Conservation Biology ( IF 6.3 ) Pub Date : 2020-08-11 , DOI: 10.1111/cobi.13597
On 17 June 2020, the field of conservation biology lost one of its founders. Michael Ellman Soulé died at the age of 84 in Colorado. During a long and productive career, Michael published 10 books and over 170 scientific articles, on topics spanning biology, philosophy, ethics, and of course conservation biology. Widely recognized for his contributions, Michael was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Archie Carr Medal, the National Wildlife Federation's National Conservation Achievement Award for Science, the Conservation Medal from the Zoological Society of San Diego, and the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Technology Pioneer Award. He was also recognized by Audubon Magazine as one of the 100 Champions of Conservation of the 20th Century. But he would probably claim as his proudest achievement his role in cofounding and serving as the first president of the Society for Conservation Biology (SCB).
Michael was born in 1938 in San Diego, California. His playground and first classroom were the arid chaparral canyons that define the area. Michael completed his undergraduate degree in 1959 at San Diego State University and his PhD in 1964 at Stanford University under Paul Ehrlich. In 1979, as a productive professor in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department at the University of California San Diego, Michael quit in dismay at what he saw happening to nature, including urban development around his beloved canyons. He pursued Buddhism, which guided him throughout his life, and was the director of the Kudoba Institute for the Study of Buddhism in Los Angeles for 5 years.
In 1984, Michael returned to academia as a professor at the University of Michigan. That decade, his publication of four books and a series of key papers on conservation biology firmly defined the ambition of the new field and cemented his legacy as a visionary of the discipline.
His final years in academia starting in 1989 were as professor and Chair of the Environmental Studies Department at the University of California Santa Cruz. Michael advised two cohorts of graduate students there including the three of us, Gerard Zegers, Kelly Moran, and others. Evening graduate seminars at his home ran late into the night, with sofa and floor space filled with students. He took us on trips south of the border to Baja to explore and survey the islands in the Sea of Cortez. Evenings were dedicated to reading sometimes mind‐numbing philosophical texts. Michael's mentorship was transformative, exposing us to new ways of seeing the world.
After Michael retired in 1994 to western Colorado he traveled, river rafted, built a straw bale house, tried hunting, gave invited talks, and wrote. He worked on an unfinished manuscript describing conservation as an ethical pursuit, defined by a moral dilemma originating from the evolution of human sin and selfishness. It was a big idea, and as is often the case with transformative leaps, it evaded him in the end.
In the memorials that follow, colleagues and friends provide personal stories, spanning Michael's entire career, that reveal his impact as a scientist and a human being. One of our own is the time Michael made dollars rain from the sky. It happened in 2000, at the SCB Annual meeting in Missoula, Montana. Michael, a scientist with an activist heart, gave a stirring speech to a packed house advocating for SCB to establish a policy‐focused office in Washington, D.C. in order to directly translate the best science into conservation decision making. As his speech built steam, Michael asked everyone who agreed with his position to initiate a DC SCB office to reach into their pockets and pass a dollar bill to the aisle for collection by the three of us. As we ran up and down the aisle, more bills started fluttering down on the crowd, flung by people in the balconies. It was truly a magical moment. Everyone was on their feet roaring their approval, bills floating like confetti while Michael stood immaculate on stage, softly lit, with a hint of a smile, an aged lion back on familiar ground.
Michael intensely felt the burden he placed on his students. He taught us the truth about loss and grieving for nature, for life on Earth, but without allowing despondency to deplete our aspiration. His commitment to the next generation of students, and the generation after that, was evident when he dedicated his classic Conservation Biology book (Soulé 1986) to "the students who will come after, who will witness the worst and accomplish the most.”
The three of us can trace our passion for conservation and the foundations of our careers directly to our years with Michael. Countless others would say the same.
Kevin R. Crooks1, L. Scott Mills2, and M. Sanjayan3, Guest Editors
1Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, U.S.A., email kevin.crooks@colostate.edu
2Wildlife Biology Program and Office of Research and Creative Scholarship, University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812, U.S.A.
3Conservation International, Arlington, VA 22202, U.S.A.
- Soulé ME. 1986. Conservation biology: the science of scarcity and diversity. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, Massachusetts.
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Anne and I first met Michael Soulé in the early fall of 1959, when we all arrived at Stanford's Department of Biological Sciences, me as a beginning assistant professor, and Michael as a newly admitted grad student. He, along with Harry Recher, became my first grad students, and lifetime friends and colleagues. Michael showed his independence and humor from the very start. I had invited Ernst Mayr to give a seminar, and near the end of his talk he said, “I always instruct my grad students to tell me if they think I'm mistaken.” Michael then quipped “does that go for grad students at other universities, too?” Ernst laughed, but Vic Twitty, our Department Chair, sitting next to me thought it a terrible insult to a distinguished visitor and whispered I should get rid of Michael. Fortunately Ernst was fine, I disagreed with Vic, and Michael went on to be a leading scientist and to found the field of conservation biology.
When Michael and his wife Jan were living in Africa on the outskirts of Blantyre, where Michael was helping found the first university in Malawi, he organized and ran a Safari for Jan, Anne and me, and Lisa, our then 10 year‐old daughter. In then‐Portuguese East Africa, we skirted the war between Salazar's Portuguese dictatorship and the Frelimo, who were then battling to free the country. We saw villages burning, but most frightening was Michael speeding along roads that consisted of two approximately 6‐inch‐wide paved strips, resulting in spectacular games of chicken when we met vehicles traveling in the opposing direction.
In southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), we all committed the capital crime of criticizing Ian Smith's government, but because of our skin color we did not end up on death row. When we were returned to our motel in Salisbury (now Harare) one night by the black law professor and his attorney wife with whom we had dined, the motel owner intercepted us and explained how dangerous it had been for us because “they are just out of the trees.” It is sad that we have lost Michael just as he could have helped to battle racism here at home as he had in Africa.
Paul R. Ehrlich
President, Center for Conservation Biology, Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 93405, U.S.A.
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Michael Soulé was the first graduate student I met at a 1962 welcoming party for new students at Stanford. He was several years into his PhD and was friendly and encouraging, with kind, penetrating eyes as we discussed our interests and backgrounds. We became good friends.
With his encouragement, I spent two summer months in the Colorado Rockies and accompanied him on several field excursions. We explored, collected butterflies and lizards, took photos, and talked along the way. Michael had broad interests in evolution, and he felt confined by the specialization of his dissertation in phenetics. However, his passion for nature was contagious and he decried its profligate destruction.
He was a charismatic visionary throughout his life. As the campus leader of Vietnam War protests, he moved students to political action with powerful rhetoric. I joked that he owed his dating success to these skills. At the same time, he led smaller groups in quiet exploration of the hidden powers of the mind through meditation and ultimately Buddhism. With others he founded the crisis science of conservation biology and the eponymous society and was its first president.
Michael was a teacher and mentor, insistent on the inherent value of nature and skeptical of the trend to treat wildlands as gardens and to value them as a commodity. He taught that nature is too precious and central to our physical and mental survival to be monetized, subdivided, and privatized. He challenged us to find a way to live within a connected web of wild, untrammeled nature. This is a fitting rallying cry to carry his work forward.
John C. Ogden
Department of Integrative Biology (emeritus), University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620, U.S.A.
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Michael Soulé was living at the Zen Center of Los Angeles when I first met him in the early 1980s. At that time, we were both very interested in the relationship between multiple locus heterozygosity and fluctuating asymmetry as a measure of fitness (Soulé 1979; Leary et al. 1983). Michael invited my student Robb Leary and myself to present a paper on heterozygosity and fitness at the Second Conference on Conservation Biology at the University of Michigan in 1985 (Allendorf & Leary 1986).
Michael's enthusiasm for the importance of this topic in conservation inspired us to continue this work. Those early efforts continue today in genomic studies exploring the relationship between multiple locus heterozygosity, inbreeding, and fitness. For example, my former student Marty Kardos recently examined the relationship between inbreeding and multiple locus heterozygosity in Scandinavian grey wolves with 10,688,886 single nucleotide polymorphism loci (Kardos et al. 2018). In comparison, we examined just 13 polymorphic protein coding loci in our 1983 paper.
My primary memories of my discussions with Michael over the years focused more on Zen than on biology. I was new to Buddhism when we first met, and Michael served as a Zen Master of sorts. I still remember Michael asking me to explore the concepts of self and emptiness during meditation.
Michael's efforts over the last 50 years of his life are reflected in the following traditional Zen vow: “The many beings are numberless; I vow to save them all.”
Michael never stopped trying.
Fred W. Allendorf
Division of Biological Sciences, University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812, U.S.A.
- Allendorf FW, Leary RF. 1986. Heterozygosity and fitness in natural populations of animals. Pages 57–76 in Soulé ME, editor. Conservation biology: The science of scarcity and diversity. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, Massachusetts.
- Kardos M, et al. 2018. Genomic consequences of intensive inbreeding in an isolated wolf population. Nature Ecology & Evolution 2:124–131.
- Leary RF, Allendorf FW, Knudsen KL. 1983. Developmental stability and enzyme heterozygosity in rainbow trout. Nature 301:71–72.
- Soulé ME. 1979. Heterozygosity and developmental stability: another look. Evolution 33:396–401.
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Michael Soulé and I both became interested in inbreeding in small populations in the late 1970s. He was familiar with population genetics, whereas I was not when I discovered that inbreeding was a problem in ungulates at the Smithsonian's National Zoo in1976 (Ralls 1997). And neither was Jon Ballou, then my assistant.
Seeking advice, I visited Michael, then at the Zen Center of Los Angeles. He was in a yellow robe, helping to prepare the vegetarian lunch for the group. But when I asked him about some population biology question that bothered me, he wiped his hands on his apron, took me to his office where he had a blackboard, grabbed some chalk, and immediately reverted to professorial mode, going through the math that had eluded me.
In 1984, Jon and I organized a workshop to develop consensus on genetic management of captive populations. We invited about 30 leading experts and divided them into groups. Michael's group advised that the principle goal of captive breeding should be maintaining 90% of the genetic variation in the source population for 200 years (Soulé et al.1986). This goal is now used in captive breeding programs at zoos globally, although the time is often shortened to 100 years for practicality.
Michael and I were among those recommending that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service bring the last surviving California Condors into captivity in 1987. In 1990, he advised the agency that I should be the population's genetic manager. At first there were only 27 birds, and I was able to do this with colored pencils. Now that there are over 500 living birds and over 1,000 in the studbook, and management requires the computer program Jon developed. And, we are on track to achieve Michael's goal of preserving 90% of the genetic variation for 200 years.
In the late 1980s, I helped Michael found the Society for Conservation Biology. He told me: “Think about some prizes, we need to have lots of prizes, scientists spend so much time criticizing each other's work that we need to give them more positive recognition.”
Katherine Ralls
Center for Conservation Genomics, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, National Zoological Park, 3001 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, D.C. 20008, U.S.A.
