Chapter
Ex situ conservation of microbial diversity
4.6 Reintroduction, translocation and captive breeding
Prevalence of translocation and reintroduction
Translocations, reintroductions and former ranges of species
Effectiveness of reintroduction and translocation strategies
Why reintroductions and translocations fail
Cost and cost-effectiveness of reintroduction strategies
4.8 Practical considerations
5 Changes in the physical environment
5.1 Land degradation, water resources and salinisation
Water in the Australian environment
Aridity, variability and the Australian biota
Agricultural and other chemicals
Excessive inputs of nutrients into ecosystems
CFC-induced ozone depletion
Other chemical pollutants
Limiting chemical pollution
The human basis for climate change
Predicting future climate change
Impact of climate change on species distribution patterns
Climate change and reserve design
Other impacts of climate change on biodiversity
5.5 Practical considerations
6 Loss of genetic diversity, populations and species
6.1 Loss of genetic variation
Hybridisation and swamping
Summary: loss of genetic variation
6.2 Background extinction rates
6.3 Mass extinction events
6.4 Extinction rates in recent history
6.5 Future extinction rates
6.7 Practical considerations
7 Changes in species distributions and abundances
7.1 Range contraction and depletion
Range contraction and natural distribution and abundance patterns
Migratory species: a special case of range conservation
Exotic marine organisms and ballast water
Weeds in Australian plant communities
Mechanisms of introduction
Weeds and pasture productivity for grazing
Weed dispersal and the impacts of motor vehicles
Environmental impacts of weeds
Weeds and animal populations
7.6 Genetically engineered species
Transgenic varieties and genetically modified organisms
Potential benefits of genetically modified organisms
Risks of genetically modified organisms
Assessing the effects of genetically modified organisms
7.9 Practical considerations
8 Harvesting natural populations
8.1 Native forest harvesting
Definition of forest cover
Early vegetation clearing and the establishment of State forests
Regional Forest Agreement process
Criteria and indicators of sustainability
Forest industry certification
Summary: native forest harvesting
Why biodiversity conservation within plantations is important
Plantation establishment and biodiversity
History of Kangaroo harvesting in Australia
Data input to guide Kangaroo harvesting
Setting quotas for Kangaroo harvesting
Ethical positions and perspectives on Kangaroo harvesting
The complexity of fisheries management
Stages of fisheries collapse
Cascading impacts of overfishing
Australian fishing industry
Status of Australian fishery stocks
Example of a sustainable fishery
Future issues and approaches to sustainability
8.6 Practical considerations
9 Vegetation loss and degradation
9.1 Vegetation clearing and habitat loss in Australia
Australia’s contribution to global levels of land clearing and vegetation loss
Past land-clearing patterns in Australia
Clearing by land-use zone
Clearing rates and land tenure
Vegetation types that have been cleared
Land clearing impacts on biodiversity
9.2 Mining and urbanisation
9.3 Traditional Aboriginal use and pastoralism
Traditional Aboriginal land use
9.5 Practical considerations
10 Landscapes and habitat fragmentation
10.1 Ways that landscapes can be altered
Vegetation cover patterns that arise from habitat loss and habitat fragmentation
Dynamism in the patterns of vegetation cover
10.2 Models of landscape cover
Patch-matrix-corridor model
Habitat-variegation or landscape continuum model
Congruence between the patch-matrix-corridor and continuum landscape models
Limitations in the application of the landscape models
Landscape contour approach
10.3 Ecological processes and species responses to habitat loss and fragmentation
Context for habitat loss and habitat fragmentation
Problems with the term ‘habitat fragmentation’
Five processes associated with landscape change
Vegetation loss, threshold effects and species loss
Cascading fragmentation effects
Vegetation subdivision, patch isolation and dispersal
10.4 Studying habitat loss and fragmentation
Problems in the way fragmentation is studied
10.5 Forecasting fragmentation effects
Predictive ability, generality and meta-analyses
10.6 Limiting the effects of habitat loss and fragmentation
Limiting and reversing habitat loss
Maintaining habitat quality
Wildlife corridors as a way to maintain connectivity
Other approaches to enhancing connectivity
Reducing edge effects: buffer systems
General principles for landscape management to mitigate habitat loss and fragmentation
10.8 Practical considerations
11.1 Brief history of fire in Australia
11.3 Response of biodiversity to wildfire
Wildfire and Australian animals
