Papers by Meredith Root-Bernstein
Comment to: Bortolus, A. 2012. Running like Alice and losing good ideas: On the quasi-compulsive ... more Comment to: Bortolus, A. 2012. Running like Alice and losing good ideas: On the quasi-compulsive use of English by non-native English speaking scientists. AMBIO 41: 769-772.
Indicator species could help to compensate for a shortfall of knowledge about the diversity and d... more Indicator species could help to compensate for a shortfall of knowledge about the diversity and distributions of undersampled and cryptic species. This paper provides background knowledge about the ecological interactions that affect and are affected by herbaceous diversity in central Chile, as part of the indicator species selection process. We focus on the ecosystem engineering role of small mammals, primarily the degu Octodon degus. We also consider the interacting effects of shrubs, trees, avian activity, livestock, slope, and soil quality on herbaceous communities in central Chile. We sampled herbaceous diversity on a private landholding characterized by a mosaic of savanna, grassland and matorral, across a range of degu disturbance intensities. We find that the strongest factors affecting endemic herbaceous diversity are density of degu runways, shrub cover and avian activity. Our results show that the degu, a charismatic and easily identifiable and countable species, could be used as an indicator species to aid potential conservation actions such as private protected area uptake. We map areas in central Chile where degus may indicate endemic plant diversity. This area is larger than expected, and suggests that significant areas of endemic plant communities may still exist, and should be identified and protected.
Functional trait Matorral Silvopastoral system a b s t r a c t Understanding ecosystem processes ... more Functional trait Matorral Silvopastoral system a b s t r a c t Understanding ecosystem processes is vital for developing dynamic adaptive management of human-dominated landscapes. We focus on conservation and management of the central Chilean silvopastoral savanna habitat called ''espinal'', which often occurs near matorral, a shrub habitat. Although matorral, espinal and native sclerophyllous forest are linked successionally, they are not jointly managed and conserved. Management goals in ''espinal'' include increasing woody cover, particularly of the dominant tree Acacia caven, improving herbaceous forage quality, and increasing soil fertility. We asked whether adjacent matorral areas contribute to espinal ecosystem processes related to the three main espinal management goals. We examined input and outcome ecosystem processes related to these goals in matorral and espinal with and without shrub understory. We found that matorral had the largest sets of inputs to ecosystem processes, and espinal with shrub understory had the largest sets of outcomes. Moreover, we found that these outcomes were broadly in the directions preferred by management goals. This supports our prediction that matorral acts as an ecosystem process bank for espinal. We recommend that management plans for landscape resilience consider espinal and matorral as a single landscape cover class that should be maintained as a dynamic mosaic. Joint management of espinal and matorral could create new management and policy opportunities.
Art has long been seen as a way to illustrate conservation science for public outreach, especiall... more Art has long been seen as a way to illustrate conservation science for public outreach, especially to children. However, art has a greater role to play as a partner in interdisciplinary practice. Here we explore four examples where early career conservationists use the production of artwork, inspired by contemporary art movements, to engage critically and emotionally through the formalisms of art with conservation issues on the island of Tenerife. In this paper, the authors suggest that the production of art by conservationists and as conservation (and vice versa) is key to learning to translate between art and science, leading to fuller interdisciplinarity.
Interdisciplinary research between social and environmental sciences can meet difficulties when a... more Interdisciplinary research between social and environmental sciences can meet difficulties when attempting to combine qualitative and quantitative field methods. Natural history, largely sidelined from professional science, may have value as a practice with elements common to the social and environmental sciences. In this commentary, I reflect on my own natural history knowledge and practice related to my primary research habitat in central Chile, and how natural history has helped me to generate interdisciplinary approaches. I propose that three key elements of natural history practice in an interdisciplinary context are observation, interpretation, and the human context of engagement with nature. Natural history practice can help to build consensual knowledge and trust within interdis-ciplinary teams. It can also generate novel research directions through a return to direct engagement with nature.
