text:
Losing half of tropical fish species as corals disappear
When snorkelling in a reef, it's natural to think of coral colonies as a colourful scenography where fish act in a play. But what would happen to the fish if the stage went suddenly empty, as in Peter Brook's 1971 Midsummer Night's Dream? Would the fish still be there acting their roles without a backdrop?
This question is not novel in coral-reef science. Ecologists have often compared reef fish diversity and biomass in selected localities before and after severe events of coral mortality. Even a temporary disappearance of corals might have substantial effects on fish communities, sometimes resulting in a local disappearance of more than half of local fish species.
Considering the multiple, complex ways fish interact with — and depend on — corals, this might appear as an obvious outcome. Still, such complexity of interactions makes it difficult to predict how the loss of corals might affect fish diversity in specific contexts, let alone at the global scale.
Focusing on species-specific fish-coral associations reveals an inconsistent picture with local-scale empirical observations. When looking at the fraction of local fish diversity that strictly depends on corals for food and other more generic habitat requirements (such as shelter and reproduction), the global picture suggests that most fish diversity in reef locality might persist in the absence of corals.
The mismatch between this result and the empirical evidence of a stronger coral dependence suggests the existence of many hidden ecological paths connecting fish to corals, and that those paths might entrap many fish species for which the association to corals is not apparent.
Tags: climate change, coral reefs, corals, extinction, Global warming, reef fish
Categories : biodiversity, bottom-up ecology, climate change, conservation, coral reefs, decline, ecology, extinction, extinction debt, fish, function, habitat loss, marine, research, top-down ecology, trophic cascades
Time for a 'cold shower' about our ability to avoid a ghastly future
"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo. "So do I,' said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
Frodo Baggins and Gandalf, The Fellowship of the Ring
Today, 16 high-profile scientists and I published what I describe as a 'cold shower' about society's capacity to avoid a ghastly future of warfare, disease, inequality, persecution, extinction, and suffering.
And it goes way beyond just the plight of biodiversity.
No one who knows me well would mistake me for an optimist, try as I might to use my colleagues' and my research for good. Instead, I like to describe myself as a 'realist'. However, this latest paper has made even my gloomier past outputs look downright hopeful.
And before being accused of sensationalism, let me make one thing abundantly clear — I sincerely hope that what we describe in this paper does not come to pass. Not even I am that masochistic.
I am also supportive of every attempt to make the world a better place, to sing about our successes, regroup effectively from our failures, and maintain hope in spite of evidence to the contrary.
But failing to acknowledge the magnitude and the gravity of the problems facing us is not just naïve, it is positively dangerous and potentially fatal.
It is this reason alone that prompted us to write our new paper "Underestimating the challenges of
avoiding a ghastly future" just published in the new journal, Frontiers in Conservation Science.
Tags: carrying capacity, climate change, climate disruption, climate refugees, consumption, density feedback, extinction, governance, human population, over-consumption, political will, populism, sustainability
Categories : Africa, agriculture, alien species, anthropocene, biodiversity, biowealth, bushmeat, carbon, climate change, climate shift, conservation, coral reefs, decline, deforestation, development, disease, drought, economics, ecosystem, ecosystem function, ecosystem services, education, Endarkenment, environmental economics, environmental policy, environmental science, exploitation, extinction, extremism, fire, food, function, governance, habitat loss, harvest, health, human overpopulation, impact, invasive species, ocean, planning, pollination, poverty, propaganda, science, threatened species, toxification
Successful movers responding to climate change
Ecologists often rely on measuring certain elements of a species' characteristics, behaviour, or morphology to determine if these — what we call 'traits' — give them certain capacities to exploit their natural environments. While sometimes a bit arbitrarily defined, the traits that can be measured are many indeed, and sometimes they reveal rather interesting elements of a species' resilience in the face of environmental change.
As we know, climate change is changing the way species are distributed around the planet, for the main (and highly simplified) reason that the environments in which they've evolved and to which they have adapted are changing.
In the simplest case, a warming climate means that there is a higher and higher chance you'll experience temperatures that really don't suit you that well (think of a koala or a flying fox baking in a tree when the thermometer reads +45° in the shade). Just like you seeking those nice, air-conditioned spaces on a scorcher of a day, species like to move to where conditions are more acceptable to their particular physiologies and behaviours.
When they can't change fast enough, they go extinct.
Ecologists use life-history traits to predict which species have the highest probability of moving to new areas in response to climate change. Most studies into this phenomenon have largely ignored that range shifts in fact occur in sequential stages: (1) the species arrives in a new place for the first time, (2) its population increases in size (and extent), and (3) it can continue to persist in the new spot. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Biogeography, climate change, Fish, marine fishes, native invasive species, range shifts, species' traits, traits, tropical fish
Categories : alien species, Australia, behaviour, bioclimatic envelope, biogeography, climate change, climate shift, coasts, community ecology, coral reefs, ecology, ecosystem, extinction, fish, food, function, invasive species, marine, monitoring, southern Australia, tropical
South Australia is still killing dingoes
As we did for Victoria, here's our submission to South Australia's proposed changes to its 'wild dog' and dingo policy (organised again by the relentless and venerable Dr Kylie Cairns):
© Jason Edwards Photography
The Honourable Tim Whetstone MP, Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development, South Australia
cc: The Honourable David Speirs MP, Minister for Environment and Water, South Australia
cc: Primary Industries and Regions South Australia
cc: Dr Bradley Page, PIRSA Wild Dog Program
RE: PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE SA WILD DOG AND DINGO POLICY
Dear Minister,
The undersigned welcome the opportunity to comment on the proposed changes to the South Australian (SA) Government's 'Wild dog and Dingo' declared animal policy under section 10 (1)(b) of the Natural Resources Management Act 2004. The proposed changes raise serious concerns for dingoes in SA because it:
1. Requires all landholders to follow minimum baiting standards, including organic producers or those not experiencing stock predation.
Requires dingoes within Ngarkat Conservation Park (Region 4) to be destroyed, with ground baiting to occur every 3 months.
Requires ground baiting on land irrespective of whether stock predation is occurring or not, or evidence of dingo (wild dog) presence.
2. Allows aerial baiting of dingoes (aka wild dogs) in all NRM regions – including within National Parks.
3. Uses inappropriate and misleading language to label dingoes as "wild dogs"
We strongly urge the PIRSA to reject the proposed amendments to the SA wild dog and dingo policy. Instead the PIRSA should seek consultation with scientific experts in ecology, biodiversity and wildlife-conflict to develop a policy which considers the important ecological and cultural identity of the dingo whilst seeking to minimise their impact on livestock using best-practice and evidence-based guidelines. Key to this aim, livestock producers should be assisted with the help of PIRSA to seek alternative stock protection methodology and avoid lethal control wherever possible. On the balance of scientific evidence, protection of dingoes should be enhanced rather than diminished. Widespread aerial baiting programs are not compatible with the continued persistence of genetically intact and distinct dingoes in SA.
In this context, we strongly emphasise the following points: Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: 1080, control, dingo, environmental policy, poison, predator, shooting, South Australia, wild dog
Categories : Australia, biodiversity, cat, community ecology, conservation, dingo, ecosystem function, ecosystem services, environmental policy, ethics, exploitation, fox, function, genetics, harvest, human-wildlife conflict, invasive species, kangaroo, mammal, management, meso-predator release, predation, predator, recovery, science, South Australia, sustainability, threatened species, top-down ecology
A plant's adaptive traits don't follow climate conditions as you might expect
Just a quick post today, my last one for March. Like probably most of you, I've been trying to pretend to be as normal as possible despite the COVID-19 surrealism all around me. But even COVID-19 has shifted my research to a small degree.
But I'm not going to talk about the global pandemic right now (I can almost hear the collective sigh of relief). Instead, I'm going to go back to topic and discuss a paper that I've just co-authored.
Last year I went to China's Yunnan Province where I met some fantastic colleagues at the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden who were doing some very cool stuff with the variation in plant functional traits across environmental gradients.
Well, those colleagues invited me to participate in one those research projects, and I'm happy to say that the result has just been published in Forests.
Measuring the functional traits of different alpine trees species in the Changbai Mountains of far north-eastern China (no, I didn't get to go there), the research set out to test how these varied among species and elevation.
Of course, one expects that different trees use different combinations of traits to survive the rigours of mountain life (high variation in temperature, freezing, wind, etc.), but generally speaking, you might expect things like xylem vessel diameter and density to change more or less monotonically (i.e., changing in a consistent manner as elevation rises or falls). This is because trees should adapt their traits to the local conditions as best they can. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Changbai Mountains, China, elevational gradient, functional traits, plant traits, plants, species distribution models, trees
Categories : bioclimatic envelope, biodiversity, biogeography, climate change, climate shift, conservation, conservation biology, ecology, function, research
Heat tolerance highly variable among populations and species
Many ecological studies have examined the tolerance of terrestrial wildlife to high and low air temperatures over global scales (e.g., 1, 2, 3). This topic has been boosted in the last two decades by ongoing and predicted impacts of climate change on biodiversity (see summary of 2019 United Nation's report here and here).
However, it is unfortunate that for most species, studies have measured thermal tolerance from a single location or population. Researchers interested in global patterns of thermal stress collect those measurements from the literature for hundreds to thousands of species [recently compiled in the GlobTherm database] (4), and are therefore often restricted to analysing one value of thermal tolerance per species.
Three of the 15 species of Iberian lacertids sampled in our study of thermal tolerance (9), including the populations of Algerian psammodromus (Psammodromus algirus), Geniez's wall lizard (Podarcis virescens) and Western green lizard (Lacerta bilineata) sampled in Navacerrada (Madrid), Fuertescusa (Cuenca) and Moncayo (Soria), respectively. Photos by S. Herrando-Pérez
Using this approach, ecologists have concluded that cold tolerance is far more variable than heat tolerance across species from the tropics to the boreal zone (5-8). Consequently, tolerance to heat stress might be a species trait with limited potential to change in response to global warming compared to cold tolerance (5). Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: biodiversity, climate change, climate change effects on biodiversity, climate disruption, ecology, ecophysiology, functional ecology, Global warming, heat tolerance, herpetology, lacertid, lizard, population variation, resilience, Spain, thermal tolerance
Categories : bioclimatic envelope, climate change, climate shift, function
Influential conservation ecology papers of 2019
As I've done for the last six years, I am publishing a retrospective list of the 'top' 20 influential papers of 2019 as assessed by experts in F1000 Prime (in no particular order). See previous years' lists here: 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, and 2013.
Decline of the North American avifauna — … the first comprehensive assessment of population change in the North American avifauna.
Scientists' warning to humanity: microorganisms and climate change — … [highlights] the crucial role of microbial transformations in determining set points for sea temperature, pH and ocean productivity … [identifies] microbial activity as the "life support system of the biosphere".
(Note: Lots of people hated this one, basically because it appears to be severely flawed; nonetheless, it received several recommendations on F1000): The global tree restoration potential — … illustrates the substantial potential of capturing some of the excess carbon dioxide present in the earth's atmosphere by planting trees.
Managing the middle: a shift in conservation priorities based on the global human modification gradient — … probably the best global assessment of spatial extent of human modification of natural terrestrial environments published to date.
Five decades of northern land carbon uptake revealed by the interhemispheric CO2 gradient — … [concludes] that northern hemisphere [sic] vegetation and soil account for the majority of the terrestrial carbon sink, rather than tropical forests (not trying to display too many sour grapes here, but we've already reported this for the boreal forest, and they didn't even bother to cite us — sad panda)
Tags: agriculture, biodiversity, birds, carbon, carbon uptake, climate change, climate emergency, CO2, conservation, declines, drought, extinction, Fish, fisheries, forests, insects, marine ecology, microorganisms, pesticides, range edges, trees, urban biodiversity, wilderness
Categories : agriculture, anthropocene, biodiversity, biogeography, biowealth, birds, carbon, climate change, climate shift, community ecology, connectivity, conservation, conservation biology, conservation ecology, decline, deforestation, demography, ecology, economics, ecosystem, ecosystem function, ecosystem services, environmental policy, environmental science, exploitation, extinction, extinction debt, fish, fisheries, function, habitat loss, harvest, marine, planning, pollution, protected area
Environmental damage kills children
Yes, it's a provocative title, I agree. But then again, it's true.
But I don't just mean in the most obvious ways. We already have good data showing that lack of access to clean water and sanitation kills children (especially in developing nations), that air pollution is a nasty killer of young children in particular, and now even climate change is starting to take its toll.
These aspects of child health aren't very controversial, but when we talk about the larger suite of indicators of environmental 'damage', such as deforestation rates, species extinctions, and the overall reduction of ecosystem services, the empirical links to human health, and to children in particular, are far rarer.
This is why I'm proud to report the publication today of a paper on which I and team of wonderful collaborators (Sally Otto, Zia Mehrabi, Alicia Annamalay, Sam Heft-Neal, Zach Wagner, and Peter Le Souëf) have worked for several years.
I won't lie — the path to publishing this paper was long and hard, I think mainly because it traversed so many different disciplines. But we persevered and today published the paper entitled 'Testing the socioeconomic and environmental determinants of better child-health outcomes in Africa: a cross-sectional study among nations'* in the journal BMJ Open.
Tags: air pollution, breastfeeding, child health, children, corruption, diarrhoea, ecosystem services, environmental degradation, food supply, governance quality, health investment, human overpopulation, infectious disease, injury, Millennium Development Goals, over-population, paediatrics, pulmonary diseae, sanitation, stunting, Sustainable Development Goals, United Nations, water, wealth, World Health Organization
Categories : Africa, agriculture, anthropocene, biodiversity, biowealth, carbon, climate change, conservation, conservation biology, corruption, deforestation, demography, development, economics, ecosystem services, environmental Kuznets curve, environmental science, exploitation, extinction, food, function, governance, habitat loss, harvest, health, human overpopulation, investment, livestock, logging, modelling, pollution, poverty, Red List, societies, sustainability, threatened species, toxification, water
The Great Dying
Here's a presentation I gave earlier in the year for the Flinders University BRAVE Research and Innovation series:
There is No Plan(et) B — What you can do about Earth's extinction emergency
Earth is currently experiencing a mass extinction brought about by, … well, … us. Species are being lost at a rate similar to when the dinosaurs disappeared. But this time, it's not due to a massive asteroid hitting the Earth; species are being removed from the planet now because of human consumption of natural resources. Is a societal collapse imminent, and do we need to prepare for a post-collapse society rather than attempt to avoid one? Or, can we limit the severity and onset of a collapse by introducing a few changes such as removing political donations, becoming vegetarians, or by reducing the number of children one has?
Tags: Anthropocene, climate change, climate emergency, collapse, extinction, extinction emergency, food supply, human-caused global warming, sustainability, The Great Dying
Categories : Australia, biodiversity, biowealth, carbon, climate change, conservation, conservation biology, corruption, decline, deforestation, development, drought, economics, ecosystem, ecosystem function, ecosystem services, education, environmental economics, environmental Kuznets curve, environmental policy, environmental science, exploitation, extinction, extinction debt, Flinders University, flood, food, fragmentation, function, governance, habitat loss, harvest, health, human overpopulation, impact, invasive species, livestock, logging, management, modelling, palaeo-ecology, pollination, pollution, poverty, recovery, reforestation, research, restoration, science, sustainability, synergies, threatened species, trophic cascades, video
Nothing like a good forest
Our history and culture are intimately tied to the planet's forests and the services they provide to all living beings. In modern times, forests also help combat the impacts of anthropogenic climate change, not only by acting as powerful sinks of the carbon excess resulting from our greenhouse-gas emissions, but also as thermal shields we and many other species can benefit from.
Understory of the laurel forest in Garajonay National Park (La Gomera, Canary Islands) – also part of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves since 2012. The fog, combined with the cloud belt blowing from the Atlantic Ocean against the mountains (Garajonay is the highest peak at 1500 m), creates a mesic microclimate crucial for plant endemism. Forest canopies reinforce humidity and buffer temperature variation for many species. Photo: Paco Rodríguez.
If we were to choose a house to live, most would likely opt for one with water and electricity supply, noiseless nights, nearby leisure and shopping, and easy communication by public transport. Lacking only one of those aspects could be off-putting.
In truth, those who have the privilege of living in a stable household value it by the full set of available commodities. Similarly, the value of an ecosystem rests on its entire repertoire of ecological functions (1). And this is particularly so for forest ecosystems.
The ecological value of a forest relies on the collection of its native characteristics (2): how many autochthonous and mature trees it can host, how much photosynthesis it fuels, how many pollinisers it feeds, how much soil and water it creates and retains, and many more (3). Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: climate change, climate emergency, ecosystem services, forests, habitat loss
Categories : anthropocene, biodiversity, biowealth, carbon, climate change, community ecology, conservation, deforestation, drought, ecology, ecosystem, ecosystem function, ecosystem services, endemism, extinction, fragmentation, function, habitat loss, prioritisation, protected area, recovery, reforestation, restoration, synergies
How to improve (South Australia's) biodiversity prospects
Figure 2 (from the article). Overlaying the South Australia's Protected Areas boundary data with the Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia layer indicates that 73.2% of the total protected area (excluding Indigenous Protected Areas) in South Australia lies in the arid biogeographic regions of Great Victoria Desert (21.1%), Channel Country (15.2%), Simpson Strzelecki Dunefields (14.0%), Nullarbor (9.8%), Stony Plains (6.6%), Gawler (6.0%), and Hampton (0.5%). The total biogeographic-region area covered by the remaining Conservation Reserves amounts to 26.2%. Background blue shading indicates relative average annual rainfall.
If you read CB.com regularly, you'll know that late last year I blogged about the South Australia 2108 State of the Environment Report for which I was commissioned to write an 'overview' of the State's terrestrial biodiversity.
At the time I whinged that not many people seemed to take notice (something I should be used to by now in the age of extremism and not giving a tinker's about the future health of the planet — but I digress), but it seems that quietly, quietly, at least people with some policy influence here are starting to listen.
Not satisfied with merely having my report sit on the virtual shelves at the SA Environment Protection Authority, I decided that I should probably flesh out the report and turn it into a full, peer-reviewed article.
Well, I've just done that, with the article now published online in Rethinking Ecology as a Perspective paper.
The paper is chock-a-block with all the same sorts of points I covered last year, but there's a lot more, and it's also a lot better referenced and logically sequenced.
Tags: biodiversity, ecological restoration, Environment Protection Authority, environmental legislation, EPA, invasive species, restoration, Rethinking Ecology, SOER, South Australia, State of the Environment
Categories : agriculture, Australia, biodiversity, biowealth, birds, carbon, climate change, connectivity, conservation, conservation biology, conservation ecology, decline, deforestation, development, drought, ecology, economics, ecosystem, ecosystem function, endemic, endemism, environmental policy, exploitation, extinction, extinction debt, Flinders University, fragmentation, function, governance, habitat loss, harvest, human-wildlife conflict, invasive species, investment, livestock, management, meso-predator release, monitoring, Murray-Darling, planning, pollination, predation, prioritisation, protected area, recovery, reforestation, research, reserve, restoration, South Australia, southern Australia, sustainability, threatened species, vegetation
Thirsty forests
Climate change is one ingredient of a cocktail of factors driving the ongoing destruction of pristine forests on Earth. We here highlight the main physiological challenges trees must face to deal with increasing drought and heat.
Forests experiencing embolism after a hot drought. The upper-left pic shows Scots (Pinus sylvestris) and black (P. nigra) pines in Montaña de Salvador (Espuñola, Barcelona, Spain) during a hot Autumn in 2015 favouring a massive infestation by pine processionary caterpillars (Thaumetopoea pityocampa) and tree mortality the following year (Lluís Brotons/CSIC in InForest-CREAF-CTFC). To the right, an individual holm oak (Quercus ilex) bearing necrotic branches in Plasencia (Extremadura, Spain) during extreme climates from 2016 to 2017, impacting more than a third of the local oak forests (Alicia Forner/CSIC). The lower-left pic shows widespread die-off of trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides) from 'Aspen Parkland' (Saskatchewan, Canada) in 2004 following extreme climates in western North America from 2001 to 2002 (Mike Michaelian/Canadian Forest Service). To the right, several dead aspens near Mancos (Colorado, USA) where the same events hit forests up to one-century old (William Anderegg).
A common scene when we return from a long trip overseas is to find our indoor plants wilting if no one has watered them in our absence. But … what does a thirsty plant experience internally?
Like animals, plants have their own circulatory system and a kind of plant blood known as sap. Unlike the phloem (peripheral tissue underneath the bark of trunks and branches, and made up of arteries layered by live cells that transport sap laden with the products of photosynthesis, along with hormones and minerals — see videos here and here), the xylem is a network of conduits flanked by dead cells that transport water from the roots to the leaves through the core of the trunk of a tree (see animation here). They are like the pipes of a building within which small pressure differences make water move from a collective reservoir to every neighbours' kitchen tap.
Water relations in tree physiology have been subject to a wealth of research in the last half a decade due to the ongoing die-off of trees in all continents in response to episodes of drought associated with temperature extremes, which are gradually becoming more frequent and lasting longer at a planetary scale (1).
Embolised trees
During a hot drought, trees must cope with a sequence of two major physiological challenges (2, 3, 4). More heat and less internal water increase sap tension within the xylem and force trees to close their stomata (5). Stomata are small holes scattered over the green parts of a plant through which gas and water exchanges take place. Closing stomata means that a tree is able to reduce water losses by transpiration by two to three orders of magnitude. However, this happens at the expense of halting photosynthesis, because the main photosynthetic substrate, carbon dioxide (CO2), uses the same path as water vapour to enter and leave the tissues of a tree.
