Ecological Challenges and Conservation Conundrums (eBook)

Professor John Wiens, PRBO Conservation Science, California, USA Professor Wiens is currently Chief Conservation Science Officer at PRBO Conservation Science, California, and a visiting faculty member of the University of Western Australia in Perth, where he collaborates with colleagues on restoration ecology. He held positions at Oregon state University, the University of New Mexico and Colorado State University before leaving academia in 2002 to join The Nature Conservancy as Lead Scientist. He has published over ten books and 250 scientific papers. At PRBO Professor Wiens develops guidance for assessing how landscapes are likely to change and how management practices can help to mitigate or adapt to the changes.

Acknowledgments

Preamble Why This Book?

Essay 1 How Did I Get Here?

Essay 2 Found! The Survivor in the Swamps (2005)

Essay 3 In Defense of Footnotes (2014)

Part I The Challenge

Chapter 1 Conservation and Change

Chapter 2 A Digression on Paradigms

Essay 4 The Power of Paradigms (2014)

Essay 5 Patterns, Paradigms, and Preconceptions (2013)

Essay 6 Fat Times, Lean Times, and Competition Among Predators (1993)

Chapter 3 Equilibrium, Stability, and Change

Essay 7 From Our Southern Correspondent(s) (2011)

Essay 8 Boom and Bust: Lessons from the Outback (2014)

Chapter 4 A Digression on Disturbance

Essay 9 Oil, Oil, Everywhere (2010)

Part II The Forces of Change

Chapter 5 Climate Change and Sea-level Rise

Essay 10 Polar Bears, Golden Toads, and Conservation Futures (2008)

Chapter 6 Land-use Change

Essay 11 Will Land-use Change Erode Our Conservation Gains? (2007)

Essay 12 Landscape Ecology: The Science and the Action (1999)

Chapter 7 Distributional Changes: Invasive Species

Chapter 8 Social, Cultural, and Political Change

Essay 13 Wildlife, People, and Water: Who Wins? (2012)

Chapter 9 Population Growth

Chapter 10 Linkages among Changes

Part III Some Conservation Conundrums

Chapter 11 Variation and History

Essay 14 The Eclipse of History? (2008)

Essay 15 From Our Southern Correspondent(s): Which History? (2013)

Chapter 12 A Digression on Baselines and Targets

Essay 16 Shooting at a Moving Target (2011)

Chapter 13 Ecological Thresholds

Essay 17.Tipping Points in the Balance of Nature (2010)

Chapter 14 Ecological Resilience

Chapter 15.Dealing with Novelty

Essay 18 Black Swans and Outliers (2012)

Essay 19 Moving Outside the Box (2009)

Chapter 16 Uncertainty: A Boon or a Bane?

Essay 20 Taking Risks with the Environment (2012)

Essay 21 Uncertainty and the Relevance of Ecology (2008)

Chapter 17 Prioritization and Triage

Essay 22 Talking about Triage in Conservation (2015)

Chapter 18 Protected Areas: Where the Wild Things Are

Essay 23 Build it and They will Come (2013)

Essay 24 The Dangers of Black-and-White Conservation (2007)

Chapter 19 Ecosystem Services and the Value of Nature

Essay 25 What's so New About Ecosystem Services? (2007)

Part IV Doing Conservation

Chapter 20 What is it We are Trying to Conserve?

Essay 26 Be Careful What You Wish For (2014)

Essay 27 Are Bird Communities Real? (1980)

Essay 28 A Metaphor Meets an Abstraction: The Issue of Ecosystem Health (2015)

Chapter 21 Numbers, Numbers, Numbers

Essay 29 Is 'Monitoring' a Dirty Word? (2009)

Essay 30 The Place of Long-term Studies in Ornithology (1984)

Essay 31 What Use is Small Data in a Big Data World? (2013)

Chapter 22 A Digression on Words

Essay 32 Word Processing versus Writing (1983, 2011)

Chapter 23 Debates in Ecology and Conservation

Essay 33 On Skepticism and Criticism in Ornithology (1981)

Essay 34 The Demise of Wildness? (2007)

Chapter 24 What Lies Behind the Debates? Philosophy, Values, and Ethics

Chapter 25 A Digression on Advocacy in Conservation

Essay 35 Scientific Responsibility and Responsible Ecology (1997)

Part V Concluding Comments

Chapter 26 Whither Ecology and Conservation in a Changing World?

Essay 36 It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times (2009)

Essay 37 Being Green Isn't Easy (2010)

Essay 38 Stewart Udall and the Future of Conservation (2010)

References

Scientific Names

Index