For whatever Wickipedia is worth, this article lists some 200 plants used in
traditional and modern medicine. Most listed are perennial, but a few are
annual or biennial. Among the annuals is the opium poppy.
David Inouye ino...@umd.edu wrote:
I'm wondering whether it's possible to
Angela, any volunteer work that you do that is in your field and that
contributes to your experience, skills, and so on should be included on your
resume or cv. It can help, depending on the needs (and attitude) of the hiring
entity and personnel. That said, I once got a letter of
I can't answer all your questions definitively. However, butterflies as adults
feed almost exclusively on low mineral materials, and thus benefit greatly by
supplementing their mineral intake from damp soils and feces. Dragonflies are
carnivores, and would intake more minerals from their
, David L. McNeely
mcnee...@cox.netmailto:mcnee...@cox.net wrote:
Jordan mentions another aspect, the decline of courses on particular
taxonomic groups of organisms. Those of us old enough to have used (or even
taught) the Odum ecology text well remember his layer cake graphic
Jordan mentions another aspect, the decline of courses on particular taxonomic
groups of organisms. Those of us old enough to have used (or even taught) the
Odum ecology text well remember his layer cake graphic of the organization of
biological science. He represented biology as a layer cake,
Absolutely true, Malcolm and others. Sure, OTS is an important organization
that provides access to tropical field locations for those students who can
afford it. But when I was an undergrad, I had to work at a job year round, and
go to school near home. I did not have money for travel to
I have been observing this for some time now. Organisms and their habitats are
being written out of biology, so far as direct experience with them is
concerned. We soon will have no means of knowing what is going on in nature,
as no one will be investigating nature, or even have a clue as to
I would add that government bureaucrats and politicians should not dispute
scientific findings or promote claims contrary to scientific results. They
should expect complete objectivity on the part of government funded science,
but they should not raise false objectivity as a reason to consider
I noticed that a couple of journals accounted for a large majority of the
reported gibberish papers. Hmmm .
Being retired for a bit, I was completely unaware that many institutions and
faculty were giving tests by an online method. I can understand the desire to
reduce the labor involved
Kevin Klein kkl...@mail.ic.edu wrote:
I haven't been able to follow the entire thread but one thing I draw from
what I have read is that it is incumbent on those of us who work with
students at all stages in their academic careers to also advise them to
consider the job market in their
://writingfornature.wordpress.com/
On Sun, Feb 9, 2014 at 12:57 PM, David L. McNeely mcnee...@cox.net wrote:
Kevin Klein kkl...@mail.ic.edu wrote:
I haven't been able to follow the entire thread but one thing I draw from
what I have read is that it is incumbent on those of us
Excellent proposal Givnish.
MacCallum, I was not intending to disagree with your comments. In fact, I
stated that I agreed. I just thought all related information should be
considered before declaring the grants system a total bust. It does result in
good science, it just interferes with a
San Ramon AVe
Fresno, CA 93740
http://about.me/mkatti
On Oct 29, 2013, at 12:09 PM, David L. McNeely mcnee...@cox.net wrote:
A better term than native invasive to apply to species that become pests
within their native geographic range (Eastern Red Cedar is an excellent
example
Message-
From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news
[mailto:ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU] On Behalf Of David L. McNeely
Sent: Tuesday, October 29, 2013 5:34 PM
To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU
Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Merits of invasion science
The species in question
Miles, When will we we learn to just leave things alone?
Had we left things alone in the first place, there would be no invasions. You
can't have it both ways. So, if you want things left alone, then you don't do
the things that bring about invasions -- you don't start aviation activities
A better term than native invasive to apply to species that become pests
within their native geographic range (Eastern Red Cedar is an excellent example
in the southern plains and prairies) is noxious. Or, we might simply call
them pests. Invasive makes no sense for such species. From where
Wayne, I may be behind in the way terminology for fire and ecosystems is used.
