Hello Mission 2008!
    Allison Brown -- for questions, comments, or concerns, e-mail me at < arb@mit.edu >

Contents: (below)
-Objectives
-Beginning Research
-Endangered (and some non- Endangered) Species
-Monitoring Research


Objectives
My name is Allison Brown, and I am part of a Mission 2008, a class (12.000) designed to study the Galapagos Islands and find a possible soultion to these three objectives
1. "To develop a new preservation strategy for the Galapagos that builds on the current management plan for the Galapagos National Park and Galapagos Marine Reserve by designing the two as a "World Scientific Preserve" that would be managed by an international comission and funded by a multinational trust."
2. "To design and deploy a network of environmental sensors to support a comprehensive program of ecosystem monitoring on the islands and surrounding waters."
3."To design an idealized "village" for permanent residents and visitors that would ensure the lowest possible human impact on the island ecosystems."
To learn more about Mission 2008, look at the official Mission 2008 website: http://web.mit.edu/mission/

Beginning  Research:
My topic mainly focused on endangered animals as well as a few native species living on the islands, Floreana and Espanola.  My goal is to find out how they live, how their lives are affected by people (tourists and locals), as well as how we can look at preserving them for future years.  Invasive species, natural disasters, and man-made disturbances are some areas I am considering while researching possible methods to preserving the endangered species on the Galapagos.

Endangered species, in particular, may act as important indicators for us to monitor the "state" of the environment.  Chances are that if an endangered/vulnerable species suddenly spins rapidly towards extinction, then it probably isn't the only organism being affected.  We may have a chance to prevent further problems and/or other extinctions by identifying the current threats to the ecosystem,possibly through monitring endangered species.  

E-mail me with any questions!
Allison Brown
Team 5 -- Las Tortugas
Islands:  Floreana and Espanola
arb@mit.edu

Galapagos Research - research done before I was assigned my official topic of researching Endangered Species
Ideas/Notes/Important Information - this site is a mixture of notes from class, my ideas/thought processes, and important pieces of information
Wild and not-so wild ideas - ideas that we came up with along the way
Continuing Research - information from articles that may help us solve our class goals


Endangered (and some non-endangered) Species in the Galapagos:

Side Note: (not all of these species are located team five's islands, so:
                E --located on Espanola
                F --located on Floreana
    I mainly concentrated on the species on my assigned islands.  These are what I have found so far.)

Mammals -- << Basic Mammals List >>
Galapagos Fur Seal(E, F)
Galapagos Sea Lion(E,F)
Darwin's Galapagos Mouse
Fernandina Galapagos Mouse
Galapagos Rice Rat
Indefatigable Galapagos Mouse
Small Fernandina Galapagos Rice Rat
Santiago Galapagos Mouse

Birds -- << Basic Birds List >>
Dark-Rumped Petrel(F)
Flightless Cormorant
Galapagos Hawk(E)
Galapagos Penguin(F)
Galapagos Rail(F)

Reptiles -- << Reptiles Birds List >>
Galapagos Giant Tortoise(E)
Galapagos Land Iguana
Marine Iguana(E)
Santa Fe Iguana
Volcan Alcedo Tortoise

Galapagos Shark(in surrounding waters)


Monitoring and the Galapagos:

Las tortugas split up into

Monitoring Proposal  -- This is still in the process of being formed.  So far I am looking into exact methods of monitoring cetain "indicator" plant and animal species (species that will show us when the ecosystem is being positively or negatively affected) as well as looking into new and more efficient ways to monitor them.
Monitoring Research -- These are some of the articles I found that seemed helpful as far as finding out what exactly is being monitored currently as well as the methods in place.  One problem we, as a monitoring group, continually ran into was that so many research groups and institutions had done studies, but all of it was separate.  The information was there, but either it was not given to the public or it was too spread out too much for any one person to see it all.  After finding this information, our group made proposal to centralize the data -- perhaps through a single institution or maybe as new branch completely -- so that researchers could look at a compiled version of past data, and make educated conclusions about trends based on past occurrances.  

    My fellow team members and I originally wanted to create a list of "indicator species" or "keystone species" which could possibly be used to access the relative "health" og the environment.  Unfortunately we didn't have information about the species and their interactions with the environment to accurately determine which species should be monitored.  Organizations, such as the Charles Darwin Foundation, have worked very hard to establish current information on the animal and plant species (as well as how they interact with the environment).  Our goal was not to repeat what had already been done, but to come up with new and more efficient ways to monitor these species.  Dissolved oxygen, for example, would be useful to monitor in water because it in some areas it directly correlates to the amount of algae.  Huge amounts of algae lower dissolved oxygen concentrations which, in turn, decreases fish populations.  Galapagos penguins won't breed if they are put under too much stress, and if fish populations severely decrease, then there is a chance penguin populations won't breed.  These are the kind of relationships we were trying to identify.  After many hours of discussion, we came up with a variety of "smaller" things to monitor.  
    I began to look into algae -- mainly marine benthic macro-algae (also known more commonly as saeweeds) -- and although I wasn't able to go into as much depth as I would have liked, I found some very interesting results.  These results were written together in the following proposal:  Why Should We Monitor Seaweeds?  which explains briefly the impotance of monitoring algae species in genral, as well as the benefits of monitoring algae.