Stuart Pimm

Last updated
Stuart Leonard Pimm
Stuart Leonard Pimm.jpg
Born (1949-02-27) February 27, 1949 (age 75) [1]
CitizenshipJoint Citizenship (USA, UK)
SpouseJulia Killeffer [1]
AwardsFellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Kempe Award for Distinguished Ecologists
Heineken Prize
Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement
International Cosmos Prize
Scientific career
Institutions Duke University
University of Oxford
New Mexico State University
Thesis Community Process and Structure  (1974)
Doctoral advisor Ralph Raitt [2]
Doctoral students Julie L. Lockwood [1]
Website savingnature.com
nicholas.duke.edu/people/faculty/pimm

Stuart Leonard Pimm (born 27 February 1949) is the Doris Duke Chair of Conservation Ecology at Duke University. His early career was as a theoretical ecologist but he now specialises in scientific research of biodiversity and conservation biology. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]

Contents

Education

Pimm was born in Derbyshire, United Kingdom. He was educated at the University of Oxford and was awarded a PhD in Ecology from New Mexico State University in 1974. [2]

Research

Pimm is currently Doris Duke Chair of Conservation Ecology in the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina. [9] Pimm has collaborated with a wide range of other scientists, including Robert May, [10] Peter H. Raven, Joel E. Cohen, George Sugihara, Thomas Loveloy, and Jared Diamond. His early work has examined the mathematical properties of food webs and indicated that complex food webs should be less stable than simple food webs. [11] Since 1990s, he concentrated on the patterns of species extinctions, the rate of species extinction and practical methods to stop them. [12]

Publications

Pimm has published more than 350 peer-reviewed scientific articles, [1] [13] including several in the scientific journals Nature [3] [4] [5] and Science . [14] [15] [16] He has published several books including, A Scientist Audits the Earth [17] and he has published articles in popular science publications such as Scientific American . [18] Up until mid-2019, he was a regular contributor to the National Geographic blog. [19]

Awards

He is an acknowledged authority in the field of conservation biology, recognized with several awards:

Pimm is a Master of Ecological Conservation with The Beijing DeTao Masters Academy (DTMA), a high-level, multi-disciplined, application-oriented higher education institution in Shanghai, China.

New Mexico State University made him an alumnus of the year in 2005. [25]

A new wasp species from the cloud forests of Colombia's tropical Andes has been named Dolichomitus pimmi in honor of Pimm and his conservation efforts in that region. [26]

SavingSpecies and Saving Nature

In 2010, Pimm founded a non-profit organization called SavingSpecies to preserve and restore natural habitats. In 2019, the organization was dissolved and Saving Nature was created to reflect a broader mission from the work that Saving Species has started. [27] [28] Saving Nature partners with local nonprofit organizations to connect fragmented habitats into biocorridors for wildlife. It works in biodiversity hotspots, such as in Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, India, Indonesia and Tanzania. [29]

Controversy

In 2014, Pimm was involved in a controversy related to allegedly sexist remarks he made in a book review [30] published by the Elsevier journal Biological Conservation. Pimm's article "sparked debate on Twitter almost immediately." [31]

Despite pressure from activists (ibid.), the journal refused to retract Pimm's review, saying "The Book Review by Pimm is not being retracted. It just contains some offensive language. We want to emphasize to our readers that this type of offensive language does not reflect the policy or practice of our journal or Elsevier. We also have taken steps to ensure that this situation does not happen again."

