Diana F. Tomback | |
---|---|
Born | United States |
Nationality | American |
Occupation(s) | Ecologist and academic |
Academic background | |
Education | B.A., Zoology M.A., Zoology PhD Biological Sciences |
Alma mater | University of California at Los Angeles University of California at Santa Barbara |
Academic work | |
Institutions | University of Colorado Denver Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation |
Diana F. Tomback is an American ecologist and an academic. She is a professor of Integrative Biology at the University of Colorado Denver [1] as well as the policy and outreach coordinator at the Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation,a non-profit organization. [2]
Tomback has worked in the fields of evolutionary ecology,avian ecology,conservation biology and forest ecology,primarily focusing on the ecology of bird-dispersed pines and their corvid dispersers. She is best known for research on the coevolved mutualism between whitebark pine ( Pinus albicaulis ) and its avian seed disperser Clark's nutcracker (Nucifraga columbiana) and for studies or compilations on the ecology and restoration of whitebark pine. Among her notable works are publications in academic journals,including Journal of Animal Ecology , Forest Ecology and Management , Ecological Applications , BioScience ,and Ecology and Evolution [3] as well as an edited book titled Whitebark Pine Communities:Ecology And Restoration. [4]
Tomback completed her Bachelor of Arts in zoology at the University of California at Los Angeles in 1970,followed by a Master of Arts in zoology in 1972 from the same institution with ornithologists Nicholas E. Collias and Thomas R. Howell as advisors. In 1977,she obtained a PhD in biological sciences from the University of California at Santa Barbara working in the fields of avian behavioral ecology,advised by Stephen I. Rothstein. [1]
In 1977,while writing her dissertation,she was appointed as postdoctoral fellow and instructor in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Brigham Young University,where she collaborated with Joseph R. Murphy on studies of ferruginous hawks. After obtaining her PhD,from 1977 to 1981,she held various appointments,including a stint as a visiting assistant professor of zoology at Pomona College from 1977 to 1978;a lectureship in Biology at the University of California,Riverside between 1978 and 1979;and a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Zoology at Colorado State University,working with avian behaviorist Myron C. Baker. In 1981,she began a faculty position at the University of Colorado Denver. During her tenure at the University of Colorado,she followed the traditional academic progression,starting as an assistant professor of biology from 1981 to 1986,followed by a promotion to associate professor of biology in 1986. Since 1995,she has held the position of professor of Integrative Biology at the University of Colorado Denver. [1]
Tomback was a founding member and director of the Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation,Missoula,Montana,from 2001 to 2017. [2]
Over the years,Tomback's work has garnered media attention,especially concerning the status of whitebark pine,with several interviews with regional public radio stations and coverage in multiple news outlets such as WIRED , [5] the Denver Post [6] and The Washington Post . [7]
Throughout her career,Tomback has contributed to several books,including authoring chapters in Why Birds Matter. Avian Ecological Functions and Ecosystem Services, [8] Mountain Ecosystems :Dynamics,Management,and Conservation. [9] and Sierra East. She also served as lead editor for themed journal issues of Forest Ecology and Management and Forests. Moreover,she played a role in addressing the decline of whitebark pine ecosystems by assuming the lead editor role for the book Whitebark Pine Communities:Ecology And Restoration,published in 2001. [4] The book reviewed the ecological importance,decline,and management strategies for whitebark pine in western high-mountain regions,highlighting the impact of exotic disease,historical mountain pine beetle outbreaks,and altered fire regimes on this widely-distributed high elevation species and offering insights for restoration efforts. [4]
In 2002,Tomback authored a chapter in the book Rocky Mountain Futures:An Ecological Perspective,wherein she provided an analysis of the Rocky Mountains' biodiversity,addressing the contrast between its perceived untouched state and the reality of significant anthropogenic impacts. The book also advocated for intensive management and conservation efforts to preserve its ecological integrity. [10] Moreover,she also contributed to the book Yellowstone’s Birds:Diversity and Abundance in the World’s First National Park. The book serves as a guide to the birds of Yellowstone National Park,covering over 200 species. [11]
