摘要:

While academic scientists often wish to contribute to conservation efforts, differences between the academic and conservation arenas can sometimes frustrate their efforts. To increase awareness of both the opportunities and the potential pitfalls of such interactions, I examined and contrasted the perspectives of biologists in academia and in land management and conservation. Those responsible for protecting "sensitive" plants and vegetation possess a wealth of empirical evidence that could be used to test predictions of ecological and conservation biology theory. Real‐life management issues offer perfect laboratories for research by academic scientists in population and community ecology, e.g., identifying factors important in regulating population size or assessing community responses to disturbance or to the introduction of a species. While such research combines basic questions with tangible application and (sometimes) financial support, it may also offer obstacles to participation by academic ecologists. Some of these are: difficulty of obtaining permits for experimentation on protected species; logistic and ethical questions of experimenting in preserves; and the sometimes small influence of science in decision‐making in a multiple‐use environment. Communication and collaboration between managers and scientists might be facilitated by state Heritage programs and recovery teams and by scientists taking advantage of existing agency outreach mechanisms.

ISSN:1051-0761    

DOI:10.2307/1942064

出版商:Ecological Society of America    

年代:1995

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Environmental assessments of regional development projects have been used in Mexico to determine where conflicts between conservation of biodiversity and resource extraction are likely to occur. Species‐rich areas have been acknowledged as a priority for conservation. However, biological information is incomplete and biased toward accessible sites, so species‐rich areas cannot be depicted directly from current biological knowledge. An alternative approach to predicting species‐rich areas is presented in this article. It is based on the gap analysis technique and involves the use of ordination analysis and generalized linear models integrated with a geographic information system. This approach was used for locating species‐rich areas in the Mexican states of Guerrero and Oaxaca, where a regional forestry development project was proposed. Baseline information consisted of geo‐referenced collection sites of terrestrial vertebrates. Thirty‐two species assemblages were identified by the ordination analysis, as well as by 25 generalized linear models. Validation of six of these models showed no significant differences between observed and predicted species frequencies. Results demonstrated that species‐rich areas could be depicted even under the constraints of environmental assessment in Mexico. A large number of species could be used in this analysis due to the minimal information required for each species record. This predictive approach optimized available biological information for the integration of conservation into regional development planning.

ISSN:1051-0761    

DOI:10.2307/1942065

出版商:Ecological Society of America    

年代:1995

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

The interactions between ecological research and management decisions about environmental problems are complex. This paper attempts to analyze the different types of research related to environmental decision‐making so that their relationships and purposes can become clearer. There are four major types of research, which interact with one another and with management to influence the outcome of decision‐making. Category 1 is the available pool of research, the material presented to or used by management agencies when they have defined a problem and need data to use in reaching decisions about what to do to solve it. Ecologists are excessively reactive and responsive to the uses of this research rather than initiating or being proactive in the use of their findings. As a result, managers have always defined the problems and set the agendas for their solution. This causes requests from the research community for information that is chosen by managers. Our responses are therefore often confused and uncertain. Research is not properly used because researchers are not setting the agendas. Many perceived managerial problems could be reframed by better ecological input and a concomitant reduction in the uncertainty associated with inappropriate uses of ecological research. Category 2 is applied and environmental research aimed at specific tests of the results of the decisions made by managers by treating these decisions as testable hypotheses. This is rarely done. It should be a major contribution of ecology to environmental matters. Category 3 is new, basic, and strategic research to develop new theories and understanding when former managerial decisions fail (as revealed by Category 2). Ecologists have not been successful in ensuring that such programs are actively pursued as the mainstay of our ability to provide better research in the future, which will then form the available pool of understanding (as in Category 1) when called on by managerial agencies. We tend to do such research in isolation from the needs of environmental management. We are often compelled into making predictions about ecological processes and outcomes that we do not understand. We need a better understanding by managers about the sorts of research we must do to allow proper predictions. Until then, there must be much more ecological research into the outcomes of managerial decisions, as tests of the predictions and hypotheses made in the formation of the managerial policies. We need novel research programs that arise out of the failures of previous attempts to manage, control, or prevent environmental degradation or to enhance restoration. Category 4 is managerial research designed to investigate the processes of management and the procedures by which decisions are reached using the information provided under Category 1. This is normally not a scientific study and is rarely done in conjunction with ecologists. Yet ecologists should be the people best trained to analyze the procedures used in public management of environmental issues where these relate to decisions based on ecological data. Ecologists should evaluate much more extensively the validity or generality of ecological research in Category 1 for a particular defined problem of environmental management. Otherwise, inappropriate findings, models, and/or opinions become incorporated into a complex mechanism for making decisions. How the results of ecological research are used in decision‐making is a crucial area of study that must be investigated by ecologists. This paper attempts to make the strengths and purposes of the research and its limitations more obvious to research scientists, environmental managers, and the public. The ways in which ecologists deal with the management of environmental problems may thereby become increasingly effective.

