Biological Conservation - Science topic

Gregor Kozlowski

Please see the link below.

Thanks!

All the ones that don't work best; but they make money.

Lou

Hi Dr. Beaune,

Take a look at Oceânica NGO from Brazil > https://oceanica.org.br/

As the Oceânica website is only in the Portuguese version I sent the Annual Report 2019 in the English version. If you are interested please contact: contato@oceanica.org.br

Kind regards!

~Guido

Hi, thank you for your message. I've just sent you instructions per e-mil. Please, let me know any questions. Looking forward! Cheers, JUAN

Hi.

In the last two years I'm using a TASCAM DR-05 sound recorder to record bird songs and calls. If the birds are close to my position, this is a good equipment and I can obtain good recordings, but it can be better using a directional microphone. I improve the quality of my recordings using Audacity program, as many people, but there are other programs to do this.

I hope my comments can be useful...

Best regards.

Hi, this isn´t common.

Of course into new protected areas, sometimes urban areas change the use.

Actually our principal problem is to know how the species can to survive to excesive urban areas.

Hi Li, the shark jaw trade can be reduced by providing information and awareness to public and relevant authorities.

Hi Li Chen.

He considered that James Des Lauriers is right in what he raises; fishing for any shark species should be restricted and regulated, even if not in danger. It should be analyzed that only intensive fishing is not the only factor leading to the danger of extinction of certain shark species; we must also consider climate change and ocean pollution. Set of factors that in a relatively short time can dramatically reduce shark populations in the world.

Great, thanks for this valuable document and your remarks.

Here's an excellent article on why indigenous languages must feature more in science communication.

http://theconversation.com/indigenous-languages-must-feature-more-in-science-communication-88596

The Brazilian government should give more importance to the environment, placing in the management of the Ministry of Environment more qualified people from the environmental area to allow the analysis and creation of environmental projects focused on the sustainable development of existing communities in the Amazon (Indigenous and other inhabitants of the area). ) through the rational use of forests (agroforestry, sustainable extractivism, creation of Conservation Units for sustainable use, etc.) not allowing the use of the area for agriculture, livestock and mining that require deforestation and vegetation burning. The Government of Brazil should provide more resources for environmental supervision to hire more technicians and logistical support for the control and monitoring of what is being done within the forest. The Amazonian Forest must be preserved in a sustainable way so that, besides protecting the high biodiversity present in this ecosystem, it can bring benefits to the natural communities that live in the region, thus not allowing any action that may conflict with the rational use of the forest.

Length of reproductive cycle, gestation period should be studied for each species.

Aaron Baxter has published on diamondback terrapins in estuaries of Texas :

google his names and terrapins for several pdf reports of his studies. Best, PZimba

Dig a deep trench and remove existing soil. Replace with a layer of sand or small rocks, covered by a thick layer of humus-rich soil mixed with composted manure and a little sand. Sequester cultivars from the surrounding soil and one another using a physical barrier of plastic or metal, to avoid contamination from soil pathogens such as nematodes. Use shade cloth to prevent over exposure to the sun, and keep soil very moist.

Simpson's (and Shannon's) have an important drawback as the values are not directly comparable. Firstly, because they are unitless, it makes the comparison challenging. Secondly, and more importantly, if the true diversity of one community is twice as that in another community, the values returned by either index don't. Thus, the 3% difference in the values you show not necessarily means that true diversity of one community is 3% greater than the other. A better approach is to use Hill numbers, which are related to these popular diversity measures. For more information you can read Host and/or Chao for details. Hope this helps!

The taxonomy is the identification and description of taxa with the objective of locating them in a system. Biological diversity is by definition the analysis of variability at any scale, be it ecological or biogeographic (to point out the two extremes). The taxonomy is born from the need to identify living beings and find an order that allows to develop in a coherent way the studies in any branch of biology.

In biological diversity, the objective is to establish the state of relations between living beings in a given territory, determine the degree of balance of these relationships and their causes. This with the objective of determining the changes of the biota in each territory. Therefore, the taxonomy is in some way to the biological sciences, all of them, like metrology to physics.

