Comparative inventories in 1969 and 1970 and in 2008 of vegetation from 30 forest stands downstream of Garrison Dam on the Missouri River in central North Dakota showed (a) a sharp decline in Cottonwood regeneration; (b) a strong compositional shift toward dominance by green ash; and (c) large increases in invasive understory species, such as smooth brome, reed canary grass, and Canada thistle. These changes, and others discovered during remeasurement, have been caused by a complex of factors, some related to damming (altered hydrologic and sediment regimes, delta formation, and associated wet—dry cycles) and some not (diseases and expansion of invasive plants). Dominance of green ash, however, may be short lived, given the likelihood that the emerald ash borer will arrive in the Dakotas in 5–10 years, with potentially devastating effects. The prospects for recovery of this valuable ecosystem, rich in ecosystem goods and services and in American history, are daunting.

Water quality is a continuing national concern, in part because the containment of pollution from nonpoint (diffuse) sources remains a challenge. We examine the spatial distribution of nonpoint-source threats to water quality. On the basis of comprehensive data sets for a series of watershed stressors, the relative risk of water-quality impairment was estimated for the over 15,000 fifth-level watersheds in the contiguous United States. A broad division emerged at about the 100th meridian, with eastern areas typically under higher stress than western areas, reflecting the generally higher housing, road, and agriculture densities and higher levels of atmospheric deposition in the eastern division. Recent trends in some stressors are encouraging, but the prospect of further substantial population growth indicates continued pressure on water quality, suggesting that renewed focus on controlling nonpoint-source pollution will be needed if the goals of the Clean Water Act are to he attained.

The extensive mortality of yellow-cedar along more than 1000 kilometers of the northern Pacific coast of North America serves as a leading example of climate effects on a forest tree species. In this article, we document our approaches to resolving the causes of tree death, which we explain as a cascade of interacting topographic, forest-structure, and microclimate factors that act on a unique vulnerability of yellow-cedar to fine-root freezing. The complex causes of tree mortality are reduced to two risk factors—snow depth and soil drainage—which are then used to model present and future cedar habitat suitability. We propose a dynamic, comprehensive conservation strategy for this valuable species on the basis of zones created by shifting climate, cedar's ecological niche, and observed risk factors. Research on yellow-cedar decline is offered as a template for understanding and adapting to climate change for other climate—forest issues.

During the past several decades, high numbers of gelatinous Zooplankton species have been reported in many estuarine and coastal ecosystems. Coupled with media-driven public perception, a paradigm has evolved in which the global ocean ecosystems are thought to he heading toward being dominated by “nuisance” jellyfish. We question this current paradigm by presenting a broad overview of gelatinous Zooplankton in a historical context to develop the hypothesis that population changes reflect the human-mediated alteration of global ocean ecosystems. To this end, we synthesize information related to the evolutionary context of contemporary gelatinous Zooplankton blooms, the human frame of reference for changes in gelatinous Zooplankton populations, and whether sufficient data are available to have established the paradigm. We conclude that the current paradigm in which it is believed that there has been a global increase in gelatinous Zooplankton is unsubstantiated, and we develop a strategy for addressing the critical questions about long-term, human-related changes in the sea as they relate to gelatinous Zooplankton blooms.

Historical records are an important resource for understanding the biological impacts of climate change. Such records include naturalists' journals, club and field station records, museum specimens, photographs, and scientific research. Finding records and overcoming their limitations are serious challenges to climate change research. In the present article, we describe efforts to locate data from Concord, Massachusetts, and provide a template that can he replicated in other locations. Analyses of diverse data sources, including observations made in the 1850s by Henry David Thoreau, indicate that climate change is affecting the phenology, presence, and abundance of species in Concord. Despite recent work on historical records, many sources of historical data are underutilized. Analyses of these data may provide insights into climate change impacts and techniques to manage them. Moreover, the results are useful for communicating local examples of changing climate conditions to the public.

Graduate programs have placed an increasing emphasis on the importance of interdisciplinary education, hut barriers to interdisciplinary training still remain. We present a new model for interdisciplinary, cross-institution graduate teaching that combines the best of local teaching, distance learning, and experiential learning to provide students and faculty with a unique collaborative learning experience and interdisciplinary research skills. We summarize the lessons learned from a highly successful implementation of this course model in the new field of landscape genetics, which integrates concepts and methods from population genetics, landscape ecology, and spatial statistics. The distributed nature of the course allowed sections to he offered locally that would not have been offered otherwise because of the lack of complementary expertise at local institutions. Students gained hands-on experience in interdisciplinary, Web-based and international research collaboration with group projects. A final synthesis meeting was invaluable for course assessment, manuscript development for group projects, and professional networking.

The underrepresentation of women in science has received significant attention. However, there have been few studies in which longitudinal data were used to assess changes over time. Here, we surveyed the Organization for Tropical Studies graduate database, because this database was also surveyed in 1988, to determine the challenges still faced by women ecologists. Certain aspects of women's situations have shown substantial improvement since 1988, such as an increased number of female colleagues, more-equal sharing of childcare and household chores, and decreased perceptions of gender bias. However, women are still more likely to leave the field of science and have lower salaries, promotion rates, and productivity than do men. Women continue to have greater responsibility for childcare and housework and also experience challenges with childcare and safety while pursuing field-based research. These results indicate that although certain obstacles for women ecologists have substantially lessened, other issues of the family—work balance and of fieldwork still need to be addressed.

Herpetologists often complain that, despite amphibians' being one of the most threatened vertebrate classes, there is a dearth of funding and capacity to tackle the global crisis afflicting them. We compared the average funding per species listed under the US Endangered Species Act (ESA) to quantify funding favoritism across vertebrate classes in the United States and compared ESA listings with NatureServe evaluations of endangerment in order to examine listing bias. We found that, on average, listed US amphibians receive one-quarter of the ESA funding that other vertebrate classes do. This inequality is compounded by listing bias, with 82% of the amphibians found to be at risk by NatureServe remaining unlisted under the ESA. We recommend that federal, state, and private conservation groups take reactive andproactive measures to build capacity to sustain this important class of vertebrates for future generations.