An Awful Lot to Learn

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Conservation Biology, Pages 1926–1930Volume 14, No. 6, December 2000

Status of the Union

Status and Trends of the Nation’sBiological Resources.

Volumes 1and 2. Mac, M. J., P. A. Opler, C. E.Puckett Haecker, and P. D. Doran.1998. U.S. Department of Interior,U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Vir-ginia. 964 pp. $98.00. Volume 1ISBN 0–160–53285–X. Volume 2ISBN 0–160–53285–X.

Engaging a diverse audience is aperennial challenge for the conser-vation community. Rarely is it possi-ble to communicate simultaneouslywith managers, scientists, policy mak-ers, and the lay public. With

Statusand Trends of the Nation’s Biologi-cal Resources

, the U.S. GeologicalSurvey has achieved considerablesuccess in compiling a widely acces-sible evaluation of the condition ofecosystems in the United States. Theassessment is not exhaustive, and nosingle party is likely to be satisfiedfully by its contents, but its ability toprovide something for virtually ev-ery reader is a substantive accom-plishment.

Status and Trends

is organizedinto two parts. Part I examines sevenof the natural and anthropogenicfactors that affect the condition ofand relationships among biologicalresources. Part II details the essentialnatural history and current status of15 geographic or ecological regions(continental and island) within thepolitical boundaries of the UnitedStates. Professional experts on eachsubject or area have contributedchapters, and no two chapters fol-low an identical outline. Instead, au-thors apparently were given the lati-tude to emphasize core principles,data syntheses, and outstanding in-formation needs particular to theirtopic or region. The resulting array

of perspectives from governmentagencies, academia, and nongovern-mental organizations demonstratesthat, as the Foreword and Introduc-tion stress, effective management ofnatural resources demands collabo-ration.

Status and Trends

also reminds usthat diverse voices can have a greatereffect on the listener if they are har-monized. Lack of cohesion withinand between the two parts is themain weakness of the book. The vol-ume would benefit immensely froman executive summary and morecomprehensive editing. A concep-tual framework, within which sepa-rate chapters are logically organizedand cross-referenced, is largely ab-sent. Also missing are simple mapsshowing the location of each region.Thus, it often is difficult to comparedata among regions or to track pre-vailing threats or trends across thecountry. These shortcomings are lostopportunities to iterate, especially tononscientists, that the dynamics ofnominal “regions” often are linked.We also question whether the costof the book—$98.00 within theUnited States, $122.50 outside theUnited States—will prove prohibi-tive, especially for teachers and thegeneral public.

Nonetheless, each component of

Status and Trends

is compelling,and the mosaic is inviting and in-structive. Focus boxes are an effec-tive method of retaining attentionand driving home ecological lessonswithout preaching. Full-color graph-ics, ranging from simple tables tohigh-quality photographs to detailedmaps, likewise complement the textby expanding on key issues and pre-senting illustrative case studies. Indi-vidual chapters are supported with

ample current citations that providevaluable entry points into the pri-mary literature.

Chapters in Part I catalogue bothfamiliar and lesser-known (yet equallyinsidious) threats to biological re-sources. “Environmental Contami-nants,” for instance, not only explainsthe dangers of oil spills, predictablyexemplified with the 1989 Exxon

Valdez

debacle, but the chapter alsodetails various land-based, nonindus-trial sources of chronic petroleumpollution. Even seasoned environmen-tal professionals can learn somethingfrom these chapters. Discussions ofsome issues, such as how interna-tional trade can facilitate invasionsof exotic species, may be especiallyhelpful in discussions with decision-makers. Although human populationgrowth is not singled out for focuseddiscussion, its effects are a commonthread throughout Part I.

