The NRS
TransectUniversity of California Natural Reserve System Office ofR esearch—Division of Academic Affairs
Autumn/Winter 2 0 0 7 • V o l. 2 5, N o. 2
A few words from the Director of the NRS
rior to European colonization, the interior grasslands of Cali- fornia covered over 13 million Pacres of the Great Valley and some 10 million acres in oak-dominated savan- nas and woodlands in the foothills. The most reliable available guide to their his- torical species composition is provided by the study of relict grassland floras. Recent studies of 13 such relict floras showed that annual forbs predomi- nated over perennial bunchgrasses. Over 1,300 native grassland species Invasive annual grasses now dominate California’s grasslands, even were present in these relict grasslands, here at the Landels-Hill Big Creek Reserve, high above the fogline in with the species composition varying the remote hills of the Big Sur coast. Photo by Jeff Kennedy widely among the different sites (see P. Schiffman, Abstract, EAR/SER Joint Mysteries of the Grasslands Meeting, August 6, 2007; http://eco. confex.com/eco/2007/techprogram/ ainters and photographers can’t resist the golden, summertime hills at P1049.HTM ). the NRS’s Sedgwick Reserve in Santa Barbara County. Visitors to the Continued on page 20 area, whether or not they are artistically inclined, find inspiration in Pits steeply contoured hills studded with magnificent oaks and cloaked mid-year 7 Students of geology “rock in tawny-colored grasses. In fact, throughout much of California, such flaxen, out” at Sagehen reserve velvety hills stand as one of the state’s most striking aesthetic features. Moreover, many rural residents depend upon this same landscape for their agriculture-based 11 Successful teen program lifestyles. And, beyond human enjoyment and sustenance, the grasslands are expands to second NRS site home to hundreds of animal and plant species. 12 Urban middle-schoolers explore the state’s biodiversity It surprises many people to learn that the grasslands that color California’s golden hills are not native to the state. Ecologists know they represent one of the most 19 Campus NRS director dramatic and extensive plant invasions in recorded history. They estimate that, at UC Santa Cruz retires to over the last 150 years, more than 9 million hectares (~22,240,000 acres), perhaps
In This Issue international exploits Continued on page 2 Transect • 25:2 Mysteries of the Grasslands Over the last few decades, Continued from page 1 there has been a great deal of scientific interest in the Cali- one-quarter of the state, has fornia grassland ecosystems, been converted from grass- as well as attempts to preserve lands in which native peren- and restore remnant native nials were important to those stands. Several NRS reserves dominated by exotic annual have proven valuable for these grasses. Today native grasses efforts: Sedgwick Reserve, cover less than 1 percent of Hastings Natural History Res- their original range. ervation in Monterey County, Jepson Prairie Reserve in So- Though it’s difficult to re- lano County, and McLaughlin construct the composition of Natural History Reserve, California’s grasslands before which spans Napa, Lake, and the arrival of European settlers Yolo Counties. Taken together, in the 1700s, most scientists these sites form a north-south believe that they were domi- transect across a large portion nated by bunchgrasses, espe- of the state. The anticipated cially in the wetter lowlands. addition to the UC Natural These long-lived perennials Reserve System of a new re- (the average life span for some serve in Santa Clara County species is 200 years) sank deep will provide yet-another link roots, allowing them to remain in this chain of protected green throughout the state’s research sites. long, dry, Mediterranean sum- mers. Wildflowers and herbs San Bruno Mountain, located in San Mateo County, Investigating a Paradox thrived between the grasses, south of San Francisco, is the last fragment of an entire ecosystem: the Franciscan Region. San Bruno forming a complex mosaic Mountain is also the largest urban open space in As a graduate student at that supported vast herds of the United States — 3,300 acres of undeveloped Iowa State in the 1990s, Eric grazing animals, going back to open space — but its grasslands, a bit of which are Seabloom was impressed prehistoric times. In the drier shown here, are almost entirely surrounded by with two things about the development and likely to come under increasing inland communities, like the pressure as California’s population continues to California grasslands. First, Carrizo Plain or maybe much soar. Photo by David J. Gubernick they had undergone a radical of the Central Valley, the land- transformation in a relatively scape was probably dominated by an- (Avena barbata) and ripgut brome (Bro- short period. “There had been a lot of nual flowers with bunchgrasses widely mus diandrus), flourished in California’s invasions in the Midwest prairies,” he scattered or in small patches. Mediterranean climate. They were also explains, “but the invaders had been well adapted to plowing, intensive live- similar species, so you had exotic peren- This ecosystem began to change with stock grazing, and other human-created nial grasses invading native perennial the arrival of the first European settlers. disturbances. Moreover, unlike native grasses. But in California, there’s been Along with their cattle, horses, and perennials, annuals complete their life a complete type switch in the com- sheep, the newcomers brought feed cycles in a single season, producing munities. It’s one of those cases where grasses from their Old World homes. ample quantities of seed before dying a totally novel set of species has come These annuals, which included such back and leaving behind a rich seed in and taken over, sort of the equivalent species as common (slender) wild oat bank for future years. of converting an area from grasslands
U niversity of C a l i f o r n i a 2 Transect • 25:2 to shrublands, or grasslands to trees. esting insights. First, as Seabloom That makes it intriguing from an suspected, the perennials proved to ecological perspective.” be better competitors than the annu- als. In almost every plot, perennial- The second thing that seemed odd dominated communities reduced to Seabloom was the common as- levels of light at the soil surface, soil sumption that this conversion had water, and extractable soil nitrates to happened because the invasive species significantly lower levels than those were better competitors. This seemed of the annual-dominated communi- counterintuitive to him. How could ties. And when annuals grew within species that die every year outcompete stands dominanted by perennials, those that lived for hundreds of years? their per capita seed production was His experience had taught him that only one-half to one-third of what it unless a system was highly disturbed, would have been in areas dominated the perennials should be the better by their own kind. competitors. Seabloom soon had a chance to explore these questions in Finally, in experiments designed greater detail when he came to UC to test “mutual invasibility,” the Santa Barbara to do postdoctoral researchers found that adding seeds work with Jim Reichman at the Na- allowed perennial species to invade tional Center for Ecological Analysis annual stands, but the reverse was not and Synthesis (NCEAS). true: adding the seeds of annuals to plots dominated by perennials did not The two led a team that began devel- lead to an abundance of annuals or a oping an extensive series of research significant decrease in perennials. plots at the Sedgwick Reserve to test different factors affecting the The experiments also revealed a dynamics of California’s grassland few factors that might explain the ecosystems. In a series of field experi- dominance of the annuals. First, the ments, they addressed a number of perennials were recruitment limited; key questions: they produced fewer seeds than the annuals (about 20 times fewer seeds • Were the annuals or the perennials per year on a per-area basis) and the superior resource competitors? seeds had lower germination rates. • Were the native perennials, as some sus- Also, the perennials responded less pected, “recruitment limited,” because well to simulated disturbances. When they didn’t produce enough seeds? researchers added pocket gophers, • Could the perennials and exotics suc- nitrogen (similar to rates in urbanized cessfully invade each other’s stands? areas), burning, tilling, and mowing • And what impact did human dis- (to simulate grazing), almost every turbance have on this ongoing com- Three California native grasses: treatment increased the abundance petition? [top] purple needlegrass (Nassella of annual species. The only excep- pulchra), [middle] blue wildrye (Elymus glaucus), and [bottom] barley (Hordeum tion was mowing — the perennials These experiments, conducted over brachyantherum). Art by