<text>Fish and Wildlife ServiceFor Release 2/4/91 Craig L. Rieben, Public Affairs 202-208-5634Kathy Tynan, Budget Officer 202-208-3444 Record Budget Proposed For Fish and Wildlife Service Contains Major Initiatives For Wildlife John Turner, Director of the Department of the Interior's U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, today praised the Administration's fiscal year 1992 budget of a record $1,129.0 million for wildlife conservation and management activities conducted by that agency. The total budget is a 21 percent increase above the budget proposed for the agency last year. Turner said, "This budget demonstrates again this Administration's support for the environment and this Nation's wildlife resources."Of this funding, $182.8 million is part of President Bush's major environmental initiative entitled "America the Beautiful." This program would earmark $50.4 million for endangered species activities such as listing, consultation, recovery efforts, and delisting. Another $50.2 million will be directed toward the restoration and enhancement of vital wetland areas, as well as associated activities such as research. A significant new effort concerning the conservation and management of coastal areas, entitled "Coastal America," is to receive $3.2 million under the budget proposal. In addition, the Service would receive a total of approximately $62 million for land acquisition, mainly for additions to the National Wildlife Refuge System. The 1992 estimate for the Service's principal operating account, Resource Management, is $517.1 million, or $43.4 million above the 1991 enacted funding level. In addition to increases of $22.3 million for endangered species and wetlands work under the "America the Beautiful" program, an increase of $0.5 million is included for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for hydropower relicensing. Another $1.0 million is requested for a comprehensive update of the Service's contaminant monitoring program and to fully integrate the latest technology in bioassessment methodology.Other highlights of the funding proposal include $0.6 million for "Watchable Wildlife," a new cooperative program with the states aimed at increasing opportunities for the public to observe wildlife; and $0.9 million for environmental education activities to enhance the general public's understanding and appreciation of America's wildlife heritage. Under the fisheries heading, the budget proposes $1.2 million for anadromous fish and inland/Great Lakes fisheries operations. Another $1.0 million is proposed to implement a new recreational fish policy. In the Research and Development area, there are increases totalling $1.5 million for research, including work on nongame birds, biodiversity, the Great Lakes fisheries, and global change. A decrease of $4.8 million reflected in this category is a result of 1991 project completions and limited participation in continuing projects. The proposal also contains full funding if $18.7 million for the National Wildlife Refuge Sharing Fund for the first time since 1980. This would enable the Service to fully recompense counties and other jurisdictions for their loss of tax revenues from Service lands. Finally, under the General Administration activity, increases totalling $2.2 million are requested for various management initiatives including health and safety programs; training; and programs for women, minorities, and disabled persons. Transcript provided compliments of The Osprey's Nest, a computer bulletin board in the Washington, D.C., area for birders and other amateur naturalists. 301-989-9036, 300/1200/2400 baud, 8N1.</text>
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<text>Transcript provided compliments of The Osprey's Nest, a computer bulletin board in the Washington, D.C., area for birders and other amateur naturalists. 301-989-9036, 300/1200/2400 baud, 8N1.</text>
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<text>A herd of cattle stands, square and silent as a town, while a four-wheel-drive vehicle rolls by on a plain 50 miles south of Albuquerque.The cattle drift off to other grazing areas, all threatened by encroaching Russian thistle, creosote bushes and snakeweed.The vehicle, holding several scientists, continues south over a property line into a more pristine site known as the Sevilleta, a 400-square-mile area dedicated to long term ecological research.The line between the land grazed and ungrazed is hardly visible to the untutored eye, but is more critical than it first appears. It is a lineΓÇöa meeting of edgesΓÇöthat in a way draws a clear distinction between the world view of those politicians who appeal to indifference (" . .once you've seen one redwood, you've seen them all") and that of scientists. The latter, like detectives searching for clues, find not a near-barren grassland but the intersection of four different life zones, each with a different array of plants ready to dominate the landscape.The Sevilleta is one of Nature's most nearly perfect stages to study range problems and their solutions. It is where inedible creosote bushes from the Chihuahuan desert meet either the nutritious Great Plains grasslands from the East, the less nutritious Great Basin shrubs from the