As a whole, Part II might functionas an overview for biologists outsidethe United States. Because each chap-ter stands well on its own, the vol-ume also could serve as a resourcefor newcomers to regions within theUnited States. Unfortunately, the doc-ument fails to provide a true baselinereport on the status of the nation’s bi-ological resources; data generally areexemplifying rather than comprehen-sive. But, as the Introduction fairlynotes, there simply is not enough in-formation to describe the status andtrends of many organisms and com-munities. In fact, this acknowledg-ment is used cleverly as a springboardto describe the purpose and benefitsof biological monitoring. Many chap-ters close with a list of informationgaps or research needs. Althoughsome arguably are too vague to serveas concrete road maps (e.g., “avoid

Book Reviews

Book Reviews

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Conservation BiologyVolume 14, No. 6, December 2000

future nonindigenous species prob-lems”), the line items do underscorekey management challenges withinand among regions.

Despite its lack of synthetic orga-nization,

Status and Trends

success-fully gathers existing knowledge ofecosystems in the United States.Moreover, it tempers prosaic factsand figures with enough novel tid-bits to capture the interest of bothscientists and lay readers. We hopethat decisionmakers will refer to

Sta-tus and Trends

for both informationand direction, and we are optimisticthat the volumes will spur continuedefforts to maintain the biological re-sources of the United States.

Erica Fleishman,* Carol L. Boggs,M. Claire Devine, Salit Kark,and Taylor H. Ricketts

Center for Conservation Biology, Department ofBiological Sciences, 371 Serra Mall, Stanford Uni-versity, Stanford, CA 94305–5020, U.S.A.*email [email protected]

Conservationists Ain’t Misbehavin’

Behavioral Ecology and ConservationBiology.

Caro, T., editor. 1998. OxfordUniversity Press, New York. 608 pp. $55.00.ISBN 0–19–5104489-0.

“Imagine that you. . . want to applythe principles and methods in be-havioral ecology to the conserva-tion of species and habitats. Whatshould you study?” So begins TimCaro’s new book, in which Caro hastapped two rich veins: graduate stu-dents’ dreams of studying animal be-havior in the field while simulta-neously saving the world, and moresenior scientists’ vague guilt (or de-fensiveness) about their work’s irrel-evance to urgent conservation prob-lems. His book aims to encourageboth groups that behavioral ecologyhas a great deal to contribute to con-servation biology. It does not (thank-fully) attempt to convince us that be-havioral ecology is the one true pathto conservation success.

So what has the science of behav-ioral ecology to contribute to con-servation? Certainly a detailed know-ledge of what animals do is ofunparalleled value in assessing threatsand designing effective conservationprograms. But there is more to be-havioral ecology than “what animalsdo”: behavioral ecology is concernedwith why animals do what they do.Without the “why,” behavioral ecol-ogy is reduced to high-quality natu-ral history. The conservation valueof knowing why emerges—althoughnot explicitly—from this book in thecapacity to predict problems andpromise solutions. For example, asimple fact of grizzly bear naturalhistory, that males sometimes killcubs, sparked (so far unsubstanti-ated) suggestions that trophy hunt-ing of adult males ought to increasecub survival and hence populationgrowth (Miller 1990). More insightis available concerning lions, amongwhich infanticide has been shownto be an adaptive strategy adoptedby males in the process of takingover groups of females from othermales (Packer & Pusey 1984). Onthis basis one can predict that tro-phy hunting of male lions, by in-creasing the rate of male turnover,might increase infanticide and thustrigger population decline. Here nat-ural history and behavioral ecologygenerate contrasting predictions.

Sadly, most species are so poorlyknown that we do not have the lux-ury of making specific predictionsbased on either natural history or be-havioral ecology. The only solutionis to be cautious. Conservationistsneed to know that there is more todemography than the logistic curve.Because behaviors vary, managementinterventions can have unpredict-able results. Caro’s book is repletewith examples. Denial of femalemate choice may lead to reproduc-tive failure in farmed salmon andcould do the same in captive breed-ing programs managed to preservegenetic diversity (Grahn et al.). Kill-ing old bull elephants for their tuskscould limit females’ reproductive

rates and cause population decline(Dobson & Poole). Provision of nestboxes encourages conspecific broodparasitism and leads to populationdecline in Wood Ducks (Eadie etal.). None of these effects couldhave been predicted without de-tailed behavioral data. In the ab-sence of such data, it is important tobe aware that equally unexpectedresponses could be seen in otherspecies.