If drought and heat persist, sap tension reaches a threshold leading to cavitation or formation of air bubbles (6). Those bubbles block the conduits of the xylem such that a severe cavitation will ultimately cause overall hydraulic failure. Under those conditions, the sap does not flow, many parts of the tree dry out gradually, structural tissues loose turgor and functionality, and their cells end up dying. Thus, the aerial photographs showing a leafy blanket of forest canopies profusely coloured with greys and yellows are in fact capturing a Dantesque situation: trees in photosynthetic arrest suffering from embolism (the plant counterpart of a blood clot leading to brain, heart or pulmonary infarction), which affects the peripheral parts of the trees in the first place (forest dieback).
Tags: climate change, climate disruption, dieback, ecophysiology, embolism, extinction, Global warming, phloem, photosynthesis, Quercus, xylem
Categories : anthropocene, biodiversity, climate change, climate shift, conservation, conservation biology, decline, deforestation, disease, drought, ecology, extinction, function, habitat loss, health, research
For the last five years I've published a retrospective list of the 'top' 20 influential papers of the year as assessed by experts in F1000 Prime — so, I'm doing so again for 2018 (interesting side note: six of the twenty papers highlighted here for 2018 appear in Science magazine). See previous years' posts here: 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, and 2013.
Global warming transforms coral reef assemblages — The authors report an unprecedented, regional-scale shift in the composition of coral assemblages, reflecting markedly divergent responses to heat stress by different taxa.
Mammal diversity will take millions of years to recover from the current biodiversity crisis — … highlights the impending catastrophe that human activity is bringing to the planet, not only due to climate breakdown … but also potential loss of mammalian diversity.
Protect the last of the wild — … highlights the potentially irreversible impact humans have had on the planet, to the extent that only ~ 20% remains as wilderness.
A final warning to planet Earth — Scientists have issued numerous warnings to politicians and to the general population, but to little avail: the consumerism show must go on!
The cognition of 'nuisance' species — … discuss[es] the underlying cognitive abilities that may explain [invasive species] thriving in human-modified environments and then discuss[es] how this knowledge could be used to control such species.
Tags: biodiversity hotspots, biodiversity loss, climate breakdown, climate change, cognition, coral reefs, disease, fieldwork, Fish, fisheries, fishing impacts, Great Barrier Reef, killer whales, mammals, nuisance species, plastics, predators, productivity, richness-productivity relationship, sharks, Species richness, wild areas
Categories : anthropocene, aquaculture, Australia, biodiversity, biowealth, carbon, climate change, climate shift, community ecology, connectivity, conservation, conservation biology, conservation ecology, coral reefs, decline, deforestation, demography, ecology, economics, ecosystem, ecosystem function, ecosystem services, environmental policy, environmental science, exploitation, extinction, extinction debt, fish, fisheries, food, fragmentation, function, habitat loss, harvest, human overpopulation, invasive species, management, marine, marine protected area, modelling, pollination, pollution
Ecophysiological feedbacks under climate change
Variability in heat tolerance among populations modifies the climate-driven periods of diurnal activity expected for ectotherm species. We illustrate this phenomenon for Iberian lizards in a paper we have just published in the Journal of Animal Ecology (blog post reproduced with permission by the Journal; see related blog).
Common wall lizard (Podarcis muralis, male) and three localities where the species is abundant in Spain, left to right including Valdesquí/Madrid (Central System), Peñagolosa/Castellón (Iberian System) and El Portalet/Huesca (The Pyrenees).
Iberia is a wonderful natural laboratory, with a complex blend of flat/hilly, open/woody and coastal/continental terrain, swept by climatic gradients of temperature and moisture. In 2013, I launched a BES-supported project about the thermal ecology of Iberian lizards and managed to drive over much of the Iberian Peninsula in fairly little time. Not being a reptile specialist myself, I was confronted by the consistent observation that lizard populations occupied very different habitats across the known distribution of each of the ~ 25 known Iberian species belonging to the family Lacertidae.
For instance, the common wall lizard (Podarcis muralis) likes water, rocks and mountains, but you can find this pencil-long reptile at the top of a summit, along the slopes or riversides of shallow and deep ravines, on little stones barely surfacing above peatland grasslands, or among the bricks of buildings. These animals must experience different local climates conditional on where they live, and adapt their thermal physiology accordingly.
Having then started a postdoc in Miguel Araújo's lab — a world-class site for global change ecology and 'big' biodiversity patterns — I reviewed a sizeable body of literature looking into large-scale gradients of thermal tolerance. Most of those papers had collated (mostly) one estimate of tolerance from each of tens to thousands of species, then mapped them against regional and global metrics of climate change through sophisticated mathematical frameworks. But these studies rarely accounted for population-level thermal tolerance.
Tags: cold tolerance, ecophysiology, ectotherms, heat tolerance, Iberia, Lacertidae, lizards, macroecology, macrophysiology, reptiles
Categories : biodiversity, climate change, climate shift, conservation, conservation biology, conservation ecology, decline, ecology, environmental policy, extinction, function, habitat loss, management, research, science, threatened species
Biodiversity is everyone's responsibility
I'm not sure if many South Australians are aware of this, but the Parliamentary Inquiry into Biodiversity by the Environment, Resources and Development Committee presented a report to the 53rd Parliament of South Australia in March 2017. I thought it worthwhile reproducing their executive summary here on CB.com (I've highlighted the text that I deem to be rather insightful and simultaneously damning from our own elected government representatives):
This report summarises the findings and recommendations of the South Australian Parliament's Environment, Resources and Development Committee's inquiry into biodiversity in South Australia. Specifically, the inquiry investigated the regulatory and policy framework to determine whether it appropriately supports terrestrial and marine ecological processes, biodiversity values and abates species extinction.
The Committee found that in spite of the efforts of the State and Federal governments, industry and private landholders in South Australia, the condition of biodiversity in the State continues to decline. Species extinctions have occurred in the past and a further "extinction debt" still exists. There is no reason to believe that this trend will improve without a change to the way we approach biodiversity conservation.
A key theme to emerge from the Inquiry is that biodiversity conservation needs to be everyone's responsibility; State and Federal government, industry, the broader community, and private landholders.
This also means that biodiversity conservation needs to occur across both public and private land, with actions coordinated at a landscape scale.
Making biodiversity conservation everyone's responsibility requires a range of measures, including legislative reform, improved management of threats and greater involvement of the community. The provision of greater resources would yield faster results.
This report has focused on several key themes that emerged from submissions to the Inquiry.
Regulating for better biodiversity – South Australia's legislative framework
South Australia's current legislative framework does not provide for optimum biodiversity outcomes.
Three key issues contribute to this –
an out-of-date suite of environmental legislation that lacks cohesion and consistency, particularly regarding enforcement and compliance provisions;
inadequate and incomplete processes for identifying and protecting at-risk elements that need special measures (e.g. for protection of specific threatened species and ecological communities); and
inadequate consideration of biodiversity conservation in legislation that regulates human activities. In particular, there is a lack of cohesion between the environmental legislative and policy framework and land use planning, assessment and approval.
Statutory fragmentation of biodiversity considerations – that is, consideration of different aspects of biodiversity under different pieces of legislation – results in lack of cohesion and consistency, duplication and inefficiency, and makes it difficult to implement a landscape approach or to identify strategic opportunities and risks.
Taken as a whole, current enforcement provisions do not provide for effective and proportionate compliance action. Enforcement and compliance provisions across the relevant legislation are uneven in their approach. For example, penalties appear to be disproportionate and not risk-based (although there are some exceptions). Modern enforcement tools such as compliance orders, civil remedies and alternative penalties (such as administrative penalties, payment of damages including exemplary damages, remediation orders etc) are not included in all relevant legislation. There is some duplication in offences and inconsistency in the types of sanctions and penalty ranges.
There is an urgent need to amend the legislative framework to support any attempt to improve biodiversity outcomes.
The best approach will be based on clear, shared responsibility for biodiversity outcomes, supported by individual accountability. However, such a change will require policy development and drive.
To ensure forward momentum and improvements in the short term while developing the policy settings to support such a step-change, a staged approach could be implemented. There are various ways this could be achieved.
The Committee suggests a 3-stage approach to reforming the legislative framework. The Committee recommends the creation of a Biodiversity Expert Panel that is responsible for advancing this 3-stage approach.
The first stage will involve amendments to improve operation and effectiveness of the regulatory regime within current policy settings, acknowledging that as a result of Stage 3, provisions may be altered or moved into different pieces of legislation. Amendments generally would be to the existing 'environmental' Acts, and primarily to the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972 and Native Vegetation Act 1991. They would include many of the specific areas for amendment identified in EDO submissions (2011 & 2015) as well as in the SA Government submission, for example, beginning with amendments to improve current environmental legislation.
Stage 2 would progress to amendments to improve integration between Acts and improve support for landholders and community participation.
Stage 3 would implement a system whereby all resource use and management would be managed by one piece of legislation, with protection of biodiversity and sustainable development at its core. Provisions for protected area management, and for the scientific work involved in identifying threatened species and communities, may be contained in separate legislation.
Threats, ecological resilience and restoration
The State's native biodiversity is facing myriad of current threats, including habitat loss and fragmentation (due to development and changing land-use), pest plants and animals, and control burn regimes. There is a need for more stringent vegetation protection, better informed and enacted control and management strategies of known pest plants and animals, and a revision of burning regimes.
Future threats to the State's biodiversity will be largely driven by climate change impacts and the interaction with existing major threats (e.g. urbanisation and changing land use). Adequately preparing for and managing such future threats will require knowledge of projected changes and pro-active preparation for such changes.
Involvement of the community is an essential part of any biodiversity conservation strategy for the State. It is a foundation stone for moving to a point where biodiversity conservation is everyone's business.
Community engagement will become increasingly important for biodiversity conservation, especially given the growing role of volunteers to support works on public land as well as the voluntary conservation efforts of private landholders. The expanding role of volunteers reenforces that biodiversity conservation is everyone's business.
South Australia's approach to biodiversity conversation on private land needs to be reinvigorated.
Cross cutting themes
There were several cross cutting themes identified in submissions to the Inquiry. There was broad recognition of the strong cultural and historic significance of elements of biodiversity to Aboriginal people, and that this is often poorly understood outside those communities. Continuing to identify ways for Aboriginal people to contribute to land and water management in South Australia remains a priority.
With respect to knowledge generation, critical knowledge gaps exist that need to be filled and existing knowledge is not being adequately understood, communicated or applied. From a resourcing perspective, there is concern that insufficient funds are being allocated to biodiversity conservation, which is affecting work on public and private lands.
The management of over-abundant species in South Australia remains a challenge, noting the recent impacts of long-nose fur seals in the Lower Lakes and Coorong, and ongoing concerns regarding the impact of animals such as little corellas and some species of kangaroos on negative vegetation.
Tags: biodiversity, climate change, ecological resilience, environmental legislation, management, South Australia, State of the Environment
Categories : anthropocene, Australia, biodiversity, cat, climate change, climate shift, conservation, deforestation, development, ecosystem, environmental policy, extinction, extinction debt, fragmentation, function, habitat loss, invasive species, living dead, management, monitoring, Murray-Darling, planning, prioritisation, protected area, recovery, reserve, restoration, South Australia, southern Australia, sustainability, threatened species, water
What Works in Conservation 2018
Do you have a copy of this book? If not, why not?
This book is free to download. This book contains the evidence for the effectiveness of over 1200 things you might do for conservation. If you don't have a copy, go and download yourself a free one here, right now, before you even finish reading this article. Seriously. Go. You'll laugh, you'll cry, it'll change your life.
Why you'll laugh
OK, I may have exaggerated the laughing part. 'What Works in Conservation 2018' is a serious and weighty tome, 660 pages of the evidence for 1277 conservation interventions (anything you might do to conserve a species or habitat), assessed by experts and graded into colour-coded categories of effectiveness. This is pretty nerdy stuff, and probably not something you'll lay down with on the beach or dip into as you enjoy a large glass of scotch (although I don't know your life, maybe it is).
But that's not really what it's meant for. This is intended as a reference book for conservation managers and policymakers, a way to scan through your possible solutions and get a feel for those that are most likely to be effective. Once you have a few ideas in mind, you can follow the links to see the full evidence base for each study at conservationevidence.com, where over 5000 studies have been summarised into digestible paragraphs.
The book takes the form of discrete chapters on taxa, habitats or topics (such as 'control of freshwater invasives'). Each chapter is split into IUCN threat categories such as 'Agriculture' or 'Energy production and mining'. For each threat there are a series of interventions that could be used to tackle it, and for each of these interventions the evidence has been collated. Experts have then graded the body of the evidence over three rounds of Delphi scoring, looking at the effectiveness, certainty in the evidence (i.e., the quality and quantity of evidence available), and any harms to the target taxa. These scores combine to place each intervention in a category from 'Beneficial' to 'Likely to be ineffective or harmful'. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: conservation, conservation evidence, ecology, intervention, management, managers, policymakers, rehabilitation, restoration, University of Cambridge
Categories : amphibian, biodiversity, birds, captive breeding, climate change, conservation, conservation biology, conservation ecology, ecology, ecosystem, ecosystem function, ecosystem services, environmental policy, extinction, fish, fragmentation, function, governance, impact, invasive species, management, protected area, research, science, threatened species
Penguins cheated by ecosystem change
Jorge Drexler sings "… I was committed not to see what I saw, but sometimes life is more complex than what it looks like …"*. This excerpt by the Oscar-winning Uruguayan singer seems to foretell the theme of this blog: how the ecological complexity of marine ecosystems can elicit false signals to their predators. Indeed, the fidelity of marine predators to certain feeding areas can turn demographically detrimental to themselves when the amount of available food shrinks. A study of jackass penguins illustrates the phenomenon in a context of overfishing and ocean warming.
Adult of jackass penguin (Spheniscus demersus) from Robben Island (South Africa) — in the inset, one of the first juveniles released with a satellite transmitter on its back. The species is 'Endangered' under IUCN's criteria (28), following a recent halving of the total population currently estimated at ~ 80,000 adults. Jackass penguins are the only penguins living in Africa, and owe their common name to their vocalisations (you can hear their braying sounds here); adults are ~ 50 cm tall and weigh ~ 3 kg. Photos courtesy of Richard Sherley.
Surface temperature, dissolved oxygen, acidity and primary productivity are, by and large, the top four environmental factors driving the functionality of marine ecosystems (1). Growing scientific evidence supports the idea that anthropogenic warming of the atmosphere and the oceans correlates with this quartet (2). For instance, marine primary productivity is enhanced by increased temperatures (3), but a warmer sea surface intensifies stratification, i.e., stacked layers of seawater with contrasting physical and chemical properties.
In coastal areas experiencing 'upwelling' (where winds displace surface water, allowing deep water laden with nutrients to reach the euphotic zone where plankton communities feast), stratification weakens upwelling currents and, in turn, limits the growth of plankton (4) that fuels the entire trophic web, including our fisheries. The study of these complex trophic cascades is particularly cumbersome from the perspective of large marine predators because of their capacity to move long distances, from hundreds to thousands of kilometres (5), with strong implications for their conservation (6).
With those caveats in mind, Richard Sherley and colleagues satellite-tracked the movement of 54 post-fledged, juvenile jackass penguins (Spheniscus demersus) for 2-3 years (7). All individuals had been hatched in eight colonies (accounting for 80% of the global population), and were equipped with platform terminal transmitters. Jackass penguins currently nest in 28 island and mainland locations between South Africa and Namibia. Juveniles swim up to 2000 km in search of food and, when approaching adulthood, return to their native colonies where they reproduce and reside for the remainder of their lives (watch individuals swimming here).
The natural history of this species is linked to the Southern Hemisphere's trade winds ('alisios' for Spanish speakers), which blow from the southeast to the tropics. In the South Atlantic, trade winds sustain the Benguela Current, the waters of which surface from some 300 m of depth and fertilise the marine ecosystems stretching from the Western coasts of South Africa to Angola (8). Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: anchovy, Benguela, climate change, fisheries, food web, Global warming, jellies, jellyfication, Namibia, Overfishing, penguin, penguins, pilchard, South Africa, upwelling
Categories : Africa, behaviour, birds, climate change, climate shift, coasts, decline, ecology, ecosystem, ecosystem function, fish, fisheries, food, function, harvest, impact, research, science, trophic cascades
As I have done for the last four years (2016, 2015, 2014, 2013), here's another retrospective list of the top 20 influential conservation papers of 2017 as assessed by experts in F1000 Prime.
More than 75 percent decline over 27 years in total flying insect biomass in protected areas — … document[s] the devastating loss of flying insects in Germany … show[ing] that total flying insect biomass has been reduced by three quarters during the last three decades, irrespective of habitat type, weather variation, and the protected status of their sampling sites … (see also related blog post on CB.com)
Decline in global oceanic oxygen content during the past five decades — … report a decline [in oceanic oxygen content] over several decades in almost all ocean basins … consistent with what is anticipated from anthropogenic global warming. Far-reaching implications for biogeochemical cycles, ecosystem function, and fisheries are foreseen …
Soil networks become more connected and take up more carbon as nature restoration progresses — … This study … showed that shifts in the composition, network structure, and connectivity of soil food webs can alter the rates of … important ecosystem processes …
Applying network theory to prioritize multispecies habitat networks that are robust to climate and land-use change — … an excellent example of how to integrate multiple data sets and future uncertainty into conservation planning around a major urban area …
An Amazonian rainforest and its fragments as a laboratory of global change — Essential reading for all habitat fragmentation readers … (see also related blog post on CB.com)
Tags: Africa, Amazon, biodiversity, boundaries, cats, climate change, decline, depression, disturbance, dogs, drowning, elevation, eutrophication, Fish, forests, fragmentation, Genetics, Global warming, green spaces, insects, mental health, networks, nutrient cycling, ocean, oil, oil spill, oxygen, photosynthesis, phytoplankton, Planetary boundaries, Predation, predators, prey, productivity, rainfall, richness, Soil, wildebeest, zooplankton
Categories : Africa, algae, Amazon, anthropocene, biodiversity, biowealth, cat, climate change, community ecology, connectivity, conservation, conservation ecology, coral reefs, decline, deforestation, drought, ecology, ecosystem, ecosystem function, ecosystem services, environmental science, eutrophication, extinction, extinction debt, fish, fragmentation, function, genetics, habitat loss, marine, pollination, toxicology
Tiny, symbiotic organisms protect corals from predation and disease
Hydrozoan polyps living on the surface of a coral (photo credit: S. Montano)
Corals could have some unexpected allies to cope with the multi-faceted threats posed by climate change.
In a new study published today in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Montano and colleagues show how tiny hydrozoans smaller than 1 mm and commonly found in dense colonies on the surface of hard corals (see above photo) play an important ecological role.
Visually examining ~ 2500 coral colonies in both Maldivian and Saudi Arabian reefs, the scientists searched for signs of predation, temperature-induced stress, and disease. For each colony, they also recorded the presence of symbiotic hydrozoans. They demonstrated that corals living in association with hydrozoans are much less prone to be eaten by corallivorous (i.e., 'coral-eating') fish and gastropods than hydrozoan-free corals.
A likely explanation for this pattern could be the deterring action of hydrozoan nematocysts (cells capable of ejecting a venomous organelle, which are the same kinds found in jellyfish tentacles). An individual hydrozoan polyp of less than 1 mm clearly cannot cope with a corallivorous fish that is a billions of times larger, yet hydrozoans can grow at high densities on the surface of corals (sometimes > 50 individuals per cm2). This creates a sort of a continuous, 'urticating' carpet that can discourage fish from foraging. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: bleaching, coral reefs, die-off, hydrozoans, Predation, resilience
Categories : biodiversity, bottom-up ecology, climate change, climate shift, community ecology, conservation, conservation ecology, coral reefs, disease, ecology, ecosystem function, fish, function, health, marine, ocean, predation
Microclimates: thermal shields against global warming for small herps
Thermal microhabitats are often uncoupled from above-ground air temperatures. A study focused on small frogs and lizards from the Philippines demonstrates that the structural complexity of tropical forests hosts a diversity of microhabitats that can reduce the exposure of many cold-blooded animals to anthropogenic climate warming.
Reproductive pair of the Luzon forest frogs Platymantis luzonensis (upper left), a IUCN near-threatened species restricted to < 5000 km2 of habitat. Lower left: the yellow-stripped slender tree lizard Lipinia pulchella, a IUCN least-concerned species. Both species have body lengths < 6 cm, and are native to the tropical forests of the Philippines. Right panels, top to bottom: four microhabitats monitored by Scheffers et al. (2), namely ground vegetation, bird's nest ferns, phytotelmata, and fallen leaves above ground level. Photos courtesy of Becca Brunner (Platymantis), Gernot Kunz (Lipinia), Stephen Zozaya (ground vegetation) and Brett Scheffers (remaining habitats).
If you have ever entered a cave or an old church, you will be familiar with its coolness even in the dog days of summer. At much finer scales, from centimetres to millimetres, this 'cooling effect' occurs in complex ecosystems such as those embodied by tropical forests. The fact is that the life cycle of many plant and animal species depends on the network of microhabitats (e.g., small crevices, burrows, holes) interwoven by vegetation structures, such as the leaves and roots of an orchid epiphyte hanging from a tree branch or the umbrella of leaves and branches of a thick bush.
Much modern biogeographical research addressing the effects of climate change on biodiversity is based on macroclimatic data of temperature and precipitation. Such approaches mostly ignore that microhabitats can warm up or cool down in a fashion different from that of local or regional climates, and so determine how species, particularly ectotherms, thermoregulate (1). To illustrate this phenomenon, Brett Scheffers et al. (2) measured the upper thermal limits (typically known as 'critical thermal maxima' or CTmax) of 15 species of frogs and lizards native to the tropical forest of Mount Banahaw, an active volcano on Luzon (The Philippines). The > 7000 islands of this archipelago harbour > 300 species of amphibians and reptiles (see video here), with > 100 occurring in Luzon (3).
Tags: amphibious, climate change, frogs, Global warming, herpetology, microclimates, thermal shield
Categories : amphibian, behaviour, biodiversity, carbon, climate change, climate shift, conservation biology, decline, ecology, extinction, frog, function, research, science, threatened species, trophic cascades, tropical


