William J. Ripple

Last updated
William J. Ripple
William Ripple Iron Moutain.jpg
William Ripple in 2010.
Nationality American
Alma mater South Dakota State University,
University of Idaho College of Mines and Earth Resources,
Oregon State University
Known forResearch of landscape-level trophic interactions involving apex predators and large herbivores
Scientific career
Fields Ecology
Institutions Oregon State University
Website Trophic Cascades Program

William J. Ripple is a professor of ecology at Oregon State University in the Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society. He is best known for his research on terrestrial trophic cascades, particularly the role of the gray wolf (Canis lupus) in North America as an apex predator and a keystone species that shapes food webs and landscape structures via “top-down” pressures.

Contents

Ripple heads the Trophic Cascades Program at Oregon State University, which carries out several research initiatives such as the Aspen Project, the Wolves in Nature Project, and the Range Contractions Project. [1] [2] He has a Ph.D. from Oregon State University [1]

Ripple was the lead author on the "Global Scientists' Warning to Humanity: A second Notice", published on November 13, 2017. [3] This article includes 15,364 scientist co-signatories from 184 countries. The article suggests "To prevent widespread misery and catastrophic biodiversity loss, humanity must practice a more environmentally sustainable alternative to business as usual." In 2020, Ripple led The World Scientists' Warning of a Climate Emergency, [4] declaring with more than 11,000 scientist co-signatories from 153 countries that "Planet Earth is facing a climate emergency" and presenting six steps for avoiding the worst effects of climate change. Subsequently, Ripple has led an annual "World Scientists' Warning of a Climate Emergency" series of reports. [5] [6]

In addition to being a Highly Cited Researcher, [7] Ripple is the director of the Alliance of World Scientists, an independent organization with more than 25,000 scientist members that acts as a "collective international voice of many scientists regarding global climate and environmental trends." [8]

Ripple's work on environmental issues was highlighted in The Scientists' Warning a documentary film about a researcher who started a movement to encourage scientists to help turn scientific knowledge into action. [9]

Research

William Ripple is the author of more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific articles, most of which deal with trophic cascades. [10]

Ripple, along with his frequent coauthor, Robert Beschta, have studied, published, and publicized the positive impact that gray wolves have had on the Yellowstone National Park ecosystem since their reintroduction in 1995 and 1996. [11]  These studies were featured in National Geographic Magazine , [12] Discover Magazine , [13] Smithsonian Magazine , [14] and Scientific American . [15]  Their research was also featured in the William Stolzenburg book, Where the Wild Things Were: Life, Death, and Ecological Wreckage in a Land of Vanishing Predators, [16] and the documentary film Lords of Nature: Living in a Land of Great Predators. [17]

Ripple's research carries a large focus on the gray wolf, particularly in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, but has also studied the impact of other large North American predators, such as the cougar (Puma concolor). [18] He has coauthored papers with other scientists in the field of trophic cascades and apex predators, [19] including an exhaustive review of the status and ecological impacts of the world's 31 largest mammalian carnivores. [20] He led an international team of scientists reviewing the status and ecological effects of the world's largest herbivores. [21] Ripple has also applied trophic cascade theory to the subject of the Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions. The hypothesis being that North American Pleistocene megafauna existed at low population densities, primarily limited by the apex predators of the time. The arrival of a novel and essentially invasive top predator (humans) could have driven these predator-limited populations to extinction. [22]

More recently, William Ripple has participated in publications addressing issues that are not immediately related to the subject of trophic cascades. Many of these articles deal with climate change. One such article, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, advocates for reducing the total ruminant population in global agriculture as a means to combat anthropogenic climate change. Because methane is an important greenhouse gas, reducing a leading source of human-driven methane emissions such as those from ruminants could have a significant role to play in efforts to mitigate climate change. [23] Ripple also co-authored an assessment of the carbon opportunity cost of animal-sourced food production [24] and a study on the climate mitigation potential of substituting beans for beef. [25] In 2023, Ripple led a study describing the risks associated with climate feedback loops. [26]

Awards and honors

Bibliography

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.