However, the journal did issue a mea culpa, indicating an opinion of Pimm's article. "We would like to inform our readers that parts of the book review Keeping Wild: Against the Domestication of the Earth by Stuart Pimm, Volume 180, pages 151–152 are denigrating to women.". [32] Of Pimm's article, the journal admitted that "It just contains some offensive language." When challenged, Pimm responded that he did not think his "wording was sexist..." However, some disagreed. In a later letter to the editor, [33] Amanda Stanley, then Conservation Science Program Officer at the Wilburforce Foundation, explained why Pimm's "...book review [was] so offensive." [34] An article in The New Yorker later that year explored the debate between conservationists that led to Pimm's controversial remark. The article asserted that, in his review, "Pimm’s emotions got the better of him." For his part, according to the article, Pimm was reported as being "totally unrepentant." [35]

Personal

Pimm married Julia Killeffer in 1990. He has two daughters from a previous marriage, both in the United States.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Holocene extinction</span> Ongoing extinction event caused by human activity

The Holocene extinction, or Anthropocene extinction, is the ongoing extinction event caused by humans during the Holocene epoch. These extinctions span numerous families of plants and animals, including mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and invertebrates, and affecting not just terrestrial species but also large sectors of marine life. With widespread degradation of biodiversity hotspots, such as coral reefs and rainforests, as well as other areas, the vast majority of these extinctions are thought to be undocumented, as the species are undiscovered at the time of their extinction, which goes unrecorded. The current rate of extinction of species is estimated at 100 to 1,000 times higher than natural background extinction rates and is increasing. During the past 100–200 years, biodiversity loss and species extinction have accelerated, to the point that most conservation biologists now believe that human activity has either produced a period of mass extinction, or is on the cusp of doing so. As such, after the "Big Five" mass extinctions, the Holocene extinction event has also been referred to as the sixth mass extinction or sixth extinction; given the recent recognition of the Capitanian mass extinction, the term seventh mass extinction has also been proposed for the Holocene extinction event.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biodiversity</span> Variety and variability of life forms

Biodiversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. It can be measured on various levels. There is for example genetic variability, species diversity, ecosystem diversity and phylogenetic diversity. Diversity is not distributed evenly on Earth. It is greater in the tropics as a result of the warm climate and high primary productivity in the region near the equator. Tropical forest ecosystems cover less than one-fifth of Earth's terrestrial area and contain about 50% of the world's species. There are latitudinal gradients in species diversity for both marine and terrestrial taxa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Extinction</span> Termination of a taxon by the death of its last member

Extinction is the termination of a taxon by the death of its last member. A taxon may become functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to reproduce and recover. Because a species' potential range may be very large, determining this moment is difficult, and is usually done retrospectively. This difficulty leads to phenomena such as Lazarus taxa, where a species presumed extinct abruptly "reappears" after a period of apparent absence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conservation biology</span> Study of threats to biological diversity

Conservation biology is the study of the conservation of nature and of Earth's biodiversity with the aim of protecting species, their habitats, and ecosystems from excessive rates of extinction and the erosion of biotic interactions. It is an interdisciplinary subject drawing on natural and social sciences, and the practice of natural resource management.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Habitat conservation</span> Management practice for protecting types of environments

Habitat conservation is a management practice that seeks to conserve, protect and restore habitats and prevent species extinction, fragmentation or reduction in range. It is a priority of many groups that cannot be easily characterized in terms of any one ideology.

An ecological or environmental crisis occurs when changes to the environment of a species or population destabilizes its continued survival. Some of the important causes include:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Habitat fragmentation</span> Discontinuities in an organisms environment causing population fragmentation.

Habitat fragmentation describes the emergence of discontinuities (fragmentation) in an organism's preferred environment (habitat), causing population fragmentation and ecosystem decay. Causes of habitat fragmentation include geological processes that slowly alter the layout of the physical environment, and human activity such as land conversion, which can alter the environment much faster and causes the extinction of many species. More specifically, habitat fragmentation is a process by which large and contiguous habitats get divided into smaller, isolated patches of habitats.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Extinction risk from climate change</span> Risk of plant or animal species becoming extinct due to climate change

