Given at ESA2011 in Natural History Symposium

1. Department of Biology,
University of e Natural History
Washington
Initiative:
College of the
Environment, An Introduction
University of
Washington
e Natural History
Network
Josh Tewksbury
NCEAS
e ideal scientist thinks
like a poet and works
A naturalist is more
like a bookkeeper.
a poet than an
(E.O. Wilson, 1998)
engineer.
(R. Margalef 1997)

2. Natural History: Attention to nature,
from the scale of the organism to the
scale of the landscape, and the body of
honest, accessible work that comes from
this attention.
eory
Experimental
Manipulations
Comparison
(correlation)
“Ecology is a new Description
name for a very old
subject. It simply
means scientific Observation
natural history”
-Elton 1927

3. Why we need
natural history
• We need more naturalists and
more natural history
• We need to use natural history
more effectively
• We need to create value for
natural history in
contemporary culture
“Isn’t it true that in
an anthill dreams • e Natural History Initiative
are a duty?”
- P. Neruda

4. Natural History: the backbone
of discovery
Gene Likens – Acid Rain
First full facts,
then interpretations
- T. C. Chamberlain 1890

5. Natural History: the backbone
of predictive ecology
• Natural History
requires
investment in
our collective
knowledge
• Without Natural
History, we lack
baselines.

6. Natural History: the backbone
of predictive ecology
• Natural History
requires
investment in
our collective
knowledge
Ixtoc Oil Spill, 1979,
Bay of Campeche
• Without Natural
- no long-term monitoring History, we lack
(Schrope 2010) baselines.

7. Why we need
natural history
• We need more naturalists and
more natural history
• We need to use natural history
more effectively
• We need to create value for
natural history in
contemporary culture
• e Natural History Initiative

8. Getting more from natural history
will require a cultural shift in ecology
• Observations of nature (data)
– Can build a predictive ecology
– Can transcend current theory
• If they are
– Honest
– Available
– Transparent
• Without a HAT, data in any field
goes dark
• Ecology has a lot of dark data

9. How much do we share data in
Ecology?
• Methods
– Randomly selected 100
Stephanie Hampton
NSF proposals in DEB (20
per year for last 5 years)
– Randomly selected one
paper per proposal
– Performed exhaustive
Carly Strasser
search for data sharing for
each paper

10. Most of the data we collect
remains in the dark
• Results
– 60 papers produced new
Stephanie Hampton data
– Of these, 57% (34 papers)
shared no data
– Only 5 papers (8%) shared
Carly Strasser
any data outside of Genbank
and Treebase (molecular
and phylogenetic data
repositories)

11. We are building the stadiums, but
most of us are not going to the games
• Getting out of the dark will
require
– A sea change towards
transparency and collaboration
– More incentive structures that
reward the collection, the
sharing and the synthesis of
natural history
– A flattening of ecology (experts
are where you find them, natural
history is civics)

12. Why we need
natural history
• We need more naturalists and
more natural history
• We need to use natural history
more effectively
• We need to create value for
natural history in
contemporary culture
“Do
black
grapes
of
the
desert
have
a
basic
• e Natural History Initiative
thirst
for
tears?”
-­‐P.
Neruda

13. Naturalists connecting
ecology to society
Images
from
Wikimedia
Commons

14. e next generation of
natural history must be…
…more diverse, more agile, more
collaborative, …immersed in
contemporary culture and society
and perceived by that culture and
society as relevant and vital.
“Recognize that politics with no biology, or politics
without field biology, or a political platform in which
human biological requirements form but one plank,
is a vision of the gates of hell.” - Barry Lopez

15. e next generation of
natural history must be…
…more diverse, more agile, more
It must also be deeply collaborative, …immersed in
insurgent, an inoculation contemporary culture and society
against the steady turn and perceived by that culture and
away from nature society as vital and relevant.
“Recognize that politics with no biology, or politics
without field biology, or a political platform in which
human biological requirements form but one plank,
is a vision of the gates of hell.” - Barry Lopez

16. e core of natural history
Practice; Patience;
Attention to Nature; “…While you
Accuracy; Organisms; and I have lips
and voices which
Landscapes; are for kissing, and to
Observation; sing with, who cares if some
one eyed son of a bitch
Description; invents an instrument to
Intuition; measure spring with”
- EE Cummings
Connections; Sense of
place; Attention over
time; Pattern
recognition;
Experiential;
Curiosity driven;
Sense of Self; Human
Senses; Esthetics

17. “To pay attention,
A 21stcentury vision this is our endless and
proper work.”
of natural history --Mary Oliver
Practice; Patience; Practical; Inclusive; Social;
Attention to Nature; Transparent; Experimental;
Accuracy; Organisms; Embracing and Subverting
Landscapes; New Technologies;
Observation; Expansive and Accepting of
Description; our Cyborg Senses;
Intuition; Immersed in our multi-
Connections; Sense of cultural society
place; Attention over
time; Pattern
recognition;
Experiential;
Curiosity driven;
Sense of Self; Human
Senses; Esthetics

18. Natural
History
Upgrade
By Richard Conniff

19. An
example…

20. An
example…
“Do
black
grapes
of
the
desert
have
a
basic
thirst
for
tears?”
(P.
Neruda)

21. Why we need
natural history
• We need more naturalists and
more natural history
• We need to use natural history
more effectively
• We need to create value for
natural history in
contemporary culture
• e Natural History Initiative

22. e Natural History
Initiative
• Bringing naturalists together
– Removing distractions

23. e Natural History
Initiative
• Bringing naturalists together
– Removing distractions
– Crossing disciplines

24. e Natural History
Initiative
• Bringing naturalists together
– Crossing disciplines
– Removing distractions
– Open Space Technology

25. e Natural History
Initiative
• Bringing naturalists together
– Crossing disciplines
– Removing distractions
– Open Space Technology
– Talking and doing natural
history
“How in salt’s desert
is it possible to
blossom?”
P. Neruda

26. e Natural History Network National Science Foundation
e University of Washington UW College of the Environment
Prescott College
BDSJS.COM Colosoma Beetle and
NCEAS Graphite Shell by
Cannon USA Logan Parsons
Bat Star and Poppy
by Emily Eng
http://www.parsonsillustration.com/
All art is used with permission and
http://www.emilymeng.com/ in collaboration with the artists

27. e study of life at the level of the individual: e scientific study of
of what plants and animals do, plants and animals in
how they react to each other and the environment their natural
(Bates 1990) environments. It is
concerned with levels of
“e close observation of organisms—their origins, organization from the
their evolution, their behavior, and their individual organism to
relationships with other species” the ecosystem... It often
(Wilcove and Eisner 2000) and appropriately
includes an esthetic
Natural history focuses on where organisms are component.
and what they do in their environment, (Herman 2002)
including interactions with other organisms
(Greene and Losos 1988)
Patient interrogation
A practice of intentional, focused attentiveness of a landscape
and receptivity to the more-than-human world, (Lopez 1986)
guided by honesty and accuracy
(Fleischner 2001)