can Academy of Sciences and the Social Science Research 

 Council in collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution. 

 The workshop focussed on the issue of how human occupancy 

 of African landscapes affects the biodiversity of those areas. 

 Research emerging from this initiative will focus on the links 

 between socioeconomic welfare and environmental welfare. 



The effort to understand and evaluate our natural resources 

 was greatly enhanced by the opening of a $1 million research 

 greenhouse at the museum's Suitland, Maryland, campus. Bot- 

 anists who traditionally depended on the dry collections for 

 their research can now add research on live specimens and can 

 also extend the scope of their studies to pollination, plant 

 physiology, and plant evolution. Researchers traditionally had 

 to collect plants in bloom, whereas now they can gather speci- 

 mens at varying stages of growth and nurture them in the 

 greenhouse. Completion of the greenhouse also makes it possi- 

 ble for the museum to share rare and endangered species with 

 other greenhouses and botanical gardens, thus helping to pre- 

 serve our biodiversity. 



The research of NMNH botanists Mark Littler and Diane 

 Littler was featured in Science News this year, with their im- 

 portant discovery of Coralline Lethal Orange Disease (CLOD). 

 CLOD is a destructive disease that has spread more than 

 3,600 miles across Southern Pacific reefs. The highly conta- 

 gious microbe threatens reefs by killing coralline algae, ma- 

 rine plants that build reefs. Extensive experimentation found 

 that CLOD is 100% infective, can attack 10 different genera of 

 corallines, and reproduces by forming sticky orange globules 

 that are dispersed in waves and currents where they remain vi- 

 able for up to two weeks. The Littlers have sent a photograph 

 of an infected reef to dozens of marine botanists throughout 

 the Pacific, asking them to report the presence of the disease 

 in their areas. 



NMNH enhanced its visibility in the area of mammal stud- 

 ies by hosting the 75th Anniversary Meeting of the American 

 Society of Mammalogists from June 18—23, '994- This com- 

 memorative meeting drew the highest-ever attendance for an 

 ASM annual conference, totaling more than 700 registrants 

 from countries all over the world, including Russia, Australia, 

 and Africa. The Department of Vertebrate Zoology loaned 

 44,319 specimen records to 76 individuals who used the collec- 

 tions for 218 user days. Well-attended symposia were held on 

 Organismic Biodiversity, Population Biodiversity, Commu- 

 nity Biodiversity, Careers in Mammalogy, and Ecosystem 

 Biodiversity. During the meeting, Richard Thonngton of 

 NMNH was re-elected a director of the American Society of 

 Mammalogists for a three-year term. 



After 134 years of working in Alaska, the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution made a firm commitment to scientific endeavors in 

 this region by opening its first field office in Anchorage. The 

 agreement to open a branch of the NMNH s Arctic Studies 

 Center in Anchorage was signed by NMNH, the Anchorage 

 Museum of History and Art, and the municipality of Anchor- 

 age in December 1993. Proposed activities include long-term 

 loans of Smithsonian collections to Alaska, making collections 



available to Alaskans who had difficulty travelling to Wash- 

 ington to examine the specimens. William Fitzhugh, director 

 of NMNH's Arctic Studies Center, has done important work 

 throughout the Arctic, including his most recent study of the 

 Yamal peoples of Siberia, who today continue to depend on 

 reindeer herding as they have for hundreds of years. 



NMNH research staffers published more than 600 scien- 

 tific and scholarly papers, including seven articles in Nature 

 and Science — two of the most competitive and ptestigious re- 

 search journals — of which four were cover stories. Martin 

 Buzas of the Department of Paleobiology at NMNH co- 

 authored with Steven J. Culver of The Natural History Mu- 

 seum in London an important article in Science, called "Species 

 Pool and Dynamics of Marine Paleocornmunities," shedding 

 new light on natural aquatic communities. Daniel J. Stanley, 

 another member of the Depattment of Paleobiology at 

 NMNH and Senior Geological Oceanographer, published a 

 paper in Science as well this year, titled "Worldwide Initiation 

 of Holocene Marine Deceleration of Sea-Level Rise," which 

 was co-written with Andrew J. Warne of the U.S. Army 

 Corps of Engineers. Stanley and Warne suggest that it is essen- 

 tial to understand the relationship between delta formation 

 and sea-level change to implement long-term coastal protec- 

 tion measures. 



Other important research contributions included the fol- 

 lowing: Ernani Menez of the Department of Botany went to 

 the Phillipines to collect live Porneria hornemannu for man- 

 culture study. This "red seaweed" contains a natural product 

 known as "halomon" which is active against a variety of cell 

 tumors, particularly renal/colon cancer. Mary Rice, Julie 

 Piraino, and Hugh Reichardt of the Smithsonian Marine Sta- 

 tion at Link Port (SMSLP) in Florida presented a survey of 

 sipunculan worms of the Indian River Lagoon at the Indian 

 River Lagoon Biodiversity Symposium in February. Other 

 NMNH scientists who presented papers on SMSLP research 

 at the symposium were Brian Kensley and Marilyn Schotte on 

 isopods and Martin Buzas on foraminiferans Jonathan 

 Coddington's invited chapter "The Roles of Homology and 

 Convergence in Studies of Adaptation" was published in Phy- 

 logenetia and Ecology by the Linnean Society of London. 

 Coddington, a member of the Department of Entomology, 

 provides an insightful discussion and methodology to differen- 

 tiate and reconcile two approaches to phylogenetically based 

 research on adaptation. Finally, Robert Hershler of the Depart- 

 ment of Invertebrate Zoology was awarded a $60,000 grant 

 from the National Biological Survey, which will support 

 monographic and ecological compilation of the Gteat Basin 

 springsnails and lead to a multi-agency effort to conserve and 

 manage these animals (and their spring habitats) throughout 

 portions of a half-dozen states in the West. 



NMNH researchers also contributed to several influential 

 books in FY 1994. Smithsonian Timelines oj the Ancient World: A 

 Visual Chronology from the Origins of Life to AD 1500 is a one-of- 

 a-kind reference, featuring more than 1,400 full-color photo- 

 graphs and 350 specially commissioned maps and 



43 