Margaret L. decreased initially, but then increased almost a decade from the late 1990s Herring once the mowing stopped. to 2006, revealed a number of inter- Continued on page 4 N a t u r a l R e s e r v e S y s t e m 3 Transect • 25:2 Mysteries of the Grasslands was planting seeds in what was an old Could aphid-vectored diseases change Continued from page 3 barley field. It had been farmed and the competitive balance in these grass- kept weed-free for 50 years, either lands? The idea was intriguing. As Borer Seabloom’s work supported his hypoth- with tillage or herbicide, so there was explains: “Eric [Seabloom]’s work had esis that the success of the annuals was no annual seed bank at all. And who shown that the natives are better at due largely to the recruitment limitation knows what the microbial community taking up resources, and that if you use of the perennials and to continuing hu- is like? At Hastings, we’ve found that relatively simple mathematical models man disturbance, at least at Sedgwick, the microbial community in former and carry them out to the future, you where his test plots occupied fields that agricultural fields still hasn’t recovered would basically predict the decline of had long been used for agriculture. He 70 years later.” the exotic annuals. His work has em- theorizes that more than a century of pirically shown that the native peren- intense grazing and periodic drought Nevertheless, Seabloom provides strong nials are better competitors for shared conditions had reduced the population evidence, although from Sedgwick only, resources. So, theoretically, the annuals of native grasses to such low levels that that native species are better at using re- should disappear. But they don’t.” they no longer provided a sufficient sources than the exotics. So the question number of seeds. The small populations, remains, why are 9 million hectares of Borer, who is now both Seabloom’s combined with low rates of seed pro- California grasslands now dominated by faculty colleague at Oregon State Uni- duction, establishment, and dispersal, annual species? Did historical droughts versity and his spouse, took a different made it difficult for the perennials to force this changeover? Or are such approach to the grassland questions. reestablish themselves. His work also human disturbances as plowing and Her focus was on parasitoids and patho- demonstrated that no treatment com- overgrazing at fault? Could changes in gens. Spurred by her encounter with the pletely eliminated either the annuals or the soil microbes encourage this result? aphid, she began investigating the role the perennials. Or might the transformation have been diseases might play in the grasslands. due to a combination of all these fac- She found that Carolyn Malmström at These findings led to a tantalizing idea. tors? None of these explanations seems Michigan State University had done a If the problem in reestablishing native adequate to explain the situation, but lot of work on aphids and the spread grasslands is seed limitation, shouldn’t recently a promising new line of inquiry of viruses in California grasslands. In it be possible to restore viable popula- has come to the fore. particular, Malmström had focused on tions of native perennials simply by Barley Yellow Dwarf Virus (BYDV), a adding seeds? Seabloom, now on the Aphids and Yellow Dwarfs suite of five related viruses that were faculty at Oregon State University, is well known as agricultural pests. currently testing that possibility. He has While Seabloom was conducting his expanded his research to include plots experiments at the Sedgwick Reserve, “A vast amount is known about BYDV,” at Hastings and McLaughlin Reserves, Elizabeth Borer was examining arthro- Borer explains. “It’s one of the most where he is adding native seeds to stands pod predator and herbivore responses widespread pathogens on the globe, of annual grasses to see if his Sedgwick to arthropod responses to nitrogen and it infects all grasses, including results can be repeated. addition in the grasslands. One day in barley, oats, wheat, corn, rye — any the field, she found herself staring at of the grains that we eat. So there’s a Many people remain doubtful. Mark an aphid and pondering, “Why do you huge amount known about its effects Stromberg, resident manager at Hast- matter? You’re an ineffective herbivore. on crops, and there’s a lot of work going ings, has been investigating the grass- Why should I be interested in you?” on, trying to develop resistant breeds lands for decades. “Resource managers Then it dawned on Borer. An aphid of crops. That makes it a really nice tried this strategy back in the fifties,” is like a mosquito: no one dies from pathogen to study in ecology, because he notes, “and it was a total failure. a mosquito bite, but mosquitoes are so much is known from the plant Of all the natives they planted, none a vector for pathogens that can make pathology end about its transmission, survived. At Sedgwick, Eric [Seabloom] whatever they bite very, very sick. effects, biochemistry, and epidemiol-
U niversity of C a l i f o r n i a 4 Transect • 25:2 ogy. Carolyn [Malmström] was the one who really planted that possibility in my mind.”
Borer set up a meeting with Seabloom, who had amassed a huge amount of empirical data and knowledge of the literature, and a modeler, Parviez Hos- seini, to discuss her ideas and rough out a mathematical model for the grasslands that incorporated BYDV. Using Seabloom’s and Malmström’s published and unpublished data, Hos- seini ran the model and found strong [above] Grasslands study is a family indications that the pathogen could occupation for Elizabeth Borer reverse the competitive abilities of the (left) and Eric Seabloom (right); their son, Liam (middle), helps with natives and exotics. the fieldwork at the H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest in the central For Borer, these results confirmed the Cascade Range of Oregon. Photo by Jorge Ramos importance of viruses in ecosystems, and she is currently working on de- [right] Borer pulls a soil core, veloping the model more fully. “I’ve before installing an insect trap, at the Hastings Natural History been doing a lot of work around aphid Reservation in 2006. responses to annuals and perennials,” Photo by Burl Martin she explains, “and how aphids respond to nutrient changes. We’re really trying any one factor could explain that, but to look at aphid population dynamics I do think that viruses have played an and what role that might play. Once underestimated role.” we have those data, Parviez [Hosseini] is going to add in aphid population Developing the Tools dynamics to the model. Currently we have a fixed pathogen vector in the Carolyn Malmström lives in Michigan elevated CO2 levels, which are known to model, so he’ll be looking at how aphid today, but her roots are in California. A cause global warming. While she did her preferences and reproduction might member of a fifth-generation California fieldwork, she kept wondering if the group change the results we’ve been getting. family, she spent much of her childhood was missing any major piece of the picture
It looks to me like they will just make exploring and playing in the hills above in terms of plant response to CO2. And the argument stronger, but we’ll have Oakland. The California grasslands are, one day it struck her: almost all the studies to see as we get more data.” you might say, in her blood. Much like had been done on healthy plants, but not Borer, her interest in aphids and their all plants in the world are healthy. So does the virus explain the domi- impact on the grasslands began while nance of the invasive annual grasses in she was investigating a related topic. As a “One reason ecologists have not paid California? “It isn’t the whole explana- graduate student at Stanford, she worked a lot of attention to viruses,” notes tion,” admits Borer. “It’s a contender as on the long-term Jasper Ridge Global Malmström, “is that they’re subtle, a hypothesis, but I don’t think any of Change Experiment, which began in particularly in nature. They don’t the factors provides a complete expla- 1997 and continues today. She was nation for the invasion. I don’t think studying the impact on grasslands of Continued on page 15
N a t u r a l R e s e r v e S y s t e m 5 Transect • 25:2
Grassroots Effort Produces Grasslands Opus Destined to Become a Classic
hen Mark Stromberg, resident manager at the NRS’s Hastings Natural History Reservation in Carmel Valley, suggested to his colleagues Wit was time for a new book on California’s grasslands, they all agreed. But they also agreed he should lead the effort to put the book together. So that’s what he did: recruited two co-edi- tors — Jeffrey Corbin of Union College, in Schenectady, New York, and Carla D’Antonio of UC Santa Barbara, developed a proposal, sold the concept to the University of California Press, solicited contributions from dozens of grassland experts, and edited each chapter.