- Ralls, K. 1997. On becoming a conservation biologist: Autobiography and advice. Pages 356–372 in Clemmons JR, Buchholz R, editors. Behavioral approaches to conservation in the wild. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
- Soulé M., Gilpin M, Conway W, Foose T. 1986. The millenium ark: How long a voyage, how many staterooms, how many passengers? Zoo Biology 5:101–113.
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My first correspondence with Michael Soulé was in 1982. I was an ecologist with the Ohio Natural Heritage Program and was already proudly calling myself a conservation biologist, having devoured Soulé and Wilcox (1980) soon after it was published. In reading a subsequent book (Frankel & Soulé 1981), however, I was troubled by their warnings, based on theory, that habitat corridors could do more harm than good. Being involved in corridor conservation efforts, I brashly wrote Michael to point out that the corridors conservationists are trying to protect or restore are naturally present in the landscape and therefore unlikely to do harm. To my delight Michael wrote me back promptly, thanking me and saying he agreed. That was the kind of guy Michael was: humble, open‐minded, and generous.
Years later, in 1991, Michael and I were among the cofounders of the Wildlands Project. I became the science director and Michael president. For years we argued vigorously about the mission and strategy of the organization. I favored comprehensive biodiversity conservation and restoration, whereas Michael thought we should concentrate on large carnivores and their needs for big reserves and connectivity. Finally, Michael suggested the two of us meet privately. We had dinner and several drinks, hashed it out, and emerged good friends again and in agreement. The ultimate result was the first published article on rewilding (Soulé & Noss 1998). Rewilding is now a global movement.
Would there be conservation biology without Michael Soulé? Maybe, but it would be less passionate, less complete. Michael had the intellect, charisma, sense of humor, and Zen attitude of commitment that would be difficult to replicate. He will be remembered as the leading visionary of our field.
Reed F. Noss
Florida Institute for Conservation Science, Melrose, FL 32666, U.S.A.
- Frankel OH, Soulé ME. 1981. Conservation and evolution. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
- Soulé M, Noss R. 1998. Rewilding and biodiversity: complementary goals for continental conservation. Wild Earth 8: 18–28.
- Soulé ME, Wilcox BA, 1980. Conservation biology: an evolutionary‐ecological perspective. Sinauer, Sunderland, Massachusetts.
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While reflecting on Michael Soulé’s life, I went back and reread a few articles from the 1980s, when I first encountered him. It was a very different world. Conservation biology did not exist as a scientific discipline, and there was no journal or scientific society. In fact, some commentaries on Soulé’s early work note with surprise that academic ecologists were becoming involved in conservation, then the domain of wildlife and natural resource managers. Compare this to the situation today, and you will have some understanding of his impact. He founded our discipline and led and guided it through its formative years. I am proud to be one of the first members of the SCB, to have served on the board and as president, and to have seen the society grow, thrive, and ultimately mature into the establishment organisation that I do not think Michael ever quite came to terms with!
His influences are everywhere. Personally, I am indebted to him for his science and for his passion. His 1987 book, Viable Populations for Conservation (Soulé 1987), was my go‐to guide when I was struggling to write species conservation plans in the 1980s and 1990s. It is still a great resource. Soulé’s first chapter covers a lot of ground, most of which is sound advice even today. As I stumbled through my early efforts in conservation science, Michael Soulé was my guide. In 1992, I was lucky to be awarded a Pew Fellowship, which involved annual retreats with other fellows and the Pew Advisory Board. To my delight, this included Michael Soulé. I was in awe of this group of people, but he was always down‐to‐earth, entertaining, knowledgeable, and very kind as well. I learned much from him. He warned us repeatedly not to compromise in this, our crisis discipline. He will be hugely missed, but his legacy is enormous.
Georgina Mace
Centre for Biodiversity and Environment Research, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, U.K.
- Soulé, ME. 1987. Viable populations for conservation. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
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I met Michael Soulé in 1988 at the Society for Conservation Biology's annual meeting. A year later, he moved to UC Santa Cruz as Director of the Environmental Studies Program, which at the time was floundering. Santa Cruz touted itself as an environmental campus, and Michael's charge was to save Environmental Studies. I watched in admiration as he pursued that mission with a bold and creative vision on the one hand and a masterful application of pressure and persuasion on the other. We became close friends. I grew to understand that he was gentle on the surface, but tough and uncompromising when it mattered.
Michael's and my professional relationship developed from a common interest in predators. We spent many an evening together with a bottle of wine, feasting on fish or game, and convincing one another that apex predators were essential for biodiversity conservation. We recognized that the simple persistence of a species was not enough. Michael's agenda for conservation thus expanded from “demographic viability” (Soulé 1987) to “ecological effectiveness” (Soulé et al. 2003), a view that became the conceptual centerpiece of Continental Conservation (Soulé & Terborgh 1999), his last book.
Some may think Michael's reverence for nature included an abhorrence of animal harvesting, but that was not the case at all. We both enjoyed the spoils of hunting and fishing and embraced the lifestyle as the right thing for any practicing omnivore to do. Michael was entirely comfortable slaying and eating the overabundant elk and deer on North American landscapes that had been stripped of their native predators. Although we lamented the dysfunctional nature of a world without predators, hunting wild ungulates in wild places had the beneficial consequences of putting meat on the table and nourishing our souls.
James A. Estes
Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95060, U.S.A.
- Soulé, ME. 1987. Viable populations for conservation. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
- Soulé ME, Terborgh J, eds. 1999. Continental Conservation. Island Press, Washington, D.C.
- Soulé ME, Estes JA, Berger J, Martinez del Rio C. 2003. Recovery goals for ecologically effective numbers of endangered keystone species. Conservation Biology 17:1238–1250.