But, I do hear people speak of fire dependent systems. I also hear people
speak of fire adapted organisms. The usage makes sense to me. Organisms
exhibit adaptations, and for example, trees with serotinous cones
R.K., Google Scholar can be searched free by anyone with internet access. My
search just now, using prothonotary warbler as the search term, yielded a very
long list of publications. Some of them concern nesting and reproductive
biology of the Prothonotary Warbler. The abstracts and in some
Many regional universities hire part-time faculty, also. In fact,
unfortunately, community colleges teach a majority of their credit-hours with
part-time personnel, and many people cannot get full-time teaching jobs, though
more than enough credit hours are taught by part-time to justify more
I assume you are not serious.
What people who find fault with NSF doing this fail to acknowledge is that NSF
is responsible for the furtherance of science. Projects suffer when
participants must be away for family matters. So science suffers, and NSF
money goes to waste. By providing PIs
Dossey, indeed you do have a life. But with no spouse and no kids, you have no
basis for understanding what those who do have kids face in managing to work
while managing their families. It is a great loss to science for them to drop
out of work, or to have to miss work in order to care for
I did not see conservation listed as a discipline involved in Switchgrass II.
There is a move afoot in Oklahoma and Kansas to convert Conservation Reserve
Program (CRP) lands, which have been succeeding toward something resembling a
prairie in those states after having been inappropriately
Cherubini, the pesticide industry is hardly an uninterested party in the
question of whether pesticides are involved in colony collapse. The original
article brought up by Tyson is just frantic shouting with no substance, but to
turn to the pesticide industry is not an unbiased approach. That
Russell, if you can get AC current (ordinary household current 120 V) to the
field with you, a stout wire inserted into the soil, with a power source on it,
will bring the worms to the surface. Then you do not have a chemical
pollutant on the soil. I do not know about sizes of worm needed by
Wayne Tyson landr...@cox.net wrote:
The etymology of the term landscape means to scrape the land. Not much
to do with ecology. Yes, I know that the word has come to mean something
else, but it interferes with public understanding of the fundamental
opposition of landscaping with
disagree. I work with words, so meanings are very
important to me, and I do not think there is any popular confusion
between the noun usage of landscape and the verb usage.
So let's try to avoid manufacturing such confusion now.
Later,
Dave
On 5/27/2013 3:15 PM, David L. McNeely
To get to Minneapolis from my home in Oklahoma via train, I would have to take
an Oklahoma City to Fort Worth (220 miles south) train, then from Fort Worth to
Chicago, wait almost 24 hours to get the next train west, and finally get a
train to Minneapolis, arriving 50 hours after leaving home.
malcolm McCallum malcolm.mccal...@herpconbio.org wrote:
Sorry, but habitats are places.
The are defined by composition, soil type in a space.
That space is a place.
Granted, the habitat in a place can change, but it is for now a defined place.
Hmm. . I think that most ecologists
Some have voiced displeasure with their experiences or lack of success at
understanding instruction delivered by persons whose first language was
something other than English, and who spoke the language with difficulty.
First, I have had difficulty understanding the spoken English of quite a
Wilson did not say mathematics is not important. He said that one can make
meaningful contributions to science without being expert at advanced
mathematics. He also did mention collaboration and stated that he sought such
collaboration in his own work, which he stated benefited from his
Robert Gilman rtgil...@nimbios.org wrote:
. At many US and UK universities, a student can obtain a BS in biology
without taking a single course in mathematics or statistics. In some cases, a
student can obtain a PhD in biology with no more than a basic high school
math background.
Mike, of course we find (or found, I am retired from teaching) many of those
enrolled to be lacking in math training and skills. So do the chemistry,
physics, and engineering faculty. Math proficiency may be the one skill that
high school graduates are most lacking in. Many students do come
Jane, I believe there are some institutions where one can earn an undergraduate
degree in biology with only college algebra, and some of those even still offer
and require trigonometry, both of which have been subsumed at most post
secondary institutions that offer them into a precalculus
The date says it all. The problem is, jokes don't get the environmental
problems of introducing materials of unknown composition into the environment.
