The Gift of Biodiversity
by Dr. Sarah D. Oktay
Managing Director UMass Boston Nantucket Field Station
On November 5th, the Nantucket Biodiversity Initiative hosted an all-day free public conference of presentations by scientists from around the country and right here on Nantucket illuminating the assortment of plants, bugs, mammals, birds, fungi, bivalves, moths, butterflies, spiders, reptiles, and various critters that make Nantucket their home. It is a real treat to have experts come and speak about a wide range of research in a smorgasbord of topics that range from gray seal measurements using triangulated cameras to the genetic diversity of spotted turtles.
Most of the scientists on island were also able to present their research to not only their peers but also the general public. The presentations were short, designed for a lay audience, and in many cases awe-inspiring, especially this year when several possible new insect species (either new to the island or possibly even previously unseen species) were reported from a simple and ingenious method of looking for their remnants in galls and leaf damage (read more: http://bugtracks.wordpress.com/2011/10/14/acorn-pip-galls/). Abstracts from the conference can be found at www.nantucketbiodiversityinitiative.org if you click through to the conference page. I was extremely proud of all the science going on here and happy to be one of the many member organizations able to support these projects. For such a small community, we have a lot of smart and dedicated scientists doing essential research on shoestring budgets. Science expeditions here can be like an episode of “MacGyver” meets “Wild Kingdom.”
To formalize scientific collaboration and coordinate our goals, island scientific, educational, and conservation groups formed the Nantucket Biodiversity Initiative in 2003. The Nantucket Biodiversity Initiative is a partnership between Nantucket conservation organizations, universities, non-governmental organizations, and individuals interested in documenting the biodiversity of the islands and adjacent waters and monitoring and conserving that biodiversity over time. Biodiversity includes diversity within species, between species, and among ecosystems. Biodiversity can be defined as the number and variety of organisms found within a specified geographic region and this definition points to the actual counting and recording of things. Without simple enumeration of an object, gene, resource, or creature, we may never know what existed or be able to determine what is missing from an ecosystem. The race is on to find out what lives here before climate change, sea level rise, the influx of exotic species or habitat degradation removes all evidence of a species’ existence. Understanding what is happening in our harbors and ponds was also a theme this year as talks on eel grass, water quality, bay scallops, cyanobacteria levels, and oyster reefs and salt marsh restoration were presented.
But why do we care about biodiversity? What has it ever done for us? Well, besides providing an astounding array of medicinal plants, food, aesthetic beauty, soil, decomposition of living matter, most of the entertaining shows on National Geographic channel, and the insurance policy provided by biodiversity’s contribution to ecosystem services, not much! Ecosystem services are the benefits people obtain from ecosystems. Biodiversity plays an important role in the way ecosystems function and in the many services they provide. Services include nutrients and water cycling, soil formation and retention, resistance against invasive species, pollination of plants, regulation of climate, as well as pest and pollution control by ecosystems. When biodiversity indices decline, these very basic aspects of our environment start to decline, leading to famine, top soil destruction, disease, and increasing costs for food production. Although species extinction is a natural part of Earth’s history, human activity has increased the extinction rate by at least 100 times compared to the natural rate. And this all comes at a very real cost to governments and corporations both globally and locally. “At least 40 percent of the world’s economy and 80 percent of the needs of the poor are derived from biological resources” (from the Convention on Biological Diversity at http://www.cbd.int/programmes/outreach/awareness/publications.shtml).
The United Nations’ Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) is a unique global partnership between the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the global financial sector. As countries within the United Nations began to feel the economic impact from the loss of pollinators, tsunamis, deforestation and droughts, they began to see a need to quantify biological and ecological risk and in 2007 launched The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) study. “The TEEB is a major international initiative to draw attention to the global economic benefits of biodiversity, to highlight the growing costs of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation, and to draw together expertise from the fields of science, economics and policy to enable practical actions moving forward.” The report is available at http://www.unepfi.org/fileadmin/documents/CEO_DemystifyingMateriality.pdf. I found this report thought provoking as I read that 27% of CEOs from countries around the world reported that they were “somewhat or extremely” concerned about biodiversity loss with it ranking above international terrorism as a potential financial liability. “Hidden within the headline figure of 27% cited above, there are stark regional variations. 53% of CEOs in Latin America and 45% in Africa are concerned that biodiversity loss will adversely impact their business growth prospects compared to just 11% in Central and Eastern Europe.” http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_AM10_PwC_Biodiversity_BriefingMaterial.pdf.
I wrote about the background of biodiversity around the country, how people started to get excited about it and why the International Year of Biodiversity (IYB) last year was so important in a column here in September 2010 (www.yesterdaysisland.com/2010/science/19.php). Since then, the United Nations decided in 2010 that a single year was not going to cut it; so they decided to name this decade (2011-2020) the United Nations Decade on Biodiversity (Resolution 65/161). The UN Decade on Biodiversity serves to support and promote implementation of the objectives of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity and the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, with the goal of significantly reducing biodiversity loss.