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Michael Soulé shaped my career and my approach to conservation biology in many ways. Michael hired me, fresh out of grad school, to join the Environmental Studies program at UCSC and then fostered my career there. I was lucky enough to interact with Michael in a range of contexts and to see how he so effectively promoted conservation science and conservation action. Among the most enduring lessons I absorbed from him was that we should not be afraid to make moral, as well as scientific, arguments for wild places and biodiversity. As he forcefully argued, most humans, even most environmentalists and conservationists, continue to prioritize the preservation or restoration of the rest of nature far below the desires or needs of humans, drastically limiting the scope of any possible conservation strategy. This calls on those of us who are biocentric, as Michael would say, to make explicit efforts to widen the moral compass of humanity beyond our own species. The other lesson of Michael's that I think of most came from watching how he separated judgments of people from his arguments with them. Michael was remarkable in his ability to make sharp judgments, hold vehement beliefs, and forcefully argue for them, while still being accepting and kind to the people he engaged with. This rare ability to not conflate judgments of a person's worth with the worth of their analyses or opinions is, in my experience, exceedingly rare, and it gave Michael a calm energy and also optimism that it would serve many of us to emulate. Together with his scientific skills and insights, Michael's broad perspective on the politics and underlying beliefs behind conservation and his personal ability to lead others allowed him to forge a path for conservation biology that the rest of us are still pursuing.
Daniel F. Doak
Environmental Studies Program, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, U.S.A.
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I remember one incident, more than any other that made me appreciate Michael Soulé’s humanity as an individual and his genius as a communicator. We were both invited to give talks to the Second Brazilian Parks Congress, a major event held in Campo Grande, Mato Grosso that attracted 2000 attendees (imagine a conference on parks doing that here!). It was in November, 2000, at the fateful time of the U. S. election. I gave my talk first. It emphasized all the things Brazil was not doing that it could to conserve its almost unrivalled biodiversity. The tone was deservedly critical, but that is not what wins hearts and minds, if only because people do not feel ownership of policies enacted by politicians they did not help elect. Michael got it right. He talked from his heart on a personal level, saying how much he valued nature, how much it mattered to the quality of his life in so many ways, and how much pain it inflicted on him to bear witness to nature's destruction. When he finished, there was hardly a dry eye in the hall. That was Michael. He could move strangers to tears with what he felt so deeply.
John Terborgh
Environmental Sciences (emeritus), Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, U.S.A.
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I came to know Michael Soulé professionally and as a friend when he spent a few summers at Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL) with his sons in the 1980s. He was returning to where he met and eloped with his first wife in the 1960s. His interest in ecology led him to explore the role of pocket gophers in maintaining meadows (turns out they would rather starve than eat aspen roots) and to initiate a long‐term project on insect abundance, which I have continued since he left RMBL (a manuscript with Michael as a coauthor is now in review).
Michael encouraged me to retire to Paonia, a small town in rural southwestern Colorado (home to the highest‐altitude wineries in the United States and the largest concentration of organic farms and orchards in the state), which he had made his home, and we took his advice. His home there at the time was a straw bale house he built with solar heating and small ponds where he enjoyed watching local amphibians. He found ways to use his scientific knowledge locally, such as serving on the local mosquito control board to encourage more biocontrol and less spraying, but he still continued international travel and speaking. I joined the weekly lunch group he and a few other friends had organized, which was often the venue for discussions of a philosophical nature.
A few years ago he asked for opinions about whether he should protest the local coal mines by lying down on the railroad tracks to stop a coal train.
Michael's avocations also defined him. He enjoyed international folk dancing and contra dancing for at least 50 years and was a regular participant in the music and dance scene in Paonia. He loved being on rivers and joined us on some long river trips, including a 16‐day Grand Canyon trip when he rowed his own raft and shocked another participant when he picked up and kissed a toad.
Michael was happy that a pack of wolves arrived in Colorado recently and hoped he would see the return of grizzly bears. If one does show up soon, I will have to wonder whether it is Michael in his next incarnation.
David W. Inouye
Department of Biology (emeritus), University of Maryland, and Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, PO Box 519, Crested Butte, CO 81224, U.S.A.
