It feels as though the text is dancing around the idea of Permaculture. Permaculture is a practice that works to actively regenerate a landowner's local ecosystem while providing them with positive externalities. A step further then just home gardening, anyone can design their yard in order to provide food, habitat space, and/or other needs for local species in need.

https://permacultureprinciples.com/

This is an important point to make when referring to "peripheral or isolated populations" of a species. The moose represents the wild North to many, which is what New Hampshire identifies as (within the context of the U.S.). Many people who live in New Hampshire identify with the moose, despite NH being part of its Southern most range.

Additionally, the point made about unique alleles occurring in isolated populations is an important one. This factor makes a strong case for conservation efforts outside a species' main range being beneficial to the success and health of that species or population.

This is actually a far lower number than I would have expected. Especially after reading about all of the time and travel that goes into the research. There must be a lot of vertebrate species with previous research that help to drive the average research cost down. It would be interesting to see an in depth statistical break down of costs per data collection for individual species. A median value would be interesting. On top of this I would like to know which species took up the most and least time and funds to publish data on. Are there particular groups of species that are particularly difficult or easy to find data on?

This is brought to life by the White Mountain National Forest, which carries the slogan "The land of many uses" on its signs and literature. As everyone is aware, wmnf is a host to all of the activities listed in this quote, sometimes with the most emphasis on recreation.

Out of the National parks, forests and grasslands in America, the wmnf is ranked 125th in total land area. In terms of visitation however, it sits at about 20th. This begs the question, is the wmnf overused for recreation purposes? Does the intense recreation use limit the potential for other uses, especially watershed health, wildlife, and timber harvest?

This is both an exciting and frightening truth about plant taxonomy. While it is amazing that new plant species are being described each year, this also means we may be loosing plants to extinction that were never known to have existed. This is part of what makes extinction rates so hard to estimate. If 48% of 300 bird species described since 1950 were discovered already threatened or endangered, it is safe to assume that many new plant species that have and will be found are already on the brink of extinction.

The extinction of native flowering plants like orchids is an incredible threat to the biodiversity of pollinators worldwide. Biodiversity of native flowering plants is as important to protecting pollination as protecting the species that do so. This really puts the urgency of conservation efforts in every corner of the earth into perspective for me. This idea also shows the importance of establishments like botanical gardens and seed banks.

There has been extensive research into using a biological control agent to combat the persistent issue of the invasive Emerald Ash Borer in the Eastern United States. After studying the biology of the Ash Borer, it has been determined that the most effective means would be to introduce a larval parasitoid. There are a number of insects that are natural predators of the Emerald Ash Borer from China that have been considered and tested by the USDA forest service.

https://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/disturbance/invasive_species/eab/control_management/biological_control/#:~:text=EAB%20Research%20and%20the%20EAB%20Biocontrol%20Program&text=These%20EAB%20biocontrol%20agents%20are,3).

North American amphibian species' seasonal migratory habitats have been greatly affected by habitat fragmentation. When spring rolls around and the first large rain event of the season occurs, many amphibians will thaw and begin to migrate to their seasonal breeding grounds.

As human development sprawls outward, more roads and driveways further dissect their habitat and migratory paths. This leads to large numbers of road strikes and amphibian deaths in early spring.

Beekeeping has become more and more popular in recent years due to its honey yields and local pollination upsides. Save the bees has become one of the token ecological causes that people will fight for. Because of this, people assume bee keeping is the answer to the problem.

Despite the well documented upsides that beekeeping provides, there are potential negative repercussions as well. Honey bees do not necessarily help to pollinate native flowering plants and trees in areas where they are not natives themselves. Non-native pollination selection may threaten native plant species. Domesticated honey bees have also been shown to threaten populations of local bee populations as well as that of other pollinator species.

https://e360.yale.edu/features/will-putting-honey-bees-on-public-lands-threaten-native-bees#:~:text=As%20suitable%20sites%20become%20scarce,and%20altering%20fragile%20plant%20communities.

One ecologically safe alternative to traditional beekeeping is constructing a bee hotel to boost native pollinator habitat space. This practice does not provide honey like keeping honey bees does however.

https://pollinators.msu.edu/publications/building-and-managing-bee-hotels-for-wild-bees/

This was one of the factors in the destruction of the White Mountains that lead to the introduction of the Weeks Bill. Loose tree debris (slash) was left in heaps all around the White Mountains from logging activity. As this fuel dried, cinders and sparks from locomotives would ignite the piles and lead to raging wildfires.