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Phi Beta Lambda students land state awards
March 28, 2018 | By Tabatha B. McDonald
Two Palm Beach State College students will compete on the national level after winning top awards at the Phi Beta Lambda state competition.
Patreace Scharschmidt won first-place in the Entrepreneurship Concepts, Management Concepts and Retail Management categories. Joshua Deese won second-place in the Entrepreneurship Concepts category during the event held in Orlando March 22-25.
Hundreds of students from colleges and universities, including eight from PBSC, participated in competitive activities in numerous categories. The top two winners in each category are now eligible to compete at the national competition that will be held in Baltimore June 23-26. Phi Beta Lambda is the collegiate division of Future Business Leaders of America.
Scharschmidt, an aspiring lawyer who will graduate in May with her Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Supervision and Management with a concentration in entrepreneurship, said the experience would not have been possible without the encouragement of Dr. Roger Blair, her professor and the club's advisor.
"He encouraged me to challenge myself and give it a shot. I didn't really know what to expect. I didn't think I would place. To have a mentor and someone to push you is great to have," she said. "Participating in the competition was a great experience to have in college. "It's really a great organization that will help you grow career wise and as a person."
Deese, who is pursuing an A.A. degree with plans to transfer to a university to complete his bachelor's degree in public policy, has been active in FBLA since he was in middle school. He said it is an honor to be able to put his knowledge to the test and now advance to the national level. A budding entrepreneur, he launched Beatster, an up-and-coming music stream platform app, in January 2015. "I feel fortunate that I was able to go into this competition and rather than rely on things I've learned in school, I was able to take what I've learned through practices and experience as an entrepreneur and use that in the competition. I feel great about it."
Blair said he is proud of the students. "It does mean a lot because we're competing against people from universities. It is quite competitive."
4 comments on "Phi Beta Lambda students land state awards"
Lyn Becker says:
That is awesome! Congratulations to Patreace and Deese and all the best to you at the National Competition.
Jehu Chong says:
This is fantastic! Congrats! What a wonderful representation of Palm Beach State.
David Hanson says:
Congratulations Patreace, great to see youngsters excelling and following their chosen path.
Claudett says:
Absolutely brilliant! Congratulation to both students and mentors!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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The Hotel Ancora is located on the east coast of Lake Garda in the area known as the Olive Riviera in the town of Garda which is surrounded by beautiful green hills. Bordered on one side by the Rocca and on the other by San Vigilio this was once a small fishing village but now boasts a booming international tourist trade. Garda also offers some very interesting historical buildings such as the Captain's Palace,Fregoso Palace and La Loggia which was designed by the architect Michele Sanmichele.
For those seeking excitement Garda is situated very close to some major theme parks including: Gardaland, Caneva World, Caneva Movie-Studios, Safari-Park and Zoo and the latest Park Jungle Adventures which can be found in the beautiful San Zeno di Montagna.
For music-lovers there is the world famous Arena of Verona, the Roman amphi-theatre, situated in the heart of Verona and where every summer hosts the wonderful operas of Verdi, Puccini etc. Verona too is famous for its associations with William Shakespeare and each year thousands of Romeo and Juliet fans visit the famous balcony.


