Michael J. Lannoo
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226358475
- eISBN:
- 9780226358505
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226358505.001.0001
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Nature
The golden age of field biology in North America lasted from the last half of the nineteenth century until perhaps just after the Second World War. During this time, natural history surveys were ...
More
The golden age of field biology in North America lasted from the last half of the nineteenth century until perhaps just after the Second World War. During this time, natural history surveys were organized, museums constructed to house their specimens, and field stations cobbled together to civilize the experience. At this time, many of the finest field biologists in history came out of the U.S. Midwest. They grew up at a time when the Midwest was frontier; when hunting and fishing and trapping were a part of a boy’s life, and to be successful you had to know the habits and habitats of the animals you sought. Today, field biology is enjoying a resurgence due to several factors, including the recognition that ecological relationships are complicated—much more complicated than even our most sophisticated computer-generated statistical/mathematical models can offer. It is now time for field biologists to explore their origins, claim their history, and ask fundamental existential questions such as where did we come from, do we have a cohesive story we can tell, and do we have a legacy? This book offers some answers to these questions. It is a history of field biology in North America and what it meant to the world. It is a bottom-up, field-based, rubber booted history of a life style conducted by some of its most talented early practitioners. The world today is a far better place today than it would have been otherwise, thanks to field biologists and the consequences of their discoveries.Less
The golden age of field biology in North America lasted from the last half of the nineteenth century until perhaps just after the Second World War. During this time, natural history surveys were organized, museums constructed to house their specimens, and field stations cobbled together to civilize the experience. At this time, many of the finest field biologists in history came out of the U.S. Midwest. They grew up at a time when the Midwest was frontier; when hunting and fishing and trapping were a part of a boy’s life, and to be successful you had to know the habits and habitats of the animals you sought. Today, field biology is enjoying a resurgence due to several factors, including the recognition that ecological relationships are complicated—much more complicated than even our most sophisticated computer-generated statistical/mathematical models can offer. It is now time for field biologists to explore their origins, claim their history, and ask fundamental existential questions such as where did we come from, do we have a cohesive story we can tell, and do we have a legacy? This book offers some answers to these questions. It is a history of field biology in North America and what it meant to the world. It is a bottom-up, field-based, rubber booted history of a life style conducted by some of its most talented early practitioners. The world today is a far better place today than it would have been otherwise, thanks to field biologists and the consequences of their discoveries.
Michael J. Lannoo
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226358475
- eISBN:
- 9780226358505
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226358505.003.0001
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Nature
This overview outlines the tasks performed by field biologists, which include discovering what’s out there (natural history), describing how it fits together (ecology), determining how to save the ...
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This overview outlines the tasks performed by field biologists, which include discovering what’s out there (natural history), describing how it fits together (ecology), determining how to save the parts we value (wildlife biology), and figuring out how to save everything (conservation biology). Further, when elements cannot be saved, field biologists help bring back species and their ecosystems (restoration biology).Less
This overview outlines the tasks performed by field biologists, which include discovering what’s out there (natural history), describing how it fits together (ecology), determining how to save the parts we value (wildlife biology), and figuring out how to save everything (conservation biology). Further, when elements cannot be saved, field biologists help bring back species and their ecosystems (restoration biology).
Steven E. Sanderson and Kent H. Redford
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- November 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780195095548
- eISBN:
- 9780197560808
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780195095548.003.0010
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Conservation of the Environment
In the course of the past decade, biodiversity has become one of the most important concepts guiding conservation and development at the global level. From the 1972 ...
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In the course of the past decade, biodiversity has become one of the most important concepts guiding conservation and development at the global level. From the 1972 U.N. Conference on the Human Environment, held in Stockholm, to the 1992 U.N. Conference on Environment and Development, held in Rio de Janeiro, concern for biodiversity loss has spawned international treaties, national laws, and community conservation strategies. This concern for biodiversity, however, has not been clearly translated into increased conservation of biodiversity, for a variety of fundamental reasons. Biodiversity has traditionally been the domain of natural scientists and conservation activists. The first group has focused on the importance of biological diversity for scientific inquiry; the second group has concentrated on the impact of lost biological diversity on social and ecological systems, and has advocated policies to conserve the earth’s biota. Increasingly, both groups-and many other constituencies, from sport hunters and fishers to pharmaceutical companies—have fought out the battle over biodiversity in public arenas. The weapons have included national parks and protected areas, species and genetic conservation programs in the field and in other locations such as zoos, private nongovernmental organizations chartered for “‘genetic prospecting” activities, and integrated small-scale development programs that have a putative conservation side-benefit. Even as this battle continues, some agreement—if not a consensushas begun to emerge about biodiversity, which has provided a foundation for common cause among the various constituencies described above. Conservation has become use. The value of biodiversity has come to be determined according to economic criteria alone. Conservation and sustainable development, it is declared, not only can go together but are part of the same cloth. Ecological values and economic values are purported to be congruent. This position masks two disturbing realities that underpin the specific tasks of this chapter. The first reality is that the concerns that fostered the original concept of biodiversity have been surrendered—even forgotten—in the struggle for common ground, to the detriment of science and conservation. The second is that biodiversity and sustainability are far from scientific concepts.
Less
In the course of the past decade, biodiversity has become one of the most important concepts guiding conservation and development at the global level. From the 1972 U.N. Conference on the Human Environment, held in Stockholm, to the 1992 U.N. Conference on Environment and Development, held in Rio de Janeiro, concern for biodiversity loss has spawned international treaties, national laws, and community conservation strategies. This concern for biodiversity, however, has not been clearly translated into increased conservation of biodiversity, for a variety of fundamental reasons. Biodiversity has traditionally been the domain of natural scientists and conservation activists. The first group has focused on the importance of biological diversity for scientific inquiry; the second group has concentrated on the impact of lost biological diversity on social and ecological systems, and has advocated policies to conserve the earth’s biota. Increasingly, both groups-and many other constituencies, from sport hunters and fishers to pharmaceutical companies—have fought out the battle over biodiversity in public arenas. The weapons have included national parks and protected areas, species and genetic conservation programs in the field and in other locations such as zoos, private nongovernmental organizations chartered for “‘genetic prospecting” activities, and integrated small-scale development programs that have a putative conservation side-benefit. Even as this battle continues, some agreement—if not a consensushas begun to emerge about biodiversity, which has provided a foundation for common cause among the various constituencies described above. Conservation has become use. The value of biodiversity has come to be determined according to economic criteria alone. Conservation and sustainable development, it is declared, not only can go together but are part of the same cloth. Ecological values and economic values are purported to be congruent. This position masks two disturbing realities that underpin the specific tasks of this chapter. The first reality is that the concerns that fostered the original concept of biodiversity have been surrendered—even forgotten—in the struggle for common ground, to the detriment of science and conservation. The second is that biodiversity and sustainability are far from scientific concepts.