Northwest, or the pinon-juniper woodlands edging downward from nearby mountains. It is where the edges of these life zones meet, like four huge organisms ready to retract or expand depending on how the environment they encounter suits them.Relatively tiny variations in sun or rain can create large changes in scenery here, altering the environment as dramatically as a small weight added to one end of an evenly balanced see-saw can achieve disproportionate results. But analyzing Nature's input is not simple...For example, it is not merely the amount of annual rainfall that determines which plants will dominate this area of New Mexico.What matters is when the rains come.If in late winter and spring, early blooming plants will seize root control of the soil. "Even in biology possession is 90 percent of the law," says Jim Gosz, the UNM biologist who is principal investigator of the Sevilleta project. The ground then remains soft enough to accept summer rain. But when the annual precipitation occurs only in the summer, unyielding baked earthΓÇöa kind of desert pavementΓÇöwill cause rivulets and then floods of water to wash away top soils, endangering the fertility of the area and favoring Chihuahuan desert plants like mesquite and creosote bushes that bloom in poor soil and summer heat.This, however, is only the beginning of the complexities regarding plant growth that 20 UNM biologists, 30 graduate and undergraduate students, and a procession of guest researchers are beginning to explore in the Sevilleta, one of 18 federally funded ecological research sites in the nation and one of UNM's flagship research projects. The project has already brought or anticipates bringing $6.5 million into New Mexico to fathom the secrets of growth and attrition in the silent world of plants.What makes edible plants grow? How will New Mexico stop creosoteΓÇöa hardy, inedible bush which makes soil unlivable for other plantsΓÇöfrom marching further northward? Or restrict the outbreak of snakeweed, a yellow-flowered plant which multiplies in the absence of grass and causes cattle that feed on it to abort their young?Answers to these questions formerly were based on certain broad beliefs that, for example, each plant in an unwanted species is chemically the same, and that therefore a particular bug might eradicate it.But, as preliminary analyses by Biology Associate Professor Charlie Wisdom have found, plants of the same species contain such remarkable variations in the chemicals that compose them that a bug which might find one plant caviar would find the next, the same species and a foot away, anathema. And even the same plant in different seasons has large variations in the proportions of its chemicals. These variations, speculates Wisdom, may be the wild plant's version of presenting a kind of moving target to insect predators.Other problems in predicting this or next year's version of the environment come from water itself. While, to the ordinary person, rain is rain, to Sevilleta scientists trying to understand what grows best and when, rain from the Gulf of Mexico is traceably different from rain from the Pacific Coast. The two rain sources have different isotopes, or atomic weights of waterΓÇö18 and 16ΓÇöand the evaporative process, say.s Gosz, "discriminates against light isotopes." Since water with heavy isotopes arrives in the winter, penetrating the soil, it stays longer and has a better chance of being absorbed by a plant and producing a crop. By evaluating isotopes in plants, "we can tell which sources of water are being used," says Gosz. That helps scientists understand how the plant is using the environment, and make better predictions about plant survival.But which moisture-bearing winds are prevalent at different times of the year? This problem is important because, among other differences, warm water from the Gulf evaporates faster than cooler water from the Pacific To monitor these and other factors, the Sevilleta harbors at different sites 12-foot-tall constructions that look like robots from Mars, with lightning rods for heads, humidity sensors for hearts, computerized abdomens that log in data, arms that detect the intensity and total amount of precipitation, wind direction and speed, and feet that record soil temperatures and moisture.While scientists know that water from the Gulf of Mexico moves up in the shape of a giant donut stretching from Arizona to Louisiana and forms the bulk of New Mexico's moisture, the problem of knowing how plants react to rainfall is complicated because water measurement stations a few miles apart may give hugely different readings.To gain a more reliable gauge, UNM biologists coordinate their findings of growth or barrenness with New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology's lightning strike observatory in Socorro because, says Doug Moore, UNM research associate, "there is some evidence that the amount of moisture is directly related to the number of lightning strikes."If such correlation exists, the potential exists, says Ph.D. candidate Tad Crocker, for keeping track of "which sections of the state will get rain and when, and how plants respond. It's a potential method to keep track of the entire agricultural system of the area." UNM scientists