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Winifred Hallwachs

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Winnie Hallwachs
Born
Winifred Hallwachs

(1954-10-11) October 11, 1954 (age 70)
Alma materPhiladelphia High School for Girls, Princeton University, Cornell University
Known forTropical ecology, biodiversity development
SpouseDaniel H. Janzen
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of Pennsylvania, Guanacaste Dry Forest Conservation Fund, Área de Conservación Guanacaste

Winifred Hallwachs (born October 11, 1954) is an American tropical ecologist who helped to establish and expand northwestern Costa Rica's Área de Conservación Guanacaste (ACG).[1][2] The work of Hallwachs and her husband Daniel Janzen at ACG is considered an exemplar of inclusive conservation.[3]

Beginning in 1978, Winnie Hallwachs' early research focused on the Central American agoutis as seed hoarders and their effectiveness as seed dispersers of the hardwood tree guapinol.[4]

Beginning in 1985, Hallwachs and Janzen revised their work to include the restoration, expansion, and conservation of tropical dry forest through biodiversity development. They helped found the Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (INBio) in 1989,[5] of which Hallwachs was a technical advisor,[6] and promoted the creation of public-private partnerships such as the Merck-INBio Agreement.[7] Hallwachs and Janzen founded the Guanacaste Dry Forest Conservation Fund (GDFCF) in 1997,[1] and helped to establish the ACG in 1999.[8] They have been active at all levels of education, ranging from local children to resident parataxonomists and North American tropical biologists.[5][8][9][10]

At least eight insect species have been named after Hallwachs.

Life and work

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Early life and education

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Winifred Hallwachs was born on October 11, 1954. She grew up in New York State and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1976, Hallwachs graduated from Princeton University[11] with a BA in biochemistry. After Princeton, Hallwachs spent a year in Sweden. Her first trip to the tropics was to visit her sister in the Peace Corps in the Central African Republic.[9]

Hallwachs returned to Philadelphia, where she enrolled in Daniel Janzen's "Habitat and Organisms" course at the University of Pennsylvania. The class addressed the natural history of tropical animal-plant interactions often drawing from Janzen's research in Guanacaste, a province in northwestern Costa Rica. Hallwachs joined Janzen as a volunteer on his next trip to Costa Rica. She has collaborated with him since 1978.[9]

Early career and doctoral research

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In Guanacaste, Hallwachs identified the animal-plant interaction that would become the focus of her doctoral research. Hallwachs' focused her early research on the Central American agoutis (Dasyprocta punctata) as seed hoarders and the details of their seed dispersers of the guapinol (Hymenaea courbaril: Leguminosae) and other primary forest trees. Agoutis are house-cat-sized forest rodents and the guapinol is a hardwood tree whose large and hard seeds were originally dispersed by now extinct tropical megafauna. Hallwachs fitted fruits with spools of thread to follow the trails of the agoutis to their secret hoards. She spent thousands of daylight hours observing them, collecting data for over five years.[12][13]: 133  Hallwachs demonstrated that agoutis provided an essential method of secondary seed dispersal, by harvesting seeds which are found on the forest floor and preferentially burying larger ones in shallow caches outside the area of the parent plant. It is hypothesized that such plant species have adapted to the presence of scatterhoarding animals over evolutionary time.[4][14]: 329–331 

To meet the needs of their biodiversity development initiatives, Hallwachs deferred completion of her PhD for a number of years.[13] She finally completed her PhD in 1994 at Cornell University, with Pamela Parker as her thesis advisor. Her dissertation was In The Clumsy Dance Between Agoutis and Plants: Scatterhoarding by Costa Rican Dry Forest Agoutis (Dasyprocta punctata: Dasyproctidae: Rodentia) (1994, Cornell University).[15]

Biodiversity development work

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In 1985, realizing that widespread development in northwestern Costa Rica was rapidly decimating the forest in which they conducted their research, Hallwachs and Janzen expanded the focus of their work. Their goal was to achieve tropical forest restoration, expansion (through land purchases) and conservation, while continuing their scientific research at a reduced level.[3][9]: 468 

They advocated for "biodiversity development" approaches[9]: 468  that could support social integration of humans with the environment, and non-damaging uses of biodiversity. Their work at ACG is considered an exemplar of inclusive conservation,[3] which emphasizes the connections between humans and nature in one ecosystem, and the involvement of local individuals in objectives for sustainability.[16]

Although Janzen has often received more attention, as the outgoing spokesperson of the team, he emphasizes that their contributions are equal.[9]

I see it more as we're two people, like Rodgers and Hammerstein, creating something; one of them thinks better, the other one plays the piano better. Or as I often put it, she thinks and I talk.

