PLENARY SPEAKERS

Tuesday, November 7

Dr. Lynn H. Gamble, Professor Emerita

Department of Anthropology, UCSB

Editor, American Antiquity

Talk Title: Thirteen Thousand Years of Human Interactions on the California Islands

Abstract: The California Islands were first occupied by humans about 13,000 years ago, with the earliest definitive evidence on Santa Rosa Island. Over the following millennia, many events took place that have affected the ecology of the islands. The indigenous peoples who lived on the California Islands before the Europeans and Russians arrived relied solely on non-agricultural resources, primarily marine and to a lesser extent, land based.

An interdisciplinary approach to understanding thousands of years on the California Islands provides us with an interpretation of a rich archaeological record that informs researchers from numerous backgrounds. Collaborations between archaeologists and specialists in biology, geology, geography, genetics, and history, among other fields, result in a much deeper understanding of human interactions with their environment for thousands of years. Examples of interdisciplinary research that have investigated major shifts in the past are synthesized in this presentation and are used as a guide for future research.

Wednesday, November 8

Dr. Jeremy Long

Professor, Biology, San Diego State University

Title: A new hope: solutions for anthropogenic impacts on marine subsidies to island ecosystems

Abstract: Resources associated with seabirds and marine detritus subsidize islands and profoundly affect community structure, species richness, and ecosystem function. Although the movement of such material is susceptible to human influence, anthropogenic impacts on marine subsidies are poorly known beyond the disruption of subsidies to islands by invasive predators like mice, rats, and cats. The first steps towards identifying solutions to these impacts are identifying these problems and their consequences. Here, I will identify how humans are changing marine subsidies to the California islands via range shifts, species introductions, overharvesting, and coastal fish pen aquaculture. Using local examples of marine subsidies to the Channel Islands and the Coronado Islands, I will highlight potential solutions to these problems to inspire hope for the future of these amazing ecosystems. Finding this hope will be critical to the successful outcomes of conservation and biosecurity strategies.

Thursday, November 9

Dr. Exequiel Ezcurra

Distinguished Professor of Ecology, UC Riverside

Title: Sea of Cortés Islands: sentinels of the global environment

Abstract: Oceanic islands have been an extraordinary source of scientific ideas and hypotheses for centuries. Scientific island studies probably started with Darwin’s observations of the diversity and endemism of the Galápagos Archipelago, and his fist musings on the “mystery of mysteries,” the appearance of life on remote islands formed from volcanic eruptions. In the 1970s, McArthur and Wilson’s Theory of Island Biogeography revolutionized biology and established the paradigm of species-area relationships, to this day one of the most robust and influential model in ecological sciences. Following these foundational studies, we have used the islands of the Sea of Cortés to study the global dynamics of the oceans, to evaluate the intensity of ocean-land interactions, and to use island dynamics and seabird demography as indicators and the health of the global ecosystem. Working on a 40-year database of nesting seabirds and on oceanographic and climatic data, we have been able to evaluate the frequency of oceanographic and atmospheric anomalies, and the response of seabirds and fisheries. Islands in the Gulf of California, and indeed in all the world, are proving to be invaluable tools to understand the dynamics of the global ecosystem during the Anthropocene.