Geology topics

O. J. Reichman

Publications and source records attributed to O. J. Reichman.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

USGS2005

Ecological science and sustainability for the 21st century

Ecological science has contributed greatly to our understanding of the natural world and the impact of humans on that world. Now, we need to refocus the discipline towards research that ensures a future in which natural systems and the humans they include coexist on a more sustainable planet. Acknowledging that managed ecosystems and intensive exploitation of resources define our future, ecologists must play a greatly expanded role in communicating their research and influencing policy and decisions that affect the environment. To accomplish this, they will have to forge partnerships at scales and in forms they have not traditionally used. These alliances must act within three visionary areas: enhancing the extent to which decisions are ecologically informed; advancing innovative ecological research directed at the sustainability of the planet; and stimulating cultural changes within the science itself, thereby building a forward-looking and international ecology. We recommend: (1) a research initiative to enhance research project development, facilitate large-scale experiments and data collection, and link science to solutions; (2) procedures that will improve interactions among researchers, managers, and decision makers; and (3) efforts to build public understanding of the links between ecosystem services and humans.

Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment↗

USGS2004

Ecology for a crowded planet

Within the next 50 to 100 years, the support and maintenance of an extended human family of 8 to 11 billion people will be difficult at best. The authors of this Policy Forum describe changes that are required if we hope to meet the needs and aspirations of humans while improving the health of our planet's ecosystems. Problems as diverse as disease transmission and global climate change have benefited substantially from advances in ecology. Such advances have set the stage for emergence of a proactive ecological science in which social and political realities are acknowledged and attention is turned decisively toward the future. The ecological sciences must chart an understanding of how ecosystem services can persist given their extensive human use. Innovative research on the sciences of ecosystem services, ecological restoration, and ecological design must be massively accelerated and must be accompanied by more effective communication of ecological knowledge to society.

Science↗

USGS1996

Kangaroo rat bone compared to white rat bone after short-term disuse and exercise

Kangaroo rats ( Dipodomys ordii ) were used to study the effects of confinement on mechanical properties of bone with a long range objective of proposing an alternative to the white rat model for the study of disuse osteoporosis. Kangaroo rats exhibit bipedal locomotion, which subjects their limbs to substantial accelerative forces in addition to the normal stress of weight bearing. We subjected groups of kangaroo rats and white rats ( Rattus norvegicus ) to one of two confinement treatments or to an exercise regime; animals were exercised at a rate calculated to replicate their (respective) daily exercise patterns. White laboratory rats were used as the comparison because they are currently the accepted model used in the study of disuse osteoporosis. After 6 weeks of treatment, rats were killed and the long bones of their hind limbs were tested mechanically and examined for histomorphometric changes. We found that kangaroo rats held in confinement had less ash content in their hind limbs than exercised kangaroo rats. In general, treated kangaroo rats showed morphometric and mechanical bone deterioration compared to controls and exercised kangaroo rats appeared to have slightly “stronger” bones than confined animals. White rats exhibited no significant differences between treatments. These preliminary results suggest that kangaroo rats may be an effective model in the study of disuse osteoporosis.

Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology, Part A: P↗