There are several plausible pathways that could lead to an increased extinction risk from climate change. Every plant and animal species has evolved to exist within a certain ecological niche. But climate change leads to changes of temperature and average weather patterns. These changes can push climatic conditions outside of the species' niche, and ultimately render it extinct. Normally, species faced with changing conditions can either adapt in place through microevolution or move to another habitat with suitable conditions. However, the speed of recent climate change is very fast. Due to this rapid change, for example cold-blooded animals may struggle to find a suitable habitat within 50 km of their current location at the end of this century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Georgina Mace</span> British ecologist (1953–2020)

Dame Georgina Mary Mace, was a British ecologist and conservation scientist. She was Professor of Biodiversity and Ecosystems at University College London, and previously Professor of Conservation Science and Director of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Centre for Population Biology, Imperial College London (2006–2012) and Director of Science at the Zoological Society of London (2000–2006).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bird extinction</span> Typically human-caused eradication of entire avian species

Bird extinction is the complete elimination of all species members under the taxonomic class, Aves. Out of all known bird species,, 159 (1.4%) have become extinct, with 226 (2%) being critically endangered. There is a general consensus among ornithologists that if anthropogenic activities continue as current trends suggest, one-third of all bird species, and an even greater proportion of bird populations, will be rendered extinct by the end of the 21st century.

Lee Hannah is a conservation ecologist and a Senior Researcher in Climate Change Biology at Conservation International. Hannah is one of many authors who published an article predicting that between 15% and 37% of species are at risk of extinction due to climate change caused by human greenhouse gas emissions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Global biodiversity</span> Total variability of Earths life forms

Global biodiversity is the measure of biodiversity on planet Earth and is defined as the total variability of life forms. More than 99 percent of all species that ever lived on Earth are estimated to be extinct. Estimates on the number of Earth's current species range from 2 million to 1 trillion, but most estimates are around 11 million species or fewer. About 1.74 million species were databased as of 2018, and over 80 percent have not yet been described. The total amount of DNA base pairs on Earth, as a possible approximation of global biodiversity, is estimated at 5.0 x 1037, and weighs 50 billion tonnes. In comparison, the total mass of the biosphere has been estimated to be as much as 4 TtC (trillion tons of carbon).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Defaunation</span> Loss or extinctions of animals in the forests

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William F. Laurance</span> American conservationist

William F. Laurance, also known as Bill Laurance, is Distinguished Research Professor at James Cook University, Australia and has been elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science. He has received an Australian Laureate Fellowship from the Australian Research Council. He held the Prince Bernhard Chair for International Nature Conservation at Utrecht University, Netherlands from 2010 to 2014.

Katherine Elizabeth Jones is a British biodiversity scientist, with a special interest in bats. She is Professor of Ecology and Biodiversity, and Director of the Biodiversity Modelling Research Group, at University College London. She is a past chair of the Bat Conservation Trust.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biodiversity loss</span> Extinction of species or loss of species in a given habitat

Biodiversity loss happens when plant or animal species disappear completely from Earth (extinction) or when there is a decrease or disappearance of species in a specific area. Biodiversity loss means that there is a reduction in biological diversity in a given area. The decrease can be temporary or permanent. It is temporary if the damage that led to the loss is reversible in time, for example through ecological restoration. If this is not possible, then the decrease is permanent. The cause of most of the biodiversity loss is, generally speaking, human activities that push the planetary boundaries too far. These activities include habitat destruction and land use intensification. Further problem areas are air and water pollution, over-exploitation, invasive species and climate change.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lian Pin Koh</span> Singaporean politician

Lian Pin Koh is a Singaporean conservation scientist. He is Associate Vice President and Chief Sustainability Scientist at the National University of Singapore (NUS), where he oversees and champions sustainability-related research. He employs a whole-of-University strategy to bridge academia with policy makers, industry and civil society, driving the change needed across all sectors to tackle the twin planetary crises of climate change and biodiversity loss.

