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Societies must choose how they wish to deal with climate change. Not doing anything or pursuing ‘business as usual’ is likely to lead down a path that will have devastating consequences for many people, especially the world’s poor. Using a focal lens of coral reef fisheries, upon which millions of people depend on for their livelihood, this book provides a tool box of options for confronting the consequences of climate change through building local-scale adaptive capacity in societies and improving the condition of the natural resources. Building adaptive capacity will require strengthening appropriate aspects of a society’s flexibility, assets, learning and social organizations. They ways of doing this are diverse and will, of course, depend on existing local capacities and needs. Improving the condition of resources tends to require restricting or limiting society’s actions. These two broad concepts, of building social capacities and limiting certain types of resource use, interact in complicated ways, requiring coupled actions. One of the central themes of this book is that adaptation solutions are context dependent, determined in part by aspects of local resource conditions, adaptive capacity, and exposure to climate change impacts, but also by people’s history, culture, and aspirations. This book develops a framework to help provide governments, scientists, managers, and donors with critical information about the local context and develop nuanced actions that reflect these local conditions. This information can help to identify key opportunities and narrow the range of potential adaptation options that may be suitable for a particular location.

Understanding the mechanisms driving biological diversity remains a central problem in ecology and evolutionary biology. Traditional explanations assume that differences in selection pressures lead to different adaptations in geographically separated locations. This book takes a different approach and explores adaptive diversification—diversification rooted in ecological interactions and frequency-dependent selection. In any ecosystem, birth and death rates of individuals are affected by interactions with other individuals. What is an advantageous phenotype therefore depends on the phenotype of other individuals, and it may often be best to be ecologically different from the majority phenotype. Such rare-type advantage is a hallmark of frequency-dependent selection and opens the scope for processes of diversification that require ecological contact rather than geographical isolation. This book investigates adaptive diversification using the mathematical framework of adaptive dynamics. Evolutionary branching is a paradigmatic feature of adaptive dynamics that serves as a basic metaphor for adaptive diversification, and the book explores the scope of evolutionary branching in many different ecological scenarios, including models of coevolution, cooperation, and cultural evolution. It also uses alternative modeling approaches. Stochastic, individual-based models are particularly useful for studying adaptive speciation in sexual populations, and partial differential equation models confirm the pervasiveness of adaptive diversification. Showing that frequency-dependent interactions are an important driver of biological diversity, the book provides a comprehensive theoretical treatment of adaptive diversification.

Between 1949 and 1955, the State Department pushed for an international fisheries policy grounded in maximum sustainable yield (MSY). The concept is based on a confidence that scientists can predict, theoretically, the largest catch that can be taken from a species’ stock over an indefinite period. And while it was modified in 1996 with passage of the Sustained Fisheries Act, MSY is still at the heart of modern American fisheries management. As fish populations continue to crash, however, it is clear that MSY is itself not sustainable. Indeed, the concept has been widely criticized by scientists for ignoring several key factors in fisheries management and has led to the devastating collapse of many fisheries. This book reveals that the fallibility of MSY lies at its very inception—as a tool of government rather than science. The foundational doctrine of the MSY emerged at a time when the US government was using science to promote and transfer Western knowledge and technology, and to ensure that American ships and planes would have free passage through the world’s seas and skies. The author charts the history of US fisheries science using MSY as her focus, and in particular its application to halibut, tuna, and salmon fisheries. Fish populations the world over are threatened, and this book will help sound warnings of the effect of any management policies divested from science itself.

Allee effects are broadly defined as a decline in individual fitness at low population size or density, that can result in critical population thresholds below which populations crash to extinction. As such, they are very relevant to many conservation programmes, where scientists and managers are often working with populations that have been reduced to low densities or small numbers. There are a variety of mechanisms that can create Allee effects, including mating systems, predation, environmental modification, and social interactions among others. The abrupt and unpredicted collapses of many exploited populations is just one illustration of the need to bring Allee effects to the forefront of conservation and management strategies. This book provides an overview of the topic, collating and integrating a widely dispersed literature from various fields: marine and terrestrial, plant and animal, theoretical and empirical, academic and applied.