Overconsumption describes a situation where a consumer overuses their available goods and services to where they can't, or don't want to, replenish or reuse them. In microeconomics, this may be described as the point where the marginal cost of a consumer is greater than their marginal utility. The term overconsumption is quite controversial in use and does not necessarily have a single unifying definition. When used to refer to natural resources to the point where the environment is negatively affected, it is synonymous with the term overexploitation. However, when used in the broader economic sense, overconsumption can refer to all types of goods and services, including manmade ones, e.g. "the overconsumption of alcohol can lead to alcohol poisoning". Overconsumption is driven by several factors of the current global economy, including forces like consumerism, planned obsolescence, economic materialism, and other unsustainable business models and can be contrasted with sustainable consumption.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keystone species</span> Species with a large effect on its environment

A keystone species is a species that has a disproportionately large effect on its natural environment relative to its abundance. The concept was introduced in 1969 by the zoologist Robert T. Paine. Keystone species play a critical role in maintaining the structure of an ecological community, affecting many other organisms in an ecosystem and helping to determine the types and numbers of various other species in the community. Without keystone species, the ecosystem would be dramatically different or cease to exist altogether. Some keystone species, such as the wolf and lion are also apex predators.

The Anthropocene ( ) is the name for a proposed geological epoch, dating from the commencement of significant human impact on Earth up to the present day. This impact affects Earth's geology, landscape, limnology, ecosystems and climate. The effects of human activities on Earth can be seen for example in biodiversity loss and climate change. Various start dates for the Anthropocene have been proposed, ranging from the beginning of the Neolithic Revolution, to as recently as the 1960s. The biologist Eugene F. Stoermer is credited with first coining and using the term "anthropocene" informally in the 1980s; Paul J. Crutzen re-invented and popularized the term. However, in 2024 the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) and the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) rejected the Anthropocene Epoch proposal for inclusion in the Geologic Time Scale.

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">Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem</span> Ecosystem in the Rocky Mountains

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apex predator</span> Predator at the top of a food chain

An apex predator, also known as a top predator or superpredator, is a predator at the top of a food chain, without natural predators of its own.

The "World Scientists' Warning to Humanity" was a document written in 1992 by Henry W. Kendall and signed by about 1,700 leading scientists. Twenty-five years later, in November 2017, 15,364 scientists signed "World Scientists' Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice" written by William J. Ripple and seven co-authors calling for, among other things, human population planning, and drastically diminishing per capita consumption of fossil fuels, meat, and other resources. The second notice has more scientist cosigners and formal supporters than any other journal article ever published.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Environmental vegetarianism</span> Type of practice of vegetarianism

Environmental vegetarianism is the practice of vegetarianism that is motivated by the desire to create a sustainable diet, which avoids the negative environmental impact of meat production. Livestock as a whole is estimated to be responsible for around 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions. As a result, significant reduction in meat consumption has been advocated by, among others, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in their 2019 special report and as part of the 2017 World Scientists' Warning to Humanity.

Human overpopulation describes a concern that human populations may become too large to be sustained by their environment or resources in the long term. The topic is usually discussed in the context of world population, though it may concern individual nations, regions, and cities.

Trophic cascades are powerful indirect interactions that can control entire ecosystems, occurring when a trophic level in a food web is suppressed. For example, a top-down cascade will occur if predators are effective enough in predation to reduce the abundance, or alter the behavior of their prey, thereby releasing the next lower trophic level from predation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mesopredator release hypothesis</span> Ecological theory

The mesopredator release hypothesis is an ecological theory used to describe the interrelated population dynamics between apex predators and mesopredators within an ecosystem, such that a collapsing population of the former results in dramatically increased populations of the latter. This hypothesis describes the phenomenon of trophic cascade in specific terrestrial communities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Climate crisis</span> Term used to refer to anthropogenic climate change

Climate crisis is a term that is used to describe global warming and climate change, and their effects. This term and the term climate emergency have been used to describe the threat of global warming to humanity and Earth, and to urge aggressive climate change mitigation and transformational adaptation.