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Yesterday we posted up a review of one of our new books, "Tyrannosaurus rex – King of the Dinosaurs". This hardback, pop-up book on T. rex had been well received by our young testers and their Mums and Dads. The illustrations were particularly well liked and it was thought that they really provided a modern depiction of this fearsome dinosaur.
The artist responsible is John Sibbick. John specialises in producing beautifully detailed illustrations of wildlife, mythology and fantasy artwork but perhaps he is most famous for his marvellous drawings of prehistoric animals and the evolution of mankind. Many of the books which adorn our offices at Everything Dinosaur contain John Sibbick illustrations. He has a rare and unique talent for combining anatomical accuracy with a real sense of imagery, capturing a snap shot of pre-history.
John studies the actual fossils and the diagrams produced by scientists before he starts to paint. He works closely with palaeontologists so that he can interpret the very latest scientific thinking in his pictures.
"I was asked to use bright colours by the publishers – avoiding greens, browns and greys and generally dull tones. Because these colours would have to be consistent throughout the book and I knew that the cut away spread showing the layers of anatomical detail would have areas of reds and warm colours for the organs and muscles I needed the skin to contrast with that.
John is certainly right about the latest consensus on dinosaur colouration . I remember viewing the cast of a T. rex braincase (STAN-BHI3033), and looking at the hole where the optic nerve exited – it was huge, big enough to get two of my fingers inside. This, and the fact that both birds and crocodiles have colour vision has led palaeontologists to suspect that dinosaurs had excellent colour vision.
So why not a yellow and blue Tyrannosaurus rex!