The result of this Herculean effort will be available in December 2007. California Grasslands: Ecology and Management summa- rizes the tremendous wealth of research discoveries that have been made in field and lab over the last ten years. This compre- hensive book includes everything from plant lists (detailing the origins and classifications of 520 species) and paleontology (introducing the Pleistocene megafauna these species supported), to ecology (for both native and invasive grasslands) and restoration strategies.
The book comes at a critical time. With California’s population estimated to double by 2050, development pressure on grassland ecosystems will become intense. “There’s been a flowering of interest in grasslands,” notes Stromberg, “both because they’re interesting plant communities in their own right, and also because they’re quickly disappearing. Natural grasslands are probably down to about 1 percent of their former extent. They’re also home to about 80 percent of the terrestrial endangered species — including 48 percent of listed terrestrial invertebrates, 50 percent of listed terrestrial vertebrates, and 82 percent of listed vascular plants — so it’s a really important habitat that is often ignored. It’s a real hotspot for diversity in the state.”
The 56 authors who contributed to California Grasslands are all leading experts in their fields, and Stromberg is quick to give them credit: “The quality of the book is really due to the quality of their contributions. We’ve attempted to pull together the best and most current knowledge of this critical ecosystem. We’re being as broad as we can, because we’re trying to cover as many important ecology and management issues as possible.”
Carolyn Malmström, whose investigations of disease transmission to perennial and annual grasses contributed to the book, hopes that California Grasslands will inspire the next generation of grassland researchers: “Mark [Stromberg] is a wonderful researcher and restoration ecologist who has done a lot to help people think scien- tifically about restoration and what really works. This book is a terrific contribution to the literature. There are a lot of bright new researchers coming along. They’ll find the book useful, and then they’ll contribute chapters to the next edition.” —JB
To find out more aboutCalifornia Grasslands: Ecology and Management or to order a copy, go to: http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/10891.html.
U niversity of C a l i f o r n i a 6 Transect • 25:2 Written in stone Students sign on for geology field camp to get a hard introduction to rocky realities
he land has stories to tell. But it takes a trained water is coming from besides rainfall, how it is stored in the eye to spot the subtleties and nuances that re- basin, and what kinds of rock the water is flowing through veal its secrets. For a university science student, and upon. And, to know that, we need to understand the Tgeology field camps are typically one of the final phases of geology of this basin.” an undergraduate career. They represent a major, introduc- tory step to the subtle art of teasing out the earth’s stories. Sylvester has been guiding students through the field camp A sandy embankment might hint at what was once the experience for more than three decades. Lean and tan after shoreline of an ancient lake. A large pile of rounded boul- weeks in the field, the emeritus professor has barely slowed ders in Sagehen Creek may be an eroded remnant of an down since retiring in 2003. A major scar on his knee is a old lava flow. A low ridge of gravel could be detritus from souvenir of a recent knee replacement surgery. The plastic a long-melted glacier. form on his key chain is similar to the spacers doctors re- cently inserted into his spine to ease sciatic pain. But for all In some parts of the country, the clues are in plain sight. the $6-million-man jokes, he still moves confidently across The massive exposures of Yosemite or the bare canyons of the exposures. “He always finds the diagnostic rocks,” one the U.S. Southwest can be read like an open book. But the of his teaching assistants notes with a laugh. “We all just “text” is far less intelligible in other areas where the clues try to keep up.” are hidden within dense forests and deep soils. That’s why the students in UC Santa Barbara’s Summer Field Course Gary Raines, a noted USGS scientist based at the Uni- (Geology 118) traveled to Sagehen Creek Field Station in the versity of Nevada, Reno, has joined the camp’s teaching Sierra Nevada near Truckee. The hydrologic basin in which team. Raines, who has done pioneering work throughout this NRS site is located, covered in the western United States, was pine forests and thickets of huck- impressed by the work Sylvester’s leberry and manzanita, turned out students carried out in the north to be a great place to give aspiring Lake Tahoe area and decided to geologists their first real taste of join them in the field. In fact, the exploratory fieldwork. U.S. Geological Survey recently published a geologic map of the Station Manager Jeff Brown in- Tahoe work based on UCSB’s vited Professor Arthur Sylvester, previous summer field camp from UCSB’s Department of mapping and plans to issue one Earth Science, to bring his stu- that includes the Sagehen Basin dents to the reserve to map the in the near future. Raines’s gentle Sagehen Basin and the adjoining manner and keen, experienced Independence Lake Basin. Brown eye make him a great mentor for explains: “We have a high-level the students. hydrologic research program go- ing on here [at Sagehen], and we The six-week camp is divided into have all kinds of instrumentation two sections. For the first three in this basin to measure the quality weeks, the students worked at a of water and the amount of water. With support from his summer geology site near Ely, Nevada, where they field students, Professor Emeritus Arthur But, in order to understand our Sylvester maps the Sagehen Basin; student reviewed basics and tested their water budget and water chemis- Danielle D’Alfonso brings Sylvester the mapping skills on a known locale. try, we need to know where the section she has mapped to be integrated into Sylvester’s UCSB colleague his master map. Photo by Jerry Booth Continued on page 8 N a t u r a l R e s e r v e S y s t e m 7 Transect • 25:2 Written in stone specifically because she wanted the challenge of mapping an Continued from page 7 area with lots of vegetation. “From the top of Mt. Lola, it looked great,” she says with a shake of her head. “There were Phillip Gans led this part of the course. The experience can grassy meadows with outcrops and a line of vegetation that be daunting, but there are correct answers, and the rocks probably marked some lithological boundary. But once I got near Ely are relatively straightforward sedimentary deposits there, I realized that it wasn’t grass, it was the most densely that have been uplifted and faulted. vegetated area in the whole basin. It was really frustrating. I didn’t know how to handle it at first, because I couldn’t During the second half of the camp, the challenge is taken see any rocks. Professor Sylvester taught me to be patient to a new level. The students must quickly size up an area and just map boulders. But it was four square miles with that is largely unknown. Nobody can give them the correct only a few outcrops. The rest is covered in impenetrable answers, because nobody knows the correct answers. In bushes. And when you find a boulder, you can’t tell where fact, the most recent geologic map of the north Lake Tahoe it came from.” region, which includes two NRS sites — the Chickering American River Reserve and Sagehen — was produced Three weeks later, even with the aid of GIS and LIDAR2 over a century ago. “Waldemar Lindgren1 came through maps, D’Alfonso had still found very few exposures. Despite here in 1897,” Sylvester explains as he surveys an old map. that, she was able to produce a map that provides an accurate “But mainly he was looking for mineral deposits to fatten representation based on the available data. She shrugs her the coffers of the U.S. government. He made a remarkable shoulders as she looks over her almost-completed map and map for the time (at a scale of 1:125,000), but it’s pretty concludes, “You learn to map with what you have. That’s broad-brush. He mapped primarily only three basic geologic an important lesson.” units: granite, volcanic rocks, and glacial deposits. But it doesn’t say what kind of volcanic rocks. It doesn’t tell much Students quickly learn another key lesson: always question about the granite. He did depict