Monday, May 18, 2020

Coronavirus pandemic impacts ecological research

By Richard B. Primack

“I think we may detect some sort of preparation and faint expectation preceded every discovery we have made.” 
-Thoreau in his Journals   

In a recent article on WBUR radio and in print, With Ships Docked And Labs Closed, Scientists' Field Research Season Fades Away, reporter Barbara Moran interviews BU Professors Pamela Templer and Richard Primack to highlight how the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown are impacting research.  Pam’s main field site at Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest is almost completely shut down and her team is not able to work there. Richard is carrying out fieldwork by himself in Concord where he is repeating the observations of flowering and leafing out carried out by Henry David Thoreau in the 1850s. 

Richard Primack (and Henry David Thoreau) carrying out field work at Walden Pond

For the BU Experts on-line magazine, reporter Katherine Gianni interviews Richard for the article: How Does Coronavirus Affect Biodiversity? Richard describes the problems and opportunities for environmental conservation and research created by the pandemic. Richard also emphasizes that universities and the conservation community need to be supportive of students whose research is being harmed by the pandemic and lockdown and need to give them the chance to make up their training and lost opportunities.

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