Another fantastic annual Bay Area Conservation Biology Symposium

This past Saturday, SCSCB joined its fellow chapters at Stanford and Berkeley at the 17th annual Bay Area Conservation Biology Symposium. The event was full of fantastic talks, with topics including bee diversity in agricultural systems, drought mitigation plans, consequences of Sudden Oak Death, and impacts of bullfrogs on the California red-legged frog. We learned about the multitude of ways that humans impact wild systems in the Bay Area and around the globe through habitat modification, alteration of fire regimes, contributions to invasive species spread, and behavioral changes in wildlife.

We heard from very distinguished conservationists and ecologists John Terborgh, Michelle Marvier, and Peter Kareiva in the keynote addresses. Dr. Terborgh shared his lifetime of work on the importance of preserving top predators in ecosystems, and Drs. Marvier and Kareiva explored the path to increasing national support for conservation and including more diverse voices in our field.

Officers of SCSCB also presented two talks at the symposium. SCSCB vice president Abe Borker presented his dissertation work on developing monitoring strategies for seabird colonies using soundscape recording. SCSCB president Justine Smith presented her work using citizen science and genomics to understand how human disturbances impact mesocarnivore diet and competition.

We are glad to be a part of this productive conservation community here in the Bay Area! If you are interested in learning more about this event or would like to help us host next year’s symposium, please email us at scscb.host@gmail.com.