Today, many zoos promote the preservation of biodiversity as a significant part of their mission. As “arks” for endangered species and, increasingly, as leaders in field conservation projects such as the reintroduction of zoo-born animals to the wild, they’re preparing to play an even more important role in attempts to save species in this century. The intensification of these efforts, however, presents a number of practical and strategic challenges for zoos and aquariums as they seek to balance an expanding conservation mission alongside their more traditional recreation and entertainment pursuits. It also raises important questions about the science, values, and historical traditions informing a growing zoo and aquarium conservation agenda in the coming decades. The Ark and Beyond is an authoritative, interdisciplinary volume focused on the past, present, and future of zoo and aquarium conservation, emphasizing the intersection of academic and practitioner perspectives. Its contributors, four-dozen in all, are among the most respected scholars and zoo professionals working today; all of whom have offered uniquely informed perspectives on the challenges and possibilities of zoo and aquarium conservation in an age of accelerating social and ecological change. Together, the chapters explore the meaning and significance of conservation practice in and by zoos and aquariums, and consider how a deeper understanding of the traditions feeding into this effort might be absorbed into key discussions in conservation history, life science ethics, zoo biology, animal studies, and related fields.

As people have spread around the world, they have taken with them a broad range of other species to satisfy a variety of human needs. Some of these species went on to establish wild populations well outside their native ranges. These biological invaders are a major component of current global change, and often represent threats to the maintenance of global biodiversity, human health, and the success of human economic enterprises. The continuing globalization of our society ensures that the need to understand the process of biological invasion will only increase in the future. There is also a growing recognition that the study of biological invaders provides significant insight into basic questions in ecology and evolution. Exotic birds provide a particularly good opportunity to study the causes and consequences of biological invasions. By combining good historical records of bird introductions with the detailed information available on many other aspects of avian biology, this book advances understanding of the invasion process while also exploring avian conservation biology, and basic principles of ecology and evolution. Chapters cover causes of non-randomness in which species get transported and released into novel environments, the stochastic (relating to numbers released) and deterministic (relating to species and location) effects that influence establishment success, patterns and processes in range expansion, and the ecology, genetics, and evolution of exotic birds in their new environment.

America's great epic of exploration — the journey of Lewis and Clark — was also one of the most successful scientific expeditions in history. In notebooks filled with vivid and remarkably accurate descriptions of rivers, prairies, forests, mountains, Native Americans, and wildlife, Lewis and Clark gave the world an image of wild country that has rarely been equaled. This book, which features more than one hundred photographs and maps, traces the footsteps of the two explorers as they journeyed from St. Louis, through the breathtaking vistas of the tall-grass prairie and Big Sky country, over the arduous Bitterroot Mountains on the ancient Lolo Trail, to arrive finally at the Pacific coast and its the rugged, rainy, and darkly wooded landscape. As we travel westward, the book introduces us to the natural wonders recorded by Lewis and Clark — still fresh portraits of a pristine land — and recounts their many dangerous, challenging, and sometimes strange adventures. The book describes the same sites today, providing unique insights about America's changes to the land. For instance, the book recounts Lewis and Clark's travels through the great tall-grass prairie, vast plains that stretched to the horizon in every direction, stunningly beautiful land that with the eye of a concerned ecologist, has virtually disappeared today beneath the steel plow.