a fault that separates one your hypotheses. “You constantly try to disprove your theory,” side of the granites from the volcanic rocks, and that’s quite comments first-year graduate student Liz Lovelock. “If you correct, but so much more detail can be teased out of the find a volcanic rock, it might look like a flow coming from rocks around Sagehen.” a nearby high point. But then, when you go to that high point and don’t find any more volcanic rocks, you need to Sylvester, his staff, and students will provide those details. develop a new theory for how it got there. That happens all After a quick driving and hiking survey of the two basins, the students set to work. They decide that each student 1 will select an area and map it on his or her own. Then, at Waldemar Lindgren (1860–1939) was born in Kalmar, the end of the three weeks, the team will get back together Sweden, and attended Europe’s foremost mining school, the and combine their sections into a single map. Sylvester is Freiberg Mining Academy in Germany, graduating in 1882. a bit surprised by the way the students subdivide the area, The following year, Lindgren emigrated to the United States but doesn’t intervene, and the students set to work walking and, in 1884, joined the Pacific division of the U.S. Geological the exposures, collecting the data, and gradually filling in Survey. He spent nine years traveling around the western United the blanks. Jeanette Hagan is one of the two teaching assis- States by steam train, stagecoach, buckboard wagon, and on foot. tants for the camp. “Especially the first two days, Professor In 1911, he was promoted to the position of chief geologist at Sylvester really wanted the students to struggle unassisted. USGS. In 1912, he became professor of economic geology and After that, we started going out in the field with them to head of the geology department at the Massachusetts Institute of find out where they were having problems. But we aren’t Technology (MIT), Cambridge. Lindgren was a prolific writer going to tell them the answers because we don’t know. We who published nearly 200 books and papers, and his Mineral th haven’t looked at these rocks before, either.” Deposits (4 edition, published in 1933) remained the leading advanced text in its field for many decades. The realities of fieldwork set in quickly. Danielle D’Alfonso, 2 LIDAR, which stands for “Light Detection and Ranging,” for example, a recently graduated UCSB student looking to is a laser-based technology used to create 3-D maps of unsur- get field experience, selected an area near the field station passed accuracy and detail. U niversity of C a l i f o r n i a 8 Transect • 25:2 the time. Every time you get excited and think you have it, faults. Once they reach the site, the students take samples you need to step back and say, ‘But maybe I’m completely and get a GPS reading. When they return to camp, they wrong.’ You have to play devil’s advocate with yourself.” download these data into ArcGIS to create a digital map. The software is very complex and not specifically tailored for Changing Technology geologists, so the teaching assistants work with the students to develop their computer mapping skills. Walking around camp, one is immediately struck by a contrast in mapping techniques. The teaching assistants and most Liz Lovelock has made tremendous progress in learning to of the students work on computers, using ArcGIS software use ArcGIS. “In two weeks here, I’ve learned more from the to create their maps. Sylvester, on the other hand, who is TAs about using the software for geologic mapping than I merging the student maps into a single overview, works at learned in an entire quarter on campus. The TAs know it a light table, carefully drafting his maps by hand-sketching well and have been helping me figure stuff out. I had a little different deposits with colored pencils. He has no problem experience before, but now I’m really able to use it.” with technology. Whether a map is drawn by hand or by computer is of little consequence to him; the accuracy of In a sense, the students happen to find themselves at the the data is what matters. But he does want students to be forefront of major changes in their profession. Geographer able to produce both types of maps. Jordan Hastings, a former student of Sylvester’s, makes fre- quent appearances at camp. Hastings, the chief cartographer This contrast illustrates how technology is transforming geol- for the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology, is a pioneer ogy. At Sagehen, the students are using the basin’s detailed in developing digital-mapping techniques. He is currently LIDAR maps to target their search for key exposures or Continued on page 10
UN-Reno Professor Gary Raines (right) and the UCSB geology field camp students pose before the landscape they mapped in the spring of 2007 — a whopping 55 square miles of terrain in the Sierra Nevada. Photo by Arthur Sylvester
N a t u r a l R e s e r v e S y s t e m 9 Transect • 25:2 Written in stone The students also found numerous volcanic vents, heighten- Continued from page 9 ing Sylvester’s suspicion that nearby Mt. Lola might be a long-sought “missing volcano.” “As one travels up through standardizing the process for creating digital geologic maps Oregon and Washington,” he says, “old volcanic centers lie at and working with GIS software developers at ESRI to build a regular intervals along the Cascades. But here in California, version of the program specifically intended for geologists. between Mt. Lassen and Mammoth, there’s a gap of 170 kilometers with no volcanic rocks from that era. We think Surprising Discoveries we might have a good candidate here at Mt. Lola. Many volcanic vents are associated with it. Mt. Lola could have Sylvester has been impressed by the information his students been a major Mt. Lassen-sized volcano.” have uncovered during their short visit. In the headwaters of Independence Creek, one student found evidence of a The list of discoveries goes on. Despite the heavy cover of major paleocanyon carved into the mountains between 120 dirt and pine needles, the students found several new active and 50 million years ago. The canyons were originally cut fault lines, puzzled over a rock pile visible from the entrance by large streams flowing out of Nevada and then filled in road to the station (which became the subject of a pleasant by volcanic avalanches that came roaring through the area afternoon debate between the TAs and faculty over whether at speeds estimated at 60 to 100 kilometers an hour. the rocks were ancient, andesitic lava flows or a more recent rock fall), and investigated the “rock gardens” in one of the Student D’Alfonso and Professor Raines, the USGS scientist basin’s meadows. And though their work answered many ques- based at UN-Reno, made a surprising discovery in her “dif- tions, it raised even more. Which is as it should be. Sylvester ficult” area when they spotted a series of terraces near the notes, “Dozens of master’s theses are waiting to be written field station that they believe were the shoreline for a series on the Sagehen Basin, and at least two PhD theses.” of ancient lakes that formed in the valley behind a land- slide, moraine dam, or ice dam. Raines discovered further Gary Raines put it well while talking to a student: “Give me evidence for this when he found a layer of clay under the a day, I can make a map. Give me a week, I can make a map. basin’s fens. Could this have been part of the old lakebed? Give me a year, I can make a map. Each one will be more and Sylvester is anxious to find out more. “We barely scratched more detailed, more and more accurate. We have just three the surface on that one,” he comments. “We need to lure a weeks, so we’re making a map. A client isn’t always going to paleolimnologist up here to look at the relationship between give you enough time, either, so it’s a good experience.” the fens and the clay.” Sylvester is proud of what his students accomplished: Another story that began to emerge during camp deals di- “Thirteen students mapped about 55 square miles in two rectly with the basin’s hydrology. Evidence of three distinct weeks. That’s amazing, and they’ve done a great job. They’ve glacial periods ranging from 14,000 to 750,000 years ago uncovered some exciting things.” can be found throughout the area. The moraines left behind by these glaciers form much of the ridge that separates the Most of the students have enjoyed their time in the field. A few Sagehen and Independence Lake basins. These moraines were even planning to do additional fieldwork immediately consist of leaky porous rocks, and students working on the after camp. Danielle D’Alfonso and Liz Lovelock were planning Sagehen side of the ridge discovered springs at almost exactly to move farther north to look for fossils. “I’m still a student,” the same elevation as Independence Lake. This relation- said D’Alfonso, “and yet we’re contributing to a map that will ship led them to suspect that some of the water flowing in be published by the USGS. That’s incredible.”—JB Sagehen Creek actually leaks out of the lake through the moraine. Again, further testing could confirm or deny their For more information, contact: hypothesis. “Establishing the geology will allow hydrologists Department of Earth Sciences to test that hypothesis,” notes Sylvester. “We may be wrong, University of California, Santa Barbara but now that we have the geology, it sheds a little more light http://www.geol.ucsb.edu on this possibility.” (For course description: http://www.geol.ucsb.edu/Un- dergrad/CourseDescriptionsUD.html) U niversity of C a l i f o r n i a 10 Transect • 25:2 Outreach program expands to second NRS reserve