— Daniel Janzen[9]: 468 

Among the important ongoing initiatives that Hallwachs and Janzen have developed in the area are:

  • Caterpillar Inventory (1978–present)[9]: 470 [17]
  • Biodiversity Development (1985–present)[1][18]
  • Parataxonomist Program (1985–present)[19][20][21]
  • Guanacaste Dry Forest Conservation Fund (GDFCF) (1997–present)[1]
  • DNA Barcoding (2003–present)[9]: 471–475 [22]
  • BioAlfa bioliteracy project (2018–present)[19]

In 1978, when Hallwachs began to work there, the Parque Nacional Santa Rosa included 100 km2 (25,000 acres) of pasture and relictual neotropical dry forest and 230 km2 (57,000 acres) of marine habitat.[3] At that time it was the largest remaining area of dry tropical forest to be found in Mesoamerica.[8] Over time it has been expanded and joined with further areas. As of 2019, the ACG consists of 169,000 hectares (420,000 acres).[23] Hallwachs and Janzen have donated most of the award money that they have received to the expansion and maintenance of the ACG.[3][24][25][8] The resulting national park connects habitats from the tops of volcanoes to the sea, including mid-elevation Caribbean rainforest as well as neotropical dry forest.[19] In 1999, ACG was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.[2][3]

DNA barcoding initiative

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The DNA barcoding initiative grew out of a meeting at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in 2003. There Janzen and Hallwachs met Paul Hebert, a geneticist from the University of Guelph who proposed the identification of species using mitochondrial DNA.[2][26][22] Hebert focused on a section of 650 base pairs in the DNA sequence of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene.[9]: 471–475 

As of 2017, over 500,000 specimens representing more than 45,000 species from ACG had been barcoded using the Barcode of Life Data System (BOLD). In addition, barcoding has resulted in the identification of cryptic species of near-identical appearance that differ in terms of genetics and ecological niche. In 2004, the researchers published results showing that the butterfly Astraptes fulgerator was not a single species, but ten species. The documented number of species of Lepidoptera in ACG has risen from 9,000 to 15,000 as a result of the barcoding analysis program.[2][27]

Hallwachs and Janzen support initiatives to gather DNA barcodes for all of the species in the world, through CBOL (Consortium for the Barcode of Life) and iBOL (International Barcode of Life).[28][29][30]

Educational initiatives

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Hallwachs and Janzen have been active in training North American tropical biologists. In 1965, Janzen designed an eight-week course for the Organization for Tropical Studies that has been taken by the majority of North American graduate students in tropical biology, and continues to be taught. During their class, students are hosted at ACG.[8]

Hallwachs and Janzen are also engaged in the education of local children, using the area as a "living classroom" to promote both understanding and a sense of pride and guardianship.[9]: 468–469  ACG has served as a demonstration site for students learning about ecological restoration and the conservation of the tropical dry forest since the 1980s.[10]

In addition, they are deeply involved in the training and employment of Costa Ricans as field researchers.[8] Since 1985, Hallwachs and Janzen have helped to train and work with resident parataxonomists, community‐based biodiversity inventory specialists who collect and process specimens and catalog biodiversity data.[7][21] In an intentional initiative to redress gender imbalance, this has included the training and employment of women.[31][5] Some women work with a husband as a partner, while others work independently.[32]

In November 2017, Hallwachs gave the keynote address "Conservation, Onychorhynchus, and Female Parataxonomists" at the XXI Congress for the Mesoamerican Society for Biology and Conservation. She emphasized the importance of women working as parataxonomists.[33][34][35]

Insect species named in honor of Hallwachs

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Lathecla winnie (Lycaenidae),[36] courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution

Several insect species have been named in honor of Winnie Hallwachs including:

Awards

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  • 1993, Award for Improvement of Costa Rican Quality of Life, Universidad de Costa Rica (co award with D. Janzen).[13]
  • 2003, Award to Guanacaste Dry Forest Conservation Fund, Wege Foundation (co award with D. Janzen)[1]
  • 2006, Winner, National Outdoor Book Awards (NOBA), for 100 Caterpillars: Portraits from the Tropical Forests of Costa Rica (2006), Design & Artistic Merit Category.[49]

Selected works

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Books co-authored

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  • Miller, J.C.; Janzen, D.H.; Hallwachs, W. (2006). 100 Caterpillars: Portraits from the Tropical Forests of Costa Rica. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674023345. 264 pp.
  • Miller, J.C.; Janzen, D.H.; Hallwachs, W. (2007). 100 Butterflies and Moths: Portraits from the Tropical Forests of Costa Rica. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674023345. 256 pp.