Faced with urgent issues of climate change, habitat loss, extinctions, pollution, and socioecological transformation, there is a need for a long-term perspective that guides ecosystem management, restoration, and sustainable natural resource use. Ecosystems in the Anthropocene are dynamic and complex, and new approaches to ecosystem management aim to conserve ecological function and process, therefore requiring long-term information on ecosystem variability and resilience. While there is a wealth of such information in palaeoecology, archaeology, and historical ecology, it is often inaccessible to conservation ecologists, because the relevance to present-day conservation is not always made explicit. Knowledge of long-term change in ecosystems can inform conservation, as part of an interdisciplinary approach that brings together ideas from neo-, palaeo-, and landscape ecology, conservation biology, and sustainability science. Starting with a discussion of elephant management and re-wilding, the book covers increasingly complex issues of fire management, climate change adaptation, and the maintenance of ecosystem services, culminating in the development of a multifunctional landscape approach that maintains biodiversity while meeting human needs for sustainability. The book presents an optimistic vision for the conservation and management of dynamic landscapes through a perspective that embraces the continuum between past, present, and future, illustrating how palaeoecology and other long-term data can contribute to conserving biodiversity and maintaining ecological resilience, while at the same time promoting human well-being by fostering a sense of place and a re-engagement with nature.

The beautiful tropical dry forest of northwest Costa Rica, with its highly seasonal rainfall and diversely vegetated landscape, is disappearing even more rapidly than Costa Rica's better-known rain forest, primarily because it has been easier to convert to agriculture. This book offers a comprehensive look at the ecology, biodiversity, and conservation status of this endangered and fragile region. The chapters examine the major plant and animal groups living in the dry forest and present the first technical evaluation of Costa Rica's conservation efforts. As they assess the status of each area of specialty in the dry forest, the chapters also look beyond this particular region to show how its plants and animals are ecologically and evolutionarily connected to other geographic areas in Costa Rica and Central America. These chapters cover topics such as watershed and coastal management, plant phenology, pollination, insects, birds, mammals, amphibians, and reptiles. They also consider the socioeconomic, policy, legal, and political aspects of biodiversity conservation. The book concludes with an important synthesis of the chapter's recommendations on future directions, policies, and actions that will better conserve biodiversity in Costa Rica and other neotropical forests as well.

How will biodiversity loss affect ecosystem functioning, ecosystem services, and human wellbeing? In an age of accelerating biodiversity loss, this volume summarizes recent advances in biodiversity‐ecosystem functioning research and explores the economics of biodiversity and ecosystem services. The first section summarizes the development of the basic science and provides a meta-analysis that quantitatively tests several biodiversity and ecosystem functioning hypotheses. The second section describes the natural science foundations of biodiversity‐ecosystem functioning research, including: quantifying functional diversity, the development of the field into a predictive science, effects of stability and complexity, methods to quantify mechanisms by which diversity affects functioning, the importance of trophic structure, microbial ecology, and spatial dynamics. The third section takes research on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning further than it has ever gone into the human dimension. The first six chapters cover the most pressing environmental challenges humanity faces, including effects of diversity on: climate change mitigation, restoration of degraded habitats, managed ecosystems, pollination, disease, and biological invasions. The remaining chapters of section three that consider the economic perspective, including: a synthesis of the economics of ecosystem services and biodiversity, and the options open to policy-makers to address the failure of markets to account for the loss of ecosystem services; an examination of the challenges of valuing ecosystem services and, hence, to understanding the human consequences of decisions that neglect these services; and an examination of the ways in which economists are currently incorporating biodiversity and ecosystem functioning research into decision models for the conservation and management of biodiversity. The final section describes new advances in ecoinformatics that will help transform this field into a globally predictive science, and finally, summarizes the advancements and future directions of the field. The book's ultimate conclusion is that biodiversity is an essential element of any strategy for sustainable development.

Bioinvasions and Globalization synthesises our current knowledge of the ecology and economics of biological invasions, providing an in-depth evaluation of the science and its implications for managing the causes and consequences of one of the most pressing environmental issues facing humanity today. Emergent zoonotic diseases such as HIV and SARS have already imposed major costs in terms of human health, whilst plant and animal pathogens have had similar effects on agriculture, forestry, and fisheries. The introduction of pests, predators, and competitors into many ecosystems has disrupted the benefits they provide to people, in many cases leading to the extirpation or even extinction of native species. This book analyzes the main drivers of bioinvasions — the growth of world trade, global transport and travel, habitat conversion and land-use intensification, and climate change — and their consequences for ecosystem functioning. It shows how bioinvasions impose disproportionately high costs on countries where a large proportion of people depend heavily on the exploitation of natural resources. It considers the options for improving assessment and management of invasive species risks, and especially for achieving the international cooperation needed to address bioinvasions as a negative externality of international trade.