Tomback's early research explored the essential role of the Clark's nutcracker in seed dispersal and regeneration of whitebark pine. She studied the year-round utilization of fresh and stored pine seeds by nutcrackers. Her investigations uncovered information on seed caching locations,diverse forest community utilization,seed store relocation strategies,and the crucial role nutcrackers play in facilitating forest regeneration for several western conifers. [12] [13] Beginning in 1987,as a faculty member at the University of Colorado Denver,she contributed to an inter-agency research team investigating the decline of whitebark pine in the Northern Rocky Mountains,leading to a USDA Forest Service Centennial Conservation Award in 1991 for her role in clarifying the nutcracker's importance in whitebark pine regeneration. In her 1990 exploration of the evolution of bird-pine mutualisms,she and collaborator Yan Linhart examined the approximately 100 species of pines and proposed that bird-dispersed pines likely evolved from ancestors dispersed by wind,with the absence of wings as a derived character shaped through interactions between corvids,the environment,and pines. [14] In addition,she collaborated with various students and colleagues on studies of population structure and community dynamics in whitebark pine and related pines. She researched the growth patterns and genetic structure of individual Swiss stone pine trees in Switzerland,exploring the influence of seed caching by the Eurasian nutcracker (N. caryoctactes). [15] [16] [17]
For much of her career,Tomback has worked at the interface between forest ecology and avian ecology. Her collaborations with former graduate students resulted in two key management papers,addressing the effects of forest health declines on whitebark pine cone production and the probability of nutcracker seed dispersal. [18] [19] In 2010,collaborating with botanist Peter Achuff,she addressed the ecological significance,threats,and challenges facing white pine species in western Canada and the United States. Emphasizing their contributions to biodiversity and ecosystem services,her work underscored the urgent need for conservation and management interventions. [20] In 2011,as part of a team of ornithologists,she explored the economic and practical value of birds,specifically highlighting the ecosystem services they provide to human society. [21] In 2012,she and collaborators participated in a study using the Illumina Seq-to-SSR method,a cost-effective and efficient means of identifying microsatellites in species genomes. The method's reliability,particularly for species with few SSR loci,was demonstrated through comparisons between the Burmese python,two bird species,and 454 sequencing,showcasing its affordability and applicability. [22] From about 2006 to 2018,she and her students researched the distribution and functional role of whitebark pine in treeline communities,working in the northern Rockies of the U.S. and in Canada. She returned to nutcracker-related studies focusing on understanding nutcracker energetics and decision-making. [23] She continued collaborating with a working group advocating for avian ecosystem services,and quantified nutcracker seed dispersal for whitebark pine,resulting in the contributed volume,Why Birds Matter,edited by Cagan H. Şekercioğlu,Daniel G. Wenny,and Christopher J. Whelan,which highlighted the ecological functions of birds,including a chapter authored by her. [8] In addition,she and Elizabeth Pansing,systematically investigated the potential use of simulated nutcracker caching,termed "direct seeding," as a restoration method for whitebark pine,emphasizing the intersection of nutcracker seed dispersal and conservation. [24] [25]
The nutcrackers (Nucifraga) are a genus of three species of passerine bird,in the family Corvidae,related to the jays and crows.
Clark's nutcracker,sometimes referred to as Clark's crow or woodpecker crow,is a passerine bird in the family Corvidae,native to the mountains of western North America. The nutcracker is an omnivore,but subsists mainly on pine nuts,burying seeds in the ground in the summer and then retrieving them in the winter by memory. The bird was described by the Lewis and Clark Expedition,with William Clark first observing it in 1805 along the banks of the Salmon River,a tributary of the Columbia River.
Pinus albicaulis,known by the common names whitebark pine,white bark pine,white pine,pitch pine,scrub pine,and creeping pine,is a conifer tree native to the mountains of the western United States and Canada,specifically subalpine areas of the Sierra Nevada,Cascade Range,Pacific Coast Ranges,and Rocky Mountains. It shares the common name "creeping pine" with several other plants.
Pinus flexilis,the limber pine,is a species of pine tree-the family Pinaceae that occurs in the mountains of the Western United States,Mexico,and Canada. It is also called Rocky Mountain white pine.
The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) is one of the last remaining large,nearly intact ecosystems in the northern temperate zone of the Earth. It is located within the northern Rocky Mountains,in areas of northwestern Wyoming,southwestern Montana,and eastern Idaho,and is about 22 million acres (89,000 km2). Yellowstone National Park and the Yellowstone Caldera 'hotspot' are within it.
A frugivore is an animal that thrives mostly on raw fruits or succulent fruit-like produce of plants such as roots,shoots,nuts and seeds. Approximately 20% of mammalian herbivores eat fruit. Frugivores are highly dependent on the abundance and nutritional composition of fruits. Frugivores can benefit or hinder fruit-producing plants by either dispersing or destroying their seeds through digestion. When both the fruit-producing plant and the frugivore benefit by fruit-eating behavior the interaction is a form of mutualism.
Pinus pinaster,the maritime pine or cluster pine,is a pine native to the south Atlantic Europe region and parts of the western Mediterranean. It is a hard,fast growing pine bearing small seeds with large wings.
Daniel Hunt Janzen is an American evolutionary ecologist and conservationist. He divides his time between his professorship in biology at the University of Pennsylvania,where he is the DiMaura Professor of Conservation Biology,and his research and field work in Costa Rica.