Erika S. Zavaleta is an American professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Zavaleta is recognized for her research focusing on topics including plant community ecology, conservation practices for terrestrial ecosystems, and impacts of community dynamics on ecosystem functions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Decline in insect populations</span> Ecological trend recorded since the late 20th century

Insects are the most numerous and widespread class in the animal kingdom, accounting for up to 90% of all animal species. In the 2010s, reports emerged about the widespread decline in insect populations across multiple insect orders. The reported severity shocked many observers, even though there had been earlier findings of pollinator decline. There has also been anecdotal reports of greater insect abundance earlier in the 20th century. Many car drivers know this anecdotal evidence through the windscreen phenomenon, for example. Causes for the decline in insect population are similar to those driving other biodiversity loss. They include habitat destruction, such as intensive agriculture, the use of pesticides, introduced species, and – to a lesser degree and only for some regions – the effects of climate change. An additional cause that may be specific to insects is light pollution.

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Shahid Naeem is an ecologist and conservation biologist and is a Lenfest Distinguished professor and chair in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology at Columbia University. Naeem is the author of Biodiversity, Ecosystem Functioning, and Human Well-Being, and has published over 100 scientific articles.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Curriculum Vitae, Stuart L. Pimm" (PDF). Duke University. Retrieved 2010-11-18.
  2. 1 2 Pimm, Stuart (1974). Community Process and Structure (PhD thesis). New Mexico State University. ProQuest   302713548.
  3. 1 2 Pimm, S. L.; Lawton, J. H.; Cohen, J. E. (1991). "Food web patterns and their consequences". Nature . 350 (6320): 669. Bibcode:1991Natur.350..669P. doi:10.1038/350669a0. S2CID   4267587.
  4. 1 2 Pimm, S. L.; Raven, P. (2000). "Biodiversity. Extinction by numbers". Nature . 403 (6772): 843–845. Bibcode:2000Natur.403..843P. doi: 10.1038/35002708 . PMID   10706267.
  5. 1 2 Pimm, S. L. (1984). "The complexity and stability of ecosystems". Nature . 307 (5949): 321–326. Bibcode:1984Natur.307..321P. doi:10.1038/307321a0. S2CID   4317192.
  6. Pimm, Stuart L. (1991). The balance of nature?: ecological issues in the conservation of species and communities. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN   0-226-66830-4.
  7. Pimm, S. L.; Jones, H. L.; Diamond, J. (1988). "On the Risk of Extinction". The American Naturalist . 132 (6): 757. doi:10.1086/284889. S2CID   84882806.
  8. Brooks, T. M.; Pimm, S. L.; Oyugi, J. O. (1999). "Time Lag between Deforestation and Bird Extinction in Tropical Forest Fragments". Conservation Biology . 13 (5): 1140. Bibcode:1999ConBi..13.1140B. doi:10.1046/j.1523-1739.1999.98341.x. S2CID   86781457.
  9. "Nicholas School Faculty, Stuart L. Pimm". Duke University . Retrieved 2010-11-18.
  10. Sugihara, G.; Bersier, L. F.; Southwood, T. R.; Pimm, S. L.; May, R. M. (2003). "Predicted correspondence between species abundances and dendrograms of niche similarities". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . 100 (9): 5246–5251. Bibcode:2003PNAS..100.5246S. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0831096100 . PMC   154330 . PMID   12702773.
  11. Pimm, Stuart L. (2002). Food webs. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN   0-226-66832-0.