Finding a skilled pediatric dentist for children with special needs can sometimes be a challenge. Fortunately, our pediatric dental specialists have advanced training beyond dental school that allows them to interact positively with children with special needs.
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Our office is fully equipped to accommodate all children with special needs, allowing us to administer care in an environment that's comfortable for your child.
Our staff members and dentists work closely with parents to develop a personalized dental care plan that meets your child's unique needs.


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Current News Stories
W&M to build skills, mindset of entrepreneurs in new, centralized hub
Business in Residence
by Erin Zagursky | May 13, 2019
Regional business incubator Launchpad to move next door
William & Mary will open a second entrepreneurship hub for students in Tribe Square next fall. Launchpad, the region's business incubator for the City of Williamsburg, James City County and York County, also will relocate to the mixed-use property on Richmond Road and enter into a management agreement with the university.
This university hub will be supported by the existing Alan B. Miller Entrepreneurship Center at the Raymond A. Mason School of Business and will offer students programming, co-working space, makerspace access, networking opportunities, mentorship and additional support as they pursue not just business start-ups, but entrepreneurial projects and ways of thinking across disciplines. Launchpad will work in conjunction with the hub with W&M managing and staffing and programming for the incubator.
"Entrepreneurial thinking will be our emphasis in this space - collaboration, creative thinking and judicious risk-taking - capacities that William & Mary students hone as they prepare to become change agents in any number of arenas," said W&M President Katherine A. Rowe. "Prominently located in Tribe Square, the new hub will cultivate a culture of disciplined creativity across the university and with our regional partners."
The hub will be located on the ground floor of Tribe Square across the open-air walkway from Chick-fil-A, which opened last fall. Funding for the renovation of the hub will come in large part from the President's Strategic Investment Fund, which was created last summer with a $1.5 million gift from an anonymous alumna. Launchpad will move into the space behind Chick-fil-A. The second and third floors of the building will remain as residential space for W&M students.
The centralized location of the hub is expected to help attract students from across campus and make the MIller Center's successful offerings more accessible to all those who want to develop an entrepreneurial mindset and related skills.
"Especially in light of the tremendous success we have enjoyed with the Miller Center at the business school, we are thrilled to be promoting entrepreneurial thinking and entrepreneurship across the campus and throughout the region," said Lawrence B. Pulley, dean of the business school.
The close proximity to the Launchpad is expected to help students and local entrepreneurs work more closely with one another, benefiting both groups.
"Our strong belief is that if we can equip students with that ability to think and act like entrepreneurs, regardless of what they end up doing, they're going to be more valuable and in demand," said Graham Henshaw, executive director of the Miller Center.
Growing interest
The idea for the hub grew out of conversations within the university and with regional partners. William & Mary has seen rapid success with its Miller Entrepreneurship Center, which is named after successful hospital entrepreneur and W&M alumnus Alan B. Miller '58 and focuses on educating, inspiring and supporting students in developing the skills and mindset of an entrepreneur, Henshaw said.
Opened in 2010 through a generous investment from Miller and other partners, it was originally business-focused and curriculum-based, with 100 percent of its members coming from W&M's business school. The current iteration of the center opened on the third floor of the business school in 2016, and its programming is open to all students on campus who wish to become members.
Today, the center is overflowing its current capacity. It has more than 300 student members from a variety of majors, with half of the students coming from the business school and half coming from other areas of study, including computer science, international relations and beyond. Nearly half of the students (46 percent) are women, and the members represent all four undergraduate class years as well as multiple graduate programs.
"We have great programming. We have great resources," said Henshaw. "But the students actually make this thing come alive. All of our members who come from across campus just make everything better. I just think that diversity of thought makes the programming and the outcomes more interesting."
Engineering and innovation
With the center a success, Henshaw looked for ways to "scale up" its operations, and a confluence of perfectly timed factors supported the creation of a hub. One of those factors was the progress of an engineering and design initiative at W&M, which began when an ad hoc committee explored ways in which tools and methods of engineering and design thinking could be incorporated into the W&M curriculum.
Vice Provost for Research Dennis Manos and Professor of Business James R. Bradley, co-chairs of that committee, wrote a white paper that offered a series of suggestions under five pillars, one of which was business and entrepreneurship.
The effort has thus far resulted in the establishment of makerspaces, a data science program and an engineering, physics and applied design (EPAD) program at the university. Next year, the business school is launching an innovation and entrepreneurship minor in conjunction with the engineering initiative and involving four departments outside of the business school.
Some of the other perfectly timed factors included the arrival last year of Rowe - who is particularly interested in innovation and is an entrepreneur herself - and the Launchpad's desire to scale up its own operations and its partnership with W&M.
"We've been doing shared programming for a while where we mix entrepreneurs with students, and there's been a recognition that we could take that even further," said Henshaw. "One of the greatest assets we have at the Miller Center are our mentors, some alumni and executive partners... We can make that resource available to Launchpad clients, too, to help those ventures grow."
The availability of Tribe Square was also perfectly timed, and Henshaw was thrilled that the Real Estate Foundation saw the vision for the hub as synergistic with its own mission to create a high-quality campus environment for students.
"You can think about that narrowly by saying what kind of retail operations do they attract into spaces, or more broadly, as they've done here, about what else you could do to create a vibrant scene for students," said Henshaw. "I just give them a lot of credit in seeing that housing an entrepreneurial hub would actually help them achieve their mission, as well."
The W&M difference
Although other institutions of higher education have entrepreneurship hubs, Henshaw says that William & Mary's focus on entrepreneurial thinking - not just start-ups - sets it apart.
"But I think our students body gives us the biggest differentiation... They are teed up perfectly for this idea to think and act like entrepreneurs, just given the types of students we see," he said. "They've been able to see the benefit of that kind of thinking pretty quickly and apply it in a variety of different ways."
Faculty will have a role in the hub in guiding students through details they may not have considered, such as legal ramifications and brand management, said Manos. And the university's liberal arts focus will help students consider the big questions around their ideas, including the ethical considerations. But the liberal arts alone aren't sufficient if they can't be turned into solutions to the world's toughest problems, said Manos.
"That's where we're putting a capital E and capital T into that STEM equation and where our liberal arts enterprise is perfect for guiding," said Manos.
"Why William & Mary got into the game is because we are precisely who needs to be in that game, and Tribe Square is going to be part of that."
While plans for the hub's spaces and offerings are still being finalized, the big picture is clear, said Henshaw.
"There's a really awesome opportunity to make a big impact on campus, and I think it will be measured not by the number of startups, but it would be measured by the collective, entrepreneurial thinking of the campus," he said.
Work is now underway to finalize plans for the hub's offerings as well as the design of its space, which will quadruple the current space the Miller Center occupies.
The university's technology transfer office, which helps faculty members commercialize the technologies they develop, is also involved in planning for the hub, looking for ways to support what may spring from its entrepreneurs.
"All of these things coming together just make it a slam dunk opportunity to make a really big impact not only in the William & Mary community, but I think in this region for entrepreneurship," Henshaw said. "I'm just thankful to be a part of it."


