John Pickering - 1 December, 1998
How do we limit focal taxa?
Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1998 22:02:35 -0400
To: "Mike Kaspari"
From: pick@pick.uga.edu (John Pickering)
Subject: Teeming with Life: too many ants for IRC/NSF proposal? Time to team together.
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Mike,
Yes. Very, very pleased that you took the bait. You certainly are
suggesting a dimension that I like. However, I can't commit to including
ants and your ideas just quite yet. I don't want to let our IRC/NSF
proposal get too integrated or, heaven forbid, we'll be over budget.
Nevertheless, let's explore the possibilities of us adding an
anti-herbivore component beyond parasitoids to the proposal (or proposals,
if Dan's game). Ants would be an obvious next step, but where do we stop?
What about birds, bats, beetles, vespids, even spiders? In short, we need
to draw the line somewhere or else we'll end up with one of those darn
ambitious, life consuming ATBI's.
How about expanding your thoughts a little further? Fill out your
hypotheses and justify why "ants" rather than all those other revolting
things that deprive poor ichneumonoids of a good meal. Sure, they're major
terrestrial players that are easily quantified, manipulated, etc. Sure,
you've a team of myrmecologist (Ed, Phil, Stefan, Ted,...) willing to clean
up the systematics and help produce Web based identification guides for the
masses. Sure, we can develop protocols and lesson plans based around using
ants in school yards and local parks that will provide supplemental data
over a large geographic range. Oh, Woody Allen stars in your movie. Sure,
I'm nearly convinced. But why ants? How do we integrate them into the
conceptual framework of understanding evolution and ecology? Aren't
plants, or caterpillars, or parasitic wasps much more important? This is
about integration -- not about us all working independently in the same
place on our favorite organisms. In short, let's push the dialog on
integration of ideas, methods, and organisms.
For those of you just entering this sordid affair, I suggest as background
<www.discoverlife.org> then "Great Smokies," then "Planning &
Organization." Inventory Design and the IRC Proposal Development are
relevant. Dan's developing an IRC proposal for Guanacaste's
plants-caterpillars-parasitoids. We're doing a somewhat parallel one for
the Smokies.
In the long-term, clearly we all need to team together and get the PCAST
report's recommendations fully funded. Otherwise, we're going to continue
to face triage, integrating just some of our favorite ideas, organisms, and
sites into a financially constrained framework. I continue to advocate for
at least two ATBI's in this hemisphere, one temperate and one tropical,
with a extensive network of additional biodiversity
observatories/monitoring sites that are fully integrated. Only at such a
grand scale of endeavour will we really be able to integrate research,
understand the biota as we wish, and have the knowledge to enjoy it and
manage it wisely. This is not an unreasonable proposition. Aren't our tax
payers contributing $20B to the International Space Station this year? Put
things in perspective, join forces, and together let's get the PCAST
recommendations funded.
Comments, folks? I'd be delighted to post them on the Web and share our
thoughts with others.
Mike, on a personal note, the strains of Christmas are nearly upon us. Are
you sure you don't want an intellectual holiday in the Smokies first? Say
around 14-17? We can help offset costs. Also, I'll push Linda to have the
alate data ready soon. Hopefully, we can put them in your Christmas
stocking. Saludos a Debbie.
Cheers,
Pick