keep track of plant growth from every perspective They personally observe small plots of earth, and use 12-foot-tall poles holding remote timed cameras to view larger areas. They also use stationary video cameras to view the progression of flash floods in remote locations. For the big picture they employ balloon and airplane photography as well as satellite computer imaging.Lightning has other meaning to the researchers as well. Not only an indicator of rain, it is a starter of fires. Therefore, on selected desert areas of the Sevilleta, controlled burns are ignited and their results minutely studied for the destruction of in place, shallowly rooted and low-nutrition desert plants such as Black Grama grasses, and the repossession of the area by species more congenial for forage such as northern New Mexico's more deeply rooted native Blue Grama.Meanwhile, Greg Shore, one of the project's data base managers, compiles infrared satellite imagery to show where vegetation exists and how it changes due to new weather conditions. If excessive heat is determined to be a problem, possible plans include putting solar shades up in orbit, or building huge greenhouse-style lattice shades over desert areas that would reduce by roughly 50 percent the amount of solar energy striking the earth. With technology, says Gosz wryly, "almost any hare brained idea is potentially possible nowadays."Suggestions for cooling the earth bring up such questions as whether the globe is warming. Again, this is not a simple matter of seeing whether the thermometer is going up at the old homestead. By the time this hip-pocket method gives an answer, it will be too late for our civilization to do anything ' about it.Instead, UNM biologists at the Sevilleta set data baselines on insect and plant populations at different altitudes, and compare changes in such data with different sites across the country and world. The advantage of comparing data (via computer hookup) with other sites is that local variations leading to adrenaline-raising suppositions can be immediately canceled out. A bug or plant species dying out in the Sevilleta might be a function of global warming, but it might also be only a sign of local change. However, a reply from, say, Maine that the same species is dying there indicates wider spread destruction.The difficulty in clearly defining the greenhouse effect is in part the problem of selecting where to collect samples of greenhouse gassesΓÇömethane, CC~ and othersΓÇö to see if their atmospheric percentages are rising. What location constitutes the definitive reading? A mountaintop will give a different reading from a desert. Even sampling sites a half-mile from each other may give different readings.To gain better baseline readings, a UNM group of three scientistsΓÇöGosz, Associate Professor Cliff Dahm and Interim Provost Paul RisserΓÇöworking under an independently won 5600,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, uses the Sevilleta's relatively untouched land to send a beam of infrared light from a heat source to a receiver more than half a mile away The receiving machineΓÇöa two-foot diameter, three-foot long metal barrel riding horizontally on a metal cart which contains an analytical instrument called an interferometer as well as a computerΓÇöanalyzes on the spot the composition and amount of atmospheric gasses through which the beam has passed. The tests, run approximately monthly, have been taken as far east as Kansas, and in a farmer's cornfield for comparative purposes, since atmosphere, like species of plants or insects commonly thought identical, can vary widely.Of course, it's always possible that changes thought to be human-caused and unpredictable are Earth's conscious reaction to human changes. This theory, called "Gaia" in scientific literature and supported by some physicists, claims the planet is alive and responds with counter-measures to those environmental changes that would render it lifeless. According to the theory, says Gosz, "increased CO2 (and the planet's warming) could offset the next Ice Age"However, Gosz doesn't believe it.He is more interested in satellite remote sensing, which has been used above Egypt to see through dry sand dunes to old river beds and human-dug canals. This tool will help document more factors about the Piro Indians, a vanished tribe who once occupied the Sevilleta region and may have created changes in the distribution of its plants by making waterways. "Once we can distinguish between natural and man-caused effects," says Gosz, more of a scientific than a mystical visionary "we can better simulate the future."Singer, Neal. "Life on the Edge." Mirage. Winter 1991. Pp 2, 4-5.</text>
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<text>Singer, Neal. "Life on the Edge." Mirage. Winter 1991. Pp 2, 4-5.</text>
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<text>SUBJECTS 1. Aquatic ecology--Technique--Congresses. 2. Water quality bioassay--Congresses. LOCATION <LAWGC> CALL NUMBER QH541.5 W3 E97 1975 </text>
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<text>R. Amavis and J. Smeets, eds., "Principles and Methods for Determining Ecological Criteria on Hydrobiocenoses : Proceedings of the European Scientific Colloquium, Luxembourg, November 1975." 1st ed. Oxford ; New York : Pergamon Press, 1976. </text>
