Woody Turner Biodiversity & Ecological Forecasting Team Meeting University of Maryland May 1, 2008. All Biodiversity is Local?. “All Politics Is Local.” Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill, Jr. How We See Challenges of Scale. (Source: Wikipedia).

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“All Politics Is Local.” Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill, Jr.

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  1. The Challenge of Scale:Is Biodiversity Big Science?Woody TurnerBiodiversity & Ecological ForecastingTeam MeetingUniversity of MarylandMay 1, 2008

  2. All Biodiversity is Local? “All Politics Is Local.” Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill, Jr.

  3. How We See Challenges of Scale (Source: Wikipedia) Helicobacterium pylorii Genome from: http://biocrs.biomed.brown.edu/Books/Chapters/Ch%2038/Pylori-Genome.gif (Source: Wikipedia)

  4. There’s also Time Great Basin bristlecone pine Source: Wikipedia Mayfly Source: Wikipedia

  5. Importance of Time Series Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keeling_Curve

  6. We Do This Already (to some degree) Up-scaling for Large Patterns 1000 km 10 km ha m µm Down-scaling for Processes

  7. Stommel Diagram of Spatial & Temporal Scales of Zooplankton Biomass Variability (Haury et al. 1978 in J. H. Steele ed. Spatial Pattern in Plankton Communities via Tiffany Vance at http://dusk.geo.orst.edu/Pickup/Tiffany_Defense.pdf)

  8. Simon Levin in Ecology 1992 (from 1989 MacArthur Award Lecture) “Indeed, the disruptive selection regime, by which population genetics becomes more molecular while ecosystems science becomes more global, may enhance the speciation of the two communities of scientists unless novel efforts are made to relate the phenomena that transpire on the disparate scales of interest.” (Talking about the patchiness of zooplankton vs. phytoplankton) “Thus a two-scale model is needed, and a general lesson learned: no single mechanism explains pattern on all scales. In this case, pattern seems extrinsically driven on broad scales, and autonomously generated on fine scales.” “…it is the interaction among phenomena on different scales that must occupy our attention.” “This is the key to scaling and interrelating phenomena at different scales: knowing what fine detail is relevant at the higher levels, and what is noise.” “The problem of relating phenomena across scales is the central problem in biology and in all of science.”

  9. Video Cameras on Wild Birds C. Rutz et al., Science 318, 765 (2007)

  10. Why? Science 314:1419 (2006) Science 313:833 (2006) Science 314:963 (2006) Science 315:1846 (2007) Sanderson et al., Conservation Biology 22:252-266 (2008)

  11. From ROSES A.5 Biodiversity “To test the utility of remote sensing observations to promote our understanding of biodiversity and track its changes over time, we must first bring satellite and airborne observations together with in situ or “bottom up” assessments of biodiversity. Given the spatial scales involved, remote sensing will largely, but not exclusively, focus on the ecosystem and biome levels of organization while in situ observations will focus on the genetic and species levels of organization. Various models will serve as integration tools linking remotely-sensed and in situ data sets. …This solicitation places special emphasis on two key aspects of ecology, which are very relevant to biodiversity studies: distribution and abundance. In doing so, we seek proposals that combine NASA satellite and airborne remote sensing data with in situ biodiversity data to characterize the distribution and/or abundance of elements of biodiversity in dynamic environments. …In situ data sets may include information from biodiversity inventories and surveys, animal-borne sensors and cameras, molecular genetic markers, soil microbial probes, and/or other tools useful in estimating the distribution and abundance of populations, species, and communities.”

  12. The Human Footprint Sanderson et al. 2002. Bioscience. www.wcs.org/humanfootprint

  13. Time of Scarcity?

  14. We Are the Fortunate Ones Every creature is full of God and a book about God. Meister Eckhart, Christian mystic (c.1260-c.1328) We need an expedition to planet Earth, where probably fewer than 10 percent of the life forms are known to science, and fewer than 1 percent of those have been studied beyond a simple anatomical description and a few notes on natural history. … Although it (biology) depends upon a solid base of physics and chemistry for its functional explanations, and the theory of natural selection for its evolutionary explanations, it is defined uniquely by the particularity of its elements. E. O. Wilson, secular humanist & biologist Perhaps life on Earth has the tools we need to relieve scarcities on our living planet. Those with a global view may be the first at understanding global problems. Do we have a global responsibility?

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