Book chapters

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  • Hallwachs, W. (1983). "Bromelia pinguin and B. karatas (Chiras, Pinuelas)". In Janzen, D. H. (ed.). Costa Rican natural history. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. pp. 195–197. ISBN 9780226393346.
  • Hallwachs, W. (1986). "Agoutis (Dasyprocta punctata): The Inheritors of Guapinol (Hymenaea courbaril: Leguminosae)". In Estrada, A.; Fleming, T. (eds.). Frugivores and seed dispersal. Tasks for vegetation science. Vol. 15. Dordrecht: Springer. pp. 285–304. doi:10.1007/978-94-009-4812-9_25. ISBN 978-94-010-8633-2.
  • Hallwachs, W. (2010). "Forward". In Henderson, C. L. (ed.). Mammals, Amphibians, and Reptiles of Costa Rica: A Field Guide. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press. pp. ix–x. ISBN 978-0-292-72274-3.
  • Janzen, D. H.; Hallwachs, W. (2016). "Biodiversity Conservation History and Future in Costa Rica: The Case of Area de Conservacion Guanacaste (ACG). Chapter 10". In Kappelle, M. (ed.). Costa Rican Ecosystems. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. pp. 290–341. ISBN 9780226278933.

Scientific publications

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e Van Putten, Mark; Palola, Eric (December 4, 2013). "Wege Foundation - Commitment to Costa Rican Biodiversity Protection Through Biodiversity Development" (PDF). Wege Foundation. Retrieved October 17, 2019.
  2. ^ a b c d Davis, Tinsley H. (September 26, 2017). "Profile of Daniel H. Janzen". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 114 (39): 10300–10302. doi:10.1073/pnas.1714623114. PMC 5625942. PMID 28893992.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Pringle, Robert M. (June 1, 2017). "Upgrading protected areas to conserve wild biodiversity". Nature. 546 (7656): 91–99. Bibcode:2017Natur.546...91P. doi:10.1038/nature22902. PMID 28569807. S2CID 4387383.
  4. ^ a b Jansen, Patrick A. (2003). Scatterhoarding and tree regeneration : ecology of the nut dispersal in a neotropical rainforest (PhD thesis) (PDF). Wageningen, the Netherlands: Wageningen University. ISBN 90-5808-777-8.
  5. ^ a b c Kazmier, Robin (June 15, 2017). "The Parataxonomist Revolution: How a Group of Rural Costa Ricans Discovered 10,000 New Species". Comparative Media Studies: Science Writing.
  6. ^ Reid, Walter V.; Laird, Sarah A.; Meyer, Carrie A.; Gamez, Rodrigo; Sittenfeld, Ana; Janzen, Daniel H.; Gollin, Michael A.; Juma, Calestous (1993). Biodiversity prospecting: using genetic resources for sustainable development. Washington, D.C.: World Resources Institute (WRI), USA. p. 325. ISBN 0-915825-89-9. Retrieved October 22, 2019.
  7. ^ a b Zebich-Knos, Michele (June 1997). "Preserving Biodiversity in Costa Rica: The Case of the Merck-INBio Agreement". The Journal of Environment & Development. 6 (2): 180–186. doi:10.1177/107049659700600206. S2CID 154090258.
  8. ^ a b c d e f Becher, Anne; McClure, Kyle; White Scheuering, Rachel; Willis, Julia (2000). "Janzen, Daniel H.". American environmental leaders : from colonial times to the present. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO. pp. 424–427. ISBN 9781592371198.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Singer, F. D. (2016). "Chapter 18: Dan Janzen and Winnie Hallwachs: Community Interactions and Tropical Restoration through Biodiversity Conservation". Ecology in Action. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781107115378. Retrieved October 18, 2019.
  10. ^ a b Cruz, R. E.; Blanco Segura, R. (2010). "Developing the Bioliteracy of School Children for 24 Years: A Fundamental Tool for Ecological Restoration and Conservation in Perpetuity of the Área de Conservación Guanacaste, Costa Rica". Ecological Restoration. 28 (2): 193–198. doi:10.3368/er.28.2.193. S2CID 219193472. Retrieved October 18, 2019.
  11. ^ Kelly, B. Rose (August 22, 2017). "Orange is the new green: How orange peels revived a Costa Rican forest". Princeton University News. Retrieved October 16, 2019.
