Ferns are an ancient and diverse lineage of vascular plants that differ morphologically, chemically and in growth habits from the angiosperms with which they co-occur. We used a culture-based approach coupled with phylogenetic analyses to characterize the incidence, diversity and composition of fungal endophyte assemblages in ferns, with a focus on healthy above ground tissues of seven species of eupolypods at La Selva, Costa Rica. Endophytes were isolated from every individual plant and were similarly abundant and diverse in frond blades and stalks, in different vegetation types, in epiphytic vs. terrestrial species, and between sampling years. However, abundance, diversity and community structure differed significantly among fern species, and composition differed markedly between sampling years. Phylogenetic classification using separate and combined data-sets revealed that as for many Neotropical angiosperms, the majority (95%) of endophyte taxa were Ascomycota, with particular dominance by Sordariomycetes, Eurotiomycetes and Dothideomycetes. However, our data suggest higher phylogenetic richness and stronger host affinities in fern associated endophytes relative to those studied in angiosperms thus far.    

Protecting wildlife while feeding a population predicted to reach 9 billion by 2050 will require a holistic approach to conservation that considers human-altered landscapes such as farmland, according to Stanford researchers.

A new study, published April 16, 2014 in the journal Nature and co-authored by three Stanford scientists, finds that a long-accepted theory used to estimate extinction rates, predict ecological risk, and make conservation policy recommendations is overly pessimistic. The researchers point to an alternative framework which promises a more effective way of accounting for human-altered landscapes and assessing ecological risks.

"Until the next asteroid slams into Earth, the future of all known life hinges on people, more than on any other force," said co-author Gretchen Daily, member of the OTS Assembly of Delegates, and a Stanford professor of biology and senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. During the current 100-year period, about half of Earth's plants and animals are projected to go extinct because of human activities, mostly due to our agricultural methods. "The extinction underway threatens to weaken and even destroy key parts of Earth's life-support systems, upon which economic prosperity and all other aspects of human well-being depend," Daily said.

The equilibrium theory of island biogeography is a "pillar" of biological research whose elegant equation to estimate the number of species in a habitat has "almost reached the status of a scientific law," according to Chase Mendenhall, a Stanford doctoral student in biology and the study's lead author. The theory drives the default strategy for conserving biodiversity by designating nature reserves. This strategy sees reserves as "islands in an inhospitable sea of human-modified habitats," and doesn't adequately account for biodiversity patterns in many human-dominated landscapes, according to the Stanford study.

"If we're valuing coffee fields and other human-made habitats at zero, we're doing a disservice to ourselves and wildlife," Mendenhall said.

"Conservationists have long assumed that agriculture is a biological wasteland and that biodiversity persists in a degraded state in forest fragments surrounded by farms," said Daniel Karp, a former Stanford biology graduate student and current NatureNet postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. "This paper shows that farmland and forest remnants can be more valuable for biodiversity than previously assumed."

To test the island theory against a more holistic theory of agricultural or countryside biogeography, the researchers turned to bats acutely sensitive to deforestation. The study focused on bat populations within a mosaic of forest fragments and farmland in Costa Rica and on islands in a large lake in Panama. The researchers also did a meta-analysis of 29 studies of more than 700 bat species to bolster and generalize their findings globally.

Island biogeographic theory accurately predicted bats' responses to forest loss on the Panamanian islands system, but didn't come close to accurately forecasting similar responses in the Costa Rican countryside landscape. For example, the island theory predicted that the coffee plantations would have inadequate habitat to sustain a single species of bat. In reality, plantations in the countryside typically supported 18 bat species, compared to the 23-28 supported by tropical forest fragments and nature reserves.

"Conservation opportunities for tropical wildlife are tightly linked to adequate management of these human-modified habitats," said co-author Christoph Meyer, a researcher at the University of Lisbon's Center for Environmental Biology.

Overall, as forest cover disappeared, the rate of species loss was "substantially and significantly higher" in the island ecosystem, and species abundances were "increasingly uneven" compared to the countryside ecosystem, the study found.

The Assembly of Delegates, comprised of two representatives from each Member Institution, is responsible for the election of members and executive positions of the Board of Directors.  During the March 2014 Annual Meeting, several key positions to the Board of Directors were elected. Below is the current membership of the OTS Board of Directors. 

Chairperson - James Hamrick (University of Georgia)

President and CEO - Elizabeth Losos

Vice Chair, Academic Diversity - George Middendorf III (Howard University)

Vice Chair, Board of Visitors - Julie Denslow (Tulane University)
Vice Chair, Coordination in Costa Rica - Braulio Vilchez Alvarado (Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica)

Vice Chair, Education - Cesar Nufio (University of Colorado)

Vice Chair, Finances - James Prager

Vice Chair, Informatics - William Michener (University of New Mexico)

Vice Chair, Marketing and Development - John Aspinall

Vice Chair, Public Awareness - Carlos Morera (Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica)
Vice Chair, Research - Susan Cordell (USDA Forest Service)

Secretary - Elisabeth Arevalo (Providence College)

Treasurer - Jay Taft

Members at Large
Ivan Sandoval (Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica)
Richard Smythe (Retired, USDA Forest Service)
John Kress (Smithsonian Institution)
Sabrina Russo (University of Nebraska)
Guillermo Navarro (IUCN- International Union for Conservation of Nature)
Elisabeth Arevalo (Providence College)

NEW- Systematics, Ecology, Evolution and Uses of Palms

Details coming soon

Details coming soon  

Details coming soon 

Monitoring Terrestrial Vertebrates Using Camera Traps: Field and Analytical Techniques

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