These events in addition to the massive over harvesting of trees that was taking place, lead to significant runoff and erosion. This dirtied the rivers and sparked flood events, leading to harmful ecological impacts as well as setbacks in hydro powered factories down stream in New England.

Reading about the level of wildfire concern in a chapter from 2010 is thoroughly disappointing considering the devastation that has occurred in California and Australia through the last few years. The exponential increase in wildfire danger for these reasons begs the question: "what are potential solutions?" There is a long history of Native Americans using periodic burns to manage ecosystems in the Western U.S. and Canada. The argument for this solution has recently gained some traction. While this is a culturally significant and natural solution to the threat of wildfires, there are obstacles that stand in the way of immediate action. California is obviously one of the most built up regions in the United States, making controlled burns a challenge. On top of this, forests and open land that is conserved requires bureaucracy and sometimes litigation in order to change management plans and tactics. Despite these challenges, some form of action needs to be taken in order to combat the threat that rising fire occurrence poses to humans and the natural environment.

This is one of the most brutal stories of overexploitation to my knowledge. As many know, the American Bison used to be one of the most prominent large herbivores in North America. Because of this, it was also a plentiful and imperative source of food & resources for multitudes of Native Americans. As this continent was settled by Europeans, Bison were pushed out of their natural habitat by Westward expansion and agricultural development. In addition to this, they were over hunted for food and for sport. The dark side of the Bison's near extinction is the motive behind the mass crusade that was masked by the word "hunting." As Americans preached manifest destiny and looked to expand their new nation, it was encouraged to kill off as many Bison as possible. This was done in hopes of a crude and ruthless means to control Native American population in order to minimize resistance against their growing development.

This is a scary notion, especially considering the increased frequency in forest fires that has recently occurred globally. Many of the recent forest fire events that occurred recently have taken place in biomes/ecosystems that have hosted forest fires forever (Western Canada, California, Australia, etc.). However as the biosphere's temperature continues to rise, and normally frozen biomes begin to thaw, this could lead to irreversible damage to ecosystems which have never encountered fire before.

New Hampshire has come a long way from the late 19th century when nearly all of the state was entirely clear cut. Sprawl, habitat fragmentation, and logging will likely prevent the forests of the Northeastern United States from ever reaching the level of productivity and complex biodiversity that it once hosted in its old growth forests. The pervasive thought among the general population seems to be that forest is forest. While the WMNF is an important ecological location for NH, it is managed for recreation and logging along with conservation.

The first key constraint sounds a lot like the less scientific term, carrying capacity, of an ecosystem or ecoregion.

It is interesting that coastal/shelf areas as well as open ocean have each been divided into 12 realms, while there are only 8 terrestrial realms for all the land mass on earth. There is obviously much more marine surface area than land area on earth. I just traditionally think of biodiversity being most intense on land.

The White Mountain National forest was established in the middle of the progressive era (1914) and is managed under the utilitarian Resource Conservation Ethic. Subject to logging, intense tourism draw, and its many recreation uses, it provides a massive boost to New Hampshire's economy as well as its other ecosystem services.

When referring to the massive leaps in technology and development made in the 19th century, harmful actions are frequently excused under the pretense "humanity didn't know any better." While there may be some truth to this, it doesn't tell the whole story. It is fascinating to learn more about early research and warnings about the way human population growth and subsequent development may affect biotic diversity.

It is pretty fascinating that the outbreak was traced back all the way to one event that may have been the cause.

How did these two distinct lineages of Mycobacterium tuberculosis come together in order to begin an outbreak in this scenario? Both infecting the right individual at the right time?

This is an interesting perspective for events that are so often looked at as tragedies by parents and families.

I have a feeling that in light of recent events, there may be a significant uptick in funding for disease research and prevention.

That is fascinating example of phenotypic evolution by natural selection. I know a little bit about the killifish, but this truly explains how and why they're as resilient as they can be.

Although this is an interesting bit about Peregrine Falcons, this habit of theirs had virtually no impact on their adaptation to anthropogenic activities. Banning the use of DDT is what saved the Peregrine from its near extinction, like it did for so many birds of prey.

The only real way to tell is more and diverse experiments and subsequent data.