The biological diversity is based on three fundamental pillars: alpha, beta and gamma. Interestingly, the best-known indices of biological diversity are those corresponding to alpha diversity. These study the equilibrium relations between the living components of a given territory (community, landscape, biome, etc.). But most of the time, beta diversity is ignored, that is, the degree of relationship between a set of territories (the amount and form in which taxa share), and most ignore that the patterns that determine that diversity Beta depending on the individual combinations is the gamma diversity.

When we study the genesis of taxonomy, we discover that this science arises from the need to order the supposed chaos in the associative identification of living beings. But the need arose from very ancient in all civilizations and biological diversity was born from ecology. Linne uses the conceptions of Greek philosophy, but the Mayans, the Chinese, the Hindus had theirs. Whittaker, father of biological diversity, part of his studies in the plant communities of a mountain and deepening, found that the relationships there were much more complex and difficult to interpret than he had thought

It is easy to understand that biological diversity is a science with its own paradigms, where taxonomy provides the system that allows it to develop. Therefore, they have absolutely nothing to do with each other

Dear Julio San Martín Órdenes, would you please read on Niche Theory on Species interaction? I think it would be valuable to your demand.

Brotherly!

I might try looking at the rainfall in periods from the last vegetation assessment to the current vegetation count. I could see that an average rainfall might be important. Variance and periods of flood or drought might also be important. Before analysis, I would try graphing the data. Relationships might not be linear. I would also expect thresholds. Flooding for 2 days has little effect, but 3 weeks causes more extensive damage.

Temperature might influence vegetation growth as much or more than rainfall.

DON"T HESITATE TO POST RESOURCES of these HIGH QUALITY and OPEN ACCESS data that you know. Please also provide its time period and resolution.I wrote a list of several resources on my website that I have knew until now for reference:https://runxiwang.weebly.com/resources.htmlHere are some example:WorldClim (v1, v2): http://www.worldclim.org/

CHELSA (2017): http://chelsa-climate.org/

EarthEnv: http://www.earthenv.org/

There have been various instream flow methodologies developed. A lot depends on the natural range of variation and species present. Some use a minimum value of 7Q10 (the weekly average low that occurs at 10 year frequency). For channel maintenance, there should be at least a bankfull event every year or two to prevent vegetation encroachment, move sediment to maintain channel dimension. I would suggest that one size or cookbook approach is not going to fit all circumstances. Perennial side tributaries along rivers can be localized habitat refuges of cool water and elevated oxygen for mobile species as they enter warm and low oxygen rivers. Fishery and aquatic biologists are apt to have information on the needs of species present. There may be other water use needs to consider, such as swimming, scenic, water available for emergencies as fire control, community and industrial needs, waste treatment and water discharge standards, etc. Some ecosystems also provide important habitats for water birds and animal species.

It could be that at low predator levels, competition is the main interaction. But when predator levels increase, predation takes over. So, maybe your observations reflect two different phenomena. This happens with seed dispersal in trees, where seeds are dispersed locally via one dispersal kernel and long distance by another. Sometimes you have to combine models to explain your phenomena. Also, you may need to construct a mechanistic model to account for the behaviour, which can incorporate mathematical explanations :)

Hi.

In my opinion, Natura 2000 network has a great importance in the Canary Islands. There are some areas not protected by local laws in 1994 ("Red de Espacios Naturales de Canarias"), but they have been designed as Natura 2000 protected areas, so (at least for the moment) were saved from any important threat. In any case, it's true that some Natura 2000 protected sites are under different types of threats, like new tourist complexes in the surroundings, increasing human presence, alien predators of local fauna (mainly cats and rats), invasive alien plants, etc. One of the main problems in the management of such areas is the low degree of surveillance or wardening inside them, mainly in coastal sites (the situation is much better in the forests), as we have an important proportion of our territory under legal protection and is necessary to have more people working in the protected areas.

