Great Lakes Fish and Wildlife Restoration Act (GLFWRA) Grant Program now accepting pre-proposals

The Great Lakes Fish and Wildlife Restoration Act Grant Program provides federal grants on a competitive basis to states, tribes and other interested entities to encourage cooperative conservation, restoration and management of fish and wildlife resources and their habitat in the Great Lakes basin. The projects are funded under authority of the Great Lakes Fish and Wildlife Restoration Act of 2006.

FY 2010 Request For Project Proposals

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is requesting project pre-proposals that focus on the restoration of fish and/or wildlife resources and their habitats in the Great Lakes Basin. Supported in part by President Obama’s Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, a total of $8 million will be available to support projects this fiscal year. This represents the largest amount appropriated for this effort since the grants program began in 1998.

Pre-proposals are due on Friday, January 22, 2010, by 11 p.m. EST.

Application materials can be downloaded at http://greatlakesrestoration.us/?p=188. Details of the application process can be found at http://www.grants.gov or http://www.fws.gov/midwest/Fisheries/glfwra-grants.html.

EPA Releases First-Ever Baseline Study of U.S. Lakes

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today released its most comprehensive study of the nation’s lakes to date. The draft study, which rated the condition of 56 percent of the lakes in the United States as good and the remainder as fair or poor, marked the first time EPA and its partners used a nationally consistent approach to survey the ecological and water quality of lakes. A total of 1,028 lakes were randomly sampled during 2007 by states, tribes and EPA.

“This survey serves as a first step in evaluating the success of efforts to protect, preserve, and restore the quality of our nation’s lakes,” said Peter Silva, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Water. “Future surveys will be able to track changes in lake water quality over time and advance our understanding of important regional and national patterns in lake water quality.”

The National Lakes Assessment reveals that the remaining lakes are in fair or poor condition. Degraded lakeshore habitat, rated “poor” in 36 percent of lakes, was the most significant of the problems assessed. Removal of trees and shrubs and construction of docks, marinas, homes and other structures along shorelines all contribute to degraded lakeshore habitat.

Nitrogen and phosphorous are found at high levels in 20 percent of lakes. Excess levels of these nutrients contribute to algae blooms, weed growth, reduced water clarity, and other lake problems. EPA is very concerned about the adverse impacts of nutrients on aquatic life, drinking water and recreation. The agency will continue to work with states to address water quality issues through effective nutrient management.

The survey included a comparison to a subset of lakes with wastewater impacts that were sampled in the 1970s. It finds that 75 percent show either improvements or no change in phosphorus levels. This suggests that the nation’s investments in wastewater treatment and other pollution control activities are working despite population increases across the country.

The results of this study describe the target population of the nation's lakes as a whole and are not applicable to a particular lake.

Sampling for the National Rivers and Streams Assessment is underway, and results from this two-year study are expected to be available in 2011.

The draft study: http://www.epa.gov/lakessurvey

New Smithsonian Collection Search

The Collections Search Center provides easy "one-stop searching" of more than 2 million of the Smithsonian's museum, archives, library and research holdings and collections. Collections of particular interest to INHS staff include:

• 109,300 records from the Department of Entomology representing mostly Insecta and Arachnida speciment collections. 
• images from the Archives of American Gardens 
• bibliographies from the Center for Tropical Forest Science (Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute) and Department of Invertebrate Zoology - Mollusks (National Museum of Natural History)
• Smithsonian Institution Libraries Collections

Stimulus grant to enhance Cornell University's science papers' archive

Read the full story in the Ithaca Journal.

A three-year $883,000 grant from the National Science Foundation is expected to convert Cornell's e-print arXiv of scientific papers from a simple database to an interaction site where authors, articles, databases and readers talk to each other to help users identify a work's main concepts, see research reports in context and easily find related work.

