Conservation Biology and Global Change
Conservation Biology is an interdisciplinary scientific discipline that seeks to understand and improve the conservation of biodiversity. Conservation biologists work to protect the diversity and abundance of life on Earth by focusing on the identification of the needs and preferences of both plants and animals and by providing appropriate strategies for their protection. The term conservation biology is used in the United States and Canada, and as a synonym for conservation science in Britain and Australia. Conservation biology is a scientific discipline that works to understand and improve the conservation of biodiversity. It is an interdisciplinary scientific discipline that draws upon the knowledge of many different fields, including ecology, genetics, population dynamics, evolutionary biology, and systematics. The term conservation biology may also include the study of conservation beyond species and ecosystems, including conservation of cultural traditions, human rights, and social justice. Conservation biology also includes the study of conservation policy and the application of science to the sustainable management of biological diversity. The scope of conservation biology has expanded from its initial focus on the conservation of species to include the conservation of ecosystem services, sustainable use of natural resources, and protection of biodiversity. Conservation biologists strive to improve the appreciation of biodiversity, to discover how biodiversity relates to ecosystem processes, and to discover new ways to manage it. The central concept of conservation biology is biodiversity, often defined as the variability among living organisms from all sources. The biological diversity of life on Earth is a major topic of conservation biology. Biodiversity generally refers to the variety of life on Earth, but the term is most often used in the context of describing plant and animal species. In contrast, ecosystems are collections of interacting organisms, and biodiversity has been defined as the variety of ecosystems on Earth. In a broad sense, biodiversity is the variety of ecosystems, and the variety of species that inhabit those ecosystems. Although biodiversity is often defined as the variety of life on Earth, the term biodiversity can be used to describe the variety of ecosystems on any planet. Conservation biology is the theoretical and practical application of the fields of ecology, evolutionary biology, genetics, physiology, and other natural sciences to the study of the conservation of biological diversity. The term "conservation biology" was coined by Ronald Fisher in the 1930s to describe the emerging biological discipline that emphasized the importance of biological diversity. Conservation biologists work to understand the importance of biological diversity to ecosystems and to society in general, and to identify and implement conservation strategies that seek to preserve the diversity of life. The basic premise of conservation biology is that the diversity of life on Earth is limited, and that this diversity is the foundation for all other biological diversity. The diversity of life on Earth is the result of evolution by natural selection. The rate of extinction of species has increased with human activities, and is estimated to be 100 to 1000 times the natural background rate. Most species that become extinct do so before ever being scientifically described. Therefore, species are currently being lost at almost a thousand times the background extinction rate. The conservation of biodiversity is broadly inspired by the "Red List" of threatened species, and by the "SILVA" database, which is a comprehensive compilation of species' distributions and threats. Conservation biology is the application of the principles of ecology, evolutionary biology, genetics, physiology, and other natural sciences to the study of the conservation of biological diversity. It is the scientific study of biodiversity and focuses on the preservation, restoration, and sustainable use of biological diversity. Conservation biology is highly interdisciplinary in nature and draws from many fields including ecology, evolutionary biology, genetics, physiology, and other natural sciences. Conservation biologists are concerned with protecting and preserving the biodiversity and ecosystems of the Earth. Conservation biology is highly interdisciplinary in nature, drawing from a broad range of fields including ecology, evolutionary biology, genetics, physiology, and other natural sciences. The field has strong links to issues of environmental science, public policy, and human biology. Conservation biology's focus on biodiversity has also led to the study of conservation beyond species and ecosystems, including conservation of cultural traditions, human rights, and social justice. In the field of conservation biology, there are several key topics and concepts: One of the first and most important concepts in conservation biology is the idea of "biodiversity". This term is defined in various ways by different authors, but has come to refer to the variety of life on Earth. The field of conservation biology seeks to improve the appreciation of all forms of life, including the variety of life on Earth. Biodiversity in this sense is not defined by the number of species, but by the variety of species and ecosystems. This definition is called the "species-centric" definition of biodiversity. Biodiversity can be considered in terms of the variety of species or the variety of ecosystems. Biodiversity is usually measured in terms of the number of species or ecosystems, but other measures are also used, such as population density or biomass. The total number of species
