Implications of current ecological thinking for biodiversity conservation: A review of the salient issues
By T. Wallington, Richard J. Hobbs, S. Moore. 2005
219 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Given escalating concern worldwide about the loss of biodiversity, and given biodiversity's centrality to quality of life, it is imperative that current ecological knowledge fully informs societal decision making. Over the past two decades, ecological science has undergone many significant shifts in emphasis and perspective, which have important implications for how we manage ecosystems and species. In particular, a shift has occurred from the equilibrium paradigm to one that recognizes the dynamic, non-equilibrium nature of ecosystems. Revised thinking about the spatial and temporal dynamics of ecological systems has important implications for management. Thus, it is of growing concern to ecologists and others that these recent developments have not been translated into information useful to managers and policy makers. Many conservation policies and plans are still based on equilibrium assumptions. A fundamental difficulty with integrating current ecological thinking into biodiversity policy and management planning is that field observations have yet to provide compelling evidence for many of the relationships suggested by non-equilibrium ecology. Yet despite this scientific uncertainty, management and policy decisions must still be made. This paper was motivated by the need for considered scientific debate on the significance of current ideas in theoretical ecology for biodiversity conservation. This paper aims to provide a platform for such discussion by presenting a critical synthesis of recent ecological literature that (1) identifies core issues in ecological theory, and (2) explores the implications of current ecological thinking for biodiversity conservation.
Subfields: Ecology, Global and Planetary Change, Nature and Landscape Conservation
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/99a1facf95826e5140ad1da4b87dc7b350de5f71
How researchers see this paper
The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.
In Ecology
In Global and Planetary Change
In Nature and Landscape Conservation
Citations in the corpus
- Focusing the Meaning(s) of Resilience: Resilience as a Descriptive Concept and a Boundary Object (2007, background): “In a descriptive sense, the concept of resilience points to a nonequilibrium view on ecological systems (Wallington et al. 2005), that is, it assumes the existence of alternative stable regimes (Holling 1996).”
- Harvestmen in an Atlantic forest fragmented landscape: Evaluating assemblage response to habitat quality and quantity (2007, background): “... two decades, a large number of studies focused on the ecological mechanisms and consequences resulting from the expansion of human activities over tropical forest (Turner, 1996; Laurance and Bierregaard, 1997; Bierregaard et al., 2001; Laurance et al., 2002; Dunn, 2004; Lindenmayer and Hobbs, 20”
- Setting Effective and Realistic Restoration Goals: Key Directions for Research (2007, background): “There is increasing recognition that ecosystem dynamics can be complex, nonlinear, and often unpredictable (Wallington et al. 2005).”
- Invasive plant suppresses charismatic seabird - the construction of attitudes towards biodiversity management options. (2007, unknown): “…(1977) conservation criteria are examples of such crystallised values, and a number of authors expand on selected criteria such as balance (Wallington et al., 2005), autochthony (Peretti, 1998), endangeredness (Rolston, 1997), naturalness (Götmark, 1992; Hunter, 1996; Machado, 2004),…”
- How too much care kills species: Grassland reserves, agri-environmental schemes and extinction of Colias myrmidone (Lepidoptera: Pieridae) from its former stronghold (2008, background): “Wallington et al. (2005) demonstrated that it takes decades before ecological knowledge passes into environmental legislation.”
- Cost-benefit analysis in the context of ecosystem services for human well-being: A multidisciplinary critique (2011, background): “Ecosystems are complex and highly interconnected, and are endowed with some degree of in-built resilience (Wallington et al., 2005).”
- Understanding mental constructs of biodiversity: Implications for biodiversity management and conservation (2007, background): “These notions might reflect the importance of equilibrium theories for ecological thinking in past decades that has now reached educational curricula and popular scientific programmes and publications as well as conservation practice (Wallington et al., 2005).”