"It shouldn't be a one-way channel," said Paul Ginsparg, professor of physics and information science, who heads the new project funded by the grant with federal stimulus money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

The arXiv (pronounced "archive") currently contains close to 600,000 papers in physics, mathematics, computer science, quantitative biology, quantitative finance and statistics, with some 5,000 new papers submitted each month. Researchers submit their work as "preprints" before formal publication. Such preprints used to be passed around by hand before Ginsparg launched the arXiv in 1991 at the Los Alamos National Laboratory; he brought it to Cornell in 2001, where it is now hosted by Cornell Library.

TOXLearn

ToxLearn is a multi-module online learning tool that provides an introduction to toxicology. It can be used as an ancillary curriculum to a first-level undergraduate toxicology course, and can provide users of NLM's toxicology databases with a working knowledge of basic toxicology principles. Only Module One will be released at this time. Additional modules will come later.

ToxLearn is an update of the earlier NLM ToxTutor, which was designed to provide a basic understanding of toxicology as an aide for users of toxicology literature contained in the National Library of Medicine’s toxicological and chemical databases.  ToxLearn will update and expand on that effort.

Future of UI Biology Library

The Biology and Life Sciences New Service Models Planning Team wants your input on the delivery of library and information services for biology and other life science disciplines on the Urbana campus. Please take a few moments to respond to their survey.

National Lake Fish Tissue Study

Via Docuticker.

National Lake Fish Tissue Study
Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Environmental monitoring provides crucial data for describing the condition of the environment and for assessing the effectiveness of pollution control activities. In the 1990s, EPA identified a lack of information necessary to accurately characterize the condition of the Nation’s surface waters and responded by designing a series of statistically-based surveys to produce information on the condition of lakes, streams, rivers, and coastal waters in the United States. The National Study of Chemical Residues in Lake Fish Tissue (or National Lake Fish Tissue Study) is one of the statistically-based surveys conducted by EPA since the late 1990s. This study is a national screening-level survey of chemical residues in fish tissue from lakes and reservoirs in the conterminous United States (lower 48 states), excluding the Laurentian Great Lakes and Great Salt Lake. It is unique among national assessments of fish contamination in lakes because the sampling sites were selected according to a statistical (random) design. Study results allow EPA to estimate the percentage of lakes and reservoirs in the United States with chemical concentrations in fish tissue that are above levels of potential concern for humans or for wildlife that eat fish. This study also includes the largest set of chemicals ever studied in fish. Whole fish and fillets were analyzed for 268 persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic (PBT) chemicals, including mercury, arsenic, dioxins and furans, the full complement of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners, and a large number of pesticides and semivolatile organic compounds.

Chicago Herpetological Society Grants

Grants of up to $1000 are offered in:

• Illinois Herpetology
• Grad Student Research in Herpetology
• Undergrad Student Research in Herpetology
• Conservation
• Captive Management, Husbandry and Propagation

Applicants must be society members as of 31 December 2009.
Further information and application guidelines.

New Books

The latest batch of new books is now on display through January 22, 2010.

Reserve items for checkout from the New Book Shelf either by placing a blue streamer with your name on it in the book or by emailing your request to library@inhs.uiuc.edu.

Can't get to the library? Try a virtual browse:
Books added to the INHS Library collection in the last 60 days

Create your own report of new titles from the UIUC Libraries.
Want to see what's new in all I-Share libraries? I-Share new books list.

Have a purchase suggestion for the INHS Library? Use our online form.

New Books

The latest batch of new books is now on display through November 20, 2009.

Reserve items for checkout from the New Book Shelf either by placing a blue streamer with your name on it in the book or by emailing your request to library@inhs.uiuc.edu.

Can't get to the library? Try a virtual browse:
Books added to the INHS Library collection in the last 60 days

Create your own report of new titles from the UIUC Libraries.
Want to see what's new in all I-Share libraries? I-Share new books list.

Have a purchase suggestion for the INHS Library? Use our online form.