All laws/ doctrines were developed by the powerful to satisfy their own greed. UN discredited itself with the 1992 Dublin Statement, declaring water as a commodity. EU water directive follows the same lines. USA has 'John Wayne' law or 'cowboy economics' as Vandana Shiva put it. The 2008 constitution of Ecuador recognized the right of nature and the ecosystems to exist and flourish, just like any living being. It gave water the status of a patrimony, which needs to be preserved for posterity, and that its provision should not be a marketable service. The Bolivian government also passed laws in 2010 and 2012 treating ‘mother earth’ as a subject of public interest. That's the spirit, "that water is the mother of all of us who nurtures us and that it is time we start nurturing her", that should be the basis of any conversation on sharing and caring of any river. NOBODY OWNS WATER, WE ALL ARE USERS. The discussions should involve all users and develop CONSENSUS on how to care for mother-water. I invite you to browse some write-ups in our project on 'water nurturing':

With my question, I wanted the community to become aware of the initiative to fight back the dangerous and erroneous arguments published in the Washington Post and to gather more signatories. I like when commenters make arguments against the Washington Post piece, but I honestly find unhelpful to make comments about Pyron. Let's focus on ideas/arguments and ways to push back those arguments in the WP article that could be used by insane governments and corporations to continue devastating biodiversity.

Hi Wifredo,

I am not an ecologist so any interpretation in that sense would be very daring. From the point of view of network science and mutualism, we found that k-radius is a measure of compactness (how far are species from the generalist core). In this sense, it resembles nestedness, and both magnitudes show a high correlation.

Regards,

Javier

The above gentlemen make very good points. 

Might I just add that the conducive nature of Euphlyctus cyanophlyctis to trematodes may come from the trematodes preference for something in the frogs habitat. How does the ecological factors affecting E.cyanophlyctis it differ from different frogs species? simple enough but may lead you to your answer. Test them out like what Mr. Bickford said but take into consideration the abundance of the frogs.

 Hi Luke,

No the RedList map has not been updated. 

Hi dear Jashua,

 I think there is not just one parameter to effect exploration and exploitation at one moment, and adapting parameters maybe a good idea. By the way thanks for your explanation, that's quiet helpful.

9

Thanks will be very useful

I never heard or saw any primate species in Malaysia consuming turtle eggs. This may be because most primates are active during the day and they do not know where the turtle hid the eggs. just my opinion.

If you need something to protect a hole in a wall:

Little owls can pass through, martens not! There are two connected metal flaps - if the exterior flap opens, the interior flap closes and the long body of a marten cannot pass through!

Best wishes

Rudolf

Salut Jean-Louis, I read your excellent message with much pleasure and some envy. There is so much that can be done. My interests are freshwater, so I can't advise in detail, but would encourage you to think of the territory as a series of units, based on landform and vegetation, and study and record in each (the lemurs and cats might occupy them all). There are many local island floras in Europe, as guides. What are the keystone species - cats? Keep good location records, also densities / population numbers. Your baseline data will become increasingly valuable. Best wishes, Julian Reynolds

It appears that recent real cases of economically significant biopiracy are actually relatively rare. Of the four cases cited by Efferth in the first reply, one represented within-country (cross-cultural) 'piracy' (not applicable to international law), two were for products not yet proven to have any significant economic value, and then there is the decades-old poster child, Madagasar phytophora. The $5.4 billion quoted by the UN is mostly for long past issues (worth resolving, but not relevant to current piracy).

What is rarely discussed is the massive cost to legitimate researchers that result from now-widespread export permit polices that are likely to have very little actual desired impact, and are based more on anecdote and paranoia that on actual cases. For example, current restrictions on bio-material export would have no effect on the ability to patent tumeric (cited by more than one paper above), a cat that got out of that bag centuries ago.

Someone needs to produce a database of (all?) proposed biopiracy events of the last 20 years (since it is current piracy that these policies are meant to prevent), along with estimates of the actual economic loss associated with each, not just someone putting in for a patent that ends up going nowhere (which is the fate of most of the bio-material patents). Maybe such a list is already out there; if so please share it here.

