Historically excluded groups in ecology are undervalued and poorly treated

Richard B. Primack 

Historically excluded groups in ecology, including scientists of color, women, LGBTQIA+, and those who identify as disabled, are undervalued and poorly treated, according to a recent study of over 350 ecologists led by @BU_CAS's Richard B. Primack and @phtempler 

The study, published in the journal @ESAFrontiers, found that ecologists who experienced negative workplace experiences were 50% more likely to consider leaving their current institution and twice as likely to consider a career change. 

According to the researchers, "these findings point towards the need for universities to shift from focusing primarily on diversity at the recruitment and hiring stage alone to greater emphasis on retention of personnel once they are hired." 

Read the full study and the researchers' advice on how institutions can create better workplace environments to foster diversity and deal with hostile behavior. 

Good and bad behavior affect ecology workplace

Richard B. Primack

 “Be not simply good – be good for something.” Henry David Thoreau in his correspondence.

 
A new study, published in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, surveyed ecologists concerning their workplace experiences.

While the majority of respondents (78%) reported having some positive workplace experiences (e.g., receiving mentorship), approximately one third of all respondents experienced bullying (36%), devaluation of their work (35%), or insulting remarks (29%).
 

Mentorship should be encouraged in the workplace.

People who experience such a hostile workplace are more likely to consider leaving their institution and to consider a career change. And people from historically excluded groups disproportionately experience such hostile behaviors.
 

Hostile workplaces behaviors, such as bullying, should be discouraged.

The authors provide recommendations for academic institutions and other employers of ecologists to address interpersonal mistreatment through culture and policy changes.  These include leaders promoting respectful and supportive behaviors, classifying hostile behavior as academic misconduct, and developing tools that discourage and prevent hostile behaviors, including delaying promotions and sabbatical leave, withholding merit raises, and preventing offenders from accepting new research students.

Citation R. B. Primack, Tara K. Miller, Carina Terry, Erika Marin-Spiotta, Pamela H. Templer, Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, Emily J. Diaz Vallejo, Meredith G. Hastings, Vicki J. Magley, Allison Mattheis, Blair B. Schneider, and Rebecca T. Barnes. 2023. Historically excluded groups in ecology are undervalued and poorly treated. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/fee.2613.

Publishing an Open Access Textbook: Conservation Biology in Sub-Saharan Africa

By Richard B. Primack

“Woe be to the generation that lets any higher faculty in its midst go underemployed.” Henry David Thoreau in his Journal.  

Publishing printed textbooks in Africa has numerous problems of cost for publishers, affordability for students, and distribution between countries.  So then, what is the best way to reach a wide audience in Africa with the message of conservation, wildlife protection, and park management?

 

Johnny Wilson and I decided that the best way forward was using Open Access publishing where a conservation biology textbook could be downloaded for free on any type of device. 

 

Open Access publishing has many advantages.

The textbook, Conservation Biology for Sub-Saharan Africa, published on-line by Open Book Publishers in 2000, has already been downloaded and viewed over 50,000 times. 

https://reports.openbookpublishers.com/public/report/10.11647/obp.0177

The cover of the textbook.

This remarkable reach could only have been achieved through Open Access publishing.

To read more about the advantages of Open Access publishing:

https://oabooks-toolkit.org/the-oabooks-landscape/7555171-author-success-stories/article/13700457-author-success-story-conservation-biology-in-sub-saharan-africa

Signs of spring in January?

 

By Richard B. Primack

“To us snow and cold seem a mere delaying of the spring. How far we are from understanding the value of these things in the economy of Nature!”  Henry David Thoreau in his Journals.

 

January was an amazingly warm month in eastern Massachusetts, with daytime temperatures about 6 degrees F above average and nighttime temperature about 10 degrees F above average.  In a normal year, January would be the middle of winter.  But climate change does not conform to our expectations based on past experience.

 

On January 18 I went for a long walk in the Webster Woods in Newton looking for signs of spring, though not really expecting to see much.  To my surprise, there were already signs of the effects of this unusual warm weather in creating spring-like events:

There were skunk cabbages plants in flower in the Vale stream.

Skunk cabbage in flower in mid January!

There were leaves of marsh marigold that had come above ground in the Vale stream and then damaged by frost.

Marsh marigold leaves above ground and damaged by frost.

Hammond Pond, which is normally covered with thick ice in mid-January, was open, and there were hundreds of waterbirds on the surface, including many small diving ducks. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chinese Garden in Zurich

 By Richard B. Primack 

 

“Gardening is civil and social, but it wants the vigor and freedom of the forest and the outlaw.”  

-Henry David Thoreau in A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. 

 

In 1994 the Chinese city of Kunming presented the Swiss city of Zurich with an exquisite Chinese garden in appreciation for past help with developing its infrastructure.   

 

The garden includes many water features and plantings of evergreen plants, such as this bamboo.

This bridge to an island symbolizes travel between different worlds, such as the imperfect world to the world of perfection.

The garden includes open galleries where works of art are displayed

William Brewster: Birder of Concord

By Richard B. Primack 

 

One early spring morning in 1858, upon hearing a Purple Finch singing, Thoreau noted in his journal: “How their note rings over the roofs of the village! You wonder that even the sleepers are not awakened by it to inquire who is there, and yet probably not another than myself observes their coming.” 

 

Thoreau carried out detailed observations of spring bird arrival times in Concord from 1851-1854.  These observations were continued by later ornithologists, including William Brewster for 1886 and 1900-1919, on up to current years. These combined records allow researchers to use Concord as a living laboratory to investigate how climate change is altering bird populations in one place.  

 

A portrait of Brewster.

Brewster (1851-1919) was a pioneer in birding methods, research and conservation, and was a leader of an active birding group in the Boston area and a founder of the American Ornithological Union.   

 

A copy of Brewster’s journal in which he recorded his daily observations of birds.

 

During his lifetime, Brewster changed from shooting birds to observing them with field glasses.

A special exhibit about Brewster was recently presented by the Concord Museum.  

https://concordmuseum.org/alive-with-birds/ 

Northern species declining in New England

 By Richard B. Primack  

 

“What a fine & measureless joy the gods grant us thus, letting us know nothing about the day that is to dawn.”

-Henry David Thoreau in his Journal. 

 

In a recent paper in Northeastern Naturalist, Robert Bertin and Caitlin Spind demonstrate the effects of climate change on the flora of New England. Using a combination of historical data from herbarium specimens and current survey records, they found that rare northern species are most likely to persist in cooler towns, whereas rare southern species showed no such pattern.  

 

For rare northern species, towns where populations persist are cooler than towns where species have been lost. For example, current populations of Vaccinium vitis-idaea (mountain cranberry) are found in towns that are 2 degrees C cooler than towns where populations have been lost.

Rare species also showed a tendency to be lost from towns with a higher human population density, indicating that direct human influence was an additional factor in population decline.  

Mountain cranberry has tended to decline in warmer sites.

Further studies are needed to determine the mechanisms behind these changes in distribution of rare species. Is it due to drying out of habitats and heat stress during the summer? Lack of snow cover in winter? Mismatches with tree leaf out and pollinators in the spring? Or something else? 

 

Here is the reference: 

Bertin, RI, and CG Spind. 2022. Are rare northern plant species retreating from the southern edge of their ranges in southern New England?  Northeastern Naturalist 29: 393-414.  

Link