or the last four years, the founder) Katie Zanto, the Sedgwick staff, could. I’ve never learned as much as I have Adventure•Risk•Challenge email, and the Internet. I traveled to Santa working with Katie.” program (ARC), based at the Barbara frequently over the winter and FNRS’s Sagehen Creek Field Station spring, and I tried to align myself with Gurecki and Zanto spent many hours north of Lake Tahoe, has achieved as many people in the community as I strategizing the transition. Multiple impressive results in helping motivated backpacking expeditions into the Si- teens who don’t speak English at home erra remained a key program element, and who are potential leaders in their but at Sedgwick, ARC focused on the communities to realize and reach their southern part of the range near Sequoia full potential. Through an intense 40- National Park. Rather than kayaking on day program of outdoor adventures, Lake Tahoe, the students kayaked in the community service, and classroom ocean near the NRS’s Santa Cruz Island instruction, the program has proven Reserve. A day of surfing lessons replaced that it can transform lives. the Sagehen rafting adventure. The new location’s proximity to UC Santa Barbara This summer, with support from the proved beneficial. “Because we were so Pacific Forest and Watershed Lands close to campus,” Gurecki notes, “we Stewardship Council and local Santa were able to visit and use their facilities Barbara foundations, ARC expanded to several times. That experience really a second NRS site, the Sedgwick Reserve opened the door for students to perceive near Santa Barbara. Veteran instructor college in a completely different way. Jennifer Gurecki took on the daunting They don’t feel intimidated about col- task of adapting the program to this new lege anymore.” location — working with local school districts to identify appropriate student Despite the usual challenges of adapt- candidates, revising activities, hiring in- ing to a totally new community — and structors, and raising additional funds. despite a major wildfire that forced the students and staff to abandon their The UCSB NRS staff also played a key base camp at Sedgwick for several days role in the program’s success. Associate — everyone contributed to making Director Sue Swarbrick helped raise ARC Sedgwick’s first year a great suc- $20,000 for the program, and when cess. On graduation day, the students a major wildfire forced the temporary looked back proudly on what they had evacuation of the reserve, she hosted the accomplished. As student Angela Lopez students at her home. Sedgwick Reserve noted in the group’s blog: “I leave fears Manager Kate McCurdy drew on her behind and make life fun, interesting, backcountry experience to work directly and adventurous. In the last 40 days, I with the students and staff, twice ac- learned I can be somebody.” —JB companying them on backpacking trips into the Sierra Nevada. For more information on ARC, or to learn how you can help support the Gurecki, a Lake Tahoe resident, admits the program, contact: ARC founder Katie process was a challenge: “It was a daunting Zanto or Station Manager Jeff Brown task to create a new program. I couldn’t at the Sagehen Creek Field Station: have done it without the support of (ARC Photo by Jennifer Gurecki 530-587-4830.
N a t u r a l R e s e r v e S y s t e m 11 Transect • 25:2 Getting “into” Nature Urban kids discover a world beyond their cityscape
Photos by Lobsang Wangdu
hike through the oak woodlands is punctuated by periodic giggles and shrieks. A collecting stop at the Car- Amel River begins hesitantly, but soon turns into a wet and muddy crayfish quest. A night hike without flashlights becomes a true test Urban middle-schoolers from the San Francisco Bay Area work of courage. the Carmel River in Steinbeck country for wildlife.
Peg Dabel’s seventh-grade science class from Richmond’s They also take a field trip to the Berkeley Natural History Adams Middle School in west Contra Costa County is Museums, an association of six natural history museums spending a weekend at the NRS’s Hastings Natural History located on campus at UC Berkeley (
Exploring California Biodiversity (ECB) is funded by the In addition to reaching 250 students each year, ECB also National Science Foundation’s GK-12 program, Graduate plays a valuable role on the Berkeley campus. Program Co- Teaching Fellows in K-12 Education, ordinator Betsy Mitchell explains: which brings graduate student fel- “Rosemary Gillespie [the Principal lows into inner-city schools to share Investigator for the project and a their passion for science through professor in Environmental Sci- weekly classroom activities and col- ence Policy and Management] lecting trips around the schoolyard. conceived of the idea, in part, as a The primary goal of the program is way to forge a community culture to train graduate students in a way for Berkeley’s Natural History that allows them to communicate their often-esoteric research to a 3 broad audience. Once each year, the To “key out” refers to the process of graduate students visit one of three identifying species by using a field UC Berkeley NRS sites: Angelo guide or, for scientists, by using a Coast Range Reserve (Mendocino dichotomous key — the outline County), Sagehen Creek Field Sta- of the characteristics of a group of tion (Nevada County), or Hastings. organisms. U niversity of C a l i f o r n i a 12 Transect • 25:2
Museums. Each museum used to operate independently, but Veteran teachers like Dabel and Eby help the graduate now they’ve been combined into a consortium. This project students communicate with the middle school students. gives the museums a common goal and gets the graduate “You have to start with nothing,” Dabel notes. “You can’t students to mix over a very worthwhile goal. Outreach is assume the kids have gone to the zoo, because most of them very satisfying.” haven’t gone to the zoo. They haven’t used a magnifying glass or looked through binoculars before. You get into Another goal for the program was to increase appreciation trouble when you assume things. And yet they’ll catch on for biodiversity among young people — and to harness quickly, and they’ll remember. You just have to start from their energy in the museums’ effort to understand and pre- the beginning, and you can’t put them down for not know- serve biodiversity — by engaging the students in research ing certain things.” and exploration of their own schoolyards and at the NRS reserves. The process can be very eye- opening for the fellows. As Mitchell has been with the Mitchell says: “They soon program since its inception learn that they can’t tell any- five years ago and continues body anything. That’s the to oversee every aspect of its hardest thing for them to learn. operation — selecting and At the University, they come training graduate student fel- from this PowerPoint-lecture lows, supporting them through place, but now they have to let a year in the classroom, co- the kids do it themselves and ordinating the museum and then they’ll ‘get it.’ You’ve got reserve visits, and organizing a to give [the kids] an experi- closing celebration at the end ence. And, as a staff, we have of the year. It’s the first of these to give the graduate students tasks that she finds particularly an experience, so that they critical to the program’s suc- ‘get it,’ too.” cess. “We look for graduate students who have the creative Through the school year, the energy and maturity to reach fellows work in pairs, visiting out to kids, and who are well classrooms once each week advanced in their research,” to lead an activity. It can be Mitchell explains. “We don’t daunting at first, Fujita says, want them to be struggling to “trying to figure out what will figure out what they’re going engage students, will not be A weekend field trip to Hastings takes the “ugh” out to be doing research-wise and of bugs for these middle school students. too boring, and can be com- then also struggling with what pleted in 45 minutes. Lessons to do with the kids.” like that are hard to find. And doing that every week is tough. It gives you tremendous respect for teachers.” In August, the fellows attend a month-long training pro- gram that prepares them for the classroom experience and While the fellows are in the classroom, they’re in charge. Mr. provides basic teaching strategies. Mitchell describes the Eby might be sitting at his desk, grading papers, and Ms. experience: “We’ll walk them through activities that have Dabel might flick the lights once in a while, if the students proven effective, like biodiversity in the schoolyard. That’s get too boisterous, but for the most part, they let the fellows one that the kids really enjoy, and it opens their eyes. We run the class. As she works her way through a food-web ac- model how we’ve taught it in the past. The fellows start with tivity, Hernandez speaks slowly with frequent pauses, giving that, and they can add their own touches from there. They the Spanish translator enough time to convey the concepts work with their mentor teachers as well.” Continued on page 14 N a t u r a l R e s e r v e S y s t e m 13 Transect • 25:2 Getting “into” Nature Continued from page 13 In the meantime, the reserve visits play a key role in expand- ing the children’s perception of the world. “A lot of these kids haven’t been out of Richmond or out of the city,” says to a group of ESL Hernandez. “This is their first real introduction to nature and (English as a Second the kinds of things they can find in nature, so I really want Language) students. them to get a broad introduction to the diversity they can (The school provides find in California. Throughout the school year, we sample a translator for ESL in the schoolyard, but that’s very limited in terms of what classes, particularly they find. When we get them out here, their enthusiasm in lower level classes.) definitely builds.” Fujita backs her up, distributing handouts, At first, Reserve Manager Mark Stromberg wasn’t sure how helping students with these city kids would take to the reserve’s rustic facilities, questions, and keeping Graduate student fellow Matt but he’s now a convert to the program. “They don’t cause the kids focused on the Fujita helps students with their any problem at all,” he notes after giving the kids a welcome activity. In the second insect collections. talk (“You will take only one shower, and it will be on classroom (the fellows teach two classes at each visit), they Sunday before you head home.”). “They’re scheduled from reverse roles, with Fujita leading the activity and Hernandez the moment they wake up in the morning until late into playing the supporting role. the night — trapping small mammals, looking for lizards and frogs, taking their night hike, collecting insects with a ECB currently focuses all of its resources on middle school black light. It’s fun to see how they respond to a completely students. “In our first years, we worked with high schools, new environment.” too,” says Mitchell, ”but we’ve decided to focus on middle- schoolers, because they’re still Getting students to engage with excited about things and not science by forming hypotheses afraid to show it. The State stan- and collecting data can be a dards for seventh grade match challenge. However, finding well with our content [which gross things in the mud is a includes a lot about evolution blast, and Hernandez and Fujita and classification], so it’s easy for try to build on that energy by us to fit into that. Also, middle urging the students to think school is a crossroads — the about where they captured a students are either going to keep particular animal and why it going or drop out. Ultimately, might prefer that habitat. When I hope we’ll be able to inspire they come across a lizard on a the kids and then feed them hillside at Hastings (“Ooh, look into other areas as they move — it has an Adam’s apple!”), into high school, so we don’t Hernandez asks the students lose them.” She wants to show to compare the oak grasslands these students that science is at the reserve with the riparian relevant and fun, that people Fellow Jennifer Hernandez and a student puzzle system they saw at the river the over an insect’s history. have jobs in biology. She wants day before. Some have no clue. to encourage them to take more science classes and to get Others try to please her with a range of hit-and-miss answers. involved in extracurricular science activities, like camps or Her probing questions gently nudge the students, whose clubs or volunteer work. environment until now has consisted largely of city streets, to become more observant of the natural landscape.
U niversity of C a l i f o r n i a 14 Transect • 25:2 Dabel observes the process quietly. “The kids are making them anything,” she says. “Just look at this little troop of connections,” the veteran teacher notes, “but they’re starting kids who are actually out here!” from a low level. You have to ask questions in a certain way. You have to give them some basis that they can build on. Her conversation is interrupted by a scream in the distance: They’ve picked up a huge amount of stuff, almost without “That’s nasty!” Dabel moves off to where Fujita and a group realizing that they’ve been absorbing it.” of students have turned over a piece of wood on the ground and are scrambling to capture a spider. “The process con- Hernandez has been impressed by the students’ progress. tinues,” she comments with a smile. —JB “Look at the way they are with insects,” she says. “At first, they’re afraid to have ants on them. When we start, they’re For more information, go to: very squeamish about catching insects and looking at them. Exploring California Biodiversity / By the end, they’re very enthusiastic. I’m hoping to motivate A Berkeley Natural History Museums Project — them, to get them interested in science and nature.” http://gk12calbio.berkeley.edu/overview.php
4 It’s not just the students who are inspired by their visit to National Science Foundation — http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_ Hastings. Dabel, a veteran of countless shifts in district id=5472&org=NSF budgets and teaching strategies, seems reinvigorated as well. “I have a literature teacher with me on this trip,” she notes, “and we’re developing an idea for combining science 4 The National Science Foundation (NSF) began funding and humanities.” In the current test-focused teaching cli- Exploring California Biodiversity (ECB) in 2003; that mate, teachers generally aren’t encouraged to do this kind original grant ran for three years. In 2006, the NSF renewed of thing — nor do they have the time. But Dabel thinks its funding of ECB for a period of five years (NSF Award this collaboration could improve these children’s language Abstract #0538678). arts skills. “You have to engage them, if you want to teach
Mysteries of the viruses interrupted phloem5 transport Over time, Malmström and her labora- Grasslands in plants, blocking the movement of tory colleagues developed a compact Continued from page 5 sugars, because she already knew that molecular technique for quickly deter-
