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Synthesis Volume

>Date: Fri, 28 Feb 1997 16:44:33
>To: bichrist@ecuvm.cis.ecu.edu, Moncrief N.
>From: "Raymond D. Dueser" <fishnwlf@cc.usu.edu>
>Subject: Synthesis Volume
>
>February 28, 1997
>
>
>Dr. Robert R. Christian
>Department of Biology
>East Carolina University
>Greenville, NC  27858-4353
>
>Fax (919) 328-4178
>
>Dear Bob:
>
>I realize I'm woefully overdue with communication about my (potential)
contributions to the VCR-LTER synthesis volume.  I've never felt as far
behind on a project.
>
>Attached for your review is an unpolished draft of Chapter I.5.
Biogeography and Ecological History.  This outline is somewhat
conservatively written.  These are the topics I know we could address
reasonably well with the existing data.  So much for this brief outline.  I
would like to offer several general observations.  
>First, chapter III.3., the Erwin et al. chapter looks huge to me (based on
the outline dated 9/96).  Perhaps we can cover all of this material in one
chapter, but I'm skeptical.  Two alternative forms of presentation suggest
themselves:  (1) Organization by volant (birds and bugs) and non-volant
(mammals, reptiles and amphibians) organisms.  This breakdown would requires
that we consciously push for synthesis.  Chapters on birds and others would
be followed by a synthetic chapter that might take the form of "biogeography
and ecological history."  (2) Alternatively, we could continue to pool
organisms across taxonomic boundaries, but organize the coverage by
"populations and biodiversity" and "biogeography and history," with a
relatively fuzzy line between these two chapters.  I realize that #1 may be
somewhat traditional (pedestrian?), but at least I can see how it would
work.  #2 is more or less as currently outlined, but I'm uncertain how we'll
put flesh on the bones.
>
>Second, somewhere in the volume we need to more or less replicate the
approach of John Magnuson's 1990 BioScience article (Long-term ecological
research and the invisible present.  BioScience 40:495-501).  I believe the
VCR would lend itself to a compelling presentation in this format.	Finally,
I believe one of the recurrent themes of the volume should be the idea of
island preserve versus island laboratory.  The geomorphological data and
bird data, in particular, document the long-term (say, 50-year) trends and
changes that occur in this system.  For example, I believe the bird data
show that the islands provide a preserve for a substantially different
assemblage of shorebirds today from what was there 50 or 100 years ago.  I
believe there are differences in species composition as well as population
abundances.  The islands are thus at least as much a laboratory for
long-term experimentation with regional biodiversity as a preserve for
today's fauna.  This point appears not to be well-documented in the
literature.  I suspect, furthermore, that other data might lead to the same
conclusion.  Please ask others what they think of this idea.
>
>I hope these thoughts, as late as they may be, will be of some value in
your continuing discussion of the synthesis volume.  I'll either be on a new
job somewhere next year or on sabbatical.  If it's the latter, work on VCR
publications will be my top priority (for a change).  I appreciate your
keeping me posted, and I wish you the best in your discussions this week-end.
>
>			Sincerely yours,
>
>
>
>
>        			Raymond D. Dueser
>			Professor and Department Head
>
>
>cc:  Nancy D. Moncrief
>enc.:  Outline
>
>
>
>I.5.  Biography and ecological history
>
>A.  Biographic setting - the VCR as one of several chains of barrier
islands on the U.S. Atlantic coast.
>
>B.  Species distributions - nonvolant species
>     1.  Mammals
>          a.	Species distributions
>          b. 	Missing species
>          c.  	Exotic species
>          d. 	Apparent introduction (and history of tinkering with island
communities)
>          e.  	Apparent extinctions
>
>          2.     Reptiles and amphibians
>	a.  Species distributions
>	b.  Missing species
>
>C.  Species kinetics
>      1.  Mammals
>	a.  Apparent fluctuations in species distributions
>	b.  Population dynamics and variability (ups and downs)
>	c.  Genetic consequences
>
>D.  Faunal assembly
>	1.  Accumulation vs. relaxation
>	2.  Benign vs. catastrophic events
>	
>E.  Preserving biodiversity in a stochastic world
>	1.  Causes and consequences of faunal change
>	2.  Microevolution at the island level
>	3.  Island preserve vs. island laboratory
>
>F.  The Virginia barrier islands in the context of islands elsewhere
>


**************************************************
Raymond D. Dueser
Department of Fisheries and Wildlife
Utah State University
Logan, UT  84322-5210
e-mail:  fishnwlf@cc.usu.edu
Secretary:  Patricia E. Pennock
Phone:  (801) 797-2463