The editors of this book have used their combined 90 years of experience working on the behaviour and ecology of wild carnivores to draw together a unique network of the world’s experts on musteloid biology and conservation. The musteloids are the most speciose and diverse super-family among carnivores, ranging from little known, exotic, and highly-endangered species to the popular and familiar, and include a large number of introduced invasives. They feature terrestrial, fossorial, arboreal, and aquatic members, ranging from tenacious predators to frugivorous omnivores, span weights from a 100g weasel to 30kg giant otters, and express a range of social behaviours from the highly gregarious to the fiercely solitary. Their diversity and extensive biogeography inform a wide spectrum of ecological theory and conservation practice. Beginning with a brief account of 93 musteloid species, there follow eight comprehensive review chapters covering topics most relevant to musteloid biology and conservation: evolution, form and function, population dynamics, communication, social organisation, exploitation and conflict with people, study tools and techniques, and disease. Twenty detailed case studies then delve into the very best species investigations worldwide, written by leading figures in the field, and providing a range of geographic and taxonomic coverage. The final chapter synthesises what has been discussed in the book, and reflects on the different and diverse conservation needs of musteloids and the wealth of conservation lessons they offer.

This book is about the dog family, covering ancestry, population genetics, society, infectious disease, and the use of tools. Fourteen case studies examine Arctic foxes, Island foxes, Swift foxes, Blanford's foxes, Red foxes, Raccoon foxes, Bat-eared foxes, Patagonian foxes, Jackals, Coyotes, Grey wolves, Ethiopian wolves, Dholes, and African wild dogs. The concluding chapter looks at conservation issues.

Savannahs are one of the largest biomes of the world, covering about 20% of the land surface. Stated simply, they are tropical and subtropical grasslands, with scattered bushes and trees. Most savannah occurs in Africa, with smaller areas in South America, India, and Australia. This book looks at; the climate factors that determine the distribution of savannahs worldwide, in South America, Australia, and India as well as Africa; the major plants (grasses, and trees such as Acacia) and large animals (mainly large mammals) that live in African savannahs; the biological and ecological factors that influence their population size, interactions (such as predation), and community composition. Conservation issues such as tourism, hunting, and the conflict between wildlife and farmers are discussed.

Caves and other subterranean habitats with their often strange (even bizarre) inhabitants have long been objects of fascination, curiosity, and debate. The question of how such organisms have evolved, and the relative roles of natural selection and genetic drift, has engaged subterranean biologists for decades. Indeed, these studies continue to inform the general theory of adaptation and evolution. Subterranean ecosystems generally exhibit little or no primary productivity and, as extreme ecosystems, provide general insights into ecosystem function. The Biology of Caves and other Subterranean Habitats offers a concise but comprehensive introduction to cave ecology and evolution. Whilst there is an emphasis on biological processes occurring in these unique environments, conservation and management aspects are also considered. The monograph includes a global range of examples from more than 25 countries, and case studies from both caves and non-cave subterranean habitats; it also provides a clear explanation of specialized terms used by speleologists. This accessible text will appeal to researchers new to the field and to the many professional ecologists and conservation practitioners requiring a concise but authoritative overview. Its engaging style will also make it suitable for undergraduate and graduate students taking courses in cave and subterranean biology. Its more than 650 references, 150 of which are new since the first edition, provide many entry points to the research literature.