David McNeely
Michael Halpern mhalp...@ucsusa.org wrote:
Culliney wrote:
The statement that homosexuals have a fitness of zero, which is a true
statement, implies nothing about desires, which cannot be known. It implies
everything about reproductive rate, which, in a homosexual, is zero. Nothing
about this topic, which is scientific in
R K, I'll bet you can do this yourself. Here is a start:
http://www.discoverwildlife.com/british-wildlife/how-identify-owl-pellets
http://naturalsciences.sdsu.edu/classes/lab2.2/lab2.2.html
There are lots of resources for identifying the contents of owl pellets, on
line, in libraries, and
David Inouye ino...@umd.edu wrote:
I suspect most faculty fall into this exempt category.
I would imagine that postdocs and graduate students working in their field of
training also fall into the exempt category. However, there may be quite a few
grad students around the country who are
Wayne Tyson landr...@cox.net wrote:
I fear that I must run the risk of offending some to say that, in my
experience (admittedly not a large sample), most of those with
conservation biology/ecology degrees fall woefully short in terms of the
fundamentals. These were
Aaron T. Dossey bugoc...@gmail.com wrote:
What are some of the most amazing facts about insects you can think of?
Bombardier beetle. African beetle that harvests water from mists via
exoskeletal surface texture. endosymbionts of termites. life cycle of aphids.
Lacewing larvae that
circumspect I had to be, careful not to
name names.
WT
- Original Message -
From: David L. McNeely mcnee...@cox.net
To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU
Sent: Friday, February 01, 2013 6:53 AM
Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Advice for 36 year old trying to get into M.S.
program
Each individual
Wayne, I believe you are substantially correct in your understanding of the
general perception of improvement through natural selection and evolution. I
am surprised at Dawkins, as he is considered both one of the top evolutionary
biologists and a top publicist for evolution and scientific
Sean seanrclaw...@yahoo.com wrote:
Having graduated with an abysmal GPA from Colorado State University back in
2000 ( wildlife
biology 2.7), I have found it very difficult getting into graduate school.
Two winters ago I
completed two graduate level classes at Oregon State: Forest
Kirsten, some microbial metabolism does occur at low temperatures. That is why
there is sometimes oxygen depletion in winter, under ice. When ice cover
occurs, gas exchange with the atmosphere is obviously precluded. Under ice
metabolism has been sufficient to deplete oxygen enough to cause
Jeff Davis jnda...@ucsc.edu wrote:
Many birders now enter such count data into eBird, a powerful, citizen
science, online database sponsored by The Cornell Lab of Ornithology and
Audubon. Check it out at www.ebird.org.
Also, given the time of year, the birders may have been involved
If you can live with the stump while it rots, that is one approach. Rotting
can be hastened by drilling many holes deep into the stump and filling them
with fertilizer and water. Potassium nitrate works. This will promote
bacterial and fungal growth, and the stump will rot faster than
I too looked at the web site. My impressions were identical with Wayne's.
David McNeely
Wayne Tyson landr...@cox.net wrote:
Ecolog:
My questions remain unanswered.
WT
- Original Message -
From: Vladislav Davidzon vladislav.david...@gmail.com
To: Wayne Tyson
Douglas Shoemaker shoem...@pdx.edu wrote:
Finally, I wonder what can be said of a system that has produced Love? Is
this not directional advancement?
Not any more than fingers, pheromones, or flagella would be.
David McNeely
Hello All,
I believe that the argument here, and throughout this discussion, IS one of
semantics. It arises from the view that non-scientists have taken in the past
that holds that recent organisms are in some way better organisms. They
definitely have viewed humans as some sort of pinnacle
, and advance mean. To
different people, they mean different things.
WT
- Original Message -
From: David L. McNeely mcnee...@cox.net
To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU
Sent: Friday, December 07, 2012 7:09 AM
Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Discussion Panel Topic Suggestions
Hello
Clara B. Jones foucaul...@gmail.com wrote:
Ecolog-l-ers:
1. ...a few individuals have contacted me with concerns about the ethics of
my post requesting bushmeat...
