ECOLOG-L Digest - 13 Nov 2002 to 14 Nov 2002 (#2002-290) ECOLOG-L Digest - 13 Nov 2002 to 14 Nov 2002 (#2002-290)
  1. ECOLOG-L Digest - 13 Nov 2002 to 14 Nov 2002 (#2002-290)
  2. Geostatistics short courses in Nevada, Scotland,
  3. RFI: Winter Hummingbirds
  4. recent job postings at EnvironmentalCAREER.com
  5. Benthic Symposium Update - Wednesday November 13 - Thursday Novembe
  6. summary: simple programs for plotting GPS points
  7. volunteer field positions
  8. Graduate Assistantships at University of Toledo
  9. Archive files of this month.
  10. RUPANTAR - a simple e-mail-to-html converter.


Subject: ECOLOG-L Digest - 13 Nov 2002 to 14 Nov 2002 (#2002-290)

There are 7 messages totalling 411 lines in this issue.

Topics of the day:

  1. Geostatistics short courses in Nevada, Scotland, and Ohio - Sign-up soo

  2. RFI: Winter Hummingbirds
  3. recent job postings at EnvironmentalCAREER.com
  4. Benthic Symposium Update - Wednesday November 13 - Thursday November 14

     2002
  5. summary: simple programs for plotting GPS points
  6. volunteer field positions
  7. Graduate Assistantships at University of Toledo

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date:    Thu, 14 Nov 2002 08:30:14 -0500
From:    wharper <wharper@OTTERBEIN.EDU>
Subject: Geostatistics short courses in Nevada, Scotland,
         and Ohio - Sign-up soon

We will be offering both of our geostatistics short courses soon.  Sign-up w
ile space is available.

Reno, Nevada: Zero to Kriging 13-16, BYO Geostats 18-20 January 2003

Scotland: Zero to Kriging 10-14, BYO Geostats 14-16  April 2003

Columbus, Ohio: Zero to Kriging 16-20, BYO Geostats 23-25  June 2003

http://geoecosse.bizland.com/0toKriging.htm has more information on our intr
ductory Zero to Kriging class.  This class has been certified for 5 CEUs by 
he Independent Third Party
Review Panel (ITRP).

Our second class, BYO Geostatistics (http://geoecosse.bizland.com/BYOGeostat
.htm) has been certified for 4 CEUs by the ITRP.

Check http://uk.geocities.com/geoecosse/news.html for general information.

You can now pay on-line directly for these classes via the shopping cart off
the http://geoecosse.hypermart.net/ site or more directly to the cart at
http://geoecosse.hypermart.net/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=G&Category
Code=10546

Volume II of our Practical Geostatistics course will be out in 2003.  Watch 
he above http://geoecosse.hypermart.net/ for early discounted purchases.  Be
the 1st one on your block to
own Volume II.

Please contact Isobel (drisobelclark@yahoo.co.uk) or me (WHarper@otterbein.e
u) with any questions.

Thanks,

Bill
--
William V. Harper, Mathematical Sciences, Otterbein College
Towers Hall 136, One Otterbein College
Westerville, OH 43081-2006 USA    614-823-1417    Fax: 614-823-3201
Faculty page: http://www.otterbein.edu/home/fac/WLLVHRPR/
For the best in geostatistics: http://geoecosse.hypermart.net/

------------------------------

Date:    Thu, 14 Nov 2002 10:32:08 -0500
From:    RESEARCH Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History
         <research@HILTONPOND.ORG>
Subject: RFI: Winter Hummingbirds

Through "Operation RubyThroat: The Hummingbird Project," Hilton Pond
Center for Piedmont Natural History is investigating the occurrence
of hummingbirds in winter east of the Great Plains.

Several hummingbird species that occur normally in the western U.S.
or Mexico are showing up in increasing numbers in the eastern U.S.,
especially in fall migration and during winter months. Hummingbird
experts aren't exactly sure what is going on, but we are attempting
to verify and band as many of these winter vagrants as possible in
pursuit of answers

If you know of any hummingbird in the eastern U.S. from 15 October
through 15 March, let us know as quickly as possible at
mailto:research@hiltonpond.org. Please include the date and
city/state of the sighting, your contact information, and as much
detail as possible about the hummingbird. If the hummingbird is too
far away for us to investigate personally, we will forward the
information to another bander closer to you.