中文翻译:
对保护生物学有远见的迈克尔·索勒(MichaelSoulé)的思考。
2020年6月17日,保护生物学领域失去了一位创始人。Michael EllmanSoulé在科罗拉多去世,享年84岁。在漫长而富有成果的职业生涯中,迈克尔出版了10本书和170余篇科学文章,主题涉及生物学,哲学,伦理学以及自然保护生物学。迈克尔因其贡献而受到广泛认可,曾是美国科学促进会和美国艺术与科学研究院的院士,并获得了古根海姆奖学金,阿奇·卡尔奖章,美国国家野生动植物联合会的国家科学保护奖,圣地亚哥动物园协会的保护勋章和EO Wilson生物多样性技术先锋奖。他还被《奥杜邦杂志》(Audubon Magazine)认可为20世纪100位环境保护者之一。但是他可能会以其最自豪的成就而宣称自己在共同创立和担任保护生物学协会(SCB)的第一任主席中所扮演的角色。
迈克尔1938年出生于加利福尼亚州的圣地亚哥。他的游乐场和第一间教室是界定该地区的干旱丛林峡谷。迈克尔于1959年在圣地亚哥州立大学完成了本科学位,并于1964年在保罗·埃里希(Paul Ehrlich)的斯坦福大学获得了博士学位。1979年,作为加利福尼亚大学圣地亚哥分校生态与进化生物学系的一位富有成效的教授,迈克尔因看到自然界发生的一切而沮丧地辞职,包括他心爱的峡谷周围的城市发展。他追求佛教,这在他的一生中一直为他提供指导,并且担任洛杉矶库多巴佛教研究学院的主任长达5年之久。
1984年,迈克尔(Michael)回到密歇根大学(University of Michigan)担任学术教授。那十年,他出版了四本关于保护生物学的书籍和一系列重要论文,牢固地定义了新领域的野心,并将他的遗产巩固为该学科的远见卓识。
从1989年开始,他在学术界任职的最后几年是加州大学圣克鲁斯分校的环境研究系教授兼系主任。迈克尔为那里的两名研究生提供了咨询,其中包括我们三个人Gerard Zegers,Kelly Moran和其他人。晚上他家的研究生研讨会一直持续到深夜,沙发和地板上摆满了学生。他带我们从边界以南前往巴哈,探索和勘测了科尔特斯海中的岛屿。晚上专门阅读有时令人麻木的哲学著作。迈克尔的导师制具有变革性,使我们接触到看待世界的新方式。
迈克尔于1994年退休到科罗拉多州西部后,他旅行了,漂流了河,修建了草捆房子,尝试打猎,进行了邀请演讲并写信。他撰写了一部未完成的手稿,将保护描述为一种道德追求,其定义是源于人类罪恶和自私行为演变的道德困境。这是一个很大的主意,而在变革性飞跃的情况下,最终却使他回避。
在随后的纪念馆中,同事和朋友提供了贯穿迈克尔整个职业生涯的个人故事,这些故事揭示了迈克尔作为科学家和人类的影响力。我们自己的经历之一就是迈克尔从天上赚钱的时间。它发生在2000年的蒙大拿州米苏拉市SCB年度会议上。拥有积极主义者的科学家迈克尔在一家拥挤的房子里发表了激动人心的演讲,提倡渣打银行在华盛顿特区建立以政策为重点的办公室,以便将最佳科学直接转化为环境保护决策。随着演讲的兴起,迈克尔要求每个同意他的职位的人都成立DC SCB办公室,伸手兜里,然后将一美元的钞票交给过道,供我们三个人收集。当我们在过道上来回走动时,更多的钞票开始在人群中飘扬,人们在阳台上抛弃。那真是一个神奇的时刻。每个人都在站着大吼他们的认可,钞票像五彩纸屑一样漂浮着,而迈克尔站在台上站不动,柔和的灯光,带着淡淡的微笑,一头年迈的狮子回到熟悉的地面上。
迈克尔强烈感到自己给学生带来的负担。他教导我们关于为自然,为地球上的生命而遭受的损失和悲痛的真相,但又不允许沮丧使我们的愿望消亡。当他将经典的《保护生物学》 一书(Soulé1986)献给“将追随,目睹最糟糕并取得最大成就的学生”时,他对下一代学生及其后代的承诺就可见一斑。
我们三个人可以将我们对保护的热情和事业的基础直接追溯到我们与迈克尔在一起的岁月。无数其他人会说同样的话。
特邀编辑Kevin R. Crooks 1,L. Scott Mills 2和M. Sanjayan 3
1美国科罗拉多州立大学柯林斯堡分校,科罗拉多州立大学鱼类,野生生物和保护生物学系,电子邮件80 kevin.crooks@colostate.edu
2美国密苏拉州蒙大纳大学野生生物生物学计划和研究与创新奖学金办公室,美国MT 59812
3保护国际组织,美国弗吉尼亚州阿灵顿,弗吉尼亚州22202
- 我的灵魂。1986年。保护生物学:稀缺性和多样性科学。位于马萨诸塞州桑德兰的Sinauer Associates。
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我和安妮(Anne)于1959初秋初次见面时,当时我们都是斯坦福大学生物科学系的主任,我是初级助理教授,迈克尔是新入学的研究生。他与哈里·雷彻(Harry Recher)一起成为了我的第一批研究生,以及一生的朋友和同事。迈克尔从一开始就表现出他的独立性和幽默感。我曾邀请恩斯特·梅尔(Ernst Mayr)举办研讨会,在演讲结束时他说:“我总是指导我的研究生告诉我他们是否认为我错了。” 迈克尔然后打趣道:“这对其他大学的研究生也有用吗?” 恩斯特笑了,但是我们部门的主席维克·特威蒂(Vic Twitty)坐在我旁边,认为这对尊贵的访客是一种可怕的侮辱,并低声说我应该摆脱迈克尔。幸运的是恩斯特很好,我不同意维克,