CapeNature (Western Cape Province, South Africa) has an active wild boar/feral pig eradication programme going here, but concentrates on eradication and what damage these animals do and what they eat. No other research on sensibilities. If you want to engage with conservation officilas dealing with this project contact Riaan van der Walt (rvanderwalt@capenature.co.za), Jaco van Deventer (jvdeventer@capenature.co.za) or Deon Hignett (dhignett@capenature.co.za).

Hi Paul,

You can construct analogy of power curves for permanova in R as described in

In Fig. 1 they show "multivariate pseudo standard error as a function of sample size" and they provided the R code in the electronic Appendix.

Best regards,

martin

Paolo,

My question is, better for what?  For understanding fundamental biological processes that apply to many species, exhaustive research on a few model species is probably better.  For conservation, a broad understanding of many species and their interactions is more effective.

Personally, I work in conservation.  I am trained as a restoration ecologist but I work with many species-focused biologists.  I find exhaustive knowledge of a few species to be interesting, but at a certain point it is minimally useful for the conservation of habitat.  There is diminishing returns for that kind of knowledge as it applies to conservation, because, I think, conservation requires more than just biological knowledge.  This may be why many of the best conservationists I know aren't biologists at all.  They are, for example, fire managers and ranchers.  These are people who know a little bit about the dominant species in an ecosystem, but they have a very solid and intuitive understanding of how the system as a whole functions.  They also have practical knowledge of the tools and methods of large scale land management and thus are able to translate their knowledge of biology and ecology into action on the ground.

Hi, why not take a look at www.eurobirdportal.org? For a number of species you can find model estimates showing the migration phenologies for the years 2010-2013. Those estimates are based on casual observations collated by citizen science websites like www.ornitho.de . If you would be interested in obtaining those data (which will be publicly available in due time anyway), you might want to contact Gabriel Gargallo (see contact details on EuroBirdPortal website).

Cheers

A funnel trap modified for arboreal use would probably be a good bet.  Both species will be captured live and you can release the natives.  Good luck! -Alex

Unfortunately, this sounds more like a political rather than a scientific question. Politicians oblivious to science (something we in the US are coming to know all too much about) can do a great deal of harm, and there are limits to what can be done if there's no local political backlash against the policy. Appeals from international conservation organizations may have some effect, but their pleas are likely to be ignored if there's a strong local constituency in favor of culling. 

By the way: Weismann was the first to use the term mimetic rings.

There a lots of different ways to randomly distribute traps (also depending on trap size) for this purpose, which mostly work well. One important point to look at is which ecosystem you are working in. This should help to define trap size.

The plot size does not necessarily have to be the same. However, the number of traps you set in each plot should be equivalent to the surface area, i.e. you should have the same number of traps/surface area in all plots.

See: Maberly, S. C. (1996). Diel, episodic and seasonal changes in pH and concentrations of inorganic carbon in a productive lake. Freshwater Biology, 35(3), 579-598.

CO2 dissolution will acidify not just seawater but also freshwater, the same way soda water is produced. But lakewater pH is also under the (stronger) influence of land and sediment such that atmospheric CO2 plays a relatively minor role. Also, we need to consider that marine organisms have adapted to a stable pH for centuries; it becomes a challenge for them to cope with the recent rapid (relatively speaking) acidification of the ocean.

Given the common definition of risk as (magnitude of loss) * (probability of loss), it would seem:

1) you "know" the noise level (without error?), so probability is presumably fixed a 1 for a given sound level.  The issue is then estimating the magnitude of loss. I know little about marine mammals -- are there data suggesting "harm" from noise is a function of ln(density) rather than absolute density? It would seem the ln(density) function adjusts probability of occurrence (loss).  It's not clear why the likelihood of loss to an individual would effectively decline as density increases - are there data on this?