Green School, Korea University, Seoul 136-713, Korea.
Cu 2 ZnSnSe 4 (CZTSe) thin films were synthesized on transparent conducting oxide glass substrates via a simple, non-toxic, and low-cost process using a precursor solution paste. A three-step heating process (oxidation, sulfurization, and selenization) was employed to synthesize a CZTSe thin film as an absorber layer for use in thin-film solar cells. In particular, we focused on the effects of sulfurization conditions on CZTSe film formation. We found that sulfurization at 400 ℃ involves the formation of secondary phases such as CuSe 2 and Cu 2 SnSe 3 , but they gradually disappeared when the temperature was increased. The formed CZTSe thin films showed homogenous and good crystallinity with grain sizes of approximately 600 nm. A solar cell device was tentatively fabricated and showed a power conversion efficiency of 2.2% on an active area of 0.44 cm 2 with an open circuit voltage of 365 mV, a short current density of 20.6 mA/cm 2 , and a fill factor of 28.7%.
To date, two different synthetic approaches involving vacuum or non-vacuum processes have been reported for the synthesis of CZTS or CZTSe thin film absorber layers. Among the vacuum processes, co-evaporation methods adopted by Shin et al . 4 and Repins et al. 5 showed an efficiency of 8.4% and 9.2%, respectively. On the other hand, various non-vacuum processes have also been introduced by several research groups, such as electrochemical deposition (7.3% efficiency), 6 nanoparticle-based coating (8.5% efficiency), 7 and hydrazine-based slurry methods (11.1% efficiency). 8 For achieving better cost-effectiveness, it would be better to synthesize CZTS or CZTSe by solution processes such as printing or spraying.
In this study, we synthesized CZTSe films on an FTO glass substrate via a paste coating method using a precursor solution and a three-step heat treatment (oxidation, sulfurization, and selenization). We investigated the morphological and optical properties of the synthesized films by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and UV-Vis spectroscopy. Further, we also evaluated the performance of a solar cell device fabricated using the synthesized CZTSe thin film as an absorber layer.
Copper nitrate hydrate (Cu(NO 3 ) 2 ·xH 2 O), zinc nitrate hydrate (Zn(NO 3 ) 2 ·xH 2 O), tin chloride dehydrate (SnCl 2 ·2H 2 O), terpineol, ethyl cellulose, and anhydrous ethanol were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich.
A Cu-Zn-Sn precursor was initially prepared in a Teflon bottle by using a paste mixer (PDM-300, Dae-Wha TECH, South Korea) by mixing Cu(NO 3 ) 2 ·xH 2 O (5.4 mmol), Zn(NO 3 ) 2 ·xH 2 O (2.7 mmol), and SnCl 2 ·2H 2 O (2.7 mmol) prior to dissolving the precursor in 40 mL of anhydrous ethanol with terpineol (90 mmol) and ethyl cellulose (0.75 g). To prepare a viscous paste suitable for spin-coating, ethanol was evaporated in a rotary evaporator at 40 ℃ under a reduced pressure for 30 min. The paste was spin-casted at 4000 rpm for 50 s onto FTO-coated soda-lime glass substrates. The film was dried at 300 ℃ for 10 min in air by using a hotplate. The spin-coating and drying processes were repeated two times to obtain the desired thickness for the films. The films were then successively annealed under three different sets of conditions. The first annealing process was carried out in an air atmosphere at 350 ℃ for 1 h. The second annealing process was sulfurization, conducted as a conventional thermal annealing process at various temperatures from 400 to 500 ℃ for 15 min under a H 2 S (1%)/N 2 gas environment. Finally, a selenization process was performed as a rapid thermal annealing process at 530 ℃ for 5 min under an Ar gas atmosphere by using 1.0 g selenium pellets on a boat. Two different temperature increase time (10 and 40 min; temperature increase: up to 530 ℃) were employed in this experiment.
A solar cell device with a conventional substrate-type configuration (substrate/CZTSe/CdS/ i -ZnO/ n -ZnO/Ni/Al) was fabricated. A 60-nm-thick CdS buffer layer was deposited on a CZTSe film by chemical bath deposition (CBD), and i -ZnO (50 nm)/Al-doped n -ZnO (500 nm) was deposited by a radio-frequency magnetron sputtering method. A Ni (50 nm) and Al (500 nm) grid was fabricated as a current collector by e-beam evaporation. The active area of the completed cell was 0.44 cm 2 .
The structural characterization of the synthesized films was carried out using X-ray diffractometry (XRD, XRD- 6000, Shimadzu, Tokyo, Japan) employing Cu−Kα radiation (λ = 0.15406 nm). The phase was identified using a dispersive Raman spectrometer (Nicolet Almega XR, Thermo Scientific, MA, USA) with an exciting radiation wavelength of 532 nm. Images of the synthesized films were obtained using a scanning electron microscope (Nova-Nano 200, FEI Inc., OR, USA) operating at an acceleration voltage of 10 kV. The composition analysis of the films was carried out using an electron probe microanalyzer (EPMA, JEOL Ltd., Tokyo, Japan). Optical transmission and reflection spectra of the films were measured using a double-beam ultraviolet-visiblenear infrared (UV-Vis-NIR) spectrophotometer (Cary 5000, Varian, CA, USA). Device performances were characterized using a class AAA solar simulator (Wacom, Saitama, Japan).
In order to synthesize CZTSe thin films, a precursor solution paste was first prepared. For this, metal salts (copper nitrate, zinc nitrate, and tin chloride) were dissolved in an ethanol solution. 12 Polymeric binders ( e.g ., ethyl cellulose) were added to the precursor solution to adjust the viscosity of the solution paste in order to make it suitable for spincoating. Afterward, the precursor solution paste was spincoated onto FTO-coated glass substrates. To eliminate carbon impurities originating from organic materials such as the solvent and polymer binder, we employed air annealing at 350 ℃. The carbon content after this process was dramatically reduced up to ~5 at% as determined by EPMA elemental analysis. The oxidized film did not show any apparent XRD peaks, implying an amorphous state for the mixed oxide of Cu, Zn, and Sn. The oxidized film was then annealed again under a H 2 S (1%)/N 2 atmosphere to form a sulfurized CZTS film. Further, to investigate the effects of sulfurization conditions on CZTSe film formation, three different annealing temperatures (400, 450, and 500 ℃) were employed. Subsequently, a final heat treatment step−rapid thermal processing (RTP)−was performed under a selenium vapor atmosphere at 530 ℃ for 5 min in order to synthesize selenized CZTSe films.
SEM images of the CZTSe films from the sulfurized CZTS prepared at (a) 400 ℃ , (b) 450 ℃ , and (c) 500 ℃ with 10 min temperature rising time during the RTP selenization; (d) Cross-sectional view of the CZTSe film of (c); (e) the CZTSe films from the sulfurized CZTS prepared at 500 ℃ with 40 min temperature rising time during the RTP selenization; (f) Crosssectional of the CZTSe film of (e).
XRD patterns of the CZTSe films from the sulfurized CZTS prepared at (a) 400 ℃ , (b) 450 ℃ , and (c) 500 ℃ with 10 min temperature rising time during the RTP selenization.
Raman spectra of the CZTSe films from the sulfurized CZTS prepared at (a) 400 ℃ , (b) 450 ℃ , and (c) 500 ℃ with 10 min temperature rising time during the RTP selenization.
The optical properties of the CZTSe film obtained from a CZTS film at 500 ℃ were investigated by UV-Vis spectroscopy, and its absorption coefficient (α) was evaluated from the following equation: (αhυ) = A (αhυ − E g ) m where A is a constant, hυ is photon energy and m = ½ for direct allowed transition, as shown in Figure 4 . The direct optical band gap of the synthesized CZTSe films was estimated to be 1.1 ± 0.4 eV from the plot of (αhυ) 2 vs . photon energy (hυ), as shown in the inset of Figure 4 .
Absorption behavior of the CZTSe film from the sulfurized CZTS prepared at 500 ℃. The inset shows the band gap of the CZTSe film.
In order to evaluate the feasibility of using CZTSe films grown on a TCO substrate for solar cell applications, solar cell devices were fabricated using a CZTSe film, selenized at 530 ℃ with a temperature increase time of 10 min, as an absorber layer. The solar cell devices with a conventional substrate-type configuration (substrate/CZTSe/CdS/ i -ZnO/ n -ZnO/Ni/Al) were constructed on an FTO-coated glass. A CdS buffer layer and a ZnO window layer were also prepared using conventional methods of chemical bath deposi-tion and sputtering deposition, respectively. A Ni and Al grid were then prepared by e-beam evaporation for fabricating the top electrode. The current density–voltage ( J–V ) curve of the fabricated CZTSe solar cell was measured under standard irradiation conditions, as shown in Figure 5 . The device showed the highest maximum power conversion efficiency of 2.2% on an active area of 0.44 cm 2 with an open circuit voltage ( V oc ), a short current density ( J sc ), and a fill factor ( FF ) of 365 mV, 20.6 mA/cm 2 , and 28.7%, respectively. The solar cell efficiency was relatively not high enough, mainly because of the low values of V oc and FF . The reasons for these low values are not yet well understood, but they may be related to the porous nature of the CZTSe film. This may induce the penetration of the buffer layer or metal electrode material through the pores of the CZTSe film, which can form shunt paths in the CZTSe absorber film, thereby producing leakage current.
The current-voltage (J–V) characteristics of the CZTSe solar cell device.
In summary, the formation of a CZTSe film onto an FTOcoated glass substrate by using a solution paste was investigated. In particular, the effects of sulfurization temperature and heating rate during selenization on CZTS film growth were focused upon. We found that an incompletely sulfurized CZTS film results in the formation of secondary phases during selenization. However, these secondary phases gradually disappeared when the CZTSe film was synthesized using a CZTS film prepared above 500 ℃. We also found that shorter temperature increase time during RTP is favorable for the formation of larger grains in the CZTSe film. A solar cell device fabricated using a CZTSe film, grown on an FTO glass substrate, as an absorber layer showed a power conversion efficiency of 2.2%.
This work was supported by the University-Institute cooperation program of the National Research Foundation of Korea Grant funded by the Korean Government (MSIP). Also, the authors would like to thank the program of the National Research Foundation of Korea Grant (NRF-2009-C1AAA001-0092935), funded by the Korean Government (MSIP), and the program of Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST).
 A Ismail , JW Cho , SJ Park , YJ Hwang , and BK Min , "Synthesis of Solution-Processed Cu2ZnSnSe4 Thin Films on Transparent Conducting Oxide Glass Substrates", Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society, vol. 7, no. 7, Jul 2014.