当迈克尔和他的妻子扬住在布兰太尔郊区的非洲时,迈克尔正在那里帮助他找到了马拉维的第一所大学,他为扬,安妮和我以及我们十岁的女儿丽莎组织了一次野生动物园旅行。在当时的葡萄牙东非,我们避开了萨拉查(Salazar)的葡萄牙独裁政权与弗里利莫(Frelimo)之间的战争,后者正为解放国家而斗争。我们看到村庄在燃烧,但最令人恐惧的是迈克尔在两条约6英寸宽的铺装条组成的道路上超速行驶,当我们遇到向相反方向行驶的车辆时,形成了壮观的鸡游戏。
在罗得西亚州南部(现为津巴布韦),我们都犯下了批评伊恩·史密斯政府的死罪,但由于我们的肤色,我们并没有死于死囚牢房。当我们被黑人法律教授和我们与之共进晚餐的律师妻子一晚返回我们在索尔兹伯里(现为哈拉雷)的汽车旅馆时,汽车旅馆老板拦截了我们,并解释了这对我们造成的危险,因为“他们刚刚出去的树木。” 令人遗憾的是,我们失去了迈克尔,就象他本来可以像在非洲一样帮助自己在这里与种族主义作斗争一样。
保罗·R·埃利希
斯坦福大学生物系保护生物学中心主席,美国加利福尼亚州斯坦福,93405
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迈克尔·苏勒(MichaelSoulé)是我在1962年在斯坦福大学迎接新生的欢迎聚会上遇到的第一位研究生。他进入博士学位已经几年了,在我们讨论我们的兴趣和背景时,他热情友好,并以友善而敏锐的目光吸引了所有人。我们成为好朋友。
在他的鼓励下,我在科罗拉多洛矶山脉度过了两个夏天,并陪同他参加了几次野外旅行。我们探索,收集了蝴蝶和蜥蜴,拍照并沿途交谈。迈克尔对进化论有着广泛的兴趣,他感到自己的研究仅限于物候学。但是,他对自然的热情极富感染力,他谴责自然的肆意破坏。
他一生都是富有魅力的有远见的人。作为越战抗议活动的校园领袖,他以强有力的言辞将学生们带到了政治行动中。我开玩笑说他的约会成功归功于这些技能。同时,他带领小团体通过冥想和最终佛教静默探索心灵的内在力量。他与其他人一起创立了保护生物学和同名学会的危机科学,并担任该学会的首任主席。
迈克尔是一位老师和导师,他坚持自然的内在价值,并对将荒地视为花园并将其视为商品的趋势持怀疑态度。他教导说,自然太珍贵,对我们的身心生存至关重要,因此无法货币化,细分和私有化。他向我们提出挑战,要求我们找到一种在野生无限制的自然环境中生活的方式。这是一个适当的集会号召,以推动他的工作向前发展。
约翰·C·奥格登
南佛罗里达大学整合生物学系(名誉),美国佛罗里达州坦帕市33620
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我在1980年代初第一次见到迈克尔·苏勒时就住在洛杉矶的禅宗中心。那时,我们俩都对多基因座杂合度和波动的不对称性之间的关系感到非常感兴趣(Soulé1979; Leary等人1983)。迈克尔邀请我的学生Robb Leary和我本人在1985年的密歇根大学第二届保护生物学会议上发表关于杂合性和适应性的论文(Allendorf&Leary 1986)。
迈克尔对这个主题在保护中的重要性的热情激发了我们继续这项工作的热情。这些早期的努力今天继续在基因组研究中探索多基因座杂合性,近交和适应性之间的关系。例如,我的前学生马蒂·卡多斯(Marty Kardos)最近检查了具有10,688,886个单核苷酸多态性基因座的斯堪的纳维亚灰狼近亲繁殖与多基因座杂合性之间的关系(Kardos等人2018)。相比之下,我们在1983年的论文中仅研究了13个多态性蛋白编码基因座。
这些年来,我与Michael进行讨论的主要回忆更多地集中在Zen上,而不是生物学上。初次见面时,我是佛教的新手,Michael担任过禅宗大师。我仍然记得迈克尔在冥想期间要我探索自我和空虚的概念。
迈克尔在他一生的最后50年中的努力体现在以下传统的禅宗誓言中:“众生无数;我发誓要全部保存。”
迈克尔从未停止尝试。
弗雷德·艾伦多夫
美国密苏拉州蒙大纳大学生物科学系,美国MT 59812
- 阿伦多夫(Allendorf)固件,利里(RF)。1986年。自然动物种群的杂合度和适应性。SouléME中的第57–76页,编辑器。保护生物学:稀缺性和多样性的科学。位于马萨诸塞州桑德兰的Sinauer Associates。
- Kardos M等。2018.在一个孤立的狼群中进行密集近交的基因组后果。自然生态与进化2:124–131。
- Leary RF,Allendorf FW,Knudsen KL。1983年。虹鳟鱼的发育稳定性和酶杂合性。自然301:71–72。
- 我的灵魂。1979年。杂合性和发育稳定性:另一种眼神。进化33:396–401。
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我和迈克尔·苏莱(MichaelSoulé)都对1970年代后期的小规模近亲繁殖感兴趣。他熟悉种群遗传学,而1976年在史密森尼国家动物园中发现近亲繁殖是有蹄类动物的问题时,我却并不熟悉(Ralls 1997)。当时我的助手乔恩·巴拉(Jon Ballou)也没有。
为了寻求建议,我参观了迈克尔,然后在洛杉矶的禅宗中心。他穿着一件黄色的长袍,帮助为团体准备素食午餐。但是,当我问他一个困扰我的人口生物学问题时,他擦了擦围裙,带我去他的办公室,那里有一块黑板,抓着粉笔,然后立即恢复为教授模式,通过数学躲避了我。
1984年,我和乔恩(Jon)组织了一个研讨会,以期就圈养种群的基因管理达成共识。我们邀请了约30位知名专家,并将他们分为几组。迈克尔的小组建议,圈养育种的主要目标应是在200年内保持源种群90%的遗传变异(Soulé等,1986)。尽管出于实用性的考虑,时间通常会缩短到100年,但现在该目标已用于全球动物园的圈养繁殖计划中。
