Conservation biologists often say that their discipline is less about Biology than it is about economics and human decision-making. What do you think they mean?
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Answer:
What is Conservation Biology?
Conservation biology, said to be a "mission-oriented crisis discipline" (Soulé 1986), is a multidisciplinary science that has developed to address the loss of biological diversity. Conservation biology has two central goals: 1. to evaluate human impacts on biological diversity and 2. to develop practical approaches to prevent the extinction of species (Soulé 1986, Wilson 1992). The concept of conservation biology was introduced by Dasmann (1968) and Ehrenfeld (1970). Soulé & Wilcox's (1980) contribution, Conservation Biology: An Evolutionary Ecological Perspective, served as an impetus for the development of the discipline. Over the next six years, many scientists began to refer to themselves as conservation biologists. Conservation Biology: The Science of Scarcity and Diversity was published, a Society for Conservation Biology formed, and a journal was established (Soulé 1986).Several factors contributed to the development of the field. Scientists began to realize that virtually all natural systems have been damaged by what Diamond (1986) referred to as the "Evil Quartet": habitat loss and fragmentation, overharvesting, introduced predators and competitors, and the indirect effects of these threats on ecological interactions. None of the traditional applied disciplines, such as wildlife management, agriculture, forestry and fisheries, were comprehensive enough by themselves to address critical threats to biological diversity (Primrack 1993). Theories and field studies in community ecology, island biogeography, and population ecology were subjects of major investigation and development in the 1960s and 1970s, and while these disciplines have direct relevance to conservation, they traditionally emphasized the study of species in their natural environments, in the absence of human activity. The growing separation of "applied" and "basic" disciplines prohibited the exchange of new ideas and information between various academic assemblages and to management circles (Soulé 1980).Conservation biology as a discipline aims to provide answers to specific questions that can be applied to management decisions. The main goal is to establish workable methods for preserving species and their biological communities. Specific methods have been developed for determining the best strategies for protecting threatened species, designing nature reserves, initiating breeding programs to maintain genetic variability in small populations, and reconciling conservation concerns with the needs of local people (Primrack 1993).
The interface between theory and practice in conservation biology, especially from the point of view of resource managers, has been somewhat neglected (Soulé 1986). Because we do not understand community and ecosystem structure and function well enough to make reliable predictions, uncertainty has inhibited scientists from providing concrete answers to managers. The availability of statistical and computational tools has been integral in the development of analytical methods critical to addressing the issue of uncertainty in conservation biology.
Statistical and Computational Tools Used in Conservation Biology
Population Viability Analysis (PVA)
PVA is a process used to evaluate the likelihood that a population will persist for some particular time in a particular environmental
Minimum Viable Population: What's the Magic Number?
In the 1970s, empirical studies and ecological and genetic theory converged on the idea that a species becomes exceptionally vulnerable to extinction when it includes only a few small populations (MacArthur & Wilson 1967, Richter-Dyn & Goel 1972, Leigh 1975). The observation that once a population was reduced below a certain threshold, it began to dwindle toward extinction led to the concept of minimum viable population size (MVP), the smallest number of individuals necessary to prevent a population from going extinct. The concept of MVP officially emerged in response to an injunction from the United States Congress to the US Forest Service to maintain "viable populations" of all native vertebrate species in National Forests (National Forest Management Act of 1976, 16 USC 1600-1614; Gilpin & Soulé 1986). The concept encompasses theories that had been developed and tested to varying degrees in the fields of population genetics and demography.
MVP remains a tenuous concept among conservation biologists. In light of the complex and dynamic nature of single species population dynamics, conservation biologists have frowned upon the "magic number" concept. They argue that the job of conservation biologists should be to recommend or provide more than just the minimum number necessary for a species' persistence (Soulé 1987). Yet the term has not been abandoned and actually remains a central theme in conservation biology.