Michael Soulé (1936–2020)

doi:10.1126/science.abd6925

GSTDTAP > 气候变化

DOI	10.1126/science.abd6925
	Michael Soulé (1936–2020)
	David W. Inouye; Paul R. Ehrlich
	2020-08-14
发表期刊	Science
出版年	2020
英文摘要	Michael Soulé, widely credited with starting the field of conservation biology, died on 17 June at age 84. Michael's research laid the intellectual groundwork for a new avenue of study, and he cofounded the Society for Conservation Biology in 1985 to ensure that the nascent field had the resources and organization to address the critical environmental issues we face today. Michael's vision of a better world, in which nature holds a central place, has inspired scientists and nature enthusiasts across the globe. Born on 28 May 1936, Michael grew up in San Diego, California. His free-ranging childhood, spent exploring tide pools and collecting abalones and lobsters, sparked his lifelong love of natural history and helped shape his interest in ecosystems. Michael obtained his undergraduate degree in biology at San Diego State College and his Ph.D. in biology in 1964 from Stanford University in Stanford, California. After joining the biology faculty at the University of California (UC) San Diego in 1967, Michael became troubled by the rapid loss of natural habitats in Southern California. He resigned from the university in 1979 to become director of the Kuroda Institute for the Study of Buddhism at the Zen Center of Los Angeles. In 1984, he returned to academia, first teaching at the University of Michigan and then, in 1989, moving to UC Santa Cruz, where he served as chair of the environmental studies department and helped start the environmental studies Ph.D. program, one of the first in the United States. Michael's research spanned conservation, evolutionary biology, population genetics, island biogeography, environmental studies, biodiversity policy, and ethics. His work helped distinguish conservation biology as a field with a mission (conserving biodiversity), an urgency (species are going extinct), and a need for a broad focus (including economics, policy, and ecology). Although his fieldwork provided new insights, Michael's greatest contribution was to introduce, and argue for, big ideas in developing the field. In 1978, Michael helped convene the First International Conference on Research in Conservation Biology, and in 1980, he coauthored with Bruce Wilcox the field's first textbook. He was a cofounder and president of the Wildlands Network, co-chair of the science council for Australia's WildCountry Project, and a council member of RewildingEarth. In 1998, he and conservation biologist Reed Noss wrote the first paper about restoring habitat at a continental scale, a strategy they called “rewilding,” which is now an international movement. Another example of Michael's characteristic foresight was his decision to begin sampling insect populations at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in 1984. This ongoing project recently served as the source for reports that climate change has caused substantial insect decline in that undisturbed habitat. Michael's childhood familiarity with the chaparral canyons of San Diego contributed to his insights about the effects of coyotes as predators and the consequences of their disappearance. In their groundbreaking 1999 Nature paper, h e and his graduate student Kevin Crooks introduced the idea that coyotes flourish in the absence of larger predators and in turn reduce small-predator populations, allowing prey populations to increase. I (P.R.E.) met Michael when he became one of my first grad students in 1959. He showed his independence and humor from the very start. At the end of a seminar, eminent biologist Ernst Mayr—our invited guest—said, “I always instruct my grad students to tell me if they think I'm mistaken.” Michael quipped, “Does that go for grad students at other universities, too?” Ernst laughed, but our department chair, sitting next to me, thought it a terrible insult and whispered that I should get rid of Michael. I disagreed, and Michael and I became lifelong friends and colleagues. The recent appearance of a wolf pack in Colorado cheered Michael, who hoped he might also see the return of grizzly bears to the state. His love of nature was profound, and he was always willing to share his knowledge of natural history. He was eager to participate in river trips, including an 18-day raft trip I (D.W.I.) led through the Grand Canyon, where Michael rowed his own raft and shared his expertise about local amphibians and reptiles. Michael was an inspiring speaker. At the 2000 meeting of the Society for Conservation Biology, he ended his talk with a plea for contributions to fund the society's programs. In response, many hundreds of dollar bills fluttered down from the balcony into the audience below, as Michael watched with surprise and delight. After retiring in 1998, Michael contributed his expertise to local nongovernmental environmental organizations and promoted biological mosquito control. He consulted on wildlands conservation for governments in Romania, Australia, and the Republic of Georgia, as well as the United States. In the rural town of Paonia, Colorado, located in an agricultural valley flush with small farms, orchards, and vineyards, Michael and June, his wife, enjoyed kayaking and rafting. Despite his Buddhist bent, Michael was an occasional carnivore and hunter of big game, especially species numerous enough to cause overgrazing, such as introduced caribou in Alaska. A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Michael was also awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Archie Carr Medal, and the Edward O. Wilson Biodiversity Technology Pioneer Award. Audubon magazine named him as one of the 100 Champions of Conservation of the 20th Century. He received the National Wildlife Federation's National Conservation Achievement Award for Science in 1998 and the Zoological Society of San Diego's Conservation Medal in 2007. His gentle demeanor, sense of humor, scientific expertise, and visionary leadership, tempered by a Buddhist perspective, made Michael approachable, collegial, and memorable. Leading the development of a field in which science must be combined with policy and economics to produce successful outcomes required foresight and commitment, which will be carried on by the generations of conservation biologists inspired by Michael's example.
领域	气候变化 ; 资源环境
URL	查看原文
引用统计
文献类型	期刊论文
条目标识符	http://119.78.100.173/C666/handle/2XK7JSWQ/288070
专题	气候变化资源环境科学
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	David W. Inouye,Paul R. Ehrlich. Michael Soulé (1936–2020)[J]. Science,2020.
APA	David W. Inouye,&Paul R. Ehrlich.(2020).Michael Soulé (1936–2020).Science.
MLA	David W. Inouye,et al."Michael Soulé (1936–2020)".Science (2020).