Conference: " Experimental Approaches to Conservation Biology," Los Angeles, CA, September 11-14, 2001

University Of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Abstract

The worldwide rate of extinctions of living species is near the highest level that has occurred since the asteroid collision of 65 million years ago. Unlike that past natural event, present extinctions are mostly the direct or indirect results of human activities. Massive modifications in habitats plus global climate changes are combining with comparably massive introductions of exotic species (some willful, but most inadvertent or accidental) to destroy naturally evolved native floras and faunas on all continents. Modern experimental biology is making a variety of important contributions to international efforts to at least slow, and in rare cases to halt, this destruction of major parts of the planet's biological environmental infrastructure. To highlight some of the most important of these efforts, and to provide a lasting written record that might serve as the basis for additional work, the PI and a group of his associates are organizing an international conference devoted to these topics. Primary sponsors for the conference are the UCLA Institute of the Environment and the International Commission on Comparative Physiology of the International Union of Physiological Sciences. A major university press will subsequently publish a book summarizing the proceedings. The title of the conference is: EXPERIMENTAL APPROACHES TO CONSERVATION BIOLOGY: The roles of experimental biology in the protection of endangered species and the control of exotic species. It will take place on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) from September 11-14, 2001. The central portions of the conference will consist of three days of both invited and contributed papers, plus several panel and workshop discussions and poster sessions. The first day will be devoted to endangered species, the second day to exotic species, and the third day to policy and regulatory issues. Participants will be professionals active in the subject areas of the conference (including researchers, managers, and regulators) and interested students. Information about the conference may be found at its website: www.ioe.ucla.edu/biodiversity/.