If you are an educator, it would be helpful if you could announce to
your students about these winter hummingbirds, and to mention
Operation RubyThroat at http://www.rubythroat.org . (If you're at a
GLOBE-certified school, you can also make winter hummingbird reports
through the Operation RubyThroat section on the GLOBE Web site.)

More information about the winter hummingbird research project is at
http://www.hiltonpond.org/ResearchHummerVagrantMain.html .


Thanks, and best wishes,

BILL
--

**********

RESEARCH PROGRAM
c/o BILL HILTON JR. Executive Director
Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History
1432 DeVinney Road, York, South Carolina 29745 USA
research@hiltonpond.org, (803) 684-5852, eFax: (503) 218-0845

Please visit our web sites (courtesy of Comporium.net):
Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History at http://www.hiltonpond.org
"Operation RubyThroat: The Hummingbird Project" at http://www.rubythroat.org

**********

------------------------------

Date:    Thu, 14 Nov 2002 12:38:08 -0500
From:    ECC <eccinfo@ENVIRONMENTALCAREER.COM>
Subject: recent job postings at EnvironmentalCAREER.com

The following is a partial list recent jobs at EnvironmentalCAREER.com -
http://environmentalcareer.com:

Editor, State of the Wild
Wildlife Conservation Society
Bronx Zoo, NY
http://environmentalcareer.info/candidates/joblist.asp

Aquatic Ecologist, Project Planner
J.F. New & Associates, Inc.
Walkerton, Indiana
http://environmentalcareer.info/candidates/joblist.asp

California Conservation Director
The Pacific Forest Trust
Santa Rosa, California
http://environmentalcareer.info/candidates/joblist.asp

Environmental Field Projects Manager
Planet Drum Foundation
Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador
http://environmentalcareer.info/candidates/joblist.asp

Environmental Policy Specialist - Lands Stewardship
National Wildlife Federation
Boulder, Colorado
http://environmentalcareer.info/candidates/joblist.asp

Range & Wildlife Management Specialist
City of Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
http://environmentalcareer.info/candidates/joblist.asp

Seasonal Naturalists (2)
Audubon
Francis Beidler Forest - Harleyville, SC
http://environmentalcareer.info/candidates/joblist.asp

Administrator II (Director of Research
G.M. Sutton Avian Research Center
Bartlesville, Oklahoma
http://environmentalcareer.info/candidates/joblist.asp

Executive Director
Alliance for Sustainable Jobs and the Environment
Portland, OR
http://environmentalcareer.info/candidates/joblist.asp

Best regards,

Environmental Career Center staff

EnvironmentalCAREER.com posts about 10% to 20% of the Environmental Career
Center's jobs listings.  ECC's entire jobs list (usually well over 500
jobs) is published monthly in the comprehensive National Environmental
Employment Report.  The December issue will be mailed soon to subscribers.

See a sample of the September 2002 issue at
http://environmentalcareer.com/sample.htm.

To Subscribe:  Subscriptions start at $19 for 3 months.  You may receive the
newspaper via email (PDF) or via first class mail to you each month. See
http://environmentalcareer.com/subscribe.htm.

Go to http://environmentalcareer.com to post jobs, find jobs, and learn
about careers, environmental career books, and environmental career
teleconferences that are broadcast to universities nationwide and
internationally.
-------------------------------------------------------------

Environmental Career Center
100 Bridge Street
Bldg. C
Hampton, VA  23669

http://environmentalcareer.com
eccinfo@environmentalcareer.com
757-727-7895
757-727-7904 (fax)

Helping people work for the environment since 1980

------------------------------

Date:    Thu, 14 Nov 2002 16:23:59 -0500
From:    David Inouye <di5@umail.umd.edu>
Subject: Benthic Symposium Update - Wednesday November 13 - Thursday Novembe

         14, 2002

Benthic Symposium Update - Wednesday November 13 - Thursday November 14, 200


"Natural change is important to understanding how systems react when we're
not around," said Linda Deegan (Marine Biological Laboratory) at the second
day of the Symposium on Effects of Fishing on Benthic Habitats.

Throughout the day participants listened to presentations describing
natural changes of benthic habitats and the economic and ecological effects
of fishing on these undersea areas.

Mike Field of the USGS described some of the natural events that influence
sea floors in his presentation "Living with Change: Response of the sea
floor to natural events."  Benthic habitats are subject to mild
disturbances on a regular basis, from temperature changes, to tides and
intensified currents.  The greatest impact is the result of frequent
events, not the level of disturbance.  According Filed, if a hurricane
comes through and wipes out an area every five years, the system has
adjusted for this.  A hurricane every year for several years, or several
catastrophic events in a short time span, will cause more permanent damage.

