Islands of domestication

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I drew this to illustrate another Forum paper for the scientific journal Oikos. Here is a summary of the study, “Insularity and early domestication: anthropogenic ecosystems as habitat islands” (by Robert N. Spengler III):

Maybe humans take too much credit for domesticating plants and animals. This Forum paper argues that the human-friendly qualities of our pets, livestock, and crops could have arisen without selective breeding or other human-centric mechanisms that are usually assumed. Instead, it explores an ecological mechanism: the island syndrome.

Think of early farms and villages as islands. The author draws parallels between the processes of domestication and island evolution, suggesting that the same ecological forces may be responsible for both. Both island plants and cultivated crops tend to have bigger and less dispersible seeds than their ancestors. Animals on islands and in human habitats can lose flight ability, fear responses, and patches of pigmentation, among other changes.

Why such parallel patterns of evolution? It could be that when plants and animals find their way to islands or other insular habitats—ranging from early villages to modern cities—they are released from predation and competition pressures. Domestication scholars and island biogeographers would benefit from comparing notes, the author concludes.

Life, death, and disease—in C

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I drew this to illustrate Forum paper for the scientific journal Oikos. Here is a summary of the study, “Dead or alive: carbon as currency to integrate disease and ecosystem ecology theory” (by Seabloom et al.):

Disease and ecosystem ecology are treated as separate disciplines, but we know they're intertwined—so how can we study them together? Think in terms of carbon, suggests this Forum paper. Most studies of disease stop tracking organisms after they die, ignoring their ongoing role in the ecosystem. By shifting to units of carbon rather than individuals, we can keep track of dead hosts as well as living ones (not to mention partially infected hosts that shed dead tissue).

The authors present four models focusing on plant and phytoplankton pathogens to explore this coupling of disease and ecosystem perspectives. They show that disease spread is mediated by the decomposition rates of dead hosts, while pathogens influence carbon cycling between live and dead biomass. Their modeling also predicts that disease is more devastating to ecosystems with fast carbon turnover, like lakes and oceans, relative to slow-turnover ecosystems like boreal forests—just a few examples of insights gained by unifying the two fields of study.

Bird island

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I painted this tern from a wooden blind on Eastern Egg Rock, where puffins are the most famous (but not the only) birds. That was in June, during my week as an Audubon instructor.

These three sketches were from a subsequent trip to the rock in July with members of the Wabanaki community.

Top right: eider. Right: tern on tent. Above: tern on outhouse, with fish. (Incidentally, the outhouse itself is painted to look like a fish.)

Stone and Sea (and sketches for sale)

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This past winter, aka summer in the southern hemisphere, I returned to New Zealand (five years after my seabird adventures there) for a four-month project called Toka Tāiko.

Sandy Bay Dunes, 6x6" Watercolor

Toka means “rock” or “boulder” in te reo Māori, and this refers to one purpose of my trip: teaching sketching to a roving band of geology students from Carleton College. Tāiko is a word for seabird. Another purpose of the trip was to help seabird scientists with seabird research on seabird islands, picking up the threads from my project five years ago.

Between these two enterprises I covered a decent amount of ground (and water) from the Tongariro Alpine Crossing to the Southern Alps to the Mercury Islands, and was fortunate to steer clear of Cyclone Gabrielle along the way. Meanwhile, I did a whole lot of sketching. Which brings me to this news:

Original artwork for sale

I’m making a bunch of the original sketches from this trip available for sale. Check out available artwork here and use the “Inquire” button alongside any piece to ask questions or let me know of your interest. (For prints, visit here.)

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