ISSN:1051-0761    

DOI:10.2307/1942066

出版商:Ecological Society of America    

年代:1995

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

We examined PCB concentration data for seven species of Lake Michigan fishes to determine what trends were apparent °20 yr after PCB restrictions became effective. Total PCB concentrations in all seven species, lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush), rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), brown trout (Salmo trutta), chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch), alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus), and bloater chub (Coregonus hoyi) declined and appeared to stabilize in the mid‐to‐late 1980s. Concentrations in two species, chinook and coho salmon, appear to have increased slightly since the late 1980s. All species are currently well below the high PCB levels that existed when PCB use was curtailed in the 1970s. We believe stabilizing concentrations are the result of large pools of PCBs that are being recycled in the environment. Atmospheric and sediment PCB inputs to the lake probably constitute current PCB sources. Increasing concentrations in chinook and coho salmon are likely the result of changing growth dynamics caused by alterations in the mid‐trophic levels of the food web. Median stable PCB concentrations estimated in this analysis are below the current FDA action level of 2 mg/kg, but not appreciably below this threshold. Improvements beyond these levels may result if management practices that maximize fish growth rates are implemented. Detection of future improvements in PCB levels may require samples in the range of 1000‐2000 fish because of the high variability in PCB concentrations among individuals.

ISSN:1051-0761    

DOI:10.2307/1942067

出版商:Ecological Society of America    

年代:1995

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Most of the coastal wetlands of the South Atlantic region of the United States are expected to diminish in size in response to the opposing forces of increasing human population growth and accelerating rates of rising sea level. We evaluated several models that project the response of coastal wetlands to rising sea level and concluded that current models appear unsuited for wetlands of the Albermarle‐Pamlico peninsula of North Carolina. We came to this conclusion after we examined the distribution of wetlands, elevation contours, estimates of surface slope, soil types, and peat deposits on the peninsula. Most of the data were obtained from U.S. Geological Survey topographic quadrangle maps, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Wetlands Inventory maps, U.S. Soil Conservation Service soil surveys, and inventories of peat deposits. Some unusual features of this peninsula are low elevation (56% of total area<1.5 m), extensive coverage by wetlands (53%) and hydric soils (90%), negligible slopes of the land surface, virtual absence of tides, and lack of abundant sources of sediment. In the process of reconstructing how past rises in sea level most likely led to present conditions, it became apparent that vertical accretion of peat in situ is largely responsible for landscape features in areas where elevations are lowest. Were it not for these deposits, the land surface area of the peninsula would be decreasing relative to sea level. This situation contrasts sharply with areas in the eastern United States fringed by tidal marshes, which are undergoing overland migration at a rate dictated by landward slope and the rate of rising sea level. If the rate of sea level rise accelerates, it is doubtful if vertical accretion rates of peat can prevent submergence of extensive areas of wetlands in the Albermarle‐Pamlico peninsula. Land use and drainage in the lowest elevations of the peninsula are currently being affected by sea level. Future land management of the peninsula will be constrained by potential landscape changes as a result of rising sea level.

ISSN:1051-0761    

DOI:10.2307/1942068

出版商:Ecological Society of America    

年代:1995

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Populations of native and introduced aquatic organisms in the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento‐San Joaquin Delta Estuary ("Bay/Delta") have undergone significant declines over the past two decades. Decreased river inflow due to drought and increased freshwater diversion have contributed to the decline of at least some populations. Effective management of the estuary's biological resources requires a sensitive indicator of the response to freshwater inflow that has ecological significance, can be measured accurately and easily, and could be used as a "policy" variable to set standards for managing freshwater inflow. Positioning of the 2% (grams of salt per kilogram of seawater) bottom salinity value along the axis of the estuary was examined for this purpose. The 2% bottom salinity position (denoted by X2) has simple and significant statistical relationships with annual measures of many estuarine resources, including the supply of phytoplankton and phytoplankton‐derived detritus from local production and river loading; benthic macroinvertebrates (molluscs); mysids and shrimp; larval fish survival; and the abundance of planktivorous, piscivorous, and bottom‐foraging fish. The actual mechanisms are understood for only a few of these populations. X2also satisfies other recognized requirements for a habitat indicator and probably can be measured with greater accuracy and precision than alternative habitat indicators such as net freshwater inflow into the estuary. The 2% value may not have special ecological significance for other estuaries (in the Bay/Delta, it marks the locations of an estuarine turbidity maximum and peaks in the abundance of several estuarine organisms), but the concept of using near‐bottom isohaline position as a habitat indicator should be widely applicable. Although X2is a sensitive index of the estuarine community's response to net freshwater inflow, other hydraulic features of the estuary also determine population abundances and resource levels. In particular, diversion of water for export from or consumption within the estuary can have a direct effect on population abundance independent of its effect on X2. The need to consider diversion, in addition to X2, for managing certain estuarine resources is illustrated using striped bass survival as an example. The striped bass survival data were also used to illustrate a related important point: incorporating additional explanatory variables may decrease the prediction error for a population or process, but it can increase the uncertainty in parameter estimates and management strategies based on these estimates. Even in cases where the uncertainty is currently too large to guide management decisions, an uncertainty analysis can identify the most practical direction for future data acquisition.

ISSN:1051-0761    

DOI:10.2307/1942069

出版商:Ecological Society of America    

年代:1995

数据来源: WILEY