BiblioVault - Books about Conservation Biology

Conservation Biology and Applied Zooarchaeology

Edited by Steve Wolverton and R. Lee Lyman

University of Arizona Press, 2012

Until now, the research of applied zooarchaeologists has not had a significant impact on the work of conservation scientists. This book is designed to show how zooarchaeology can productively inform conservation science. Conservation Biology and Applied Zooarchaeology offers a set of case studies that use animal remains from archaeological and paleontological sites to provide information that has direct implications for wildlife management and conservation biology. It introduces conservation biologists to zooarchaeology, a sub-field of archaeology and ethnobiology, and provides a brief historical account of the development of applied zooarchaeology.

The case studies, which utilize palaeozoological data, cover a variety of animals and environments, including the marine ecology of shellfish and fish, potential restoration sites for Sandhill Cranes, freshwater mussel biogeography and stream ecology, conservation of terrestrial mammals such as American black bears, and even a consideration of the validity of the Pleistocene “rewilding” movement. The volume closes with an important new essay on the history, value, and application of applied zooarchaeology by R. Lee Lyman, which updates his classic 1996 paper that encouraged zooarchaeologists to apply their findings to present-day environmental challenges.

Each case study provides detailed analysis using the approaches of zooarchaeology and concludes with precise implications for conservation biology. Essays also address issues of political and social ecology, which have frequently been missing from the discussions of conservation scientists. As the editors note, all conservation actions occur in economic, social, and political contexts. Until now, however, the management implications of zooarchaeological research have rarely been spelled out so clearly.

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Conservation Biology

Research Priorities For The Next Decade

Edited by Michael E. Soule and Gordon H. Orians; Foreword by P. Dee Boersma

Island Press, 2001

One of the fastest growing scientific disciplines in recent history is conservation biology. A response of the scientific community to the massive environmental changes taking place on Earth, its goal is to enable society to anticipate, prevent, and reduce ecological damage, and to generate the scientific information from which effective conservation strategies and policies can be designed and implemented.In 1989, the Society for Conservation Biology and Island Press produced Research Priorities for Conservation Biology, a slim volume that set forth the findings of experts who had gathered to outline research needs for the near future, and which served as a guidepost for the field throughout the 1990s. In January 2000, leaders of the Society for Conservation Biology convened a similar group to reach consensus on where the field now stands and to determine the major, compelling research priorities for the next decade. Conservation Biology: Research Priorities for the Next Decade presents the results of that gathering.The book: notes progress or changes in the state of global biodiversity over the past decade and discusses overarching themes that influence all areas of conservation offers ten chapters by leading experts that summarize the status of knowledge in key areas ranging from marine conservation to ecological restoration to conservation medicine sets forth research priorities for each area describes gaps in current knowledge that are impeding the ability of conservation practitioners to carry out their workA final synthesis chapter brings together cross-cutting themes that integrate the diverse topics within the context of global biodiversity loss, and presents a call to action for scientists and others working in the field.Conservation Biology: Research Priorities for the Next Decade represents an indispensable guide to the research that is most urgently needed to support effective conservation, and will be must reading for anyone involved with the field of conservation biology.

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Foundations of Conservation Biology

A Guide to the Classic Literature

Edited by Jeffrey D. Brawn, Erica Fleishman, Curt Meine

University of Chicago Press

For students, practitioners, and researchers, a comprehensive guide to conservation biology’s foundational literature.

This book summarizes over a century of multidisciplinary scientific literature that contributed to the development of conservation biology. It explores how different scientific, social, and cultural traditions have informed that literature, enabling a deeper comprehension of the natural world and conservation practices. The volume traces conservation biology’s scientific and cultural foundations and its emergence in the mid-1980s in response to the accelerating effects of human activity on biological diversity. As conservation moved beyond its early emphasis on sustaining yields of selected natural resources and responding to environmental degradation, it both reflected and required changes in its scope and foundations. Today, conservation biologists aim to understand the complex ecological and social causes of biodiversity loss and apply that integrated understanding to sustain life and ecological integrity at all levels.

Examining this evolving field’s foundations in philosophy and culture, population genetics, landscape ecology, management techniques, law, the social sciences, and climate change science, the contributors to this volume identify and provide historical and contextual interpretations of the key literature. Foundations of Conservation Biology shows how insights from the past have influenced contemporary studies, and how they may continue to shape future research and actions.

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Wild Forests

Conservation Biology And Public Policy

William S. Alverson, Donald M. Waller, and Walter Kuhlmann

Island Press, 1994

Wild Forests presents a coherent review of the scientific and policy issues surrounding biological diversity in the context of contemporary public forest management. The authors examine past and current practices of forest management and provide a comprehensive overview of known and suspected threats to diversity.

In addition to discussing general ecological principles, the authors evaluate specific approaches to forest management that have been proposed to ameliorate diversity losses. They present one such policy -- the Dominant Use Zoning Model incorporating an integrated network of "Diversity Maintenance Areas" -- and describe their attempts to persuade the U.S. Forest Service to adopt such a policy in Wisconsin.

Drawing on experience in the field, in negotiations, and in court, the authors analyze the ways in which federal agencies are coping with the mandates of conservation biology and suggest reforms that could better address these important issues. Throughout, they argue that wild or unengineered conditions are those that are most likely to foster a return to the species richness that we once enjoyed.

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Zooarchaeology and Conservation Biology

Richard Lee Lyman

University of Utah Press, 2004

Many modern ecological problems such as rain forest destruction, decreasing marine harvests, and fire suppression are directly or indirectly anthropogenic. Zooarchaeology and Conservation Biology presents an argument that conservation biology and wildlife management cannot afford to ignore zooarchaeological research—the identification and analysis of faunal remains recovered from archaeological deposits. The editors contend that we can learn important lessons by studying long-term human and nonhuman influences on biota and ecosystems. From this perspective we can begin to understand biogeographic dynamics and behavioral patterns that are invisible to researchers who study living organisms over just a small span of years.

The focus of this volume is on the North American faunal record. Contributors identify a specific management or conservation issue, describe and analyze relevant zooarchaeological data, and offer recommendations or at least establish a baseline for possible resolution. The volume brings together both case studies and research about past ecosystems, and examines how such knowledge can be of current utility and relevance.

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