Journal article
Questions of importance to the conservation of biological diversity: answers from the past
- Abstract:
- Paleoecological records are replete with examples of biotic responses to past climate change and human impact, but how can we use these records in the conservation of current and future biodiversity? A recently published list of (One Hundred Questions of Importance to the Conservation of Global Biological Diversity) (Sutherland et al., 2009) highlights a number of key research questions that need a temporal perspective. Many of these questions are related to the determination of ecological processes in order to assess ecosystem function and services, climate change-integrated conservation strategies, and ecosystem management and restoration. However, it is noticeable that not a single contributor to this list was from the paleo-research community and that extremely few paleo-records are ever used in the development of terrestrial conservation management plans. This lack of dialogue between conservationists and the paleo-community is partially driven by a perception that the data provided by paleoecological records are purely descriptive and not of relevance to the day-to-day management and conservation of biological diversity. This paper illustrates, through a series of case-studies, how long-term ecological records (> 50 years) can provide a test of predictions and assumptions of ecological processes that are directly relevant to management strategies necessary to retain biological diversity in a changing climate. This discussion paper includes information on diversity baselines, thresholds, resilience, and restoration of ecological processes.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
Actions
Access Document
- Files:
-
-
(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 397.1KB, Terms of use)
-
- Publisher copy:
- 10.5194/cp-6-759-2010
- Publisher:
- Copenicus Publications
- Journal:
- Climate of the Past More from this journal
- Volume:
- 6
- Pages:
- 759-769
- Publication date:
- 2010-01-01
- Edition:
- Publisher's version
- DOI:
- EISSN:
-
1814-9332
- ISSN:
-
1814-9324
- Language:
-
English
- Keywords:
- Subjects:
- UUID:
-
uuid:9264b9dd-7087-4c3c-a816-8084976da3d3
- Local pid:
-
ora:5690
- Deposit date:
-
2011-09-12
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- K J Willis & S A Bhagwat
- Copyright date:
- 2010
- Notes:
- Citation: Willis, K. J. & Bhagwat, S. A. (2010). 'Questions of importance to the conservation of biological diversity: answers from the past', Climate of the Past, 6, 759-769. [Available at http://www.clim-past.net/6/759/2010/cp-6-759-2010.html].© Authors 2010. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/). This permits the copying, distribution, transmission and adaption of the work, provided the original authors are credited. For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work. These conditions may be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
If you are the owner of this record, you can report an update to it here: Report update to this record