The Ecological Basis of Conservation : Heterogeneity, Ecosystems, and Biodiversity

From its inception, the U.S. Department of the Interior has been charged with a conflicting mission. One set of statutes demands that the department must develop America's lands, that it get our trees, water, oil, and minerals out into the marketplace. Yet an opposing set of laws orders us to conserve these same resources, to preserve them for the long term and to consider the noncommodity values of our public landscape. That dichotomy, between rapid exploitation and long-term protection, demands what I see as the most significant policy departure of my tenure in office: the use of science-interdisciplinary science-as the primary basis for land management decisions. For more than a century, that has not been the case. Instead, we have managed this dichotomy by compartmentalizing the American landscape. Congress and my predecessors handled resource conflicts by drawing enclosures: "We'll create a national park here," they said, "and we'll put a wildlife refuge over there." Simple enough, as far as protection goes. And outside those protected areas, the message was equally simplistic: "Y'all come and get it. Have at it." The nature and the pace of the resource extraction was not at issue; if you could find it, it was yours. Front Matter....Pages i-xxi Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Defining the Scientific Issues....Pages 3-10 Part 1: Science, Conservation, Policy, and the Public....Pages 11-15 Part 2: Providing the Scientific Information that Conservation Practitioners Need....Pages 16-22 Part 3: A Policy Perspective on Biodiversity Protection and Ecosystem Management....Pages 23-28 Conservation and Human Population Growth: What Are the Linkages?....Pages 29-42 Developing an Analytical Context for Multispecies Conservation Planning....Pages 43-59 Operationalizing Ecology under a New Paradigm: An African Perspective....Pages 60-77 Front Matter....Pages 79-79 Themes....Pages 81-82 The Paradigm Shift in Ecology and Its Implications for Conservation....Pages 83-92 The Emerging Role of Patchiness in Conservation Biology....Pages 93-107 Linking Ecological Understanding and Application: Patchiness in a Dryland System....Pages 108-119 Front Matter....Pages 121-121 Themes....Pages 123-124 The Evaluation of Biodiversity as a Target for Conservation....Pages 125-135 Conserving Ecosystem Function....Pages 136-145 The Relationship Between Patchiness and Biodiversity in Terrestrial Systems....Pages 146-155 Reevaluating the Use of Models to Predict the Consequences of Habitat Loss and Fragmentation....Pages 156-166 Managing for Heterogeneity and Complexity on Dynamic Landscapes....Pages 167-186 Integration of Species and Ecosystem Approaches to Conservation....Pages 187-192 The Land Ethic of Aldo Leopold....Pages 193-198 Front Matter....Pages 199-199 Themes....Pages 201-201 Front Matter....Pages 199-199 The Future of Conservation Biology: What’s a Geneticist to Do?....Pages 202-216 Habitat Destruction and Metapopulation Dynamics....Pages 217-227 How Viable Is Population Viability Analysis?....Pages 228-235 Reserve Design and the New Conservation Theory....Pages 236-251 Ecosystem Processes and the New Conservation Theory....Pages 252-261 Measurement Scales and Ecosystem Management....Pages 262-273 Biogeographic Approaches and the New Conservation Biology....Pages 274-284 Conserving Interaction Biodiversity....Pages 285-293 Front Matter....Pages 295-295 Themes....Pages 297-297 State-Dependent Decision Analysis for Conservation Biology....Pages 298-304 Expanding Scientific Research Programs to Address Conservation Challenges in Freshwater Ecosystems....Pages 305-319 Standard Scientific Procedures for Implementing Ecosystem Management on Public Lands....Pages 320-336 Whatever It Takes for Conservation: The Case for Alternatives Analysis....Pages 337-344 Conservation Activism: A Proper Role for Academics?....Pages 345-350 Getting Ecological Paradigms into the Political Debate: Or Will the Messenger Be Shot?....Pages 351-357 Front Matter....Pages 359-359 Themes....Pages 361-362 A Summary of the Sixth Cary Conference....Pages 363-367 The Linkages between Ecology and Conservation Policy....Pages 368-378 The Central Scientific Challenge for Conservation Biology....Pages 379-383 Toward a Comprehensive Conservation Theory....Pages 384-399 Back Matter....Pages 400-466 The conservation and management of wild natural resources stands at a crossroads. On the one hand, there are the stunning successes of the focus of species, of which the protection of endangered species is the pinnacle. On the other hand, stands the need for conservation to embrace landscapes and ecosystems, and to be more anticipatory and forward looking, rather than responding to manifest endangerment and acute crisis. These needs are the emerging agenda of conservation ecology. To advance the internal agenda of the science, theories, models, and field studies of populations and ecosystems will need to be better integrated. The book attempts to bring these two aspects of ecology closer together in conservation. A new paradigm in ecology paves the way for this integration. The parallel changes in conservation can also enhance the synthesis between ecology and conservation practice. The book explores a broad range of targets for conservation, illustrating the value of the new syntheses. Furthermore, the contributors evaluate the role of theory, and of both familiar and novel types of models, to indicate how such tools can be employed over the range of scales and processes that conservation must now address. The book contains diverse practical examples and case studies of how the new thinking in ecology, and the new partnerships required for more successful conservation, actually work and can be improved. The examples range from freshwater to arid, and from subtropical to boreal. The strongest use of science in conservation requires effective linkage between science and policy, and between science and management. The land ethic motivates the external agenda for science and its application and the resulting activity of scientists in the public discourse. Recommendations for the scope and nature of scientific engagement in the public debate are presented. Interactions with the media and presentation of ecological information to the public are key tools scientists must hone. Analysis of the practical needs and the policy landscape suggest priorities for management and for research. The external agenda to be addressed by science and its application is the complex interaction of human population size, culture, and economics with ecological systems