Banks, corporations and nations around the world are starting to wake up to the need to protect and evaluate biodiversity. Understanding the biodiversity of the Cape and the Island and the unique ability we have to measure island biogeography, climate change, and the sequestering of gene pools make our island, in effect, a living experiment. Nantucket's physical isolation from the mainland allows for a wide range of genetic, biological, wetland and coastal science, and natural resource protection projects in a relatively closed system. For the past several years, island conservation groups and scientists have banded together to conduct their own research and fund outside research groups investigating our plants, lichens, mushrooms, birds, snakes, ants, spiders, beetles, and everything in between. Some of this research builds upon decades of biological observations and research. We are also interested in recording any detectable biodiversity shifts following hundreds of years of land alterations. The isolation and geologic history of Nantucket, Tuckernuck, and Muskeget Islands have created a cornucopia of distinctive flora and fauna that occupy niches near the geographical and climatological northern and southern limits of their ranges. Many of these species are rare regionally and even globally. In fact, there are more Massachusetts state-listed endangered species on Nantucket than in any other county in the state.
The purpose of the conference and the organization as a whole is to achieve much more than each of the members organization could do on their own. By combining our resources and expertise and as they might say years ago, our Rolodexes, we can entice a variety of scientists and naturalists to come out here and find out what exists on the island before it disappears. Nantucket is unique in its island world, separate from the mainland and therefore able to shelter our trees from Dutch Elm disease and the Asian Long Horned Beetle. Comparing our species and their development and interactions with other islands nearby or land on the Cape can help us understand what to expect in the coming years. For field station directors around the country and land management trusts and conservation groups, biodiversity surveys are crucial in evaluating how to take care of or maintain habitats. Our sandplain grasslands, one of the most endangered habitats in the world, are an example of a very important and rare habitat that is vital to protect.
NBI members have selected 21 specific plots in 21 different habitats in order to coordinate the research conducted and assist scientists in the field that might not be familiar with Nantucket. These plots also allow us to record plant and animal life in the same area over time to document any changes. Each of these ten hectare (10,000 square meters or about 2.5 U.S. survey acres) plots is representative of a different habitat on Nantucket from salt marshes to sandplain grasslands to scrub oak forest and heathlands. We ask visiting scientists to perform as much of the research as possible within these plots so that we can maintain a long term database of biodiversity-related changes. These types of measurements are essential for recording, for instance, how global climate change could be affecting the island’s plant and animal species.
This year our keynote speaker was Dr. John “Pick” Pickering who is the founder of “Discover Life”, an organization created to encourage groups to monitor species, answer ecological questions, teach science, and enjoy nature (www.discoverlife.org). His talk focused on capturing with a camera images that are geo-referenced (latitude and longitude recorded) and dated of moths, wildflowers, bees, and lichens. The Discover Life website provides tools to teach people to take quantitatively useful close-up images in order to identify species and study nature. In October, Discover Life celebrated a billion hits and launched the Georgia Natural History Survey. The survey's goals are to (1) collect data to address the impacts of weather, invasive species, pollution and other large-scale factors on species and their interactions; (2) teach science and quantitative methods through inquiry-based learning, and (3) provide timely information to gardeners, farmers, and land managers. He is recruiting naturalists, teachers, scientists, and others to inventory and monitor sites in New England using digital photography. Dr. Pickering led a macro photography workshop as part of the conference. Discover Life’s outreach coordinator, Nancy Lowe, taught nature illustration techniques to registered participants and provided fast easy methods of recording what we see every day in beautiful journals. It’s a bit ironic, that what children do naturally and what decorates the walls of my lab, which is hundreds of pictures of turtles and plants and bugs and flowers, is one of the first thing we stop doing as adults. As someone who can barely draw a stick figure, I was really impressed and inspired by Nancy’s workshop (more at www.lookatyourfish.com). Hopefully they’ll both be back on island this spring.
Members of the NBI include: the Linda Loring Nature Foundation, Maria Mitchell Association, Massachusetts Audubon Society, Nantucket Conservation Foundation, Nantucket Garden Club, Nantucket Islands Land Bank Commission, Nantucket Land Council, Natural Heritage & Endangered Species Program of Massachusetts Division of Fisheries & Wildlife, Science Department of Nantucket High School, The Trustees of Reservations, the Tuckernuck Land Trust, and the University of Massachusetts Boston Nantucket Field Station. These groups do so much for our community by banding together and providing opportunities for citizen scientists, naturalists, educators, the public and scientists to work together.
This day would not have been possible without the help of our many volunteers who provided logistical assistance from transporting scientists and speakers around the island (like herding cats, but more difficult) to registration and food services. We are blessed to have so many giving people on the island and to be able to use the magnificent Egan Maritime Institute’s Coffin School (http://www.eganmaritime.org/our-historic-coffin-school). The event was also sponsored by: Nantucket Coffee Roasters, Cape Air, Island Coffee, Downyflake Restaurant, Petticoat Row Bakery, Nantucket Pure, Juice Guys, Foood For Here and There, Nantucket Gourmet, Grand Union, Bartlett's Farm, Cowboy's Meat Market & Deli, Nancy Tyrer, and Stop and Shop.
For more information about past grants, ongoing or recent research, and to learn about and participate in next year’s Biodiveristy Week, go to http://www.nantucketbiodiversityinitiative.org/
