Designing and assessing the viability of nature reserve systems at regional scales: Integration of optimization, heuristic and dynamic models - Year 2
Project Description
Biodiversity conservation efforts worldwide increasingly emphasize a regional or ecoregional framework for biodviersity inventory and monitoring, as well as for the identification and prioritization of potential conservation sites (e.g., Dinerstein et al. 1995; Miller 1996; The Nature Conservancy 1996; Saunier and Meganck 1996). Within this framework, actual conservation investments will be influenced by both the choice of data sets for analysis and the choice of site selection strategies (e.g., heuristic vs. optimization; representativeness vs. rarity; complementarity vs. redundancy, etc.). Therefore, we propose to synthesize several existing large regional spatial datasets (for the Intermountain Semidesert ecoregion of the western U.S., encompassing parts of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, California, Utah, Wyoming and Montana) (Bailey 1994) as a means of exploring a set of questions which will inform both theoretical and practical aspects of biodiversity conservation.
Project extension: With this proposal we seek a second year of support (beginning in July, 1998) to continue and expand the activities of our NCEAS working group (for a description of the project and summary of results see http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/projects/2002). Our research aims to enhance the theoretical framework for biodiversity conservation planning, and to develop a novel computer-based approach to the design of nature reserve networks that integrates traditional optimization and heuristic models for reserve siting (based on a representation paradigm that emphasizes spatial patterns of species distribution) (e.g., Kirkpatrick 1983; Margules et. al. 1988; Vane-Wrightet. al. 1991; Church et. al. 1996; Davis et. al. 1996; Pressey et. al. 1996) , with dynamic modeling approaches that emphasize population persistence in both space and time (e.g., Lande and Orzack 1988; Tuljapurkar 1989; Dennis et. al. 1991; Fleming et. al.1994; Lindenmayer et. al. 1995; Possingham & Davies 1995; Pulliam & Dunning 1995).Our pilot study during year one has involved the organization and synthesis of several large biodiversity and land use data sets for the Columbia Plateau ecoregion. Our original NCEAS proposal requested funds for an initial period of twelve months, with possibility of a second year of support to extend and expand our analyses and syntheses, contingent on the success and promise of our accomplishments during the first year. This proposal summarizes progress to date, and outlines the research we propose for a second year of NCEAS support (July, 1998 ¿ June, 1999).
Principal Investigator(s)
Project Dates
Start: June 1, 1998
End: June 1, 1999
completed
Participants
- Sandy J. Andelman
- University of California, Santa Barbara
- Ian Ball
- University of Adelaide
- Jordi Bascompte
- University of California, Santa Barbara
- Mark Bryer
- The Nature Conservancy
- Mark Burgman
- University of Melbourne
- Bart Butterfield
- Idaho Department of Fish and Game
- Richard L. Church
- University of California, Santa Barbara
- Frank W. Davis
- University of California, Santa Barbara
- William F. Fagan
- Arizona State University
- Jon Hak
- The Nature Conservancy
- Marc Hoshovsky
- California Department of Fish and Game
- Parviez R. Hosseini
- University of California, Santa Barbara
- Jimmy Kagan
- Oregon Natural Heritage Program
- Peter Kareiva
- University of Washington
- Trish Klahr
- The Nature Conservancy
- Eli Meir
- University of Washington
- Bob Moseley
- Idaho Department of Fish and Game
- Hugh P. Possingham
- University of Adelaide, Roseworthy
- Mary Ruckelshaus
- NOAA, Northwest Fisheries Science Center
- David M. Stoms
- University of California, Santa Barbara
Products
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Journal Article / 2000
Umbrellas and flagships: Efficient conservation surrogates or expensive mistakes?
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Journal Article / 1999
Systematic reserve selection in the USA: An example from the Columbia Plateau Ecoregion
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Presentations / 1998
Variation thresholds for extinction and their implications for conservation strategies
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Presentations / 1999
Umbrella species: Efficient conservation surrogates, or leaky, expensive mistakes?
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Journal Article / 1999
Variation thresholds for extinction and their implications for conservation strategies
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Presentations / 1999
Will observation error and biases ruin the use of simple extinction models?
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Presentations / 1999
The quantity and quality of data needed for effective design of systems of reserves
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Journal Article / 2000
Will observation error and biases ruin the use of simple extinction models?
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Journal Article / 2004
Does conservation planning matter in a dynamic and uncertain world?
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Book Chapter / 2000
Mathematical methods for identifying representative reserve networks
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Journal Article / 2005
Identifying priority areas for bioclimatic representation under climate change: A case study for Proteaceae in the Cape Floristic Region, South Africa