Other morning talks emphasized the importance of scale in understanding
benthic ecosystems.  Tara Anderson (USGS and National Marine Fisheries
Service) discussed scale in relation to a study conducted on Australian
seagrass beds.  According to Anderson, a combination of large, intermediate
(100's of meters), and fine (meters) scale sizes could prove useful for
predicting the distribution and abundance of both habitat and fish.  The
information from these types of studies can inform managers, policy makers,
and researchers on the formation of Marine Protected Areas and Essential
Fish Habitats.

Afternoon talks compared fishing and other human impacts with natural
events.  Chris Frid (University of Newcastle upon Tyne) argued that too
little is understood about benthic ecosystems, and scale size studies add
little to the knowledge.  He suggested the popular fixation for researchers
is on diversity, biomass, statistical analysis and indicator species, all
too academic for what managers want to know: the activities of the system
and not the ecosystem.

Thursday's presentations examined social and economic issues and
effects.  Stephen Kellert (Yale University) described societal perceptions'
roles in management, science and policy.  Value systems, international
agreements, profits and property rights all play a role in how fishers,
managers, and conservationists react to legislation.  Alison Rieser
(University of Maine Law School) described the "battle of the dictionaries"
that occurs with treaty agreements and legislation.

The rest of the afternoon covered alternative ways to minimize adverse
effects of fishing on benthic habitats, with the meeting culminating in a
panel discussion on the future directions for managers, fisheries, and
scientists.

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 13 Nov 2002 11:16:36 -0500
From:    Ken Whitney <kwhitney@UCDAVIS.EDU>
Subject: summary: simple programs for plotting GPS points

Recently I queried the list about simple programs for plotting GPS points.  
everal folks have asked for a summary of the replies, so here they are (belo
).  Many thanks to all who replied.

The following programs were mentioned:
1) Arcview
2) Delorme TopoUSA
3) ExpertGPS                            expertgps.com
4) iMap (currently Mac-only)            http://www.kuleuven.ac.be/bio/sys/im
p/home.html
5) GPS Trackmaker Professional          http://www.gpstm.com/
6) spreadsheets


------------------
I used Delorme TopoUSA for my maps and therefore got all sorts of
ancillary data. It was relatively simple to enter the data and format the
map. You aren't going to be able to do things like geostatistics, but it
doesn't sound like you need to anyway. It only cost me $100.00 and I got
topos for the entire country. If you only need a small region, you can get a
the regional version for about $35.00. The topos work well if you want to
make a map of an area of a few square miles or greater, but are not as good
at finer resolutions. You can purchase USGS topos to go with this package
and may be able to get higher resolution if you need it. I found it worked
well for a map I made of the Virginia portion of the Chesapeake Bay. I made
my own symbols to represent different cell counts and then placed them on
the map based on lat and long. Because the program does not try to do
everything, it is much easier to find out how to do the things that I did
need to do. I have used arc info, arcview and played around with Grass
(freeware GIS which seems about as powerful as Arcinfo), but getting data
into the program was 90% of the battle even with arcinfo export files. With
this program, the data is provided with the package.

--------------------
OK, you're right about the learning curve for ArcView...but my friend Tom
Orum put together a web site that let even me make maps:
http://ag.arizona.edu/PLP/GIS/Case_Study_Af/Opening.html

--------------------
A program like Arcview is relatively straightforward for making simple maps 
nd can be learned in a couple of days. It is the analysis and more advanced 
orkings of a GIS that tend to take a while longer to learn.
I recomend the online ESRI courses for Arcview. They are about 100 bucks eac
 and will get you going quickly.

--------------------
Check out ExpertGPS (try expertgps.com or topographics.com). They make
three levels of the program: a free version that you can use to manage GPS
data up to an $80 version with online access to USGS maps. I started with
the free version, and within a month had purchased the full version. The
tech support is pretty good too, although you are unlikely to need it. The
learning curve is about 5 minutes long. I don't think they do differential
corrections, but that is less of a concern these days than it used to be,
depending on what you are doing.

--------------------
At the very lowest end, you can treat them as x-y
coordinates and use whatever software you'd make any
other graph with.
That's very limited, though, and you'll probably want
to move up to a gis package at some point. ArcView is
relatively friendly, and most academic institutions
already have a site license.

