Doug Tallamy Lecture on Oct 21 - Restoring Nature's Relationships

"Doug Tallamy, award-winning author and ecologist, will give a free public lecture at the City of Rehoboth Beach on Monday, October 21st. The lecture will begin at 10 a.m., as part of the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on Trees (MACT) meeting. Tallamy, a professor in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, has authored 95 research publications and has taught insect-related courses for 39 years. Chief among his research goals is to better understand the many ways insects interact with plants and how such interactions determine the diversity of animal communities. His book Bring Nature Home:  How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens was published by Timber Press in 2007 and was awarded the 2008 Silver Medal by the Garden Writers’ Association. The Living Landscape, co-authored with Rick Darke, was published in 2014. Tallamy’s new book Nature’s Best Hope will be published in 2020. Among his awards is the Garden Club of America Margaret Douglas Medal for Conservation and the Tom Dodd, Jr. Award of Excellence, the 2018 AHS B.Y. Morrison Communication Award and the 2019 Cynthia Westcott Scientific Writing Award.

Tallamy will speak about how the specialized relationships between animals and plants are the norm in nature rather than the exception. Those specialized relationships provide our birds with insects and berries, disperse our bloodroot seeds, pollinate our goldenrod, and more. Plants that evolved in concert with local animals provide for their needs better than plants that evolved elsewhere. Tallamy will explain why this is so, why specialized food relationships determine the stability and complexity of the local food webs that support animal diversity, why our yards and gardens are essential parts of the ecosystems that sustain us, and how we can use our landscapes to connect the isolated habitat fragments around us. It is time to create landscapes that enhance local ecosystems rather than degrade them."

The lecture is free and open to the public, there is not a need for a reservation. The lecture is scheduled for Monday, October 21, at 10 a.m., at the Mayor's Advisory Committee on Trees meeting. The lecture will be held in the 2nd floor commissioners room at City Hall, 229 Rehoboth Avenue, Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Thank you and best wishes to enjoy the lecture.

Kind regards,

Krys Johnson
Communications Department
City of Rehoboth Beach

Above information provided by OLLI Geoengineering class member Denise.

Class 4 Wildlife and Vegetation Changes

The Title link goes to the original program in Powerpoint format, and now located in Google Docs (aka The Cloud). Note that some links did not convert to active links, but you can still cut and paste them into you browser window to get to the referenced site.

The Climate Significence of Forests

Trees absorb a great deal of atmospheric CO2 as they grow, but they also release a great deal when fallen leaves and dead trees decay. The net balance has been difficult to determine, but recently more accurate measurements show that the net CO2 absorption of all forests world wide is equal to approximately one quarter of all CO2 emitted by man. Thus forests are presently playing a major role in slowing the rise of atmospheric CO2.

One of the biggest concerns relative to forests is that they are coming under increasing stress due to a warmer and drier climate. In the southwest, this has been evident as major forests fires this past summer. In the Rockies and Canada pine bark beetles, no longer killed back by cold winters, have been devasting large tracks of evergreen forests. In the Amazon region, there have been two major droughts with many large trees dying.

The linked article by Justin Gillis in the NY Times provides an excellent detailed review of the role of forests, and the perils they face. On the bright side, Eastern US forests are doing very well, and even growing more rapidly than they used to due higher CO2 levels and longer growing seasons.

Forest Preservation, a big step forward.....REDD Plus

Forrest Dweller, Papua New Guinea

Oslo, Norway: $4 Billion has been pledged by wealthy nations to assist poor nations in preserving their forests. What is so encouraging about this step, is that wildlife will definitely benefit, regardless of how much impact it has on global warming.

As with most aid programs, the real difficulty will come with implementation, with making sure the funds are really effective in reducing forest destruction. "An agency monitoring the aid will be up and running before U.N. climate talks start in Cancun, Mexico, later this year...

The new monitoring agency would oversee individual agreements between countries to fight deforestation and educate local populations who live off forests — estimated at more than 1 billion worldwide — to do so in a sustainable way."

REDD Plus =  Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (title link is now UN-REDD)

Evapotranspiration and climate change

Evapotranspiration relates to plant physiology, and the latest on what it means for climate change is that with 2x CO2 levels, plants evaporate less water, and hence contribute less to cooling the earth than they used to, 25% less in the North America and Asia, according to the linked article. This was totally new to me, so I thought you might also find it new and interesting.

I have been working on a Himalayan post since returning from Bhutan, but it has turned out to be more complicated than anticipated, and spring bird migration/classes have also been consuming my time. Thanks to Bo and Gordon for keeping posts going while I was away. Bill

China planting trees and more

China has been criticized in regard to global warming activities, but this article certainly points to some very positive action. From Xinhua " The Chinese government has planted 2.6 billion trees, bringing the total on the planet to 7.3 billion trees planted in 167 countries worldwide, according to a report by United Nations (UN) Environment Program, which was released on Sept. 21."

Since we are on the topic of China, I have also added this link to the speech by Chinese President Hu Jintao to the UN General Assembly on Sept. 22, 2009. What China will do in specifics, remains to be seen, but this speech certainly presents meaningful objectives to control adverse climate change.