2. ...i was not concerned about the ethical dimension for several
reasons...perhaps, the most important is that it didn't
I do not see enough scientific value in this endeavor to justify the potential
conservation harm. Bush meat is a serious conservation concern in substantial
parts of the tropics. For a person from a wealthy country to encourage this
practice for the sake of what is admitted to be play rather
Kirsten Harma kharm...@yahoo.com wrote:
Does anyone know if someone has developed a single, integrated water
quality index that combines the basic parameters (Temp, DO, Conductivity, pH
and secchi depth). We're curious if
there is an easy way to categorize a lake as in good fair or poor
Dossey, one of the greatest strengths of the teaching component of the higher
education system in the U.S. is that the people doing the teaching are truly
experts in the fields in which they teach. These experts range from full
professors through junior faculty members and down to post
I recommend not being pessimistic at all, but a healthy dose of realism is a
good thing. Broadening what one considers acceptable employment helps.
Enrollments are booming in community colleges and regional state schools during
this time of high unemployment/underemployment. Eventually jobs
Borrett wrote:
Colleagues,
We need to be careful about the assumption that the only real job for a
person trained with a PhD is a tenure track faculty job. I do not believe
this assumption to be true. Several of my colleagues are using their degree
in the private sector.
Miles Medina miles.med...@gmail.com wrote:
Also, I would add, in response to a comment above.. someone said
correlation implies causation. Yes it may, of course, but let's not forget
that there could be a third variable that causes the two correlated ones
originally in question.
I
J. Givnish
Henry Allan Gleason Professor of Botany
University of Wisconsin
givn...@wisc.edu
http://botany.wisc.edu/givnish/Givnish/Welcome.html
On 10/07/12, David L. McNeely wrote:
I apologize. I left off the list of references I compiled for this post.
Here
Wayne, I have heard this fire dependent terminology in reference to both
community types and specific plants. However, most often it has been in
reference to community types that included dominant fire adapted species. I
also have heard more convincingly that lodgepole pine, _Pinus contorta_,
http://cee.unc.edu/people/graduate-students/theses/Kaplan_MA.pdf
David L. McNeely mcnee...@cox.net wrote:
Wayne, I have heard this fire dependent terminology in reference to both
community types and specific plants. However, most often it has been in
reference to community types
Voltini, Day length, light intensity, humidity, temperature, light wavelength,
soil moisture, soil nutrient concentration, soil composition, nutrient
composition in water, are all fairly easily manipulated. Effects on plant
growth; seed germination; fruiting response; seed production; leaf
Wayne, I thought we went through that, a bit back. Ecosystem function is what
ecosystems do. They process energy and chemicals. As someone else pointed
out, in both cases those functions are mediated through organisms and other
compartments.
Evidently some think that the consequences (such
Ms. Dussalult, I accept completely that when beneficial consequences of the two
ecosystem functions of energy flow and biogeochemical cycling are impaired,
then intervention is appropriate. It is just that intervention itself often
has the unexpected and undesired consequence of altering the
Martin, I will give you, absolutely and without reservation, that ecosystems
process matter and energy through organisms. Since the questions dealt with
ecosystems, I assumed that the involvement of organisms was a given. I will
also give you that what kinds of organisms are involved is of
Finally, people are talking on my simplistic level, and I hope I can respond in
a meaningful way. I say these things with the definite understanding that they
may mark me as just an old, irrelevant fart in today's exciting world.
It seems to me that ecosystems do two things, and that both are
Just wanted to say how refreshing it is to see your statement that, Electronic
applications will not be considered, in this era. I like it. David Mcneely
Dan Ardia daniel.ar...@fandm.edu wrote:
The Biology Department of Franklin Marshall College invites applications
for three
Well, Laura Hubbs herself was a scientist, working alongside Carl. She
coauthored papers with him, especially ethnographic and marine mammal papers.
