Presentations
Dr. Mike Beck
“Essential Measures of Biodiversity for Ocean Observing”
Mike Beck is a Senior Scientist with the Global Marine Initiative of The Nature Conservancy and a research associate at the University of California Santa Cruz. He holds a BA and MS from the University of Virginia and a Ph.D. from Florida State University. He was a Fulbright Fellow and Australian Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Sydney. His current research for The Nature Conservancy focuses on two areas (1) marine ecoregional planning and (2) marine policy. In marine ecoregional planning, he works to develop methods for identifying high priority sites for marine conservation. He has either led or been a team member on plans for the northern Gulf of Mexico; Cook Inlet, AK; Puget Sound and Georgia Straits, WA & BC; Southern California; Northeast Pacific, OR, WA, BC, AK; southeast Atlantic, NC, SC, GA, FL; Greater & Lesser Antilles. In marine policy, he focuses on the development of new strategies for marine conservation, such as the leasing and ownership of marine resources.
Dr. Diana Wall
“The Terrestrial Experience: Species Diversity and Ecosystem Functioning” (large file)
A soil ecologist and environmental scientist, Diana Wall is Professor and Director of the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory, an international ecosystem research center at Colorado State University. Diana is actively engaged in research and education. Her research explores how soil invertebrate diversity contributes to human well -being and sustainability of soils, and the consequences of human activities on soil globally. Her research includes 15 seasons in the Antarctic Dry Valleys examining how soil foodwebs and ecosystem processes respond to global changes and a new global study exploring linkages of aboveground hotspots of biodiversity to those belowground. She chaired the SCOPE Committee on Soil and Sediment Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning and is editor “Sustaining Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in Soils and Sediments (Island Press, 2004). Diana chaired the DIVERSITAS-International Biodiversity Observation Year-2001- 2002; co-chaired the Millennium Development Goals Committee of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment; and is chair, the Global Litter Decomposition Experiment. Diana served as President of the Ecological Society of America; American Institute of Biological Sciences; Association of Ecosystem Research Centers; the Society of Nematologists; and Chair, Council of Scientific Society Presidents. Diana received a B.A. and Ph.D. at the University of Kentucky, Lexington and holds an Honorary Doctorate from the Utrecht University in the Netherlands. She is an AAAS Fellow, Society of Nematologists Fellow and is a Senior Advisor and Fellow of the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program.
Dr. David Allan
“The Freshwater Experience: Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services”
David Allan received his PhD from the University of Michigan in 1971, completed a post-doctoral year at the University of Chicago and then joined the Zoology faculty of the University of Maryland. Dave moved to the University of Michigan in 1990, where he is Professor of Conservation Biology and Ecosystem Management in the School of Natural Resources and Environment. He has served on study panels of the National Science Foundation and National Research Council; on various committees of the North American Benthological Society, Ecological Society of America, and American Society of Limnology and Oceanography; and on the Board of American Rivers. During 2004 he was a Smith Conservation Fellow with The Nature Conservancy, and he currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the Michigan Chapter of TNC. Dr. Allan specializes in the ecology and conservation of rivers. He is the author of Stream Ecology and co-author (with C. E. Cushing) of Streams: Their Ecology & Life. He has published extensively on topics in community ecology and the influence of land use on the ecological integrity of rivers. Dr. Allan’s current research investigates the factors affecting success of stream restoration and various topics related to the management and conservation of aquatic ecosystems.
Dr. Jay Stachowicz
“Consequences of genetic and species diversity for the functioning and resilience of marine systems” (large file)
Jay Stachowicz is a marine ecologist interested in the maintenance and origins of marine biodiversity as well as the consequences of this diversity for the stability and functioning of ecosystems. He received his B.A. from Dartmouth College in 1993 and a Ph.D from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1998 and is now an Associate Professor of Evolution and Ecology at the University of California, Davis where he has been since 2000. He is the 2004 winner of the George Mercer Award given by the Ecological Society of America for an outstanding ecological research paper published by a younger researcher. His experimental work spans levels of diversity from genetic to species and includes a wide range of experimental subjects including seaweeds, seagrasses, sessile invertebrates and top predators. The unifying theme of this work is the role that biodiversity at all levels plays in enhancing the resistance of communities to various types of natural and anthropogenic disturbances including eutrophication and invasion by introduced species. Through a working group at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, he is attempting to assess the consequences of marine biodiversity loss for the ability of marine ecosystems to provide goods and services enjoyed by humans. He also has research interests in the basic ecology, evolution and natural history of marine organisms, with a particular fondness for crustaceans and sea squirts. In addition, he is involved in curriculum development in the biological and marine sciences and teaches undergraduate courses in Ecology, Marine Biology, and Invertebrate Zoology.