high densities of CO2 also influenced mining which native and exotic grasses make the plants turn blue. They’re not sugar transport. were infected and which groups of in-your-face. Many factors shape veg- viruses were involved. “It was a complex etation and make them look scruffy. If Malmström thought she might be on to process,” she recalls. “A large fraction of the damage is subtle, it could be wind something, but before she could go any Continued on page 16 damage, frost damage, poor nutrients, further, she needed to learn how to work or maybe cows grazed there recently. with the viruses. The first challenge was 5 It could be very easy to walk through finding ways to identify infected plants. The products of photosynthesis, mostly a natural ecosystem and be unaware Assays available at the time were largely sugars, are distributed throughout a plant of virus presence, particularly if you’re serological techniques that had been by specialized conducting tissue known focused on other factors.” developed for crops, which are chemi- as the phloem. The phloem differs from cally very simple. Plants in nature are the other type of plant transport tissue, At the time, Malmström had no back- more difficult to analyze because the the xylem, in that its conduits are living ground in pathogens, so she went to the concentration of viruses tends to be cells (the xylem is comprised of dead cells), library, where she began learning about lower and the plants themselves have the compounds it transports are organic BYDV and the closely related Cereal a lot of secondary compounds that (the xylem transports water and miner- Yellow Dwarf Viruses (CYDV). She confuse most assays. als), and movement within the phloem was especially intrigued to learn that the is bidirectional, up or down (the xylem transports up only). N a t u r a l R e s e r v e S y s t e m 15 Transect • 25:2 Mysteries of the Grasslands Continued from page 15 plant viruses, including those we study, are RNA-based, and RNA is always a little bit trickier to work with, because it degrades faster. We finally came up with a multiplex, reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction test (RT- PCR) where you extract all the RNA from the plant and viruses, convert the RNA to DNA, and then amplify it in a thermocycler. It’s sort of like what you see on CSI.” Eventually, Malmström produced a set of inexpensive primers,6 or tests, for detecting a variety of BYDVs The NRS’s Sedgwick Reserve, located in Santa Barbara County, and CYVDs at one time, enabling her provides habitat for grassland studies. to identify where viruses occurred in Photo by Mark Reynolds natural ecosystems. and the native grasses had much higher behave. That led me to come up with Earlier, while working at UC Berkeley mortality over the long term. These some potential hypotheses and really as a President’s Postdoctoral Fellow, viruses are not benign in nature. They big-picture, wild ideas about how these Malmström had conducted a series were having a significant impact.” viruses might have affected the invasion of experiments demonstrating the of these grasses in the first place. That’s dramatic impact the viruses had on na- Amplifying the Aphids a really tough question that may be tive grasses. Using seeds collected from impossible to prove definitively. It’s hard around the state, including the NRS’s Aphids cover surprisingly large dis- to go back and prove past events, but Jepson Prairie Reserve, she grew a large tances. Each year in February and you certainly can collect information variety of native grasses in a carefully March, large flights of aphids move and see if it’s consistent or not with controlled plot at UC Davis, deliber- up and down California’s Central Val- your ideas.” ately infected them with a wild virus, ley. Walk through a stand of annual and monitored the infected plants’ grasses in the spring, and you can find To explore how the exotic grasses might growth for one to three years. yourself covered in aphids. All of this change aphid behavior, Malmström activity intrigued Malmström and got conducted a set of studies in which she Perhaps because she works with patho- her to thinking about how the aphids grew native grasses and exotic grasses gens, Malmström has a disconcerting used the two distinctly different types together and separately. Her subsequent enthusiasm for events that most people of grasses — the exotic annuals with tests revealed that native grasses, when would consider bad news. “It was re- their substantial seed banks and tight grown alone, had some aphids, but ally neat to see!” she exclaims. “Many stand structures versus the long-lived exotic grasses, also grown alone, were of the test populations were extremely perennials that were widely spaced and loaded with aphids. And when she ran dwarfed. Seed production dropped, produced few seeds. taste-tests, offering caged aphids both native and exotic grasses, the aphids
6 “When these annual grasses invaded, always preferred the exotic grasses. Next, A “primer” in this context is a short they must have changed the epidemiol- she looked at aphid reproduction. Again sequence of RNA or DNA from which ogy of the environment,” Malmström the results were clear: the female aphids DNA replication can initiate, allowing explains, “because they certainly change on the exotic plants produced more researchers to determine what microorgan- how the aphids, who spread the virus, young than those on the natives. isms are present. U niversity of C a l i f o r n i a 16 Transect • 25:2
we know nothing about the history of the grasslands and viruses.”
Tracking the Family Tree
Not much is known about the history of viruses in plants. BYDV was first identified in 1951, but its history be- fore that time remains a mystery. How long had it been present in California? How had it changed over time? To try to answer these questions, Malmström and her colleagues analyzed grass samples in herbaria at UC Davis and UC Berkeley to see if they could find
The NRS’s Hastings Natural History Reservation, located in any evidence of infection in some of Monterey County, provides habitat for grassland studies. the older samples. Photo by David J. Gubernick To Malmström’s delight, their search The results of these experiments increased chance of becoming infected. was successful. “By looking through the strongly supported the idea that the And while the native annuals begin each collections at both Davis and Berkeley, rapid growth of aphid populations on year with new, disease-free plants, the we found evidence of nine distinct the exotic plants affected the native long-lived perennials carry their infec- viruses in preserved grasses that dated grasses. As Malmström explains, “The tions throughout their lives. back as far as 1917. Those are some of exotic grasses have a tendency to amplify the oldest viruses people have pulled out an aphid population. The interesting To Malmström, these circumstances of grasses or plants, and they’re certainly thing, though, is that exotic grasses in constitute an excellent example of what the oldest in North America.” California are not green all year round. ecologists call “apparent competition” They go brown before the native plants — where the relationship of the exotic These nonagenarian viruses look much do, so the aphids that build up on them annual grasses with aphids and viruses like modern BYDVs. By conducting have to go somewhere else. One of the negatively affects the native perennial a phylogenetic analysis, Malmström’s places they go is to the native grasses bunchgrasses by increasing their rate research team was able to estimate how that are still green.” of infection. As she notes: “Apparent fast the viruses had changed over time. competition is an indirect process re- She says, “We have fairly strong evidence Malmström’s studies showed that the lated to a third factor. In this case, [the that the viruses have been present in amplification of the aphids in exotic third factor] could be a pathogen. So if California for some time, perhaps from stands could have major consequences the exotic grasses make a pathogen more the middle of the 1700s at least.” for nearby native plants. When she grew prevalent and that has a negative con- native grasses by themselves, about sequence on the natives, that triangular In fact, the group’s phylogenetic work one-third of the native plants became relationship means that the presence revealed insights that ranged far beyond infected. When she grew natives and of the exotics could hurt the natives California and track well with historical exotics together, twice as many natives indirectly. Our hypothesis was that developments. “The patterns show lots became infected. She attributes some of these viruses helped the exotic grasses of evidence of global movement more that difference to changes in the aphid become established in California in the recently,” Malmström continues, “and population and behavior, but the net first place by having a negative influence a really interesting connection between effect is that native grasses growing on the natives. It’s consistent with the old viruses in California and modern next to exotic grasses have a greatly experimental data we have so far, but Continued on page 18 N a t u r a l R e s e r v e S y s t e m 17 Transect • 25:2 Mysteries of the Grasslands And if anything, the struggle between It’s very personal and reflective. People get invasive species and natives is getting a lot of personal, almost spiritual enjoy- Continued from page 17 more complex. “Today we have ad- ment out of restoration. They can handle ditional exotic grasses, like medusa the weeds and try different kinds of flowers infections in