Clark Hubbs followed in his father's footsteps as an ichthyologist, one of the
outstanding ones. He was a professor at University of Texas at
Wrong Jordan. The Jordan's Rule being queried was named for David Starr
Jordan, a late 19th/early 20th century ichthyologist who did a great deal of
field work and descriptive ichthyology in North America. He was the first
president of Stanford University. Besides his scientific writings
Why do people keep posting things that seem as if the matter is a bit
equivocal. It is not. Jordan's Rule refers to David Starr Jordan's work
with meristic features of fishes. It was almost certainly so named by his star
student, Carl Hubbs. The references I posted earlier should clear the
Ok, I'll bite: A sustainable practice is one which can be continued
indefinitely without depleting the resources upon which it and other features
necessary to the system it supports depend.
I submit that as written it captures the essence of the idea. Knock it down if
you wish, or modify it.
Michael Riedman mried...@terpmail.umd.edu wrote:
Hello sustainable eco-loggers,
This is my first eco-log post! I just graduated from University of
Maryland with a minor in Sustainability Studies. We were taught the
Brundtland Commission definition of Sustainability, which I believe
Hamilton, you got a couple of things right: Water is a more powerful
greenhouse gas than is carbon dioxide. Climate models predict warming based on
carbon dioxide increases, but no one has done an actual controlled experiment
with a population of planets to test those models in the classical
Cherubini, the fallacy of your interpretation of the graph has been pointed out
several times on this list. What part of the explanations did you not
understand? You certainly have no reason to extrapolate that the temperatures
will not rise in the future on the basis of one short period in
Michael, my suggestion was not a joke. It is a technique advocated by Kenneth
Stewart, the noted aquatic entomologists who accomplished a lot of excellent
research during his 40 year career at The University of North Texas . He
advocated the technique to students in his aquatic entomology
Aaron, if you are willing to do it, and are a good enough wing shot, a 28 gauge
shotgun with dust shot works. Only tiny holes in the wings, usually not
damaging the taxonomically important features. However, if you need the beasts
alive, that is another matter.
If your collection location is
http://ekologie.upol.cz/ad/tuf/pdf/papers/Tufova_Tuf_2005a.pdf
R K podocop...@yahoo.com wrote:
For the past three days, I've been keeping tabs on a millipede who's
been exploring a bucket of rainwater in my yard. Ordinarily I would've
fished him out, but he seems perfectly
Lauren and others, my previous post, which referred to the Student Conservation
Society, should have said Student Conservation Association. Good luck, David
Lauren Kiser lrki...@gmail.com wrote:
Dear Ecologgers,
I would love to get some feedback/advice on the subject of obtaining more
Lauren, look into the Student Conservation Society. This organization funds
internships with government agencies and NGOs. Expenses and a small stipend
are paid. The internships include ones involving management activities, and
research. There are usually large numbers of internships in
June _Scientific American_ has an excellent article that very effectively
relates microbiology to the lives of students. It considers the ecology of
human symbiotic microbes. More microbiology of this kind, and less
memorization of how microbial cells metabolize could be quite meaningful in a
This is not meant as a wet blanket, as I encourage family friendly employment
practices for all countries and for all occupations. But, I wonder how those
figures would look if all areas of science were considered? It may be that
smaller economies, and the Scandinavian countries in
Well, several responses have answered in the affirmative so far as natives
becoming invasive, with examples. Raccoons and Eastern Red Cedar come to mind
as examples mentioned so far. I won't comment further here on my thoughts
about them.
So far as When do invasives become native?: What
I appreciate that this question was asked now by an undergraduate. It is
always good to hear good questions from young people.
However, it is a question that comes up on here periodically, and this example
of a native invasive is always given, sometimes by me, sometimes by others.
But now I
Russell L. Burke russell.l.bu...@hofstra.edu wrote:
raccoons are native invasives
What are they invading? Do you mean they are more common than formerly? An
individual raccoon invaded my yard, drinking from my bird bath and catching and
eating crayfish from my pond. But somehow that
Ling, so far as purple loosestrife is concerned, it is considered invasive and
a pest, and conservation agencies have active control programs operating. I
believe it is considered responsible for degradation of wetlands in many parts
of the U.S.
ling huang ling.hu...@prodigy.net wrote:
Cynthia, answers to you questions might partly depend on where your pond is
located.