Dr. Elliott Norse
“Marine biodiversity, ecological interconnections, and management information needs” (presentation not available)
Elliott A. Norse is President of Marine Conservation Biology Institute (MCBI) in Bellevue, Washington. After deciding to become an “ichthyologist” at age 5, he earned his B.S. with honors in biology, geology and music from Brooklyn College in 1969. He examined the ecology of blue crabs in the Caribbean and Tropical East Pacific for his Ph.D. at the University of Southern California and his Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Iowa. Since 1978 he’s worked to catalyze fundamental change in environmental policy at the US Environmental Protection Agency, at the President’s Council on Environmental Quality (where, in 1980, he wrote the chapter that defined biological diversity as conservation’s overarching goal), the Ecological Society of America, The Wilderness Society and The Ocean Conservancy, before founding MCBI in 1996. MCBI is a national and international science and conservation advocacy organization dedicated to advancing the new science of marine conservation biology and applying ecosystem-based management to issues including ocean zoning, marine reserves, destructive fishing methods and other ways to protect, recover and sustainably use the sea. A Founding Life Member of the Society for Conservation Biology, he organized the first and second Symposia on Marine Conservation Biology, numerous scientific workshops on emerging marine environmental issues, and the symposium Marine Ecosystem-based Management: Lessons from the Land at the 2005 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His 140+ publications include four books: Conserving Biological Diversity in Our National Forests (1986), Ancient Forests of the Pacific Northwest (1990), Global Marine Biological Diversity: A Strategy for Building Conservation into Decision Making (1993) and Marine Conservation Biology: The Science of Maintaining the Sea’s Biodiversity (2005). He is a Pew Fellow in Marine Conservation and recipient of the Evergreen Award for service to the State of Washington.
Dr. Steve Palumbi
“Approaches for Researching the Roles of Marine and Coastal Biodiversity in Maintaining Ecosystem Services” (presentation not available)
Stephen R. Palumbi received his Ph.D. from University of Washington in marine ecology. His research group engages in the study of the genetics, evolution, conservation, population biology and systematics of a diverse array of marine organisms. Professor Palumbi’s own research interests are similarly widespread, and he has published on the genetics and evolution of sea urchins, whales, cone snails, corals, sharks, spiders, shrimps, bryozoans, and butterflyfishes. A primary focus is the use of molecular genetic techniques in conservation, including the identification of whale and dolphin products available in commercial markets. Current conservation work centers on the genetics of marine reserves designed for conservation and fisheries enhancement, with projects in the Philipppines, Bahamas and western US coast. In addition, basic work on the molecular evolution of reproductive isolation and its influence on patterns of speciation uses marine model systems such as sea urchins. This work is expanding our view of the evolution of gamete morphology and the genes involved. Steve’s recent book, The Evolution Explosion: How humans cause rapid evolutionary change, shows how rapid evolution is central to emerging problems in modern society. In January 2003, Steve appears in the TV series The Future is Wild, an computer-animated exploration of the possible courses of evolution in the next few hundred million years.
Professor Palumbi moved his laboratory from Harvard University in August 2002 to Stanford University’s Hopkin Marine Station. Steve is a Pew Fellow in Marine Conservation, married to physician Mary Roberts, father of two teenagers, and founding member of the band Flagella.
Steering Committee
- Dr. Jo-Ann Leong (Co-Chair)
Hawai’i Institute of Marine Biology, University of Hawai’i - Dr. Lewis Incze (Co-Chair)
Bioscience Research Institute, University of Southern Maine - Dr. Paul Sandifer (Co-Chair)
Senior Scientist, Coastal Ecology, NOAA/NOS - Dr. Michael Fogarty
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute - Dr. Ben Halpern
University of California, Santa Barbara - Dr. Steven Palumbi
Hopkins Marine Station, Stanford University