Coral reefs represent the most spectacular and diverse marine ecosystem on the planet as well as a critical source of protein and income for many millions of people. However, the combined effects of human activities have led to a rapid decline in the health of reefs worldwide, with many now facing complete destruction. This book provides an integrated overview of the function, physiology, ecology, and behaviour of coral reef organisms. Each chapter is enriched with a selection of ‘boxes’ on specific aspects written by internationally recognised experts. The emphasis in this book is on the organisms that dominate this marine environment although pollution, conservation, climate change, and experimental aspects are also included. Indeed, particular emphasis is placed on conservation and management due to the habitat's critically endangered status. A global range of examples is employed which gives the book international relevance.

Peatlands form important landscape elements in many parts of the world and play significant roles for biodiversity and global carbon balance. This new edition has been revised and updated, documenting the latest advances in areas such as microbial processes and relations between biological processes and hydrology. As well as referencing the latest research, this book exposes a rich older literature where an immense repository of natural history has accumulated. It starts with an overview of the main peatland types before examining the entire range of biota present, together with their specific adaptations to peatland habitats. Detailed coverage is devoted to the genus Sphagnum, the most important functional plant group in northern peatlands, although tropical and southern hemisphere peatlands are also covered. Throughout the book the interactions between organisms and environmental conditions (especially wetness, availability of oxygen, and pH) are emphasised, with chapters on the physical and chemical characteristics of peat, the role of peat as an archive of past vegetation and climate, and peatland succession and development. Several other key factors and processes are then discussed, including hydrology and nutrient cycling. The fascinating peatland landforms in different parts of the world are described, together with theories on how they have developed. Human interactions with peatlands are considered in terms of management, conservation, and restoration. A final chapter focuses on the role of peatlands as sources or sinks for the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane, and the influences of climate change on peatlands.

Urban environments are characterized by the density of buildings and elements of a number of infrastructures that support urban residents in their daily life. These built elements and the activities that take place within towns and cities create a distinctive climate and increase air, water, and soil pollution. Within this context the elements of the natural environment that either are residual areas representative of the pre-urbanized area or are created by people contain distinctive floral and faunal communities that do not exist in the wild. The diverse prions, viruses, micro-organisms, plants, and animals that live there for all or part of their life cycle and their relationships with each other and with humans are illustrated with examples of diseases, parasites, and pests. Plants and animals are found inside as well as outside buildings. The roles of plants inside buildings and of domestic and companion animals are evaluated. Temporal and spatial distribution patterns of plants and animals living outside buildings are set out and generalizations are drawn, while exceptions are also discussed. The strategies used and adaptions (genotypic, phenotypic, and behavioural) adopted by plants and animals in face of the challenges presented by urban environments are explained. The final two chapters contain discussions of the impacts of urban environments on human biology and how humans might change these environments in order to address the illnesses that are characteristic of urbanites in the early twenty-first century.

This book outlines the main methods and techniques available to ornithologists. A general shortage of information about available techniques is greatly hindering progress in avian ecology and conservation. Currently this sort of information is disparate and difficult to locate with much of it widely dispersed in books, journals and grey literature. This book is a practical handbook describing the methods used in ornithological studies. Many of the chapters describe field methods, but there are also chapters devoted to laboratory techniques and the assessment of ill or dead birds. Two chapters focus on conservation methods: one describes habitat management techniques, and the other considers field manipulations.

In recent decades, hundreds of millions of acres of militarized landscapes around the world have transitioned to new purposes of wildlife conservation. These land use changes offer valuable opportunities for new approaches to environmental protection, but also carry cautionary lessons about military impacts, historical erasure, and how to guide ecological restoration in landscapes with complex cultural and natural histories. This book examines a number of these sites, ranging from relatively unknown wildlife refuges in the United States to internationally-renowned areas such as the Iron Curtain borderlands of Europe and the Demilitarized Zone of the Korean Peninsula. These emerging sites of conservation must accomplish seemingly antithetical aims: rebuilding and protecting ecosystems, or restoring life, while also commemorating the historical and cultural legacies of warfare and militarization. The book examines how military activities, conservation goals, and ecological restoration efforts come together - at times disconcertingly - to create new kinds of places and foster new kinds of relationships between humans and the environment.