ATBI where?!

[DR. JAMES ADAMS]

Dr. Robert Mesibov wrote:

> It hurts me deeply to hear that an ATBI is being done in a National
> Park (Great Smoky Mountains) or in a country (Costa Rica) with an
> enlightened conservation policy and lots of reserved land.

Hurts you *deeply*?  You would rather we not do the ATBI?  For all
of those who are pooh-poohing the idea of the ATBI, you need to be
involved in one before you start making comments like these.  This
is not directed specifically at Dr. Mesibov, but generally at all the
negative comments about the ATBI.  Not that there isn't some
reason for concern over how the ATBI is done, but you will notice
from some of the other posts that *many, many* groups of
organisms, not just the "handsome, showy" groups have been
inventory or will be inventoried in the near future in the Great
Smoky Mountains.

> Biodiversity is disappearing a lot slower in National Parks than in
> forests being converted to farms and in grasslands and woodlands being
> gobbled up urban sprawl. While you're on your hands and knees
> collecting in the Great Smokies, species you've never seen and never
> will see are becoming extinct behind your back, in the densely
> populated lowlands.

I don't disagree.  However, four points need to be made here:

        1.  *Funding*.  However unfortunate it may be, you are not
likely to get funding to go and study the biodiversity in Joe's fallow
pasture and wooded hillside behind the pasture (my apologies to
any "Joe" I may have offended).

        2.  Attracting qualified personnel.  Again, however unfortunate it
may be, getting a group of high-powered taxonomists to *go to*
Joe's fallow pasture and wooded hillside behind the pasture, and
provide them with appropriate facilities is akin to getting penguins
to come to Kansas (again, no offense intended to either penguins
or Kansas).

        3.  Studying a *rich* fauna that is disappearing more slowly
than the surrounding environments outside the NP can give you a
baseline with which to compare the surrounding environment.  It will
give you some idea of what should be there (and also what may
have already been lost).  This will help you *know* what to look for
in the surrounding habitats, may allow you to find target species,
and ultimately get more areas protected, or at least managed (?)
more appropriately (notice the "?"; land management that I have
seen often doesn't do much to protect sensitive species).

        4.  How do you think the taxonomists who are involved got their
expertise?  I, for one, am *continuously* involved in sampling areas
outside the GSMNP.  One particularly rich area that I have been
sampling just happens to be some land owned by my grandparents-
in-law.  You can be guaranteed that, at least as long as I am alive,
this land will not be developed further.  I have recently found a
couple of species of incredible rarity on the property, and may be
able to get help in preserving this land for a longer period of time
than I am alive.
        The people involved are *not* static outside the work they do for
the ATBI.  I would suggest that it is better to do the work with
support from the NP system than not to do it at all.

> If you want to document biodiversity, do it FIRST in those places on
> the planet  that won't be here in 10 years time. When you finish that
> job, THEN do the national parks, which will still be around. That's
> why we created them: they're biodiversity reserves. The rest of the
> landscape is where biodiversity is vanishing, and that's where
> collectors are needed.

And, although not necessarily coordinated together, that's where
most of the collectors *are*.  We don't wait until the one-two week
time slot available and funded in a given year to do all of our
collecting, we do most of it in our "backyards".  I collect in a lot of
ecosystems that are now piecemeal, riddled with developed plots,
etc.

> OK, maybe you're not interested in sampling that last tiny wetland on
> the edge of the suburb. You'd prefer collecting in a nice, intact
> ecosystem. How about the one that's about to be hit by the tropical
> loggers? The one that's about to be flooded by the big dam project?
> The one that's about to be burned by peasant farmers displaced from
> their homes by war, ethnic violence or government-sponsored
> resettlement programs?

Again, I don't disagree that this is a good idea.  A *lot* of *brand
new* biodiversity can be discovered this way, but unless you can
identify/describe it rapidly, get some indication of abundance, get
an injunction to stop it, etc., you're not going to save this
biodiversity.  I grant you, this will allow you to at least know what
*was* there and get a chance to see it.  It would also potentially
give you some experience if you were interested in getting in ahead
of the *next* big development project.  As for the ethnic violence
scenario, I'd like to be *alive* after I'm done sampling, thank you . . .

> Too hard? Fine. How about organising some money, then, for other
> people to collect in front of the bulldozer?

Well, that *is* one of the main problems, isn't it?

> For more on biodiversity salvage, see
>
> www.science.uts.edu.au/sasb/mesibov.html

Nice site!  Practical information, though I still say that what you
can do is going to always be limited by funding.  I can't afford to
travel around continuously doing sampling . . .

And for those who say that it is too little, too late, I ask you again if
not doing anything at all would be better?

        Get involved!  Do whatever you can do, wherever you can do it.
If it is with a big organized ATBI, embrace it.  If you think the
"A"TBI needs to have a change in focus, encourage such change.
If you are simply doing stuff in your own neck of the woods,
encourage others to join you.  I happen to be fortunate enough to
know quite a bit about Macrolepidoptera, *and* fortunate enough to
be relatively close to the GSMNP to participate in the ATBI that's
going on there.  If you don't think we can find out new things about
the fauna of the "appealing" groups like butterflies and moths, let it
be known that, in one 24 hour period in late July last year, a group
of Lepidopterists recorded over 700 species of Lepidoptera, >300 of
which were previously unrecorded from the park.  In the week
around this date, over 800 different species were recorded, with
careful information kept on where in the park these species were
encountered.  *I* certainly learned a lot, and I knew more than
most what to expect in GSMNP.

        James



Dr. James K. Adams
Dept. of Natural Science and Math
Dalton State College
213 N. College Drive
Dalton, GA  30720
Phone: (706)272-4427; fax: (706)272-2533
http://www.daltonstate.edu/galeps/  (Georgia Lepidoptera)
U of Michigan's President James Angell's
  Secret of Success: "Grow antennae, not horns"