In spermatophyte plants,seed dispersal is the movement,spread or transport of seeds away from the parent plant. Plants have limited mobility and rely upon a variety of dispersal vectors to transport their seeds,including both abiotic vectors,such as the wind,and living (biotic) vectors such as birds. Seeds can be dispersed away from the parent plant individually or collectively,as well as dispersed in both space and time. The patterns of seed dispersal are determined in large part by the dispersal mechanism and this has important implications for the demographic and genetic structure of plant populations,as well as migration patterns and species interactions. There are five main modes of seed dispersal:gravity,wind,ballistic,water,and by animals. Some plants are serotinous and only disperse their seeds in response to an environmental stimulus. These modes are typically inferred based on adaptations,such as wings or fleshy fruit. However,this simplified view may ignore complexity in dispersal. Plants can disperse via modes without possessing the typical associated adaptations and plant traits may be multifunctional.
Revegetation is the process of replanting and rebuilding the soil of disturbed land. This may be a natural process produced by plant colonization and succession,manmade rewilding projects,accelerated process designed to repair damage to a landscape due to wildfire,mining,flood,or other cause. Originally the process was simply one of applying seed and fertilizer to disturbed lands,usually grasses or clover. The fibrous root network of grasses is useful for short-term erosion control,particularly on sloping ground. Establishing long-term plant communities requires forethought as to appropriate species for the climate,size of stock required,and impact of replanted vegetation on local fauna. The motivations behind revegetation are diverse,answering needs that are both technical and aesthetic,but it is usually erosion prevention that is the primary reason. Revegetation helps prevent soil erosion,enhances the ability of the soil to absorb more water in significant rain events,and in conjunction reduces turbidity dramatically in adjoining bodies of water. Revegetation also aids protection of engineered grades and other earthworks.
The Sierra Nevada subalpine zone refers to a biotic zone below treeline in the Sierra Nevada mountain range of California,United States. This subalpine zone is positioned between the upper montane zone at its lower limit,and tree line at its upper limit.
Ecological extinction is "the reduction of a species to such low abundance that,although it is still present in the community,it no longer interacts significantly with other species".
Defaunation is the global,local,or functional extinction of animal populations or species from ecological communities. The growth of the human population,combined with advances in harvesting technologies,has led to more intense and efficient exploitation of the environment. This has resulted in the depletion of large vertebrates from ecological communities,creating what has been termed "empty forest". Defaunation differs from extinction;it includes both the disappearance of species and declines in abundance. Defaunation effects were first implied at the Symposium of Plant-Animal Interactions at the University of Campinas,Brazil in 1988 in the context of Neotropical forests. Since then,the term has gained broader usage in conservation biology as a global phenomenon.
A seed bank stores seeds from plants and is significant in preserving plant genetic diversity. Seed banks can be categorized according to their location and the ecological functions they serve. The primary types include soil seed banks,which are found in terrestrial environments;wetland seed banks,located in aquatic habitats;and canopy seed banks,present in the upper layers of forest ecosystems. Each type of seed contributes uniquely to plant biodiversity,ecosystem resilience and human well-being. Also,they are unique in the way they retain their seed. For example,in canopy seed banks or aerial seed banks,the seeds are stored in the canopies of trees and plants.
Island ecology is the study of island organisms and their interactions with each other and the environment. Islands account for nearly 1/6 of earth’s total land area,yet the ecology of island ecosystems is vastly different from that of mainland communities. Their isolation and high availability of empty niches lead to increased speciation. As a result,island ecosystems comprise 30% of the world’s biodiversity hotspots,50% of marine tropical diversity,and some of the most unusual and rare species. Many species still remain unknown.
The pinyon jay is a species of jay,and is the only member of the genus Gymnorhinus. Native to Western North America,the species ranges from central Oregon to northern Baja California,and eastward as far as western Oklahoma,though wanderers are often sighted beyond this range. It is typically found within foothills,especially where pinyon pines occur.
Evolutionary anachronism,also known as "ecological anachronism",is a term initially referring to attributes of native plant species that seemed best explained as having been favorably selected in the past due to their coevolution with plant-eating megafauna that are now extinct. Diminished effectiveness and distance of seed dispersal by fruit-eating mammals inhabiting the same ecosystems today suggest maladaptation. Maladaptation of such fruiting plants will intensify as ongoing climate change shifts the physical and ecological conditions within their current geographic range.
Diana Harrison Wall was an American environmental scientist and soil ecologist. She was the founding director of the School of Global Environmental Sustainability,a distinguished biology professor,and senior research scientist at the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory at Colorado State University. Wall investigated ecosystem processes,soil biodiversity and ecosystem services. Her research focused on the Antarctic McMurdo Dry Valleys and its Wall Valley was named after her. Wall was a globally recognized leader and speaker on life in Antarctica and climate change.
Assisted migration is the movement of populations or species by humans from one territory to another in response to climate change. This is the definition offered in a nontechnical document published by the United States Forest Service in 2023,suggesting that this form of climate adaptation "could be a proactive,pragmatic tool for building climate resilience in our landscapes."
Anna Amelia Sher is an American plant ecologist who is a professor at the University of Denver. She works on conservation and the restoration of areas invaded by Tamarix. She is the author of two textbooks,Ecology:Concepts and Applications and Introduction to conservation biology.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of March 2024 (link)