Oliver Pergams

• AB MS PhD
• Professor at City Colleges of Chicago

Reading aloud (RA) is a learning strategy commonly used to help younger students develop language comprehension skills and in adult literacy and language courses to help students master the pronunciation of words, grammar, and intonation. However, we know of no studies to date that investigate the possible benefits of RA at the college or universit...

Rapid morphological change has been shown in rodent populations on islands, including endemic deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus subspp.) on the California Channel Islands. Surprisingly, most of these changes were towards a smaller size. Black rats were introduced to Anacapa Island in the mid-1800s (probably in 1853) and eradicated in 2001–2002. To...

The 7-volume Encyclopedia of Biodiversity, Second Edition maintains the reputation of the highly regarded original, presenting the most current information available in this globally crucial area of research and study. It brings together the dimensions of biodiversity and examines both the services it provides and the measures to protect it. Major...

Sixteen years after the first high school students set out on their summer stewardship experience and in the context of a national trend of declining nature participation (Pergams et al. 2004, Pergams 2006, Pergams & Zaradic 2006, 2008; Zaradic & Pergams 2007; Zaradic et al. 2009), The Nature Conservancy determined that it was time to carry out an...

Microtus pennsylvanicus is represented in Mexico only by the Chihuahuan meadow vole (M. p. chihuahuensis), known from only 1 disjunct population in a small and isolated marsh in the arid lands of northern Chihuahua. Livetrapping conducted between 2000 and 2004 provided no specimens of M. p. chihuahuensis, nor was any sign of this vole observed. By...

Introduction of wildlife for game restocking is one major pathway of genetic homogenization. The red-legged partridge (Alectoris rufa, Phasianidae), a small game bird native to south-western Europe, is in high demand by hunters and natural populations are constantly supplemented by commercial stocks of captive-bred individuals. Also, in recent year...

We hypothesized that willingness to financially support conservation depends on one's experience with nature. In order to test this hypothesis, we used a novel time-lagged correlation analysis to look at times series data concerning nature participation, and evaluate its relationship with future conservation support (measured as contributions to co...

Total and yearly % change of traits, and darwins. (0.16 MB DOC)

Changes in human population sizes. (0.09 MB DOC)

In general, rapid morphological change in mammals has been infrequently documented. Examples that do exist are almost exclusively of rodents on islands. Such changes are usually attributed to selective release or founder events related to restricted gene flow in island settings. Here we document rapid morphological changes in rodents in 20 of 28 mu...

The exotic, invasive shrub European buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica) is a major threat to natural areas in North America. While many publications describe buckthorn eradication methods, few compare the efficacy of different methods, and none are comprehensive. In this study, we tested the efficacy of 15 combinations of five commonly used herbicides a...

After 50 years of steady increase, per capita visits to U.S. National Parks have declined since 1987. To evaluate whether we are seeing a fundamental shift away from people's interest in nature, we tested for similar longitudinal declines in 16 time series representing four classes of nature participation variables: (i) visitation to various types...

We report rapid change of morphology and mitochondrial genes in white-footed mice (Peromyscus leucopus) in the Chicago (Illinois, USA) region. We sequenced mitochondrial DNA COX2 from 55 museum skins of white-footed mice caught in the Chicago area since 1855 and from 44 mice recently trapped in the same locations. We found consistent directional ge...

Direct experience with nature is the most highly cited influence on environmen- tal attitude and conservation activism. Yet our research (using U. S. national park visits as a proxy) suggests a trend away from interactions with nature and a concurrent rise in the use of electronic entertainment media. We suggest this trend represents evidence of a...

After 50 years of steady increase, per capita visits to US national parks have declined since 1988. This decline, coincident with the rise in electronic entertainment media, may represent a shift in recreation choices with broader implications for the value placed on biodiversity conservation and environmentally responsible behavior. We compared th...

In an earlier paper (Pergams & Nyberg 2001) we found that the proportion of the prairie deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus bairdii), among all local Peromyscus museum specimens collected in the Chicago region, had significantly declined over time. This proportion changed from about 50% before 1900 to <10% in the last 25 years. Based on this proport...

As an economy grows, natural capital such as timber, soil, and water is reallocated to the human economy. This conflict between economic growth and biodiversity conservation creates a conundrum for conservation biologists because traditional forms of conservation action require money. We hypothesize that conservation spending in the United States i...

Wild mice around Chicago may have switched genotype to keep pace with modern living.

Here we review growing evidence that microevolutionary changes may often be rapid and, in many cases, occur on time frames comparable to human disturbance and anthropogenic change. Contemporary evolutionary change has been documented in relatively pristine habitats, in disturbed populations, under captive management, and in association with both in...

We have compared the sequences of mitochondrial DNA extracted from museum skins of white-footed mice caught in the Chicago area since 1855 and from modern mice trapped alive in the same locations. We found a consistently similar directional change of mouse genotype over this period at each of five collection sites that were separated by 10-70 km. T...

Deer mice, Peromyscus maniculatus, are found on all eight California Channel Islands and are classified as separate subspecies on each island. Distinct mitochondrial DNA haplotypes, identified by restriction enzyme analysis, were found in island deer mice, and on five of the eight islands deer mice have unique haplotypes, suggesting genetic isolati...

We perform a meta-analysis on morphological data from four island rodent populations exhibiting microevolution (>100 years). Data consisting of incidences of skeletal variants, cranial, and external measurements are from house mice (Mus musculus) on one Welsh and one Scottish island, black rats (Rattus rattus) on two Galapagos islands, and deer mic...

The prairie deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus bairdii ) was more common than the white-footed mouse (P. leucopus) in museum collections from the 6 Illinois counties of the Chicago region before 1920 but constitutes only 5% of specimens deposited since 1970. Because white-footed mouse prefers woody vegetation and because prairie deer mouse is limit...

We investigated the genetic and morphological status of an endemic subspecies of deer mice ( Peromyscus maniculatus anacapae) on Anacapa Island of California through mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis, morphometric discriminant function analysis, and population viability analysis. We sought to assist the development of a management plan that may in...

Deer mice, Peromyscus maniculatus, collected over 90 years from three California Channel Islands, were examined for evidence of morphological change. Rapid morphological change has occurred in the endemic subspecies from Santa Barbara (P. m. elusus), Anacapa (P. m. anacapae), and Santa Cruz Island (P. m. santacruzae). Data were divided into two tem...

Deer mice, Peromyscus maniculatus, collected over 90 years from three California Channel Islands, were examined for evidence of morphological change. Rapid morphological change has occurred in the endemic subspecies from Santa Barbara (P. m. elusus), Anacapa (P. m. anacapae), and Santa Cruz Island (P. m. santacruzae). Data were divided into two tem...