  12. ^ Forget, Pierre M.; Lambert, Joanna E.; Hulme, Philip E.; Vander Wall, Stephen B. (December 20, 2004). Seed fate : predation, dispersal, and seedling establishment (1st ed.). CABI Pub. p. 383. ISBN 978-0851998060.
  13. ^ a b c Allen, William (2001). Green Phoenix: Restoring the Tropical Forests of Guanacaste. Oxford University Press. pp. 132–136. ISBN 978-0195161779.
  14. ^ Janzen, D. H.; Hallwachs, W. (2016). "Biodiversity Conservation History and Future in Costa Rica: The Case of Area de Conservacion Guanacaste (ACG). Chapter 10". In Kappelle, M. (ed.). Costa Rican Ecosystems. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. pp. 290–341. ISBN 9780226278933.
  15. ^ Hallwachs, Winifred (1994). The Clumsy Dance Between Agoutis and Plants: Scatterhoarding by Costa Rican Dry Forest Agoutis (Dasyprocta punctata: Dasyproctidae: Rodentia. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University.
  16. ^ Bennett, Nathan J.; Roth, Robin; Klain, Sarah C.; Chan, Kai M. A.; Clark, Douglas A.; Cullman, Georgina; Epstein, Graham; Nelson, Michael Paul; Stedman, Richard; Teel, Tara L.; Thomas, Rebecca E. W.; Wyborn, Carina; Curran, Deborah; Greenberg, Alison; Sandlos, John; Veríssimo, Diogo (February 2017). "Mainstreaming the social sciences in conservation". Conservation Biology. 31 (1): 56–66. doi:10.1111/cobi.12788. hdl:1828/7853. PMID 27334309.
  17. ^ Janzen, Daniel H.; Hallwachs, Winnie (August 16, 2011). "Joining Inventory by Parataxonomists with DNA Barcoding of a Large Complex Tropical Conserved Wildland in Northwestern Costa Rica". PLOS ONE. 6 (8): e18123. Bibcode:2011PLoSO...618123J. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0018123. PMC 3156711. PMID 21857894.
  18. ^ Basurto, Xavier; Jiménez-Pérez, Ignacio (2013). "The Emergence of Collective-Action with Adaptive Capacity for Biodiversity Conservation in Protected Areas in Costa Rica". Journal of Latin American Geography. Special 12 (1 Edition: Latin American Commons): 111–133. doi:10.1353/lag.2013.0007. JSTOR 24394845. S2CID 144814358.
  19. ^ a b c Bazilchuk, N. (July 6, 2019). "Planting the seeds for a bioliterate tropical country". Norwegian SciTech News. Retrieved October 18, 2019.
  20. ^ Franzen, Jonathan (April 6, 2015). "Carbon capture: Has climate change made it harder for people to care about conservation?". The New Yorker. Retrieved October 18, 2019.
  21. ^ a b Janzen, Daniel H. (February 12, 2004). "Setting up tropical biodiversity for conservation through non-damaging use: participation by parataxonomists". Journal of Applied Ecology. 41 (1): 181–187. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2664.2004.00879.x.
  22. ^ a b Halloway, M. (July 29, 2008). "Democratizing Taxonomy". Conservation magazine. Retrieved October 18, 2019.
  23. ^ "ACG Biodiversity". Guanacaste Dry Forest Conservation Fund. Retrieved October 24, 2019.
  24. ^ Avril, Tom (August 12, 2013). "Penn couple's biggest legacy: A forest in Costa Rica". The Philadelphia Inquirer.
  25. ^ Cepelewics, Jordana (December 29, 2016). "Spark of Science: Rob Pringle The Princeton ecologist tells us about the scientists who inspired his work". Nautilus. Retrieved October 18, 2019.
  26. ^ Holloway, Marguerite (2006). "Democratizing Taxonomy" (PDF). Conservation in Practice. 7 (2): 14–21. doi:10.1111/j.1526-4629.2006.tb00200.x. Retrieved November 2, 2019.
  27. ^ Hebert, P. D. N.; Penton, E. H.; Burns, J. M.; Janzen, D. H.; Hallwachs, W. (2004). "Ten species in one: DNA barcoding reveals cryptic species in the neotropical skipper butterfly Astraptes fulgerator" (PDF). PNAS. 101 (41): 14812–14817. Bibcode:2004PNAS..10114812H. doi:10.1073/pnas.0406166101. PMC 522015. PMID 15465915.
  28. ^ "Koerner Lecture to examine conservation of wild biodiversity via biodiversity development". York University. March 20, 2017. Retrieved October 17, 2019.