----------------------
it's pretty easy to make maps in arcview for windows (depending on what you 
anted to put on them).

----------------------
Take a look at iMap (http://www.kuleuven.ac.be/bio/sys/imap/home.html)
----------------------
....are the points still in the GPS
unit? If it's a Garmin GPS, you can use Mapsource to
download the points. If it is a Trimble GPS,use
Pathfinder Office software. Both programs will
generate a simple map,and both will allow you to
export the points into ArcView as a shapefile.If you
have the points written down somewhere in a text file
or table, I would just go straight to ArcView."
---------------------
For a quick map with our remote gps data, we use GPS Trackmaker
Professional, a program made by designers in Brazil. I know you can use
.bmp, .jpeg or .gif files, but probably more are compatable. The program can
operate on Win NT/95/98/2000. You can download the basic version for free
by going to http://www.gpstm.com/.
---------------------
The simplest way I can think of to plot GPS points is to use UTM coordinates
and plot the points using a spreadsheet or basic stats package. In Excel the
e is much flexibility for adding text, lines, symbols, etc.
---------------------

------------------------------

Date:    Thu, 14 Nov 2002 16:46:02 -0600
From:    David Broussard <brousdr@AUBURN.EDU>
Subject: volunteer field positions

We are seeking four volunteer field assistants needed to assist in ongoing
projects dealing with Columbian ground squirrel life history and ecology in 
he
Rocky Mountains of Alberta, Canada.  Fieldwork entails observing, trapping,
handling, and marking ground squirrels.  Projects begin 10 April and end 5
August and are carried out through the R.B. Miller Biological Station owned 
nd
operated by the University of Calgary.  Projects include female mate choice,
age-related reproduction of females, and maternal effects on offspring.
Volunteers should be in good physical condition and be willing to work long
hours in often harsh weather conditions.  If interested please send e-mail t

David Broussard (brousdr@auburn.edu).


**********************************************************************
David Broussard
331 Funchess Hall
Department of Biological Sciences
Auburn University
Auburn, Al 36849
brousdr@auburn.edu
**********************************************************************

------------------------------

Date:    Thu, 14 Nov 2002 19:30:30 -0500
From:    Deborah Neher <deborah.neher@UTOLEDO.EDU>
Subject: Graduate Assistantships at University of Toledo

We have openings for several M.S. or Ph.D. students with experience &
interest in the following four topic areas in the Department of Earth,
Ecological and Environmental Science, University of Toledo. Please contact
the appropriate faculty members for further information on the topic of
your interest. You can find application materials on the web through the
Graduate School of University of Toledo
(http://www.utoledo.edu/grad-school/). Please apply to the Biology,
Ecology-track programs (http://www.eeescience.utoledo.edu/Academic%20Program
).

Ecosystem and Landscape Ecology: Dr. Jiquan Chen (jiquan.chen@utoledo.edu).
More information about the LEES Lab can be found at:
http://research.eeescience.utoledo.edu/lees/

Ecological Modeling And System Ecology In Antarctica: Dr. Daryl Moorhead
(dmoorhe@uoft02.utoledo.edu); activities summary
(http://www.eeescience.utoledo.edu/Faculty/Moorhead/Moorhead_CV.htm).

Soil Biological Indicators: Dr. Deb Neher (deborah.neher@utoledo.edu).
General information about the Soil Biology Indicator lab can be found at
http://research.eeescience.utoledo.edu/sobo/. Currently seeking two
graduate students supported on grant-funded projects and a third supported
on a teaching assistantship.

Wetland Ecology: Dr. Hans Gottgens (jgottge@uoft02.utoledo.edu); see also
http://www.eeescience.utoledo.edu/Faculty/Gottgens/Default.htm

Environmental Microbiology and Bioremediation: Dr. Daryl Dwyer
(daryl.dwyer@utoledo.edu); see also
http://www.eeescience.utoledo.edu/Faculty/Dwyer/default.htm

We apologize if you have received this advertisement from multiple listservs


------------------------------

End of ECOLOG-L Digest - 13 Nov 2002 to 14 Nov 2002 (#2002-290)
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Archive files of THIS month

Thanks to discussion with TVR, I have decided to put a link to back files of the discussion group. This months back files.

The link to complete archives is available elsewhere.


More about RUPANTAR

This text was originally an e-mail. It was converted using a program

RUPANTAR- a simple e-mail-to-html converter.

(c)Kolatkar Milind. kmilind@ces.iisc.ernet.in