NEWS SCIENCE Endangered species protection redefined by NRC report A National Research Council (NRC) report r e c o m m e n d s changes in the way t h e E n d a n gered Species Act looks at biological p o p u l a t i o n s a n d their habitats. The changes center o n a n e w description of a n e n d a n g e r e d p o p u l a t i o n a n d a n e w c o n c e p t of s h o r t - t e r m recovery habitats. However, t h e report's a u t h o r s s u p p o r t the current Act's overall provisions, saying they are based o n s o u n d science. "Given n e w scientific knowledge [since Congress last a m e n d e d the law in 1988], w e simply r e c o m m e n d c h a n g e s to improve the Act's effectiveness," said report chair Michael Clegg of the University of California at Riverside. The report, Science and the Endangered Species Act, was written as a result of a 1991 congressional request to review die underlying science of the controversial law. The Act empowers the federal gove r n m e n t to preserve a critical habitat for the recovery of an endangered species. "Because of public concern over economic consequences, the designation of critical habitat [for a recovery plan] is of-
Endangered Species Act changes proposed Several bills introduced in the 104th Congress curtail or change key aspects of the Endangered Species Act. Most observers expect that the key battles will focus on the reauthorization bill (S-768) introduced by Sen. Slade Gorton (RWA). Major provisions of the bill include: • permitting protection of an endangered species at levels less than full recovery, including allowing a species to go extinct, • maintaining some endangered species in captive breeding programs, • requiring independent scientific peer review before listing a species as endangered or threatened, • changing the definition of "taking" of an endangered species to be direct killing or injury and not habitat destruction as it is now defined, • placing time limits on how long the federal government has to develop a critical habitat plan, and • encouraging new strategies for habitat protection, such as the exchange of private and federal lands. ten controversial and arduous, delaying or preventing the protection it was intended to afford," says the report. To accelerate the process, the NRC report r e c o m m e n d s that w h e n a species is listed as e n d a n gered, federal m a n a g e r s designate a n emergency habitat that ensures the survival of the current p o p u l a t i o n for 25-50 years, regardless of e c o n o m i c impact. A critical habitat would t h e n b e n e -
National ecological center to open The National Science F o u n d a t i o n (NSF) has selected t h e University of California at Santa Barbara as the site for its National Center for Ecological Analysis a n d Synthesis (NCEAS). The center will b e the nation's first research institute for the ecological sciences. U C - S a n t a Barbara will receive $10 million over the next five years to establish a n d o p e r a t e NCEAS. The state of California has c o m m i t t e d a n additional $2.5 million. University representatives expect the center to o p e n this s u m m e r . According to U C - S a n t a Barbara biologist a n d the center's interim director William Murdoch, NCEAS will try to m a k e sense of the vast a m o u n t s of ecological d a t a that h a v e b e e n collected in recent years thanks to satellite m o n i t o r i n g a n d other 352
n e w techniques. The center will b e m o d e l e d after think tanks established by theoretical physicists, said Murdoch. Joann Roskoski, acting director for NSF's Division of Environm e n t a l Biology, described the center as "more t h a n a think tank, b e c a u s e it will b e involved in modeling the data that ecologists are n o w collecting." Selection of the center's site followed an NSFsponsored national competition that drew 20 proposals. According to Roskoski, "The center will b e able to knit together d a t a from p r o g r a m s s u c h as [EPA's] Environm e n t a l Monitoring a n d Assessm e n t Program, the Forest Service, a n d [NSF's] Long-Term Ecological Research sites into a larger pattern of ecological processes." —ALAN NEWMAN
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gotiated with public a n d private landholders as the basis of a long-term recovery plan. The c o m m i t t e e also recomm e n d s a n e w definition of w h a t constitutes a population to b e protected. Currently, the Act covers any subspecies or "distinct population group" of plants or vertebrate animals. To make this definition more scientific, said Clegg, the report introduces the evolutionary unit (EU), defined as a "group of organisms that represents a segment of biological diversity that shares a c o m m o n evolutionary lineage a n d contains the potential for a unique evolutionary future." EUs are determined from attributes such as morphology, behavior, physiology, and biochemistry. An EU can also occupy a particular geographical area. The EU definition leads the committee to endorse the current practice of protecting distinct p o p ulation groups, but the committee stopped short of recommending extending the law's coverage to single-celled organisms. The NRC's May report was issued as congressional critics were trying to revamp the Endangered Species Act. According to Clegg, "The Endangered Species Act by itself c a n n o t prevent the loss of all species a n d their habitats but is one essential part of a c o m p r e hensive set of tools for protecting them." —ALAN NEWMAN