Overpopulation or overabundance is a phenomenon in which a species' population becomes larger than the carrying capacity of its environment. This may be caused by increased birth rates, lowered mortality rates, reduced predation or large scale migration, leading to an overabundant species and other animals in the ecosystem competing for food, space, and resources. The animals in an overpopulated area may then be forced to migrate to areas not typically inhabited, or die off without access to necessary resources.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Environmental issues</span> Concerns and policies regarding the biophysical environment

Environmental issues are disruptions in the usual function of ecosystems. Further, these issues can be caused by humans or they can be natural. These issues are considered serious when the ecosystem cannot recover in the present situation, and catastrophic if the ecosystem is projected to certainly collapse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of wolves in Yellowstone</span> Extirpation and reintroduction of the gray wolf to Yellowstone National Park

The history of wolves in Yellowstone includes the extirpation, absence and reintroduction of wild populations of the gray wolf to Yellowstone National Park and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. When the park was created in 1872, wolf populations were already in decline in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. The creation of the national park did not provide protection for wolves or other predators, and government predator control programs in the first decades of the 1900s essentially helped eliminate the gray wolf from Yellowstone. The last wolves were killed in Yellowstone in 1926. After that, sporadic reports of wolves still occurred, but scientists confirmed in the mid-1900s that sustainable gray wolf populations had been extirpated and were absent from Yellowstone as well as 48 states.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mesopredator</span> Predator that is preyed upon

A Mesopredator is a predator that occupies a mid-ranking trophic level in a food web. There is no standard definition of a mesopredator, but mesopredators are usually medium-sized carnivorous or omnivorous animals, such as raccoons, foxes, or coyotes. They are often defined by contrast from apex predators or prey in a particular food web. Mesopredators typically prey on smaller animals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glasgow Agreement</span>

The Glasgow Agreement is an international platform made up of various organisations which aim to coordinate themselves and use novel strategic tools in order to fight for climate justice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Global catastrophe scenarios</span> Scenarios in which a global catastrophe creates harm

Scenarios in which a global catastrophic risk creates harm have been widely discussed. Some sources of catastrophic risk are anthropogenic, such as global warming, environmental degradation, and nuclear war. Others are non-anthropogenic or natural, such as meteor impacts or supervolcanoes. The impact of these scenarios can vary widely, depending on the cause and the severity of the event, ranging from temporary economic disruption to human extinction. Many societal collapses have already happened throughout human history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phoebe Barnard</span> American global change scientist

Phoebe Elizabeth Barnard is an American global change scientist and professor of conservation biology and environmental futures at the University of Washington. Barnard has written more than 180 publications on the vulnerability of biodiversity and ecosystems to climate and land use change. She is a member of several global initiatives including the Club of Rome's Planetary Emergency Partnership, one of five core co-authors of the 2020 paper World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency, lead author of the action-focused 2021 World Scientists' Warnings into Action: Local to Global, second of 11 co-authors of the 2023 World Scientists' Warning: the Behavioural Crisis Driving Ecological Overshoot, a provocative collaboration of scientists, educators and global marketing strategists, and major co-author of Earth at Risk: an Urgent Call to End the Age of Destruction and Forge a Just and Sustainable Future.