2) If you accept (1), then the problem is reduced to defining a function for "loss".  This presumably will be determined in part by how you want to define and scale your metric of risk.  If you have data on noise levels that result in e.g. disorientation, hearing loss, other acoustic trauma, etc then it would seem to be straightforward to define risk categories that are associated with the defined responses (i.e. losses) to ranges of noise levels. It would appear to be more difficult to define a credible and rational continuous scale (e.g. 0-10) that could be mapped, as I'm not sure how you credibly assign a quantitative value for disorientation vs e.g. permanent hearing loss. 

I don't think this will get you a interpretable, continuous index but it could be very easily and informatively mapped.  To map it, you could use different colors (e.g. green=good, yellow=caution) for the category of "loss", and the hue or saturation to represent the overall risk.  So darker hues would be indicative of higher density of animals.  

Kaye et al (2012) provide a better description of the mapping issues and suggestions for addressing them.  It's a good paper on mapping spatial covariance.

Kaye et al. 2012.  Mapping the climate: guidance on appropriate techniques to map climate variables and their uncertainty.  Geoscientific Model Development 5(1):245-256.

Thank you for your comments. Please note that what I wrote in my question description are my current findings...so the study has already been done and this is what we found..  so I am looking forward to your imput on what implications these results can have! THoughts? Thanks again!

Hi Beckline,

Thank you very much for your response.

Souad.

DE it breaks down the cuticle of any insect it comes in contact with. 

As such, it is not specific to any particular insect, and so there really isn't a scale of impact. If sufficient damage is done to the cuticle the insect will die, whether it is a pest, pollinator or other. 

Potentially some insects may require different doses, due to either behavioral or physical variation, but I'm not aware of any specific research on this. 

Morris and Doak 2002 "Quantitative Conservation Biology" is a good intro to pop. viability analysis, goes through non-demographic and deterministic models through demographic and environmental stochastic PVA's, and comes with Matlab scripts you can get started with.

The RSPB may also have relevant data

Another alternative is the Geospatial Modelling Environment from SpatialEcology.com. The download is free. Look for the command "movement.pathmetrics"

I disagree with the emphasis on ecological data collection to aid in the conservation of a primate which has interacted with people for thousands of years.  The Action Plan is totally focused on top down interventions which have so far have not achieved any positive benefits for BM conservation in the protected area of Ifrane NP.  Such measures are increasingly perceived as inadequate in achieving conservation benefits by themselves. Ethnographic data collection has proved far more effective in developing conservation strategy in the north of Morocco.  Here complaints of crop raiding by villagers on the periphery of BM habitat  have decreased due to interventions by conservationists to link positive programmes such as the vaccination of village dogs against rabies  to the presence of the Barbary macaques.  Local people no longer hunt and kill the macaques and reports of illegally held macaques by members of the Moroccan public have led to the confiscation of 6 macaques with their vendors/owners prosecuted and fined.

ImageJ should work just fine

In case of Romania, I can be of help.

For the moment I can indicate the following work, which took into account the IUCN Red List:

P.S: but next days I will be back to read a little bit more carefully what You wrote in the message starting the topic...

Declan, can you send me your email?  I'm at mark.mallory@acadiau.ca.

The best source for grant opportunity is found at the following website: Terra Viva Grants. You'll get a full list and deadlines of a bunch of them... Good luck.

Denise,

Try contacting Dr. Robert Horwich from Gays Mills, Wisconsin.  He started constructing bridges for howler monkey crossings at Bermudian Landing in Belize, Central America, many of which are used frequently.

There is a paper by Krauze-Gryz et al. (2012). The good, the bad, and the ugly: space use and intraguild interactions among three opportunistic predators—cat (Felis catus), dog (Canis lupus familiaris), and red fox (Vulpes vulpes)—under human pressure. Canadian Journal of Zoology 90: 1402-1413. DOI: 10.1139/cjz-2012-0072.

Sergei, thank you very much for the informatuion about this book. I have see that it is even translate in Spanish!!!!!