But, in my experience, in my locality, a heavy growth of duckweed usually means
that there may be some nutrient imbalance. Does your pond receive runoff from
a fertilized pasture or other source of excess
Clara, I respectfully disagree with some of your points. I will not detail
each point, but will simply point out that collaboration is now the norm in
science. Look at the lists of authors, sometimes running to 10, on a paper
nowadays.
People should get respect and reputation for the
?? Clara simply said everything about the current system as she
sees it is fine, and those who find it does not provide effectively for them to
participate and contribute because they have family responsibilities, well, too
bad, they knew the system when they started, and should not
For what it is worth, my garden and compost are wriggling with worms this
year, far more than usual. Like Martin, I have speculated that my bounty, like
his dearth, is due to the warm, almost snowless winter we experienced here in
central Oklahoma. Our soil hardly froze all winter, and when
Rachel, I believe that the relative success of combining family life and work
life is similar for scientists and other highly intensive occupations. It is
simply a matter of how individuals manage, their temperaments and their
abilities to deal with stress when it arises, as it inevitably
Andres, do you have any ideas about how we can import that Finlandian model to
the U.S.? And how to get more universities and other employers in the U.S. to
recognize the need to provide for professional couples? Thanks, David
Andres Lopez-Sepulcre lopezsepul...@gmail.com wrote:
In my
I originally responded only to Simone personally. But, I now see a need for
wider discussion. I agree with Hal Caswell and others who have said that child
safety is paramount. If at all possible, another approach should be considered.
Hal, in answer to your query: In forty years of
that never existed for woman and is probably not
going to exist much longer for men.
From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news
[ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU] on behalf of David L. McNeely [mcnee...@cox.net]
Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2012 6:08 AM
David, I would question whether the light would actually increase food
availability. It definitely would concentrate flying insects over the water
and so would concentrate the insects dropping on the water surface. almost all
of the insects would be the aerial stages of aquatic forms, and
definition of it does not exist.
Andrew D. Pierce, Ph.D
Post-Doctoral Research Associate
Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management
University of Hawai'i
USFS-Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry
On Wed, Mar 14, 2012 at 4:42 PM, David L. McNeely mcnee...@cox.net wrote
well, you can make word games out of simple concepts if you wish to. Whenever
most sane people refer to a species as being native in a place, they mean it
was not taken there by human agency, but either evolved there or migrated there
prior to human record keeping. Pretty simple. The other
Lonnie Aarssen aarss...@queensu.ca wrote:
I wonder if Don Strong would explain to us why
Ecology is still publishing on paper? No
ecologist that I know reads paper journals
anymore, and hasn't for years.
I read paper journals, and I have for years. i hope to be able to continue
Good grief, Matt.
How long the region we now call Texas has been called that is irrelevant, and
how much territory the name has encompassed at various times is also
irrelevant. The question had to do with whether Post Oak was native to the
region now called Texas.
Short answer, without
Tacy, I believe that a naturalized species is generally considered to be one
that after introduction has established a viable population.
http://69.90.183.227/doc/articles/2002-/A-00249.pdf
Post oak is not an introduced species in Texas, it is native by any
definition. When Europeans came
to get back to the original question, here is the USDA take on the matter:
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=QUSTmapType=nativityphotoID=qust_002_avp.tif
mcneely
Wayne Tyson landr...@cox.net wrote:
Are you sure you're not seeing recolonization? The Texas of my boyhood was
Gunnar, where in the world would that question come from? Post oak has been in
Texas probably for much of its existence as a species. So far as it being
preEuropean, if that is required for you to define something as native, a
substantial portion of Texas is covered by a native forest of post
To consider the possibility that using nursery stock has very negative
ecological consequences one need only visit a large scale tree and shrub
production facility. Certainly the quantity of fertilizers and pesticides
used, coupled with extensive runoff (the largest one in Oklahoma is in the
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