Wildfire and Australian plants
Wildfire and identifying patterns of species responses
11.4 Response of biodiversity to prescribed fire
11.5 Species vulnerability to fire
Animal and plant groups threatened by altered fire regimes
Vegetation communities sensitive to fire
11.6 Spatial variability in fire behaviour: fire refugia, landscape mosaics, and Aboriginal burning patterns
Fine-scale vegetation mosaics and Aboriginal burning
11.7 Fire management and biodiversity conservation
Fire management and conservation of the Eastern Bristlebird and the Ground Parrot
11.8 Studies to examine the effects of fire
11.9 Ecological theories, fire disturbance and biodiversity conservation
The biological legacies concept and biodiversity
Congruence between human disturbance and natural disturbance: values and limitations
Intermediate disturbance hypothesis
11.10 Cumulative effects of fire and other disturbance processes
11.11 Fire and reserve design
11.14 Practical considerations
12 Demands of the human population
12.1 The world population
Impacts of the human population on the environment
Human populations and biodiversity loss
12.2 Demands of the Australian population
Future size of Australia’s population
Energy demands and greenhouse gas production of Australia’s human population
Future Australian populations and future resource use
Australia’s carrying capacity
Australian population and biodiversity loss
Uniqueness of the Australian coastal zone
Coastal zone and the human population
Policy problems and solutions in coastal management
12.4 Murray–Darling Basin
Degradation in the Murray–Darling Basin
Biodiversity in the Murray–Darling Basin
Solutions to problems in the Murray–Darling Basin
12.6 Practical considerations
Part III:Methods of analysis
13 Measuring, managing and using genetic variation
Restriction fragment length polymorphism
Single nucleotide polymorphism
Randomly amplified polymorphic DNA
Minisatellite and microsatellite analysis
Mitochondrial DNA analysis
Chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) analysis
Understanding social structure
Estimating effective population size
Effects of genetic change on demographic parameters
Setting priorities for conservation
Managing captive populations
13.5 Practical considerations
14.1 Estimating species richness
Species accumulation indices
14.2 Detecting rare species
A test for change in community structure
14.6 Practical considerations
15.1 Methods for identifying habitat requirements
15.2 Qualitative habitat models
Potential limitations of the HSI approach
Advantages of the HSI approach
15.3 Statistical habitat models
Reliability measures for statistical models
Making a spatial prediction of potentially suitable habitat
Summary: statistical habitat modelling
15.4 Envelopes and bioclimatic modelling
BIOCLIM and bioclimatic modelling
Applications of bioclimatic analyses
15.6 Practical considerations
16.2 CAR reserve system design principles
16.3 Reserve design and biodiversity surrogate schemes
Potential limitations of surrogates
The need to test surrogates
Potential limitations of reserve selection methods
16.5 Reserve design and selection in the real world
Differences in the land base and competing demands for land
16.6 Island biogeography and the design of nature reserves
Problems with the ‘generic reserve design principles’ derived from the island biogeography theory
Why island biogeography theory has limited applicability to reserve design
Summary: island biogeography theory and reserve design
16.8 Practical considerations
17 Monitoring, assessment and indicators
17.1 Statistical power and the precautionary principle
Power and the precautionary principle
17.2 Management goals, assessment endpoints and measurement endpoints
Keystone species and indicator species
Problems with indicator species and related concepts
Summary: indicator species
17.4 Selecting indicators
Examples of the selection of suites of indicators
17.6 Practical considerations
18.1 Estimating extinction rates
18.2 Estimating the likelihood of extinction from collections
18.3 Population management and risk
18.5 Population viability analysis
A model for Matchstick Banksia
Metapopulations in a PVA framework
Caveats for metapopulation modelling
Minimum viable populations
The limits of population viability analysis
18.7 Practical implications
Part IV:Management principles for conservation
19 Sustainability and management
Maximum sustainable yield
Maximum sustainable yield and uncertainty
International conventions on sustainability
Globalisation, sustainability and biodiversity conservation
A formalised approach to adaptive management
Adaptive management in a political context
Adaptive management in the real world
19.3 Ecosystem management
19.4 Policy and science in conservation biology
19.6 Practical considerations
Appendix I: Taxonomic names