The earth is in the midst of its sixth recorded mass extinction, creating a bottleneck on a global scale. Some of the classes being hit the hardest by anthropogenic activities and global climate change are amphibians and reptiles. Both groups being very heavily affected by habitat loss due to fragmentation. As spring comes, amphibians thaw from wintering-over and travel to breeding hotspots. This great migration occurs on the few first warm rainy nights of spring. Due to rampant sprawl, and thus fragmentation, road mortality spikes for these organisms during these travel windows. Road mortality is actually one of the leading causes of death for these groups.

Atlantic Killifish, fish native to brackish and coastal waters on the East coast of the U.S. and Canada, are well known to be incredibly pollution resistant.

I feel ahead of the curve having read Winchell et al. prior to this.

The emerald ash bore, and Japanese knot weed are good local examples of negative externalities attached to globalization and urbanization.

Fragmentation is a horrible result of urbanization. More specifically than that, sprawl causes fragmentation in more areas than those affected by large metropolitan cities. This is why smart planning and growth is so important in all communities moving forward. Anthropogenic "progress" doesn't necessarily need to be mutually exclusive with ecological health. https://permacultureprinciples.com/

This seems to resemble Zahavi's handicap model. The largest difference I see is that in Zahavi's handicap model he implements a fixed trait that classifies males' genetic quality on a binary scale. -> They are either high quality or the opposite

I recently read an interesting study about how male "amago salmon" sexual size is largely affected by habitat, contrary to female size: "Sexual size dimorphism in a landlocked Pacific salmon in relation to breeding habitat features".

For those who are interested- Female breeding salmon grow independently from their environment. Male breeding salmon grow to the size of the shelter they have access to. In smaller streams, larger fish have less opportunity to seek shelter. This establishes a relationship between body size and reproductive success in relation to habitat size. This paper explores how shrinking streams are negatively affecting the traditional reproductive success of larger bodied Pacific landlocked salmon.

I think this subject would be a little bit easier for me to grasp personally, I it were applied to a specific species. A specific example of how a selection gradient affects reproduction in a species would help to paint a clearer picture for me.

Despite this notion being identified as one of Darwin's largest shortcomings in the topic of sexual selection, why does that mean it is necessarily wrong? Of course assuming that aesthetics were the main deciding factor in most of life is presumptuous. However, sometimes traits that could be viewed as aesthetically pleasing by one, or more, species can align with traits that translate to a high fitness rating.

Take Zahavi's Handicap as an example of this coincidence. A species such as peacocks which are assumed to base sexual selection largely on tail plumage fit this model well. Females tend to select males with bigger, brighter tail feathers. Despite brilliant plumage increasing the likelihood of reproduction, it can also be considered a"deleterious" trait that costs energy, decreasing chances of survival. Males who can survive despite possessing this "handicap", seem to have genes giving them a higher fitness rating. Based on this, females who prefer peacocks with brilliant plumage, are selecting higher quality traits through something of an aesthetic process.

The brief conclusion to the section titled "Breeds of the Domestic Pigeon, Their differences and Origin" packs quite a punch. He pokes holes through the logic behind linear lines of descent, this being accepted theory at his time.

Selective breeding and domestication have always been topics that were associated with Charles Darwin in my brain, thus I subconsciously attached an 18th-19th century time table to the practice. It is fascinating to see that man was working on this task so much earlier than when I usually assume.

Both breeds are descendants from the Rock pigeon.

These two terms seem to be used synonymously in the first chapter of "The Origin of Species"

This view on artificial selection seems to paint it as extremely logical. In the same breath, it also read to me as blatantly selfish.

Darwin seems to be 110% sold on "creating diversity & efficiency" through selective breeding

So interesting that Darwin assumes varieties created through domestic production would add to a species' genetic diversity. This research predated the gross overuse of agricultural crops that today's world is supported by, obviously.

This article reads almost like a call to arms. With all of the opportunity approaching in the field of evolutionary biology, comes a lot of work. The world needs young, intelligent people to fill in in work hard in order to find answers to the genetic issues that plague earth. Keeping the subjects broad and listing all of the new applications that are opening up in the field is a good way to peak the interest of a wide audience.

This is an issue that persists still today. And yet something I don't know nearly enough about. I would like to learn more about how open fields of science are as well as determining biases in scientific literature.

The pace of evolution is usually described as on par with geologic time. Evolution is something that, while slow, occurs every day as a response to the conditions on earth.

These are two of the subjects that I am most interested in out of the topics mentioned in this article. The first of which being evolutionary relationships among species, how one can affect another. As well as origins of "invasive species" and how non-native species affect their environments. If evolutionary biology can help reverse some of the damage that invasive species have caused, then further research is warranted.