The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

The role of metapopulations in conservation

The role of metapopulations in conservation
The role of metapopulations in conservation
Wherever wildlife management concerns the movement of individuals across structured habitat, its scale of operations will encompass metapopulation dynamics. The goal of this chapter is to review the potential applications of metapopulation concepts and models in reserve design and conservation management. Our perspective is forward-looking. We show how some key problems of where to direct conservation effort and how to manage populations can be addressed in the context of regional habitat structure and the survival and renewal of habitat patches. We also mention several cases of successful metapopulation management and point out practical problems. We emphasise (1) that the viability of a population may depend on surrounding populations, in which case metapopulation processes influence or determine reserve design and management options; (2) that understanding the dynamic processes requires models, which make assumptions that need validating; (3) that the principle limitation of metapopulation models is their single-species focus. Conservation strategies clearly depend on the particular social, economic and ecological circumstances of each region, and concepts such as the metapopulation can seem irrelevant to practical concerns. We aim to show, nevertheless, that an understanding of metapopulation dynamics can be vital to asking pertinent questions and seeking potential solutions. The conceptual framework of metapopulation dynamics tells us what information is needed in order to build case-specific models relevant to any of a wide range of issues. These issues include the potential disadvantages of habitat corridors, or hidden benefits of sink habitat; the optimal schedule for translocations or reintroductions; the relative merits of reducing local extinctions against increasing colonisations; the optimum distribution of habitat improvement; and the advantages of increasing life spans of ephemeral habitats.
1405122498
64-84
Blackwell Publishing
Akçakaya, H. Resit
3b2f33ce-19c4-4e00-b716-54e6fa527e44
Mills, Gus
852914f3-5bd9-4c9a-803a-b9e1d1e3266d
Doncaster, C. Patrick
0eff2f42-fa0a-4e35-b6ac-475ad3482047
Macdonald, David W.
Service, Katrina
Akçakaya, H. Resit
3b2f33ce-19c4-4e00-b716-54e6fa527e44
Mills, Gus
852914f3-5bd9-4c9a-803a-b9e1d1e3266d
Doncaster, C. Patrick
0eff2f42-fa0a-4e35-b6ac-475ad3482047
Macdonald, David W.
Service, Katrina

Akçakaya, H. Resit, Mills, Gus and Doncaster, C. Patrick (2007) The role of metapopulations in conservation. In, Macdonald, David W. and Service, Katrina (eds.) Key Topics in Conservation Biology. Oxford, UK. Blackwell Publishing, pp. 64-84.

Record type: Book Section

Abstract

Wherever wildlife management concerns the movement of individuals across structured habitat, its scale of operations will encompass metapopulation dynamics. The goal of this chapter is to review the potential applications of metapopulation concepts and models in reserve design and conservation management. Our perspective is forward-looking. We show how some key problems of where to direct conservation effort and how to manage populations can be addressed in the context of regional habitat structure and the survival and renewal of habitat patches. We also mention several cases of successful metapopulation management and point out practical problems. We emphasise (1) that the viability of a population may depend on surrounding populations, in which case metapopulation processes influence or determine reserve design and management options; (2) that understanding the dynamic processes requires models, which make assumptions that need validating; (3) that the principle limitation of metapopulation models is their single-species focus. Conservation strategies clearly depend on the particular social, economic and ecological circumstances of each region, and concepts such as the metapopulation can seem irrelevant to practical concerns. We aim to show, nevertheless, that an understanding of metapopulation dynamics can be vital to asking pertinent questions and seeking potential solutions. The conceptual framework of metapopulation dynamics tells us what information is needed in order to build case-specific models relevant to any of a wide range of issues. These issues include the potential disadvantages of habitat corridors, or hidden benefits of sink habitat; the optimal schedule for translocations or reintroductions; the relative merits of reducing local extinctions against increasing colonisations; the optimum distribution of habitat improvement; and the advantages of increasing life spans of ephemeral habitats.

Text
38499-01.pdf - Accepted Manuscript
Restricted to Repository staff only
Request a copy

More information

Published date: 2007

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 38499
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/38499
ISBN: 1405122498
PURE UUID: 2f1914e6-eb24-404d-bad7-683867156b03
ORCID for C. Patrick Doncaster: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-9406-0693

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 12 Jun 2006
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 02:49

Export record

Contributors

Author: H. Resit Akçakaya
Author: Gus Mills
Editor: David W. Macdonald
Editor: Katrina Service

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×