Australia. Our evidence head and goat grass,” Malmström says, and grasses. There are a lot of success stories suggests that the viruses may have gone “and they have even more nasty ways at that level, up to fifty acres, and that’s from California to Australia in the of changing plant relationships. We’ve the future. —JB 1890s, which is when ships had got- focused on annuals, like wild oats and ten fast enough that horticultural pests brome, which aphids really like. These For more information, contact: were surviving the trans-Pacific trip, but newer ones — not even the cows like Elizabeth Borer also before horticultural restraints had them very much. They pose a significant Email: [email protected] been put in place, which happened in threat to rangeland sustainability. But Carolyn Malmström 1912. We know Australia didn’t have that’s probably not virus-related.” Email: [email protected] these viruses beforehand, because they Eric Seabloom didn’t have the right aphids.” Hastings Reserve Manager Mark Email: [email protected] Stromberg includes a list of successful state.edu Practical Applications restoration projects in California Grass- Mark Stromberg lands: Ecology and Management, a book Email: [email protected] The change in BYDV dynamics and he co-edited (with Jeffrey Corbin and the increased incidence of disease in Carla D’Antonio), which was recently References native grasses provide important miss- published by the University of Califor- ing clues to explain the dominance of nia Press (see sidebar, page 6). He also Borer, E. T., P. R. Hosseini, E. W. the invasive annual grasses. The chances provides perspective on current efforts to Seabloom, and A. P. Dobson. 2007. of ever reversing this overwhelming preserve native California grasslands: Pathogen-induced reversal of native invasion now appear to be slight, for dominance in a grassland commu- doing so would entail altering the Homeowners and small landowners are nity. PNAS 7 104:13, pp. 5473-78. disease vector. Farmers have learned learning the value of native grasslands. to time the planting of their crops to That’s the hope for California. Restoring Malmström, C. M., C. C. Hughes, L. avoid aphids and reduce BYDV infec- a whole county park or a whole ranch is A. Newton, and C. J. Stoner. 2005. tions, but it is not possible to take this really pushing the envelope in terms of Virus infection in remnant native same approach with the restoration of scale. We might be able to do some things, bunchgrass from invaded California native grasses. For the present, those but it’s very expensive getting seeds started, grasslands. New Phytologist (2005) 168, who seek to restore native grasslands monitoring, weeding. At the local scale, pp. 217-30. must be content with slowing the rate homeowners can monitor their plantings. of infection in their plots by carefully Seabloom, E. W., W. S. Harpole, O. weeding out the annuals. J. Reichman, and D. Tilman. 2003. Invasion, competitive dominance, Malmström notes that this and resource use by exotic and native weeding is crucial when the California grassland species. PNAS native plants are young: “It’s 100:23, pp. 13384-89. really important for restora- tion ecologists, when they’re 7 Previously, Proceedings of the Na- growing-up their grasses for tional Academy of Sciences. plug plantings, to keep aphids off them at that stage, because it’s easy for the native stock to get In 2004, purple needlegrass was desig- infected and then transferred out nated California’s official State Grass. Art by Margaret L. Herring onto the landscape.” U niversity of C a l i f o r n i a 18 Transect • 25:2 UCSC campus NRS director embarks on new “aventuras”
argaret H. (Maggie) Fusari’s connection with the UC NRS stretches Mback to the days before there even was a reserve system. She was first introduced to the concept in 1965 as a graduate student at UCLA, studying under biology profes- sor Kenneth S. Norris. At the time, Norris had recently persuaded the UC Regents to create a University reserve system, and the nascent system had received its first seven reserves. “I got an introduction to the reserves very early on,” recalls Fusari, “Never Give up! Never surrender!” “and, since my research focused on Cali- is the motto of the indomitable fornia legless lizards, I spent a lot of time at Maggie Fusari, who sailed into retirement in autumn 2007. the Granites [the NRS’s Sweeney Granite Mountains Desert Research Center] even undergraduate and graduate students before it became a reserve.” who are doing research at reserves, so the system is in good hands and Fusari left UCLA before completing her ready to grow.” PhD, but in the 1980s she and Norris crossed paths again, this time at UC In fact, Fusari isn’t really retiring. She’s Santa Cruz, where Fusari had come leaving UC, but only to embark on a to finish work on her degree. Norris, new adventure. This fall she will begin by then, had established the NRS as Establishing the Fort Ord Natural Re- a 27-month commitment to the Peace an integral part of the University and serve has been a major challenge, but Corps. She’ll be working in Mexico, was stepping down as NRS director to Fusari is optimistic that the site is head- serving as a technical advisor in a new focus on dolphin research. Before he left ing in the right direction. “It’s a small Peace Corps program there. “It’s the UCSC, he signed Fusari as director of reserve,” she notes, “but its research natural next step,” Fusari notes, “an the UCSC reserves, a job she held for program is slowly building, and that’s exciting thing to do, and a perfect transi- twenty years. what should happen. It’s been a long tion into the next phase of my life. I’ll be process getting all of the involved parties working in Mexico as a technical advisor Fusari’s duties have included manag- to agree, but we’ve almost got the fund- to SEMARNAT, Secretaria del Medio ing Younger Lagoon Reserve, Fort ing agreement finalized. Once that’s Ambiente y Recursos Naturales.” Ord Natural Reserve, and the UCSC done, the reserve will be in good shape. campus reserve (which is not part of I believe it is important to understand Though Fusari spent the last two de- the NRS). She also served as supervisor how to protect our rare species when cades working mainly on coastal issues, to the resident director at Landels-Hill they abut the developed world.” her heart remained in the southwestern Big Creek Reserve. “If it came down deserts. After she completes her Peace the pike, I did it,” Fusari recalls with a On a broader scale, Fusari feels good Corps assignment, she plans to spend a laugh. In addition to her NRS duties, about the state of all of the UCSC little time with her daughter, who is an she also served as a lecturer, teaching reserves. “We have a lot of young, actress in Los Angeles, and then move courses in UCSC’s Department of field-oriented faculty,” she explains, to Tucson, Arizona, where she has a Environmental Studies. “and they’re stepping forward to direct home and where, she says, “All will be the UCSC reserves. They have a lot of welcome to visit.” —JB
N a t u r a l R e s e r v e S y s t e m 19 Transect • 25:2 A few words tion of perennials, with concomitant Continued from page 1 improvement of wildlife habitat, has The NRS Transect spurred a great deal of research into Autumn/Winter 2 0 0 7 • 25:2 These data challenge the long-held the causes of the current dominance assumption that historically peren- by exotic species of annuals introduced The NRS Transect is published biannually by the Natural Reserve System (NRS), part of the nial bunchgrasses were the broadly from the Old World. Office of Research—Division of Academic Af- dominant species in California. Rather, fairs, in the University of California Office of the the emerging picture is that, in pre- The first part of the lead story in this President (UCOP). European times, bunchgrasses may issue of Transect describes some of the Subscriptions are free, available upon request. have dominated wetter areas whereas research at NRS reserves and elsewhere Contact: Transect Editor, Natural Reserve System, University of California, 1111 Franklin Street, annual grasses and forbs dominated that seeks the causes of the dominance of Oakland, CA 94607-5200; phone: 510-987- drier ones. these annual spe- 0150; fax: 510-763-2971; email: susan.rumsey@ cies. One such ucop.edu. Today native cause may be Transect issues are also available for viewing on species are a mi- the much higher the World Wide Web at:
1986 Nonprofit Org. Natural Reserve System U.S. Postage University of California PAID University of 1111 Franklin Street California Oakland, CA 94607-5200