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<text>NOTES Title from cover. Indexed selectively by: Selected water resources abstracts 0037-136X Indexed selectively by: Energy information abstracts 0147-6521 Indexed selectively by: Environment abstracts 0093-3287 Indexed selectively by: Biological abstracts 0006-3169 Indexed selectively by: Chemical abstracts 0009-2258 Vols. 1-2 consist of six issues; v. 3- consists of four issues. SUBJECTS 1. Fresh water biology--Periodicals. 2. Aquaticecology--Periodicals. 3. Ecology--Periodicals. LOCATION Science and Engineering Periodicals Collection CALL NUMBER QH96 A1 J86 </text>
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<text>Journal of Freshwater Ecology. Vol. 1, no. 1 (Mar. 1981)- La Crosse, Wis. : Oikos Publishers, Inc., c1981- . v. : ill. ; 24 cm. Vol. 1, no. 1 (Mar. 1981)- . Published three times a year.</text>
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<text>Wetland Protection in Iran The Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, the Ramsar convention, was convened in 1971 in Iran. At this meeting, the first modern global nature conservation treaty was enacted to protect wetlands of international significance (The International Law of Migratory Species: The Ramsar Convention; by the Secretary General, Ramsar Convention Bureau, Natural Resources Journal, Fall 1989). This report said there were 52 "contracting parties" participating in the convention. The Ramsar office is at the World Conservation Centre in Switzerland. Meetings to develop the Ramsar convention agreements were held during the 1960s. Ramsar is in Iran. Iran was the first country to sign the Ramsar convention on 25 August 1972, but it was not adopted by the Islamic Rebuplic of Iran until 1974. In 1975, the convention was adopted when Greece became the seventh country to ratify the treaty. Objectives of the Ramsar Convention are to "stem the loss of wetlands and to ensure their conservation in view of their importance for ecological processes as well as for their rich flora and fauna. Wetlands are defined as areas of marsh, fen, peatland or water, whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary, with water that is static or flowing, fresh, brackish or salt, including areas of marine waters the depth of which at low tide does not exceed six metres." Specific categories and guidelines are defined as criteria to evaluate the suitability of a site for recognition as an internationally significant wetland. The first meeting of countries participating in the Ramsar Convention was held in 1974 (International Conference on the Conservation of Wetlands and Waterfowl, held in December 1974, Federal Republic of Germany). Nine countries that had signed the convention gave reports. There were 28 non-signing countries that gave reports on their significant wetlands. Middle East countries that gave reports were Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan and Turkey. The United States did not give a report but did present a technical paper. Iranian Wetlands Iran reported on 10 "wetlands of international importance that were partially or totally incorporated within the Department's network of reserves, (International Conference on the Conservation of Wetlands and Waterfowl, held in December 1974, Federal Republic of Germany). "During the winter of 1972/73, no less than 72% of the 2,840,000 wildfowl censused in Iran were in the Department of Environmental Conservation reserves." Included in the report was additional material was presented on wetlands of international significance as habitat for waterfowl (18 sites) and wetlands that were of international significance but not designated as part of Ramsar (15 sites). Localities mentioned in the report were designated by latitude and longitude that could be found on an Iranian map. I plotted these wetlands and designated them to five categories to compare wetland types. Caspian Sea - 13: generally for the Gilan and Mazandaran Provinces of northern Iran. The south Caspian Sea: "Large inland sea, 12-13% saline, with sand and shingle shoreline. Migrant waterfowl of a wide variety; wintering grebes, diving ducks, pelicans and gulls. Used extensively as a resting and bathing area by wintering surface-feeding ducks. Inland - 12: a variety of sites inland in Fars and Seistan provinces. Mostly lakes and riverine deltas. Khuzestan - 7: a delta region in southwest Iran, northwest of Basra, Iran. The Iran border area here includes the Shatt al Arab, the delta region of the Tigress and Euphrates Rivers. The Karun river that drains the lowlands along the northern Persian Gulf also empties into this delta. Wetlands here include "fresh-brackish sedge marshes, flood plain, tidal mudflats and creeks, sand bars and low muddy offshore islands. Wide variety of breeding, migrant, and wintering waterfowl; huge concentrations of wintering surface-feeding ducks, geese, flamingoes, waders, gulls and terns." This description was given for the 400,000 ha Shadegan Marshes and tidal mudflats of Khor-al Amaya and Khor Musa. The Persian Gulf portion of the Shatt al Arab is about 100 km northeast of Kuwait City. Azarbaijan - 6: in