While attempting a synthesis, Caroadmits that the two fields of behav-ior and conservation have differentaims: one seeks to explain how natu-ral selection has shaped individuals’responses to their environments andthe other to stop species and popu-lations from going extinct. There aremethodological overlaps between thetwo fields, but the dedication of anentire chapter to these makes for asomewhat uninspiring start to thebook. More interesting and convinc-ing are later chapters addressinghow behavior might affect demogra-phy and, hence, responses to har-vesting (Vincent and Sadovy; Greeneet al.). A final section on human be-havioral ecology is a salutary reminderthat the activities that endanger wildspecies result from the evolved be-haviors and psychology of

Homo

sa-piens.

Analyses indicate that we areas short-sighted as other species,hunting as good optimal foragersrather than thoughtful conservation-ists (Alvard), settling for the mostimmediately profitable option evenwhen resources are to be inheritedby our children (Wilson et al.).

So what is the solution? Behavioralecologists should think about (andpublish) the population and conser-vation consequences of their find-ings. As such, Caro’s book will bevaluable. It provides many detailedrecommendations for how behav-ioral ecologists can make their workmore useful. Conservation biologistsshould perhaps take their behavioralecologist colleagues out to lunchonce a month and grill them for in-sights—assuming they can fit in anextra lunch date among the econo-

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Book Reviews


mists, geneticists, sociologists, vets,and others from whom they alsoneed to learn if they are to plan ef-fective conservation measures.

Rosie Woodroffe

Ecology & Epidemiology Group, Departmentof Biological Sciences, University of Warwick,Coventry CV4 7AL, United Kingdom, [email protected]

Literature Cited

Miller, S. D. 1990. Impact of increased bearhunting on survivorship of young bears.Wildlife Society Bulletin

18:

462–467.Packer, C., and A. E. Pusey. 1984. Infanticide in

carnivores. Pages 31–42 in G. Hausfater andS. Blaffer Hrdy, editors. Infanticide in animaland man. Aldine, Hawthorne, New York.

An Awful Lot to Learn

Mammalian Society Learning:Comparative and Ecological Per-spectives.

Box, H. O., and K. R. Gib-son, editors. Cambridge UniversityPress, New York. xiv 1 425 pp.$95.00. ISBN 0–521–63263–3.

What does social learning in mam-mals have to do with conservationbiology? You will not find a specificanswer to that question in

Mamma-lian Social Learning

, edited by H. O.Box and K. R. Gibson. What you willfind are 21 brief chapters that dis-cuss field and laboratory studies ofsocial organization and social learn-ing in diverse mammals: marsupials,rats, mole rats, rabbits, bats, ele-phants, caribou, musk ox, bears,canids, felids, whales, and primates.Unfortunately, the limited knowl-edge of social learning in mammalsis a recurrent theme in most chap-ters, leaving the impression thatmuch more research needs to bedone before social learning is under-stood in the animal or group of ani-mals under discussion. As a result ofthis limited knowledge, some of thechapters provide little more thannatural history. The book has valuefor conservation biologists, however,as a reference for learning more about

social organization in diverse speciesof mammals, especially those of con-servation concern.

This volume also provides a back-ground for a better understanding ofthe scope of social learning. Sociallearning is defined broadly and re-fers to the social transfer of informa-tion and skill among individuals inlearning appropriate responses totheir environment. Animals mustlearn to identify and respond topredators, select food, locate andprocess food, interact with groupmembers, and choose mates. Thetransfer of information may be fromparents to offspring, from adults toyoung animals, and among same-agemates and siblings.