  12. Pimm, S. L.; Jenkins, C. N.; Abell, R.; Brooks, T. M.; Gittleman, J. L.; Joppa, L. N.; Raven, P. H.; Roberts, C. M.; Sexton, J. O. (2014-05-30). "The biodiversity of species and their rates of extinction, distribution, and protection". Science. 344 (6187). doi:10.1126/science.1246752. ISSN   0036-8075. PMID   24876501.
  13. Stuart Pimm publications indexed by Google Scholar
  14. Pimm, S. L.; Russell, G. J.; Gittleman, J. L.; Brooks, T. M. (1995). "The Future of Biodiversity". Science. 269 (5222): 347–350. Bibcode:1995Sci...269..347P. doi:10.1126/science.269.5222.347. PMID   17841251.
  15. Pimm, S. L.; Ayres, M.; Balmford, A.; Branch, G.; Brandon, K.; Brooks, T.; Bustamante, R.; Costanza, R.; Cowling, R.; Curran, L. M.; Dobson, A.; Farber, S.; Da Fonseca, G. A.; Gascon, C.; Kitching, R.; McNeely, J.; Lovejoy, T.; Mittermeier, R. A.; Myers, N.; Patz, J. A.; Raffle, B.; Rapport, D.; Raven, P.; Roberts, C.; Rodriguez, J. P.; Rylands, A. B.; Tucker, C.; Safina, C.; Samper, C.; Stiassny, M. L. (2001). "ENVIRONMENT: Can We Defy Nature's End?". Science . 293 (5538): 2207–2208. doi:10.1126/science.1061626. PMID   11567124. S2CID   129642018.
  16. Pimm, S. L. (1998). "ECOLOGY: Planning for Biodiversity". Science . 279 (5359): 2068–2069. Bibcode:1998Sci...279.2068.. doi:10.1126/science.279.5359.2068. S2CID   61333316.
  17. Pimm, Stuart L. (2004). A scientist audits the Earth. New Brunswick, N.J: Rutgers University Press. ISBN   0-8135-3540-9.
  18. Pimm, S. L.; Jenkins, C. (2005). "Sustaining the variety of life". Scientific American . 293 (3): 66–73. Bibcode:2005SciAm.293c..66P. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0905-66. PMID   16121856.(subscription required)
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  21. "Past Laureates". Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement. Retrieved 2023-06-06.
  22. Altena, Trijntje van. "Stuart L. Pimm". Heineken Prizes. Retrieved 2023-06-06.
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  25. "Archive | New Mexico State University Alumni". www.nmsualumni.org. Retrieved 2023-06-06.
  26. "Newly Discovered Wasp Species Named to Honor Duke Conservation Scientist Stuart Pimm". Duke Nicholas School of the Environment. 2020-06-04. Retrieved 2020-07-02.
  27. "Guidestar: SavingSpecies". Guidestar. 2020-05-19. Retrieved 2020-05-19.
  28. "Saving Nature". Saving Nature. 2020-09-26. Retrieved 2020-09-26.
  29. "Mazariegos & Pimm: Animals in Western Andes Can Finally Find a Date". VERONIKA PERKOVÁ. 2021-06-15. Retrieved 2023-06-07.
  30. Pimm, Stuart (December 2014). "Keeping the Wild: Against the Domestication of Earth". Biological Conservation . 180: 288. doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2014.11.006 . Retrieved July 8, 2020.
  31. Ferguson, Cat (October 12, 2014). ""I don't take whores in taxis": Casual sexism in scientific journal leads to editor's note". Retraction Watch. Retrieved June 22, 2020.
  32. Primack, Richard; Broerse, Sandra (December 2014). "Editorial Note: Inappropriate language in a recent book review". Biological Conservation . 180: 288. Bibcode:2014BCons.180..288P. doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2014.11.006 . Retrieved July 8, 2020.
  33. Stanley, Amanda G. (February 2015). "Response to Pimm (2014): Misogynist metaphors don't belong in scholarly discourse". Biological Conservation . 182: 13. Bibcode:2015BCons.182...13S. doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2014.11.036 . Retrieved July 8, 2020.
  34. Ferguson, Cat (October 12, 2014). ""I don't take whores in taxis": Casual sexism in scientific journal leads to editor's note". Retraction Watch. Retrieved June 22, 2020.
  35. Nijhuis, Michelle (December 9, 2014). "Bridging the Conservation Divide". The New Yorker . Condé Nast. Retrieved July 8, 2020.