Climate Change Conference

The Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies will host Climate Change, a three-day, free, education online conference Sept. 29 through Oct. 1. This is the second in a series of SCEMS conferences where researchers and curators from around the Smithsonian Institution come together to address a single subject.

Climate Change will feature sessions that everyone will find interesting: Some sessions will be of special interest to educators while others will engage entire classrooms and the general public. Throughout the conference, participants can explore Smithsonian research and collections related to the evidence, impact and response to climate change. Alongside Smithsonian scientists and curators, the public can look at the issues surrounding climate change from the perspectives of science, history and art.

"We're excited to offer this online seminar on such an important and timely topic as climate change. The Smithsonian, with its experts, collections and partners is uniquely qualified to do so," said Wayne Clough, Secretary of the Smithsonian. "Our first seminar, on Abraham Lincoln, was a resounding success that started an online dialogue that continues today—here and abroad.

The conference will show the depth of research that the Smithsonian can bring to a current problem. Smithsonian scientists and other experts will lead participants in explorations of Smithsonian research on this important issue via live presentations, moderated forums and demonstrations. Through live streaming, speakers will respond to questions and comments from the audience. All of the conference sessions will be recorded and archived and can be replayed at any time via the Web at www.SmithsonianEducation.org.

Among the presenters are:

• Bert Drake, senior scientist at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, who leads two major studies of the impact of atmospheric carbon dioxide on ecosystems
• Don Moore, associate director for animal care at the National Zoo, who helps create conservation-management plans for wildlife
• Scott Wing, paleontologist at the National Museum of Natural History, who specializes in prehistoric plant life and its reactions to climate change

Registration is open to everyone at www.SmithsonianEducation.org/Climate, which also features a blog about climate change.

Scientists Count New York's Cricket Population

Read/listen to the full story at NPR.

Scientists are asking New Yorkers' help to track the city's population of the common true katydid. New Yorkers have been asked to use their cell phones to record the insects' calls for 1 minute, and send their results and locations to scientists. Louis Sorkin, an entomologist with the American Museum of Natural History and co-organizer of NYC Cricket Crawl, says the project is an attempt to find out if katydids still live in New York.

Find funding using the Foundation Directory

Are you looking for a funding source for a project or program?

The Foundation Directory is a detailed index of grantmaking foundations. It is searchable by field of interest, geographic focus, and type of support offered. Records include total assets and total giving for the prior year, as well as information about the application process. The Directory also contains a record of prior grants awarded by each grantmaker.

There are many foundations funding work in areas directly relevant to INHS' mission. If you would like help using the Foundation Directory, please contact us!

Mammal database identifies species destined for trouble

Read the full story in New Scientist.

What would happen to polar bears if people built towns in the deep Arctic? Or to tiger populations, if India's grasslands turned to desert?

A new database that allows users to explore the factors that predispose different mammalian species to extinction – from human encroachment to slow reproductive rate – could be useful in planning conservation schemes, its developers say. Anyone can access the online system, YouTHERIA, which allows users to manipulate parameters including habitat ecology, litter size and diet, and test their own hypotheses.

Elsevier Launches Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability

Elsevier has announced the launch of a new journal, Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. Available on ScienceDirect (full text of first two issues available at no charge for a limited time), the journal aims to address the scientific, economic, social, technological and institutional aspects related to the challenge of environmental sustainability by focusing on integration across academic disciplines and insights with implications for societal practices and processes.

Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability was developed by the Earth System Science Partnership to ensure that specialists keep up to date with the expanding volume of information published in the interdisciplinary research area of environmental change and sustainability. The journal is divided into six major sections: Climate Systems; Human settlements and habitat; Energy systems; Terrestrials systems; Carbon and Nitrogen cycles; and Aquatic systems. Reviewed once a year, each section aims to cover the latest advances and trends on the environmental dimensions of sustainability and provides the views of invited experts on recent literature, with particular emphasis on articles published in the past two-three years.