References

  1. 1 2 "Ripple, William J." Oregon State University Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society. Faculty. Oregon State University. Retrieved 9 March 2012.
  2. "Oregon State University Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society". Trophic Cascades Program. Retrieved 9 March 2012.
  3. Ripple, William J.; Wolf, Christopher; Newsome, Thomas M.; Galetti, Mauro; Alamgir, Mohammed; Crist, Eileen; Mahmoud, Mahmoud I.; Laurance, William F. (1 December 2017). "World Scientists' Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice". BioScience. 67 (12): 1026–1028. doi: 10.1093/biosci/bix125 . hdl: 11336/71342 .
  4. Ripple, William J; Wolf, Christopher; Newsome, Thomas M; Barnard, Phoebe; Moomaw, William R (1 January 2020). "World Scientists' Warning of a Climate Emergency". BioScience. 70 (1): 100. doi: 10.1093/biosci/biz088 . hdl: 2445/151800 .
  5. Ripple, William J; Wolf, Christopher; Newsome, Thomas M; Gregg, Jillian W; Lenton, Timothy M; Palomo, Ignacio; Eikelbloom, Jasper A; Law, Beverly E; Huq, Saleemul; Duffy, Philip B; Rockström, Johan (28 July 2021). "World Scientists' Warning of a Climate Emergency 2021". BioScience. 71 (9): 894–898. doi:10.1093/biosci/biab079. hdl: 10871/126814 . Retrieved 18 April 2023.
  6. Ripple, William J; Wolf, Christopher; Gregg, Jillian W; Levin, Kelly; Rockström, Johan; Newsome, Thomas M; Betts, Matthew G; Huq, Saleemul; Law, Beverly E; Kemp, Luke; Kalmus, Peter; Lenton, Timothy (22 October 2022). "World Scientists' Warning of a Climate Emergency 2022". BioScience. 72 (12): 1149–1155. doi:10.1093/biosci/biac083. hdl: 1808/30278 . Retrieved 18 April 2023.
  7. Highly Cited Researchers. 2020. https://recognition.webofscience.com/awards/highly-cited/2020/
  8. Alliance of World Scientists. 2020. https://scientistswarning.forestry.oregonstate.edu/
  9. The Scientists' Warning. 2022. http://scientistswarningfilm.org
  10. Oregon State University Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society. Trophic Cascades Program. Scientific Articles. Retrieved 14 April 2014. http://www.cof.orst.edu/cascades/articles.php
  11. Ripple, William J.; Beschta, Robert L. (1 January 2012). "Trophic cascades in Yellowstone: The first 15years after wolf reintroduction". Biological Conservation. 145 (1): 205–213. doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2011.11.005.
  12. Chadwick, D. March, 2010. Wolf Wars. National Geographic Magazine
  13. Smith, J. F., Coffey, R., Fang, J. May, 2010. DESTINATION SCIENCE: YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, USA. Discover Magazine. http://discovermagazine.com/2010/apr/11-destination-science-best-adventures-museums-nightspots.
  14. Jaffe, E. December, 2006. It All Falls Down: A plummeting cougar population alters the ecosystem at Zion National Park. Smithsonian Magazine. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/cougar.html#
  15. Robbins, J. May, 2004. Lessons from the Wolf. Scientific American. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=lessons-from-the-wolf
  16. Stolzenburg, William. 2008. Where the Wild Things Were: Life, Death, and Ecological Wreckage in a Land of Vanishing Predators. Bloomsbury USA, New York.
  17. Lords of Nature: Life in a Land of Great Predators. 2009. http://lordsofnature.org/
  18. Ripple, William J.; Beschta, Robert L. (1 December 2006). "Linking a cougar decline, trophic cascade, and catastrophic regime shift in Zion National Park". Biological Conservation. 133 (4): 397–408. doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2006.07.002.