northwest Iran. Lake Rezaiyeh Protective Region hereis described as a: "shallow extremely saline lake with brackish marshes and numerous islands. Large breeding colonies of flamingos, pelicans, shelducks, and gulls; huge concentrations of migrant waders, ducks and geese." Persian Gulf - 5: mostly in the Bandar-Abbas region that is the northern coastline of the Strait of Hormuz. Another site is near Kharg Island, an Iranian oil facility. Kharg Island is about 250 km east of Kuwait City. Near here at Bushire is a significant wetland of 10,000 ha. The delta of Halileh Rud is "apparently permanent freshwater lagoons and marshes with surrounding flood plain; permanent river and tidal mudflats. Wintering herons, spoonbills, flamingos, surface-feeding ducks, cranes, coots and shorebirds. Importance in breeding season unknown, but possibly great." Based on oil spill maps from the oil facility near Kuwait City, this would appear to be the wetland that could be affected if oil was blown far enough north and east to strike the Iranian coast. There are four sites comprising 217,360 ha in the Bandar-Abbas region. The Khouran Straits are one of the 10 Ramsar designated wetlands and were incorporated as part of the Hara Protected Region in 1973 (82,360 ha). Another 100,000 ha site in this strait has "tidal mudflats, creeks and mangrove swamps. Huge concentrations of wintering waders, herons, egrets, pelicans, gulls and terns." Other types of wetlands at Bandar-Abbas include sand banks and low, muddy offshore islands important for the species mentioned and shorebirds also. Significant Changes to Wetlands of International Significance Three primary activities are known to be threats to the ten primary wetlands of international significance in Iran. * changes in duck hunting practices: from using dazzling and netting at night to shooting, either from blinds or boats from several sites in the Caspian Sea region.* intensive recreational use, including hunting and fishing. At Lake Gori in Azarbaijan, this activity threatens nesting grebes and in the 1974 report, the Department of Environmental Conservation was considering acquisition and protection of the wetland. * agriculture and urban development. At the upper Khuzestan wetlands, wetlands are threatened by drainage schemes and contamination from water pollution and pesticide usage. The Department was considering an expansion in protected wetlands here and establishing a Bamdej Marshes reserve. In addition, "there has been some reduction of water flows into important wetlands (Neiriz Lakes and Seistan wetlands) due to dam construction on the main rivers feeding these areas. However, the consequences have not so far proved as disastrous as predicted, there still being large areas of excellent waterfowl habitat in both areas." At a second meeting of countries participating in the Ramsar Convention, Iran submitted a report similar to the 1974 proceedings (1984: Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat; Groningen, Netherlands). One additional wetland was added to the 18 wetlands or wetland areas of significant importance listed in the earlier report. A statemenet was also made that there had been "no significant detrimental change" to wetlands within Iranian wetland reserves. Bandar-Abbas sites were listed numbers 13, 16 and 17 is order of significance. Each of the 18 sites listed are government owned. Areas ranged in size from 120 ha to 483,000 ha at Lake Oroomiyeh in Azarbayjan; the next largest area, 190,000 ha, were the Shadegan Marshes and tidal mud-flats of Khor-al Amaya and Khor Musa in Khuzistan; total hectares: 1,209,020. ΓÇÜOne hectare equals 2.47 acres. These sites equal 2,986,279 acres; divide by 640 to equal 4666 square miles.ΓÇÖ Pakistan and India were the only other countries of the Asian region, of the 27 "contracting" parties to present a report. The United States participated as an observer. Obviously, changes in the political situation, environmental protection goals of the country and other matters could influence the status of these and other wetlands in Iran. The fourth meeting of the Ramsar Convention was planned for Switzerland in June 1990. Information presented at this meeting would probably have the most current status. Iran has shown by their involvement in the Ramsar Convention, especially as one of the first countries to participate, that this country recognizes the importance of wetland resources. This interest is reflected in their call for a conference to address the environmental problems and threats of the Persian Gulf oil spills.From: A discussion of Ecological and Environmental Theories and Practices <ECONET@MIAMIU.BITNET> Posted Mon, 4 Feb 91 15:51:32 CST.</text>
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<text>From: A discussion of Ecological and Environmental Theories and Practices <ECONET@MIAMIU.BITNET> Posted Mon, 4 Feb 91 15:51:32 CST.</text>
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<text>You are about search for bibliographical information in the water resources database, brought to you by the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and the USDA Forest Service Partners in environmental education. To start browsing through the bibliography, just click on the mouse.</text>