迈克尔和我曾建议1987年,美国鱼类和野生动物管理局将最后幸存的加州秃鹰送入人工圈养。1990年,他建议该机构让我担任该种群的基因管理者。最初只有27只鸟,而我能够用彩色铅笔做到这一点。现在,有超过500只活禽和1000多只活禽,管理工作需要Jon开发计算机程序。而且,我们有望实现迈克尔的目标,即将90%的遗传变异保存200年。
在1980年代后期,我帮助迈克尔建立了保护生物学协会。他告诉我:“考虑一些奖项,我们需要获得很多奖项,科学家们花费大量时间批评彼此的工作,我们需要给予他们更多积极的认可。”
凯瑟琳·罗尔斯
史密森尼保护生物学研究所保护基因组学中心,国家动物公园,康涅狄格州西北大街3001号,华盛顿特区,20008,美国
- Ralls,K.1997。关于成为保护生物学家:自传和建议。Clemmons JR,Buchholz R中的第356-372页,编辑。野外保护的行为方法。剑桥大学出版社,剑桥。
- SouléM.,Gilpin M,Conway W,Foose T. 1986年。千年方舟:一次航行多长时间,多少个客舱,多少名乘客?动物园生物学5:101–113。
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我与MichaelSoulé的第一次往来是在1982年。我是俄亥俄州自然遗产计划的一名生态学家,已经自豪地称自己是一位保护生物学家,在Soulé和Wilcox(1980年)出版后就吃光了。然而,在阅读随后的一本书(Frankel&Soulé1981)时,我为他们的警告感到困扰,基于理论,栖息地走廊的弊大于利。参与走廊保护工作时,我毫不客气地写信给Michael指出,保护主义者试图保护或修复的走廊自然存在于景观中,因此不会造成危害。令我高兴的是,迈克尔迅速写信给我,感谢我并表示同意。迈克尔就是那种人:谦虚,思想开放,大度。
多年后的1991年,我和迈克尔成为了Wildlands Project的共同创始人之一。我成为科学总监和迈克尔·总裁。多年来,我们对组织的使命和战略进行了激烈的争论。我赞成全面的生物多样性保护和恢复,而迈克尔认为我们应该专注于大型食肉动物及其对大型保护区和连通性的需求。最后,迈克尔建议我们两个人私下开会。我们共进晚餐和几杯饮料,将其散列开来,并再次达成一致并成为好朋友。最终结果是发表了第一篇关于野性的文章(Soulé&Noss 1998)。野蛮现在是一项全球运动。
没有MichaelSoulé,会有保护生物学吗?也许吧,但是那会不那么热情,不那么完整。迈克尔的智力,魅力,幽默感和禅宗的承诺态度很难复制。他将被铭记为我们领域的主要远见卓识。
里德·诺斯
佛罗里达保护科学研究所,美国佛罗里达州梅尔罗斯32666
- 弗兰克尔(OH),苏莱(ME)。1981年。保护与进化。剑桥大学出版社,剑桥。
- SouléM,Noss R.,1998年。《荒野与生物多样性:大陆保护的补充目标》。野外8:18-28。
- SouléME,Wilcox BA,1980年。保护生物学:进化生态学观点。马萨诸塞州桑德兰的锡纳(Sinauer)。
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在回顾迈克尔·苏勒(MichaelSoulé)的一生时,我回去重读了1980年代第一次见到他的几篇文章。那是一个截然不同的世界。保护生物学作为一门科学学科并不存在,也没有期刊或科学社会。实际上,对苏莱早期工作的一些评论令人惊讶地发现,学术生态学家正在介入保护工作,然后是野生动物和自然资源管理者的领域。将此与今天的情况进行比较,您将对他的影响有所了解。他创立了我们的学科,并领导和指导了该学科的发展。我很荣幸成为渣打银行的首批成员之一,担任过董事会成员并担任过总裁,并见证了社会的成长,蓬勃发展,
他的影响无处不在。就个人而言,我对他的科学和热情深表感谢。他于1987年出版的著作《保护的可行种群》(Soulé1987)是我努力编写1980年代和1990年代物种保护计划的指南。它仍然是一个巨大的资源。Soulé的第一章涵盖了很多基础,即使在今天,其中大多数还是合理的建议。当我在保护科学的早期工作中迷迷糊糊时,MichaelSoulé是我的向导。1992年,我很幸运地被授予皮尤奖学金,该奖学金每年与其他研究员和皮尤咨询委员会一起进行务虚会。令我高兴的是,其中包括MichaelSoulé。我对这群人感到敬畏,但他始终脚踏实地,乐于助人,知识渊博,并且非常友善。我从他那里学到了很多东西。他反复警告我们不要在我们的危机纪律上做出让步。他将被深深怀念,但他的遗产却是巨大的。
乔治娜·梅斯(Georgina Mace)
伦敦大学学院生物多样性与环境研究中心,英国伦敦WC1E 6BT,英国
- 我是苏莱。1987年。剑桥大学出版社,剑桥。
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我在1988年的保护生物学协会年会上遇到了迈克尔·苏勒(MichaelSoulé)。一年后,他搬到了圣克鲁斯大学(UC Santa Cruz)担任环境研究计划主任,当时该计划陷入困境。圣克鲁斯(Santa Cruz)吹捧自己是一个环境校园,迈克尔(Michael)的职责是拯救环境研究。当他追求这一使命时,我感到钦佩,他一方面具有大胆和创新的眼光,另一方面却精通施加压力和说服力。我们成为了密友。我逐渐了解到他在表面上很温柔,但在需要时却坚韧不屈。
