Biodiversity – the variety and abundance of plants, animals, even microbes – is in sharp decline like never before, resulting in the loss of nature’s services and increasing the risk of diseases crossing from wildlife to humans. We know this because scientists, scholars, and volunteer scientists around the world have documented how things used to be and how fast they are changing.
We at Indiana University have established the Midwest Center for Biodiversity (MCB) with the mission of understanding the causes of biodiversity loss and to formulate feasible solutions. Please join me in reading a few short articles to see what IU is doing to focus attention on this global threat. We welcome your support.
Note: Alex Jahn, former co-director of MCB, is now a faculty research associate at Oregon State University. We will miss him greatly and thank him for sharing his research with so many IU students!
I was once fortunate enough to be on safari in Kruger National Park in South Africa. During the day we scanned the horizon for monkeys, giraffes, elephants and birds. At night we slept behind fences and listened for lions. One morning when we rose before dawn, I looked up hoping to see constellations that are visible only in the southern hemisphere. I saw one, the southern cross, but I don’t recall the shape of the stars. What I do recall is how bright they were against a very black sky. There was no skyglow from humans, just the sky as it had always been.
by Eve Loftman Cusack
Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS) is an international collaborative project overseen by the Institute for Bird Populations that aims to conserve birds and their habitats via standardized monitoring.
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by Malaak Alqaisi
Have you ever walked into a sliding glass door? As embarrassing as it might have felt, you probably weren’t significantly injured. Unfortunately for your favorite feathered friends, glass is much more difficult to perceive, causing birds to collide with buildings. These window strikes are a very significant and ongoing issue pertaining to bird conservation efforts.
Read moreDonor support for the Midwest Center for Biodiversity is needed because the Center has just begun, it has no reserves, and it has been charged with being self-sufficient from the start. Any contribution — large or small — is deeply appreciated.
This newsletter is published by the Midwest Center for Biodiversity (MCB) and the College of Arts and Sciences at Indiana University Bloomington.
Who is MCB? MCB members are researchers, educators, students, and community members all working towards a unified goal: to preserve biodiversity.
Midwest Center for Biodiversity
Director: Ellen Ketterson
Editor and staff scientist: Sarah Wanamaker
Contributing author: Malaak Alqaisi
College of Arts and Sciences
Executive Dean: Rick Van Kooten
Executive Director of Advancement: Jeff Stuckey
Director of Alumni Relations: Vanessa Cloe
Director of Advancement Communications: Raymond Fleischmann
Associate Director of Advancement Communcations: Sarah Johnson LaBarbera