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Fusing '60s surf-rock guitar riffs with Afro-Latin rhythms, La Chamba pays homage to Peruvian chicha music, a distinctive style of cumbia with traces of Andean huayano and American psychedelic rock that you can't help but dance to. The band's name "la chamba" literally means "work" and this band wants you to boogie your work blues away with groovy baselines and pulsing percussion layered under iridescent guitars and searing vocal harmonies. With roots in East and South-Central Los Angeles, La Chamba formed in 2009, jamming between classes while they were students at UC Santa Cruz. The band was founded with a mission to amplify everyday life with vibrant chicha music and provide a healthy, inclusive space for all communities.
La Chamba is blazing the trail for the chicha revival in Los Angeles and beyond, bringing the underground Peruvian music they love to the masses. The group is no stranger to Levitt stages—with a 2017 performance at Levitt Pavilion Los Angeles under their belts and three 2018 performances slated for this summer (Levitt AMP Carson City, 6/25; Levitt AMP Santa Fe, 6/30; Levitt Pavilion Los Angeles, 7/12). They've received coverage from such prominent L.A. outlets as LA Weekly, The Eastsider and The Desert Review. They released their latest album, Ecos de la Selva, in 2017 to critical acclaim.
Dogs on leashes are welcome at all shows. You are welcome to use one of our seats or bring your own.
Handicap Parking is available at the Brewery Arts Center lot at 449 West King Street. Street parking is also available.