The chapters of most interest toconservation biologists will be theones that include information fromfield studies on how social learningfunctions in natural populations.They vary in depth and quality, withsome supplying more scientific evi-dence than others. The chapters onlaboratory studies of domestic ani-mals contain information about themechanisms of learning and ulti-mately are less interesting. Becausethis volume originated as a collectionof conference papers with a total of28 authors, there are many inconsis-tencies in the quality of the chaptersand few links among chapters, withthe exception of some comments bythe editors at the beginning of eachsection. Even then, I did not find thelinks beneficial and instead foundthat reading each chapter as a sepa-rate entity worked best for me. Be-cause the conference was held inLondon, the majority of authors areEuropean; almost half are from theUnited Kingdom. Some key peoplefrom North America who study sociallearning or have been involved in long-term studies of social mammals arenoticeably absent. Some of their stud-ies are discussed, however, by Heyesand Galef (1996), who offer an inte-grated treatment of experimental andtheoretical work on social learning.

The book is organized into six sec-tions, with the first one designed to

give a new perspective on studies ofsocial learning. The section falls shortof this goal and is limited to threechapters on how to study primatesand one brief chapter on a simplecost-benefit model. Nevertheless, Row-ell reminds us of the diversity of mam-malian behaviors and that currentknowledge of social learning in pri-mates, including humans, cannot begeneralized to all primates. King arguesfor more field research of social learn-ing in primates, which would be a defi-nite benefit to conservation efforts.

The next five sections of the bookare organized by taxonomic group.Part 2 deals with social learning inherbivorous mammals. I especiallyliked the chapter by Higginbottomand Croft on social learning in marsu-pials, because it may be the first of itskind and it includes a brief sectionon the implications of social learningfor management of marsupials. Thechapter by Lee and Moss containssome interesting original data on theinteraction of environment, sociallearning, sex, and age of first repro-duction in elephants. Klein’s chapteron three arctic herbivores, caribou,musk ox, and arctic hare, effectivelyrelates social learning to differencesin sociality in the three species.

The next section focuses on socialtransmission of diet and resource loca-tion in rats, bats, and mole rats. Thechapter by Wilkinson and Boughmanprovides some interesting ideas forstudies of social learning and foragingin bats. These studies could be espe-cially important because so many pop-ulations of bats are seriously threat-ened and so little is known about howthey learn to locate food. Faulkes pro-vides an update on the ongoing re-search on eusocial mole rats.

Part 4 focuses on social learning ofterrestrial carnivores. This sectionshould have been named large carni-vores because smaller but highly socialspecies, such as mongooses, are omit-ted. The chapter on canids seems es-pecially lacking in depth, in large partbecause much more information isavailable on the social organizationof canids than is found in this chap-

Book Reviews

1929


ter. The brief section on aversionlearning to control predation by black-backed jackals on livestock, however,might be useful to conservation biolo-gists interested in nonlethal methodsof predator control. In the chapteron bears, which do not live in socialgroups, Gilbert reminds us that soli-tary species may have long periods ofsocial learning in which information istransmitted from mothers to offspringand between siblings.

Part 5 leaves the terrestrial environ-ment and deals with social learning bymammals in aquatic environments.The two chapters in this section con-tain a nice review of what is knownabout vocal learning in whales and dol-phins. Finally, Part 6 focuses on pri-mates, including three chapters on hu-mans, which have little application toconservation. The chapter by Byrne,however, presents some interestingideas about the complexities of foodchoices in great apes.

Although this book was never meantas a guide for conservation, conserva-tion biologists can gain from readingit, especially those with an interest inconservation and the reintroductionof endangered species. Conservationbiologists can also be made aware,although they will have to stretchtheir imaginations with this book, ofthe importance of social learning forconservation.

Jan A. Randall

Department of Biology, San Francisco State Uni-versity, San Francisco, CA 94132, U.S.A., [email protected]

Literature Cited

Heyes, C. M., and B. G. Galef Jr., editors.1996. Social learning in animals: the rootsof culture. Academic Press, San Diego.

Using Invertebrates to Assess Sustainable Farming

Invertebrate Biodiversity as Bio-indicators of Sustainable Land-scapes.

Paoletti, M. G., editor. 1999.Elsevier, New York. 446 pp. $149.00.ISBN 0–444–50019–7.