迈克尔和我的专业关系源于对捕食者的共同兴趣。我们与一瓶酒一起度过了许多晚上,以鱼或野味为宴,并相互说服了先天掠食者对于保护生物多样性至关重要。我们认识到,一个物种的简单持久性是不够的。迈克尔的保护议程因此从“人口生存力”(Soulé1987)扩展到“生态有效性”(Soulé等人2003),这一观点成为他最后一本书《大陆保护》的概念核心(Soulé&Terborgh 1999)。
有些人可能认为迈克尔对自然的崇敬包括对动物收获的厌恶,但事实并非如此。我们俩都喜欢狩猎和钓鱼,并且将生活方式视为任何杂食杂食者的正确选择。迈克尔十分乐于在北美原本被掠夺的天敌掠夺的土地上杀死并吃掉过多的麋鹿和鹿。尽管我们为没有捕食者的世界的功能失调而感到遗憾,但在野外捕猎有蹄类动物却带来了有益的后果,那就是把肉放在桌子上并养育我们的灵魂。
詹姆斯·埃斯特斯
加利福尼亚大学圣克鲁斯分校生态与进化生物学,美国加利福尼亚州95060
- 我是苏莱。1987年。剑桥大学出版社,英国剑桥。
- SouléME,Terborgh J编。1999。美国大陆保护组织。华盛顿特区岛出版社
- SouléME,Estes JA,Berger J,Martinez del Rio C.,2003年。《濒危关键物种生态有效数量的恢复目标》。保护生物学17:1238–1250。
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迈克尔·苏勒(MichaelSoulé)在许多方面影响了我的职业生涯和保护生物学的方法。迈克尔雇用了我刚从研究生院毕业的我,加入了UCSC的环境研究计划,然后在那发展了我的职业。我很幸运能够在一系列背景下与迈克尔互动,并看到他如何有效地促进了保护科学和保护行动。我从他那里吸收的最持久的教训之一是,我们不应该惧怕对野生动植物和生物多样性提出道德和科学论据。正如他有力地论证的那样,大多数人类,甚至大多数环境保护主义者和保护主义者,仍然继续将自然界其余部分的保存或恢复列为优先事项,远低于人类的愿望或需要,从而极大地限制了任何可能的保护策略的范围。这要求我们这些以生物为中心的人 就像迈克尔会说的那样,做出明确的努力,将人类的道德指南扩大到我们自己的物种之外。我最常想到的迈克尔的另一堂课来自观看迈克尔如何将人们的判断与他与他人的论点区分开来。迈克尔的能力卓越,能够做出敏锐的判断力,坚强的信念并坚决为之辩护,同时仍然对与他交往的人保持接纳和友善。根据我的经验,这种难得的不将个人价值的判断与他们的分析或观点的价值混为一谈的能力极其罕见,它给了迈克尔以镇定的能量,并乐观地认为它将为我们许多人效仿。连同他的科学技能和见解,Michael'
丹尼尔·杜克
科罗拉多大学环境研究计划,博尔德,CO 80309,美国
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我记得有一件事情比其他任何一件事情更使我欣赏迈克尔·苏尔(MichaelSoulé)作为一个人的人性和作为沟通者的天才。我们俩都应邀参加了第二届巴西公园大会的演讲,该大会是在马托格罗索州坎普格兰德举行的重大活动,吸引了2000名与会者(想象一下在这里举行的公园会议!)。那是在2000年11月,即美国大选的关键时刻。我先讲了。它强调了巴西没有做的所有事情,它可以保护其几乎无与伦比的生物多样性。语气理所应当是批判性的,但这不是赢得人们的心灵的,这仅仅是因为人们不觉得自己对政治家所制定政策的主人翁,他们没有帮助选举。迈克尔说对了。他从个人角度发自内心地说道,他非常重视自然,它在许多方面对他的生活质量有多大影响,以及使他为大自然的毁灭作见证所付出的痛苦。当他结束演讲时,大厅几乎没有干眼。那是迈克尔。他可以用他如此深刻的感受使陌生人流泪。
约翰·特伯
杜克大学尼古拉斯环境学院环境科学(荣誉),美国北卡罗来纳州达勒姆市27708
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迈克尔·苏勒(MichaelSoulé)在1980年代与儿子在落基山生物实验室(RMBL)度过了几个夏天之后,我就成为了我的专业朋友。1960年代,他回到了相遇并与第一任妻子私奔的地方。他对生态的兴趣使他探索了地鼠在维护草地中的作用(结果是他们宁愿饿死也不愿吃白杨树根),并发起了一项昆虫丰度的长期计划,自他离开RMBL以来,我一直在继续这一计划(a与迈克尔合着的手稿现在正在审核中)。
迈克尔鼓励我退休到Paonia,这是他在科罗拉多州西南部的一个小镇(美国海拔最高的酿酒厂和该州最大的有机农场和果园的集中地),接受了他的建议。当时他在那的家是一栋草捆房子,用太阳能供暖和小池塘盖起来,在那里他喜欢看当地的两栖动物。他找到了在当地使用他的科学知识的方法,例如在当地的蚊子控制委员会任职,以鼓励更多的生物控制和更少的喷雾,但他仍然继续进行国际旅行和演讲。我参加了他和其他几个朋友组织的每周午餐小组,这通常是讨论哲学性质的场所。
几年前,他就是否应该躺在铁轨上停下一列煤炭火车来抗议当地煤矿提出了意见。
迈克尔的爱好也定义了他。他喜欢国际民间舞蹈和反对舞至少50年,并且经常参加Paonia音乐和舞蹈界。他喜欢在河上,也喜欢和我们一起参加一些长河旅行,包括他划着自己的木筏进行16天的大峡谷旅行,并在他接吻蟾蜍时震惊了另一位参与者。
迈克尔很高兴最近有一群狼抵达科罗拉多州,并希望他能看到灰熊回来。如果真的出现了,我将不得不怀疑是迈克尔在他的下一个化身中。
戴维·伊努耶(David W.Inouye)
马里兰大学生物学系(名誉)和落基山生物实验室,邮政信箱519,Crested Butte,CO 81224,美国