How many endangered species are there in the United States?

With only 15 percent of known species in the United States studied well enough to determine if they are imperiled or not, David Wilcove (Princeton University, US) and Lawrence Master (NatureServe, US) review and extrapolate the actual number of species in danger, based on the numbers we do have.

Reviews in Frontiers

Reviews in the October issue of Frontiers include merging land and sea conservation by considering the ecological interactions between the two in "Integrated coastal reserve planning: making the land-sea connection," and the conservation of cultural resources in "Microbial deterioration of historic stone."

From Ecology

Wandering albatrosses

Wandering albatrosses (Diomedea exulans) soar across the Indian Ocean for thousands of kilometers in a single trip, scouring the ocean for food. Henri Weimerskirch and colleagues from the National Scientific Research Center and the Natural History Museum of France, tracked the foraging behavior of the birds in "Prey Distribution and Patchiness: Factors in Foraging Success and Efficiency of Wandering Albatrosses," which appears in the October issue of Ecology. The study indicates this species has a unique foraging strategy. Unlike most seabirds, which concentrate on more predictable foraging areas, the researchers report that wandering albatrosses rely on prey that are highly dispersed, catch few prey in the same areas, and do not adjust their foraging to maximize their energy requirements.

Coral reef fish impacted by nuclear tests

France conducted a series of underground nuclear tests between 1976 and 1995 near the Mururoa Atoll in the South Pacific Ocean. Controlled underground explosions kept radiation from reaching fish; pressure waves from the testing killed them. Using nearby study sites, Fre
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Contact: Annie Drinkard
annie@esa.org
Ecological Society of America
31-Oct-2005