  29. ^ Janzen, D.H.; Hallwachs, W. (October 2, 2019). "How a country can DNA barcode itself". Barcode Bulletin. IBOL. doi:10.21083/ibol.v9i1.5526.
  30. ^ Wolf, G. (September 22, 2008). "A Simple Plan to ID Every Creature on Earth". Wired. Retrieved October 15, 2019.
  31. ^ Janzen, D. H.; Hallwachs, W. (1992). "Training parataxonomists for Costa Rica's national biodiversity inventory: the experiences of the first female course". Report to the Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (INBio).
  32. ^ Arroyo, César (December 8, 2018). "Petrona Ríos: Stocktaker of Guanacaste's Forest". The Voice of Guanacaste. Retrieved October 18, 2019.
  33. ^ Butcher, Greg (September 1, 2017). "PIF VI – International Conference Announcement". Partners in Flight. Retrieved October 18, 2019.
  34. ^ "Plenary speakers". XXI Congress of the Mesoamerican Society for Biology and Conservation and VI International Conference of Partners in Flight. Retrieved October 18, 2019.
  35. ^ Zendejas, Cynthia Arochi. "New Developments In Conservation". Global Vision International. Retrieved October 18, 2019.
  36. ^ a b Robbins, Robert K.; Busby, Robert C. (January 24, 2015). "Evolutionary gain of male secondary sexual structures in the widespread Neotropical montane genus Lathecla (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae, Eumaeini)". Insect Systematics & Evolution. 46 (1): 47–78. doi:10.1163/1876312X-45032115.
  37. ^ Clarke, J.F.G. (1983). "A new species of Eomichla from Costa Rica (Oecophoridae)". Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society. 37 (2): 155–159.
  38. ^ Gauld, I.D. (1988). "A survey of the Ophioninae (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) of tropical Mesoamerica with special reference to the fauna of Costa Rica". Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History). 57: 1–309.
  39. ^ Lemaire, C.; Wolfe, K. L. (1988). "Three new species of Paradirphia (Saturniidae: Hemileucinae) from Mexico and Central America with notes on the immature stages". Journal of Research on the Lepidoptera. 27 (3–4): 197–212. doi:10.5962/p.266688. S2CID 82683163. Retrieved October 15, 2019.
  40. ^ "winifredae {species} - Arthropoda; Insecta; Lepidoptera; Saturniidae; Hemileucinae; Hemileucini; Paradirphia;". Bold Systems. Retrieved October 15, 2019.
  41. ^ "Paradirphia winifredae". International Barcode of Life Project. 2009. Retrieved October 15, 2019.
  42. ^ Miller, J.S.; Janzen, D.H.; Franclemont, J.G. (1997). "New species of Euhapigiodes, new genus, and Hapigiodes in Hapigiini, new tribe, from Costa Rica, with notes on their life history and immatures (Lepidoptera: Notodontidae)" (PDF). Tropical Lepidoptera Research. 8 (2): 81–99. Retrieved October 15, 2019.
  43. ^ Gentili, Patricia; Solis, M. Alma (1997). "Checklist and key of New World species of Omiodes Guenée with descriptions of four new Costa Rican species (Lepidoptera: Crambidae)". Insect Systematics & Evolution. 28 (4): 471–492. doi:10.1163/187631297X00295.
  44. ^ Pitkin, L.M. (1993). "Neotropical emerald moths of the genera Nemoria, Lissochlora and Chavarriella, with particular reference to the species of Costa Rica (Lepidoptera: Geometridae, Geometrinae)". Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), Entomology. 62 (2): 39–159. Retrieved October 15, 2019.
  45. ^ "Taxonomy Browser: Nemoria winniae". BOLD Systems. Retrieved October 15, 2019.
  46. ^ Brechlin, R.; Meister, F. (2011). "Four new taxa of the genus Eacles Hübner, 1819 [1816] (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae)". Entomo-satsphingia. 4 (2): 94–99.
  47. ^ "Barcode Index Number Registry For BOLD:ACF5157". BOLD SYSTEMS. Retrieved October 15, 2019.
  48. ^ "Lathecla winnie". iNaturalist. Retrieved October 15, 2019.
  49. ^ "Design & Artistic Merit Category: National Outdoor Book Awards (NOBA)". The Guide to Outdoor Literature. Retrieved October 17, 2019.
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