  19. Estes, James A.; Terborgh, John; Brashares, Justin S.; Power, Mary E.; Berger, Joel; Bond, William J.; Carpenter, Stephen R.; Essington, Timothy E.; Holt, Robert D.; Jackson, Jeremy B. C.; Marquis, Robert J.; Oksanen, Lauri; Oksanen, Tarja; Paine, Robert T.; Pikitch, Ellen K.; Ripple, William J.; Sandin, Stuart A.; Scheffer, Marten; Schoener, Thomas W.; Shurin, Jonathan B.; Sinclair, Anthony R. E.; Soulé, Michael E.; Virtanen, Risto; Wardle, David A. (15 July 2011). "Trophic Downgrading of Planet Earth". Science. 333 (6040): 301–306. Bibcode:2011Sci...333..301E. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.679.5347 . doi:10.1126/science.1205106. PMID   21764740. S2CID   7752940.
  20. Ripple, William J.; Estes, James A.; Beschta, Robert L.; Wilmers, Christopher C.; Ritchie, Euan G.; Hebblewhite, Mark; Berger, Joel; Elmhagen, Bodil; Letnic, Mike; Nelson, Michael P.; Schmitz, Oswald J.; Smith, Douglas W.; Wallach, Arian D.; Wirsing, Aaron J. (10 January 2014). "Status and Ecological Effects of the World's Largest Carnivores". Science. 343 (6167). CiteSeerX   10.1.1.657.9004 . doi:10.1126/science.1241484. PMID   24408439. S2CID   206550298.
  21. Ripple, William J.; Newsome, Thomas M.; Wolf, Christopher; Dirzo, Rodolfo; Everatt, Kristoffer T.; Galetti, Mauro; Hayward, Matt W.; Kerley, Graham I. H.; Levi, Taal; Lindsey, Peter A.; Macdonald, David W.; Malhi, Yadvinder; Painter, Luke E.; Sandom, Christopher J.; Terborgh, John; Van Valkenburgh, Blaire (May 2015). "Collapse of the world's largest herbivores". Science Advances. 1 (4): e1400103. Bibcode:2015SciA....1E0103R. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.1400103 . PMC   4640652 . PMID   26601172. S2CID   8085865.
  22. Ripple, William J.; Van Valkenburgh, Blaire (1 August 2010). "Linking Top-down Forces to the Pleistocene Megafaunal Extinctions" (PDF). BioScience. 60 (7): 516–526. doi:10.1525/bio.2010.60.7.7. S2CID   45581293.
  23. Ripple, William J.; Smith, Pete; Haberl, Helmut; Montzka, Stephen A.; McAlpine, Clive; Boucher, Douglas H. (January 2014). "Ruminants, climate change and climate policy". Nature Climate Change. 4 (1): 2–5. Bibcode:2014NatCC...4....2R. doi:10.1038/nclimate2081.
  24. Hayek, Matthew N.; Harwatt, Helen; Ripple, William J.; Mueller, Nathaniel D. (7 September 2020). "The carbon opportunity cost of animal-sourced food production on land". Nature Sustainability. 4: 21–24. doi:10.1038/s41893-020-00603-4. S2CID   221522148.
  25. Harwatt, Helen; Sabaté, Joan; Eshel, Gidon; Soret, Sam; Ripple, William (July 2017). "Substituting beans for beef as a contribution toward US climate change targets". Climatic Change. 143 (1–2): 261–270. Bibcode:2017ClCh..143..261H. doi:10.1007/s10584-017-1969-1. S2CID   157396865.
  26. Ripple, William J; Wolf, Christopher; Lenton, Timothy M; Gregg, Jillian W; Natali, Susan M; Duffy, Philip B; Rockström, Johan; Schellnhuber, Hans Joachim (2023). "Many risky feedback loops amplify the need for climate action". One Earth. 6 (2): 86–91. doi: 10.1016/j.oneear.2023.01.004 . S2CID   257012462 . Retrieved 18 April 2023.
  27. Endowed Faculty Positions. https://www.forestry.oregonstate.edu/deans-office/endowed-faculty-positions-deans-office. Accessed 13-October-2020.
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  29. Oregon State University Academic Affairs. The L.L. Stewart Faculty Scholars Project Summary - Bill Ripple. http://oregonstate.edu/admin/aa/ll-stewart-faculty-scholars/bill-ripple. Accessed 09-March-2012.
  30. 14. Oregon State University, University Relations and Marketing, News & Research Communications. September, 2009. Ripple receives national honor from Defenders of Wildlife. http://oregonstate.edu/ua/ncs/archives/2009/sep/ripple-receives-national-honor-defenders-wildlife. Accessed 09-March-2012.
  31. High Desert Museum. High Desert Museum Honors Ecologist Dr. William Ripple with Earle A. Chiles Award. http://www.highdesertmuseum.org/.docs/pg/10322. Accessed 09-March-2012.
  32. American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Fellow Award Recipients. http://www.asprs.org/Member-Info/Fellow-Award-Recipients.html. Accessed 09-March-2012.