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Michael Simanonok first visited Chile as a Tracing Darwin’s Path student in 2008. After that experience he changed his focus within his major in Biological Sciences to concentrate on ecology. Since then, he has worked for the Lewisville Aquatic Ecosystem Research Facility and was recently selected for a Sub-Antarctic Biocultural Conservation Program International Research Experience for Students award, funded by the US National Science Foundation. While on his IRES fellowship, Mike lived in southern Chile and Argentina for 3 months, collaborating with Drs. Guillermo Martínez Pastur and Vanessa Lencinas at the Centro Austral de Investigaciones Científicas in Ushuaia, Argentina. His research subsequently was transformed into an honors thesis studying the effects of forestry management and invasive beavers on stream ecosystems in Tierra del Fuego. Now, Mike has also been awarded the “Best Poster” in the natural science category at the UNT Scholar’s Day event, a university-wide initiative to highlight undergraduate research at UNT. Congratulations Mike!

Kelli Moses has worked for the Sub-Antarctic Biocultural Conservation Program since before it existed. As the student assistant for the Tracing Darwin’s Path study abroad program, Kelli has been a vital contact between the program and UNT’s study body. For these and other efforts, Kelli was recently selected at a university level for recognition as a “2010 Student Employee of the Year” award. Congratulations Kelli!

In the annual undergraduate Scholars Day at UNT, this year the Sub-Antarctic Biocultural Conservation Program was represented with an organized session of 3 posters that included:

–> Stephen Dillenberg presenting his analysis of the historical trends in conservation research regarding the inclusion of ecological and social criteria. His findings showed a clear bias within academia to consider principally ecological considerations, while broader social criteria are still lacking.

–> Kelli Moses and a host of collaborators for their part presented the Miniature Forests of Cape Horn and how this novel research-conversation program has been able to link local, regional, national and international scales.

–> Michael Simanonok, for his part, gave the results of his honors thesis, which was supported by an NSF IRES grant. His work explored the dual effects of forestry and invasive beavers on stream ecosystems in Tierra del Fuego, finding that well managed forestry practices were able to maintain natural biodiversity and stream function, while beaver meadows exhibited high impacts on streams (see previous story on Mike’s award).

Jaime Ojeda, UMAG M.S. Conservation student and Tamara Contador, UNT Ph.D. Biology student, have both worked at the Omora Park for several years. In 2008, they proposed to their advisers that they apply for funding from the Chilean National Environment Commission to support their research regarding marine and freshwater invertebrates, a grant which they won. The resulting project has allowed them not only to conduct their theses, but also to work in the local school with children and other residents to explore the “hidden” biodiversity of small organisms found underwater. Now, this project has produced a field guide entitled Guide the the Aquatic Invertebrates of the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve. With the aid of Drs. Ricardo Rozzi, Christopher Anderson, James Kennedy, Andrés Mansilla and Francisca Massardo, the students indicate how to identify and describe the role of these small creatures in our subantarctic ecosystems. The book is expected to help educators, tourism operators and the general public get to know these often unknown and unappreciated members of our biotic community. With the support of the University of North Texas and the Universidad de Magallanes, the Omora Park and the Subantarctic Biocutltural Conservation Program is also formalizing an editorial line between UMAG and UNT that will continue to produce these natural history guides for the subantarctic ecoregion, as well as other texts related to environmental ethics and biocultural conservation. Stay tune for news on the launching of the Multi-ethnic Bird Guide to the Subantarctic Forests of Southern South America in May!

With only 2,000 human inhabitants, Cape Horn is quite likely the place on earth with the highest number of Fulbrighters per capita! To the existing cohort of 4, including Juan Harcha, Christopher Anderson, Ricardo Rozzi and James Kennedy, we are now proud to announce that Jean-Paul Zagarola has been selected for a Fulbright Fellowship in 2011 to conduct research in the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve associated with community-based watershed management and the perception and valuation of ecosystem services of watersheds. Mr. Zagarola will be admitted to the Environmental Science Program at the University of North Texas in the fall of 2010, where he will pursue a masters degree under the mentorship of Drs. Anderson and Kennedy. “This is truly an exceptional achievement for JP. In addition, as the first new recruit since our program was formalized at UNT and the Universidad de Magallanes, we are very pleased. If all goes well he will become the first joint masters of subantarctic biocultural conservation student we produce with the UMAG as well”, said Christopher Anderson regarding this news. For more on previous Fulbright winners from Cape Horn click here.

During the 6th Southern Connection Conference, carried out in Bariloche, Argentina from 15-19 February 2010, the Sub-Antarctic Biocultural Conservation Program co-sponsored with its Chilean and Argentine colleagues a symposium to address the use of long-term socio-ecological research (LTSER) sites as a platform to affect conservation and management of the southern temperate forest biome found in Argentina, Chile, New Zealand and Australia. The Southern Connection Conference is a tri-annual meeting of ecologists, geographers, geologists and paleobiologists, begun in 1993 as an effort for the countries that were once part of the Gondwana supercontinent (Argentina, Chile, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand), to have the opportunity to share experiences and to generate collaborations. The invited participants to the LTSER symposium included representatives from Chile, Argentina and Tasmania, in the Program’s broader effort to promote LTSER initiatives in the Southern Hemisphere. In this context, the event co-organized by Dr. Christopher Anderson, Subantarctic Program Coordinator, and Dr. Guillermo Martinez Pastur, a forest ecologist at the Austral Scientific Research Center in Ushuaia, Argentina, was intended to further the ongoing work of the University of North Texas, the University of Magallanes and the Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity to implement a Chilean network of LTSER sites that work also on the integration of academic disciplines and the academy with society. Additionally, the Program will launch in March a special edition of the Revista Chilena de Historia Natural, which shares the proceedings of a previous workshop held at the Omora Park in 2008 about this topic.

