Conservation Science at The Nature Conservancy

People

Mike Beck, Ph.D.
Senior Scientist, Marine Initiative

Contact information
Center for Ocean Health, LML
100 Shaffer Road
University of California
Santa Cruz, CA 95060

Phone: (831) 459-1459
Fax: (831) 459-3383
E-mail: mbeck@tnc.org
nature.org/initiatives/marine/

Brief biography
Mike Beck is a Senior Scientist with the Marine Initiative of The Nature Conservancy and a research associate at the University of California Santa Cruz. My current research for The Nature Conservancy focuses on two areas (1) marine ecoregional planning and (2) marine policy. In marine ecoregional planning, I work to develop methods for identifying high priority sites for marine conservation. I have either led or been a team member on plans for the northern Gulf of Mexico; Cook Inlet, AK; Puget Sound and Georgia Straits, WA & BC; Southern California; Northeast Pacific, OR, WA, BC, AK; southeast Atlantic, NC, SC, GA, FL; Greater & Lesser Antilles.

In marine policy, I focus on the development of new strategies for marine conservation, such as the leasing and ownership of submerged lands. It has been commonly assumed that strategies for estuarine and marine conservation must be substantially different than those for terrestrial conservation, in part because it is not possible to "buy" the seas. This is an unfortunate misconception, because in many places around the United States submerged lands are available for lease and ownership and the same appears to be true internationally.

Education
1995 Ph.D.- Florida State University, Tallahassee, Fl. (Biological Science)
1991 M.S.- University of Virginia. Charlottesville, Va. (Environmental Sciences)
1988 B.A.- University of Virginia. Charlottesville, Va. (Environmental Sciences)

Selected publications
Beck, M. W., Heck, K. L. Jr. , Able, K. W., Childers, D. L., Eggleston, D. B., Gillanders, B. M., Halpern, B., Hays, C. G., Hoshino, K., Minello, T. J., Orth, R. J. Sheridan, P. F., Weinstein, M. P. 2003. The role of nearshore ecosystems as fish and shellfish nurseries. Issues in Ecology 11:1-12.

Beck, M. W. 2003. The sea around: marine regional planning. pp. In Groves, C. R. Drafting a conservation blueprint: a practitioners' guide to planning for biodiversity. Island Press.

Marsh, T. D., M. W. Beck, S. Reisewitz. 2002. Leasing and Restoration of Submerged Lands: Strategies for Community-based, Watershed-scale Conservation. The Nature Conservancy. Arlington, Virginia.

Groves, C. R., Jensen, D. B., Valutis, L. L., Redford, K. H., Shaffer, M. L., Scott, J. M., Baumgartner, J. V., Higgins, J. V., Beck, M. W., Anderson, M. G. 2002. Planning for biodiversity conservation: putting conservation science into practice. Bioscience 52:499-512.

Beck, M. W., Heck, K. L. Jr. , Able, K. W., Childers, D. L., Eggleston, D. B., Gillanders, B. M., Halpern, B., Hays, C. G., Hoshino, K., Minello, T. J., Orth, R. J. Sheridan, P. F., Weinstein, M. P. 2001. The identification, conservation and management of estuarine and marine nurseries for fish and invertebrates. Bioscience 51:633-641.

Beck, M. W. and M. Odaya. 2001. Ecoregional planning in marine environments: identifying priority sites for conservation in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Aquatic Conservation 11:235-242.

Beck, M. W. 2000. Separating the elements of habitat structure: independent effects of habitat complexity and structural components on rocky intertidal gastropods. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 249:29-49.

Beck, M. W. 1998. A comparison of the measurement and effects of habitat structure on gastropods in rocky intertidal and mangrove habitats. Marine Ecology Progress Series 169:165-178.

Beck, M. W. 1998. Biodiversity: a concept lost in the mist between ecology and conservation biology. pp. 50-61 In Lunney, D., Dawson T, & Dickman, C.R. (eds), Is the biodiversity tail wagging the zoological dog? Transactions of the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, Mosman.

Beck, M. W. 1997. A test of the generality of the effects of shelter bottlenecks in four stone crab populations. Ecology 78:2487-2503.

Beck, M. W. 1997. Inference and generality in ecology: current problems and an experimental solution. Oikos 78:265-273.

Beck, M. W. 1996. On discerning the cause of the late Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions. Paleobiology 22:91-103.

Beck, M. W. 1995. Size-specific shelter limitation in stone crabs: a test of the demographic bottleneck hypothesis. Ecology 76:968-980.

Mopper, S., M. W. Beck, D. Simberloff, P. Stiling. 1995. Local adaptation and agents of selection in a mobile insect. Evolution 49:810-815.

Dodson, G. and M. W. Beck. 1993. Pre-copulatory guarding of penultimate females by male crab spiders, Misumenoides formosipes. Animal Behaviour 46:951-959.

Beck, M. W. and E. F. Connor. 1992. Factors affecting the reproductive success of the crab spider, Misumenoides formosipes: the covariance between juvenile and adult traits. Oecologia 92: 287-295.

Professional Associations/Memberships
Society for Conservation Biology
Estuarine Research Federation
American Association for the Advancement of Science

Awards/Honors
1996-1998 Australian Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow-. University of Sydney.
1995 Fulbright Fellow. University of Sydney.

Advisory Committees (past 3 years)
2002-2003 Commission for Environmental Cooperation-- North American Marine Protected Area Network.
2002-2003 NatureServe/NOAA-Development of North American Marine Ecosystem Classification.
2000-2003 European Union Energy, Environment, and Sustainable Development Program- Annual Science Review.
2001-2002 Heinz Center. Development of Performance Measures/Indicators for Coastal Zone Management.