Hi, I suggest you should place your transects parallel to the edge you are interested on. So, you will have a similar trapping effect along each transect regarding distance from the border (the whole transect will be at the same distance from the border). Each transect could be placed at different distances from the border and then you will be able to evaluate the differences between different transects at different distances. Moreover, you also have to place several sets of transects in different sampling points. I mean you should not place several sets of transects in a same fragment, for example. Instead, it would be better to place one set of transects at different distances in several fragments, thus you can have (spatially) independent sampling points to analyse. Good luck!

That's great. Thanks again Victor.

South African National Parks

http://dataknp.sanparks.org/sanparks/ 

MONTEIRO-JÚNIOR, C.S. ; Juen, L. ; HAMADA, N. . Effects of urbanization on stream habitats and associated adult dragonfly and damselfly communities in central Brazilian Amazonia. Landscape and Urban Planning, v. 127, p. 28-40, 2014.

The first thing to be determined is whether the alien species are really 'invasive'. It is difficult to determine it at an early stage, especially for the tree species in a forest ecosystem.

Removal of the invasive herbs and shrubs as well as the seedlings and saplings of the tree species could definitely be an option. At the same time, it is to be kept in mind that usually the alien species utilize those ecosystem resources which have not been utilized by the native species. Thus they build their own niche and get an edge over the native species.

The removal of these species will obviousy result into soil degradation which will facilitate the spatio-temporal expansion of the alien species at a faster rate thereby aggrevating the problem. Control burning could be one option as practised in different parts of the world. Implementing suitable agro-forestry techniques would be helpful to restore the degraded soil.

As far as adaptation is concerned, it may occur only when genetic changes will take place in the native species. Hence, ex-situ conservation of the native species at the initial stage followed by their proper re-introduction at a rate higher than the rate of invasion could help to check the problem.

Till now, there is no evidence at least where the native species adapted fast enough to outcompete the growth and spatio-temporal eapansion of the alien invasive species.

The zoning approach in terrsetrial areas has a long tradition (longer than in MPAs), zee for instance reports of IUCN or national states on National P:arks and other large nature reserves.

Dr. Kovalchuk:

Thank you so very much for the books. I will read them earnestly. They will definitely be helpful. I do appreciate your efforts. Do you know of any research that compares characters of sharks to the same type of characters of catfishes. I am in the process of studying Dr. Darryl Whitehead's work on the comparison of the catfishes and shark's ampullae of Lorenzini.

Please keep in touch and keep those references coming that you think will help me in my quest.

Thanks again:

James Burgess

Yes, this is a difficult question to answer. The problem is to identify a cut-off point (date) when we can define that an established species has been continuously present to warrant classification as 'native'. Indeed, the term 'native' itself is misleading in many cases, as species complements continuously evolve over time - the term 'native' suggests a stable system, which we know is almost never the case in ecology.

In reference to Australia, it is quite likely that the first human colonisers (the Aborigines) also introduced flora to the landscape - these species are now probably considered 'native', but their appearance was human-mediated (though I am not aware of any studies that examine this).

In Ireland, for animals, officially we use the year 1500 as a cut-off point (with fauna appearing after this date being considered non-native), although there is absolutely no scientific justification for this.

Ultimately, the criteria for defining native and non-native species are region- and taxon-specific and somewhat arbitrary.

Yes of course, agriculture is one of the main sources of pollution: (a) pesticide chemicals inputs via spray drift, drainage discharges, spills and unlawful acts and (b) 22-25% of greenhouse gas emissions including CH4, N2O and CO2 and (c) nutrients pollution (N,P) (that can stimulate algal blooms causing deterioration of water quality) Fish kills can occur from water contaminated with pesticides. Pesticides residue can accumulate in food and be transferred to humans via the food chain pathways and may cause various problems including cancer, birth defects etc. Moreover, water contaminated with pesticides can be unsuitable for human consumption, irrigation, town supply, recreation and livestock drinking. There are water quality guidelines for pesticides to protect aquatic ecosystems, biodiversity and human health. There is a need of risk assessment of harmful pesticides including monitoring of pesticide residues to ascertain that water supplied or food grown are safe for human consumption. Similarly, agroforestry, conservation agriculture (no tillage) and nutrient management strategy should be under taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture.