In its 5th version Tracing Darwin’s Path, the Subantarctic Biocultural Conservation Program’s premier field experience for Chilean and US students, took on the challenge of integrating art, philosophy and ecology. With the collaboration of Magallenic artist Paola Vezzani students utilized techniques from drawing and the arts to enhance their observation, description and comprehension of biological and cultural diversity in the subantarctic ecoregion. This year also for the first time, Melissa Armstrong, SEEDS Program Manager from the Ecological Society of America, participated with the course sharing her experience promoting diversity in ecological education, but also collaborating in a formal evaluation of the course. Subsequently, 8 students remained in southern Chile and Argentina to conduct independent research as part of an NSF-funded project to provide international research experience to students.

The Provost’s Office at the University of North Texas has highlighted our program’s activities taking place in southern Chile, reporting in its Research Magazine that “the Sub-Antarctic Biocultural Conservation Program, based in the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve at the southern tip of South America and coordinated by the University of North Texas and the Universidad de Magallanes, is home to interdisciplinary research on sub-Antarctic biocultural conservation. The location permits accessibility to pristine wilderness areas and archeological sites, and the station collaborates with area schools and various government services and social organizations. Read the complete article or watch a short video.

Recently, the Chilean Fulbright Commission announced the creation of “regional” awards that will be available to select centers of excellence deemed capable of participating in this prestigious scholarship program. Fortunately, the Masters of Science in Subantarctic Conservation Program, coordinated by the University of Magallanes in assocation with the Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity and the University of North Texas, was one of only 4 centers in Chile which will compete for the 2-3 Science Initiative scholarships to be provided annually. According to Dr. Christopher Anderson, Magallanes Regional Delegate for the Chilean Fulbright Commission, “the inclusion in this group is not only a high recongition of the quality of the work being conducted in the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve by the UMAG’s graduate students, but also offers a new opportunity to strengthen the international interaction of the students and scientists working in the Omora Park.”

The Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity (IEB) has provided a doctoral dissertation support award to Tamara Contador, Ph.D. student at the University of North Texas (UNT) who is working with Drs. James Kennedy (UNT), Ricardo Rozzi (UNT-IEB-UMAG) and Christopher Anderson (UNT-IEB-UMAG) on a stream ecology project in the Robalo River watershed. The award (approximately $1,200) will aid in the development of Tamara’s dissertation in the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve and helps to re-enforce the network of institutions, graduate students and projects encompassed by the Chilean Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research Network, coordinated by the IEB, and the Omora Alliance’s Sub-Antarctic Biocultural Conservation Program, coordinated by UNT and UMAG.

Two graduate students at the Omora Park have received funding from the Chilean National Environment Commission to support their research on the “hidden” underwater diversity of subantarctic stream and marine ecosystems. However, Jaime Ojeda (M.S. Conservation, University of Magallanes) and Tamara Contador (Ph.D. Biology, University of North Texas) will not only do their research, but also conduct workshops with pre-school and elementary school children, teachers, and tourism operators from Puerto Williams and Punta Arenas. The workshops will aim to not only discover but also value the importance of the hidden biodiversity of freshwater and marine invertebrates that inhabit the aquatic systems of the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve.

OSARA is proud to report that Yanet Medina, masters of science student at the Omora Park-University of Magallanes, has won second place in the national competition to select the nation’s best theses and dissertations in the area of tourism. The $1,000 award was given to Ms. Medina by the regional secretary of the Chilean Tourism Ministry and recognizes her work in the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve to consolidate “tourism with a hand lens” via her thesis entitled: “Miniature Forest Garden of Cape Horn: Tourism with a Hand Lens as a Tool for Conservation, Education and Scientific Tourism in the Chilean Sub-Antarctic Ecoregion”.

The University of North Texas and the Omora Sub-Antarctic Research Alliance have received a $150,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to conduct international research experiences for US students in the Chilean sub-antarctic region. The grant is also supported by the Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity’s Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research Network, which includes sites at the Omora Ethnobotanical Park (Cape Horn), Senda Darwin Biological Station (Chiloé) and Fray Jorge Experimental Site (Coquimbo). The Chilean LTSER Network extends across a latitudinal gradient from the subantarctic archipelago to the temperate rainforests and the arid desert regions of Chile and provides a platform for students to not only visit diverse ecosystems, but also interact with Chilean and Argentine mentors, learn how to combine social and ecological studies to create biocultural conservation and research, and study together with students from Chile and Latin America. For more information, go to the project website.

To celebrate “Earth Day,” Ximena Arango and Rodrigo Molina, local coordinators of the Omora Program in Puerto Williams, organized a month-long series of activities including guided visits to the Omora Park, “ecological walks,” a pet sterilization campaign, collection of trash along the coast, a movie series for children, a photography competition and a special ceremony for the 22nd of April. To date, more than 200 people from diverse institutions, such as the Chilean Navy, the ladies’ auxiliary, Scouts, school children and other residents have participated.

Read more at Radio Polar about the Omora Park’s efforts to help control the feral dog and cat population on Navarino Island.