Multiple forms of valuation contribute to public acceptance of conservation projects. Here, we co... more Multiple forms of valuation contribute to public acceptance of conservation projects. Here, we consider how esthetic, intrinsic, and utilitarian values contribute to public attitudes toward a proposed reintroduction of guanaco (Lama guanicoe) in a silvopastoral system of central Chile. The nexus among landscape perceptions and valuations, support for reintroductions, and management of anthropogenic habitats is of increasing interest due to the proliferation of conservation approaches combining some or all of these elements, including rewilding and reconciliation ecology, for example. We assessed attitudes and values through an online questionnaire for residents of Santiago, Chile, using multiple methods including photo-montages and Likert scale assessments of value-based statements. We also combined the questionnaire approach with key informant interviews. We find strong support for the reintroduction of guanacos into the Chilean silvopastoral system ('espinal') in terms of esthetic and intrinsic values but less in terms of utilitarian values. Respondents preferred a scenario of espinal with guanacos and expressed interest in visiting it, as well as support for the reintroduction project on the basis that guanacos are native to central Chile. We suggest that reintroduced guanacos could serve as a 'phoenix flagship species' for espinal conservation, that is, a flagship species that has gone regionally extinct and is known but not associated with the region in the cultural memory. We consider how the lack of local cultural identity can both help and weaken phoenix flagships, which we expect to become more common.
The wild camelids wild Bactrian camel (Camelus ferus), guanaco (Lama guanicoe), and vicu~ na (Vic... more The wild camelids wild Bactrian camel (Camelus ferus), guanaco (Lama guanicoe), and vicu~ na (Vicugna vicugna) as well as their domestic relatives llama (Lama glama), alpaca (Vicugna pacos), dromedary (Camelus dromedarius) and domestic Bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus) may be good candidates for rewilding, either as proxy species for extinct camelids or other herbivores, or as reintroductions to their former ranges. Camels were among the first species recommended for Pleistocene rewilding. Camelids have been abundant and widely distributed since the mid-Cenozoic and were among the first species recommended for Pleistocene rewilding. They show a range of adaptations to dry and marginal habitats, and have been found in deserts, grasslands and savannas throughout paleohistory. Camelids have also developed close relationships with pastoralist and farming cultures wherever they occur. We review the evolutionary and paleoecological history of extinct and extant camelids, and then discuss their potential ecological roles within rewilding projects for deserts, grasslands and savannas. The functional ecosystem ecology of camelids has not been well researched, and we highlight functions that camelids are likely to have, but which require further study. We also discuss alternative rewilding-inspired land-use models given the close relationships between humans and some camelid species.
We propose that rRNA is likely the origin of the mRNAs that encode ribosome-binding proteins. We ... more We propose that rRNA is likely the origin of the mRNAs that encode ribosome-binding proteins. We demonstrate that rb protein sequences are encoded in rRNA. We review studies demonstrating ubiquity of prokaryotic rb-proteins binding to their own mRNA. Ribosome-binding proteins have higher-than-expected incidence of arginine-rich modules. rRNA-binding regions of rb proteins are homologous to their mRNA binding regions. a b s t r a c t We have proposed that the ribosome may represent a missing link between prebiotic chemistries and the first cells. One of the predictions that follows from this hypothesis, which we test here, is that ribosomal RNA (rRNA) must have encoded the proteins necessary for ribosomal function. In other words, the rRNA also functioned pre-biotically as mRNA. Since these ribosome-binding proteins (rb-proteins) must bind to the rRNA, but the rRNA also functioned as mRNA, it follows that rb-proteins should bind to their own mRNA as well. This hypothesis can be contrasted to a " null " hypothesis in which rb-proteins evolved independently of the rRNA sequences and therefore there should be no necessary similarity between the rRNA to which rb-proteins bind and the mRNA that encodes the rb-protein. Five types of evidence reported here support the plausibility of the hypothesis that the mRNA encoding rb-proteins evolved from rRNA: (1) the ubiquity of rb-protein binding to their own mRNAs and autogenous control of their own translation; (2) the higher-than-expected incidence of Arginine-rich modules associated with RNA binding that occurs in rRNA-encoded proteins; (3) the fact that rRNA-binding regions of rb-proteins are homologous to their mRNA binding regions; (4) the higher than expected incidence of rb-protein sequences encoded in rRNA that are of a high degree of homology to their mRNA as compared with a random selection of other proteins; and (5) rRNA in modern prokaryotes and eukaryotes encodes functional proteins. None of these results can be explained by the null hypothesis that assumes independent evolution of rRNA and the mRNAs encoding ribosomal proteins. Also noteworthy is that very few proteins bind their own mRNAs that are not associated with ribosome function. Further tests of the hypothesis are suggested: (1) experimental testing of whether rRNA-encoded proteins bind to rRNA at their coding sites; (2) whether tRNA synthetases, which are also known to bind to their own mRNAs, are 
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Papers by Meredith Root-Bernstein