Thanks Melissa! This is awesome.

Aloha,

BH

In my experience using OMWW for membrane separation, each time I tried to freeze or store the wastewater at low temperatures, the wastewater quality changed sensibly (and from a separation and membrane fouling point of view, negatively). This is why I store them now in separated tanks, at outdoor temperature during winter permitting the gas that forms to escape. The water should be used quickly, since e.g. COD decay is approx. 40% each month.

Overall, I don't think there is a particularly accepted definition of the term 'rewilding' - after all it is probably a media construct and not a scientific term.

Generally, Pleistocene parks refer to the concept of re-establishing the fauna (and sometimes flora) from a particular epoch. However, rewilding is a more generalist term that can mean reintroducing species that have been exterminated from an area anytime from the past couple of years to thousands of years ago. I've also heard the term rewilding being used to refer to natural recolonisation of degraded or disturbed land, e.g. there has been a recent documentary on the 'rewilding' of the areas surrounding Chernobyl from which humans are excluded (some species naturally colonising and others introduced).

While in some cases, Pleistocene parks have a goal of reintroducing some long extinct species (e.g. mammoths), which would require considerable scientific advances, rewilding usually only involves translocation of existing species to new areas. Although, this is not always the case - suggestions for Pleistocene Parks in the US have proposed introducing cheetah from Africa.

Monterey pine (Pinus radiata) currently a rare species with three small California coastal populations and two Mexican island populations. Each population is suffering significant declines from human threats

But it is invasive in the South America and other southern hemisphere regions.

I would agree with Carlos, it very much depends on what kind of community you´d like to restore and what the environmental frame is. In general when you look at ecosystem services it applies to me that diversity targeted restoration is always more sustainable because stability is increased, complementarity in plant traits is fostered (which has positive effect on multiple ES) and cascading effects (sometimes even self-energizing) are likly to be entailed.

Thanks to all three for your comments. See the interesting

Elizabeth M. De Santo's paper "Missing marine protected area (MPA) targets: How the push for quantity over quality undermines sustainability and social justice".

One of the issues with conserving owls in the American Southwest is the dramatic changes that have taken place in forest structure as a result of natural fire surpression. Forests are now dominated by dense, young aged forests; a dramatic change from historical conditions. Catastrophic fires have now become common and destructive in a way not experienced in these forests. Owl conservation is dependent of identification of habitat conditions that are suitable for these animals and working for forest treatments that favor the components needed by owls and for that matter other forest-dwelling denizens. In Arizona, there is a restoration initiative that will eventually treat over 1.0 million acres of forest with the needs of forest dwellers being considered as the restoration treatments are being planned.

Hi Matt, this got me thinking. First, I assume you mean in terms of classical conservation biology, rather than adding social and economic elements and/or theories of management and stakeholder engagement. In the ecological realm I guess I would pick out key theories from different levels of biological organization. For landscapes, ideas about edge effects, matrix relevance, corridors, patch quality, relevance of habitat heterogeneity; for ecosystems, ideas about fluxes, feedbacks, cycles, alternate stable states; for communities, theories relating to gain and loss of biodiversity (insurance hypothesis, trophic cascades, intermediate disturbance, succession, food webs, competition, niche theory); for populations, theories of viability (density dependence, inbreeding, Allee effects, carrying capacity, etc.); and for individuals, theories about relevant differences between individuals (e.g., optimal foraging; sex, age and stage differences in dispersal). I'm not sure how many of these qualify as 'theories', of course, but many have substantial bodies of theory associated. There are also other theories that don't fit cleanly into this classification, such as ideas about dormancy/dispersal tradeoffs, parasites and pathogens, behavioural ecology, and invasive species. For a 3rd year course this would be too much, of course - I guess I would focus primarily on theories about biodiversity and community ecology?