The title of this book brings twoquestions to mind. First, what doesit mean for a landscape to be “sus-tainable”? Second, why should over-all biodiversity be indicative of theselandscapes? The aim of this book isnot to answer these questions, how-ever, but to provide “a summary ofour current knowledge of how andwhere small organisms can help inassessing environmental status.” Tothis end, this collection of 21 papersprovides an excellent and up-to-dateintroduction to the invertebrate worldin agricultural environments. Eachpaper introduces a taxonomic group,methods to identify the organisms,appropriate sampling methods, andmethods to compare biodiversityacross different landscapes. Manypapers reference the newest toolsfor sampling and identifying organ-isms, including reference websitesand databases. In addition, most ofthe papers address the effects of un-conventional agricultural on the or-ganisms of interest. Aimed at educat-ing specialists about how to use selectgroups of invertebrates to comparedifferent agricultural techniques, thisbook fills a useful niche.

The book begins with two intro-ductory chapters on bioindicators andbiodiversity in agroecosystems. Theseare followed by chapters on organ-isms generally found in the soil, suchas bacteria, soil protozoa, nematodes,and mycorrhizal fungi, and then bychapters on aboveground diversitysuch as carabid beetles, mites, andants. After the introductory chap-ters, only one chapter, on pollina-tors, diverges from this strictly taxo-nomic organization. Together, thechapters provide an excellent over-view on how to use invertebrates asindicators of landscape change inagroecosystems.

The first question I raised above isnever directly answered.

Sustainble

is generally equated with unconven-tional agriculture, such as no-till prac-tices and reduced application of pes-ticides and herbicides. Many authorsassume that unconventional agricul-ture is better than conventional agri-

culture and that differences in thediversity of invertebrate communi-ties justify using unconventional meth-ods. For example, in his chapter onthe ecological role of biodiversity inagroecosystems, Altieri writes that“because biodiversity mediated re-newal processes and ecological ser-vices are largely biological, their per-sistence depends on the maintenanceof biological integrity and diversityin agroecosystems.” This link betweenbiodiversity and the persistence ofagroecosystems is assumed but isnot tested by authors in this volume.

The answer to the second ques-tion lies in two interpretations of thetitle. On the one hand, many authorsare interested in the use of biodiver-sity itself as an indicator of environ-mental status. On the other hand,this book includes a wealth of infor-mation on the uses of diverse groupsof invertebrates to assess landscapechange. In his introductory chapter,Paoletti defines a bioindicator as a“species or assemblage that is partic-ularly well matched to specific fea-tures of the landscape and/or reactsto impacts and changes” ( p. 5). Manyof the papers address this use of in-vertebrates as bioindicators ratherthan the use of overall biodiversityas a bioindicator. This difference isimportant because the latter may in-clude functional roles of inverte-brates in agricultural systems, whereasthe former is usually a measure ofthe number of species in a systemweighted by their relative abundance.In this book, authors show that specificinvertebrate groups are useful in assess-ing functional differences in these sys-tems, such as amount of availablenutrients or interactions between soilmycorrhizae and agricultural plants.

After reading this book, I had onemajor question. From the perspec-tive of a land manager or an agricul-tural practitioner interested in as-sessing the effect of unconventionalagricultural on the ecological com-munity, how should one choose agroup of invertebrates to use as abioindicator? Almost every author inthis volume suggests that their cho-

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sen taxa is an excellent bioindicator.In addition, many chapters provide alist of features that would make an or-ganism a good bioindicator, such asease of identification and clear re-sponse to landscape change. But noneof the chapters provide a review of

the relative advantages and disadvan-tages of different taxa. A synthesis ofwhich invertebrate groups are appro-priate indicators of which landscapechanges would have been a good ad-dition to this book. This question isan open one that will be of interest

to conservation biologists and agri-cultural practitioners alike.

Cheryl B. Schultz

National Center for Ecological Analysis and Syn-thesis, University of California, 735 State Street,Suite 300, Santa Barbara, CA 93101–3351, U.S.A.,email [email protected]

Documents

An Awful Lot to Learn