Before you approach Kirk McGuire Bronze Sculpture you may want to answer these questions yourself so you are able to clearly convey your expectations.
• What size would you like your sculpture to be? You may provide the size in measurements, such as 3 feet tall or 5 feet long, or in relation to the object such as life sized or half-life sized.
• What is your budget? Be honest with yourself and Kirk. If your budget is tight let us know. We may be able to work with you to let you know how to decrease your costs.
• What is your deadline?
If possible, make available photographs of the subject to help the artist determine the level of detail needed. This will also enable Kirk to give a better estimate.
Kirk will give you a quote for the final sculpture. The quote is an in-depth explanation of what the client should expect and will receive as an end product. The quote also includes the estimated cost which is determined by a sculpture's unique configuration, size and proportion and, therefore, varies for each piece. You may take some time to consider the quote. The timeline, however, is based on the foundry's schedule so consult the artist on exactly how long you have to decide without affecting the timeline and pricing. Note for large sculptures (i.e. life-sized, large than life): A finished maquette of the approved sculpture is required to calculate the cost of the bronze. The foundry must be consulted and requires accurate measurements in all dimensions; height, width, depth, direction/movement of the piece as well as other factors to be able to calculate the total cost.
After accepting the quote, a down payment of 1/3 will be paid and work will begin on the sculpture. Kirk may ask you to provide photos of the work you want him to create, from the front, side, three-quarter, and back views if possible. Kirk may also take photographs and measurements to assure accuracy, or use his own research photos and film for reference. For large sculptures, a 2-foot maquette will possibly be sculpted before the actual size sculpture is created.
Client review of the clay sculpture/drawings if created, a second sitting will be scheduled to help the artist put the final touches on the piece. Once the client has approved the clay sculpture/drawings, the second payment, equaling 1/3 of the total cost, is due to the artist.
Once the sculpture is complete, the final 1/3 payment of the remaining amount of the quote is due to the artist (Kirk) and the finished artwork is given to the client. Arrangements will be made with the client for shipment, delivery or installation as indicated in the contract.
If the sculpture needs to be installed, necessary professional installers will be employed and the artist will oversee the installation process. The cost of the installation is calculated separately and added to the initial quote.
Now you understand the sculpture commissioning process. Please keep in mind that the process may vary slightly because each piece is unique. Also, it takes several months to complete a sculpture, so please allow at least six to nine months for life size statues and a year or more for larger than life pieces. There are variables to consider Kirk always works to make the best finished sculpture possible. He has worked with bronze foundries for over thirty six years and has a deep understanding of the entire process start to finish.
If you are ready to commission your own sculpture, table, or monumental creation please contact me.
Commission a 'One of a Kind' sculpture, table, or large installation for your home or business.


text:
Mario Kotaska (* 28. November 1973 in Kassel) ist ein deutscher Koch und Fernsehmoderator. Überregional bekannt wurde er durch die Kochsendungen Die Kochprofis – Einsatz am Herd bei RTL II und die Die Küchenchefs bei VOX. Er ist derzeit als Juror und Moderator der Sendung Die Küchenschlacht und als Koch bei Volle Kanne im ZDF tätig.

Leben und Werdegang
Kotaska wurde als Sohn der Puppenkünstlerin Gudrun Kotaska und des Verwaltungsoberrats Roland Kotaska geboren. Ab 1984 besuchte er das Kasseler Friedrichsgymnasium, wo er im Mai 1994 das Abitur ablegte. 1990 verbrachte er ein Austauschjahr an der Carbon County Christian High-School in Palmerton, Pennsylvania.

Nach dem Abitur 1994 begann Kotaska im Schlosshotel Bühlerhöhe im badischen Bühl die Ausbildung zum Hotelfachmann, brach diese aber ab und erlernte zwischen 1995 und 1998 im Gourmetrestaurant Imperial Schlosshotel Bühlerhöhe unter dem damaligen Küchenchef Wolfgang Müller den Beruf des Kochs. Im Anschluss arbeitete er dort als Commis de Cuisine (Jungkoch) und wechselte im Oktober 1998 in das durch Stefan Marquard eröffnete Restaurant 3 Stuben in Meersburg als Demi-Chef de Cuisine. Im Dezember 1998 absolvierte er ein Praktikum bei Harald Wohlfahrt in der Schwarzwaldstube im Hotel Traube Tonbach in Baiersbronn-Tonbach. Bereits ab Januar 1999 wirkte er als Chef de Partie Entremetier im Gourmetrestaurant Imperial des Schlosshotels Bühlerhöhe. Im September 1999 wurde er Chef de Partie im Restaurant Holbein's in Frankfurt am Main. Ab Dezember 1999 war er als Chef de Partie Gardemanger/Pâtissier im Restaurant Die Quadriga im Hotel Brandenburger Hof in Berlin tätig. Im November 2000 wurde er Souschef im Gourmetrestaurant Andermann Bar & Restaurant Andermann GmbH in Berlin. Hier erwarb Kotaska die Ausbildereignung. 2001 verhalf er dem Restaurant Andermann zum ersten Michelin-Stern.

Im August 2002 machte er ein Praktikum in der Agentur Kochende Leidenschaft in Bad Oeynhausen und nahm an der nationalen Ausscheidung zum Prix culinaire international Pierre Taittinger teil. Er belegte mit dem besten Fischgericht (Sauerbraten vom Seeteufel mit einem getrüffelten Hummer-Lauch-Kuchen) den zweiten Platz.

Von 2003 bis Februar 2011 war er Chef de Cuisine (Küchenchef) im La Societé im Kölner Viertel Kwartier Latäng. 2003 wurden dem Restaurant 16 von 20 Punkten vom Gault-Millau verliehen. 2006 zeichnete der Guide Michelin das Restaurant mit einem Stern aus. Des Weiteren wurden vergeben: 2,5 F in Der Feinschmecker; 2,5 Löffel im Schlemmer Atlas und 2 Hauben im Bertelsmann Guide.

Ein Kölner Cateringunternehmen, das mit Kotaska zusammenarbeitet, betreibt unter der Marke "bratwerk – by mario kotaska" zwei mobile Imbissstände.

Vom 12. April 2005 bis 20. Mai 2009 war Mario Kotaska Teil des Teams der Doku-Soap Die Kochprofis – Einsatz am Herd bei RTL II. Seit dem 25. Oktober 2009 ist er in der VOX-Sendung Die Küchenchefs zu sehen. In der Küchenschlacht ist er seit Juni 2014 auch als Moderator tätig, nachdem er schon zuvor als Juror agiert hat.

Anfang 2015 gab der Fernsehsender VOX das Ende der Kochsendung Die Küchenchefs bekannt. Im Oktober 2014 eröffnete er zusammen mit seinem Kollegen Ralf Zacherl und dem Berliner Weinladen Schmidt das Restaurant "Schmidt Z&KO" in Berlin. Zudem bieten die beiden Köche dort unter dem Titel "Genussschule" Kochkurse an. Ab September 2016 beteiligte er sich, zusammen mit Alexander Kumptner als Tanzpartner, bei Dance Dance Dance (RTL). Seit Januar 2020 kocht Mario Kotaska im Wechsel mit dem bisherigen Koch Armin Roßmeier für die Zuschauer des ZDF-Vormittagsmagazins "Volle Kanne".

Auszeichnungen
 2013: Gastro-Stern (verliehen auf der Fachmesse Internorga) aufgrund des Geschäftskonzeptes des Imbisses "bratwerk".

 2013: Silbermedaille der Gastronomischen Akademie Deutschlands (GAD) für das Kochbuch "Street Food"

Privates
Mario Kotaska ist verheiratet, Vater eines Sohnes und einer Tochter und lebt in Köln.

Weblinks

 Offizielle Website von Mario Kotaska

Einzelnachweise

Fernsehkoch (Deutschland)
Deutscher
Geboren 1973
Mann

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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