Term
| What is structured decision making? |
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Definition
o A formal method for analyzing a decision, by breaking it into components
o Helps identify where the impediments to a decision are, to focus effort on the right piece
o Provides a wide array of analytical tools for dealing with particular impediments |
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Term
| What are the basic steps of structured decision making? |
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Definition
• Basic Steps
o Define Problem
o Define Issues, Objectives, and Evaluation Criteria
o Develop Alternatives
o Estimate Consequences
o Make Trade Offs and Select |
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Term
| How is structured decision making different than the traditional linear model of science? |
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Definition
| o Its collaborative. Works with stakeholders, deals explicitly with uncertainty. |
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Term
| What are the benefits and advantages of a structured decision making approach? |
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Definition
• Advantages
o Distinguishes between fact and value based inputs
o Provides explicit mechanism for consideration of objectives and linking objectives to alternatives
o Provides mechanisms for input from stakeholders
o Difficult choices throughout are shifted to management---with tools for showing what factors were weighed in choices |
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Term
| Why is adaptive management particularly relevant to problems in conservation biology? |
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Definition
| o No right answer to Con Bio issues. This model accounts for all of the uncertainty and stochasticity that occurs. |
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Term
| What is adaptive management and how is it different than structured decision making? Describe how it has been applied for harvest management of mid-continent mallards. |
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Definition
• Iterated decision making in the face of structural uncertainty, with focus on its reduction.
o Not unfocused trial and error, not experimentation, not consensus tool for resolving different stakeholder values
• Harvest Management of Mallards
o Used to aid in determining season length, bag limit, and measure population size and habitat conditions. |
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Term
| ) Name and describe the 4 types of uncertainty associated with decision making. Which of these types of uncertainty is usually the focus of an adaptive management approach? |
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Definition
• Partial Observability
o Seeing the system in its apparent state, not its real state
• Environmental Stochasticity-Focus of Adaptive Management Approach
o Random, unpredictable variation around a mean response
• Partial Controllability
o Inability to carry out a targeted action
• Structural/Parametric Uncertainty
o Inability to state an average system response to an action |
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Term
| Why was an elk restoration considered in Missouri? |
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Definition
| • Elk were once a prevalent species in MO and citizens were in favor of restoring them. |
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Term
| Describe the biological and social assessments that were done to assess the feasibility of elk restoration? Which of these assessments was most influential? |
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Definition
• Biological: Proper habitat
• Social: Surveys, public forums, open houses. Social was most influential |
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Term
| ) Describe restoration protocols (e.g. holding and disease testing in KY and MO, soft release) established for elk. Why are these important? |
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Definition
• Capture/Holding
• Disease Testing
• Monitoring
• Wandering Elk
• Habitat Management |
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Term
| What were the key elements of wild turkey restoration in Missouri? |
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Definition
• Establish a refuge to increase populations of native birds
• Ability to capture birds from the wild
• Cooperation of private landowners
• Promise of a hunting season |
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Term
| What kinds of research are being done on elk and why? |
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Definition
• Population, Movement, and Habitat Use
o Objective of this is to build foundation for effective management by looking at
Survival and Reproduction
Abundance
Harvest Model
Resource Selection
Stress and Disturbance |
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Term
| Describe pros and cons of using captive-reared and wild caught individuals for restoration? |
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Definition
• Captive
o Cons
High juvenile mortality
Loss of rare alleles and genetic diversity
Reproductive dysfunction
Inbreeding depression
o Pros
Animal behavior studies
Can raise them to a certain age in captivity and then release
• Wild
o Cons
Social issues
Stress of being caught and moved
o Pros
Don’t lose their wildness
Will have better chance of surviving and reproducing |
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Term
| What are the 4 R’s of reserve design? |
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Definition
• Representation – reserve should contain as many aspects of biodiversity (species, populations, habitats) as possible.
• Resiliency – reserve must be sufficiently large and well managed to maintain biodiversity for the foreseeable future.
• Redundancy – a network of protected areas must include several examples of each aspect of biodiversity to ensure long-term existence.
• Reality – There must be sufficient funds and political will to acquire and manage the protected area. |
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Term
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Definition
| • Software designed to aid in systematic reserve design on conservation planning. Generates spatial reserve systems that achieve particular biodiversity representation goals with reasonable optimality. |
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Term
| What are the guiding principles of conservation biology |
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Definition
• Evolution is the basic axiom that unites all of biology
• The ecological world is dynamic and largely nonequilibrial
• Human presence must be included in conservation |
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Term
| What are Conservation Opportunity Areas as defined by MDC? Briefly describe how they were identified |
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Definition
• Place that is well suited for all wildlife conservation.
o Identified by using a habitat selection guide |
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Term
| What are the major threats to biodiversity? (Remember the 4 boxes in slide 5 Lecture 4 under Human Activities) |
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Definition
• Fragmentation
• Invasive Species
• Overexploitation
• Pollution
• Global Climate Change |
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Term
| What is biological diversity? |
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Definition
| • Biological diversity is the variety of life forms at all levels of biological systems (organization) from molecules, to organisms, species, populations, communities and ecosystems (and landscapes) |
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Term
| About what size protected area would you need to maintain a viable population (1000 animals) of small herbivores, large herbivores, and large carnivores? (Figure 16.2) |
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Definition
• 100 ha to protect small herbivores
• 10,000 ha to protect large herbivores
• 1 million ha to protect large carnivores |
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Term
| Which refuge shape would better mitigate edge effects, a circular one or a rectangular one? Why? |
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Definition
• Circular
o No hard edges |
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Term
| Name considerations that you should have when designing a protected area? |
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Definition
• How large should reserves be?
• How many individuals must be protected?
• How long can a population persist in an area (especially endangered spp)?
• Better to have a single large or several small reserves (SLOSS)?
• What is the best shape for the reserve?
• Should multiple reserves be close together or far apart? Isolated or connected via corridors? |
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Term
| What are the sources of process variation in a PVA? |
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Definition
| • Demographic, Environmental (Temporal, spatial), Individual (Genetic, Phenotypic) |
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Term
| Three rules of thumb for genetic diversity |
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Definition
• The smaller the population the greater the disparity in gene frequencies between generations
• The lower the frequency of an allele in the parent generation, the more likely it is to be lost.
• The higher the frequency of an allele in the parent generation, the more likely it is to be fixed in the progeny generation. |
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Term
| What are the arguments for preserving biodiversity? |
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Definition
• Moral Reasons
• Aesthetic Reasons
• Provide important natural functions
• Biodiversity provides actual and potential material and economic benefits
• Continuance of evolutionary processes
• Each species has a right to exist
• All species are interdependent |
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Term
| Extinction is a natural process. Why should we be especially concerned about any current wave of extinctions? |
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Definition
| • Because it is probably caused from human impacts |
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Term
| What are the 3 goals of conservation biology (Lecture 2, Slide 11) |
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Definition
• To document the full range of biological diversity on Earth.
• To investigate human impact on species, communities, and ecosystems.
• To develop practical approaches to prevent extinction of species, maintain genetic variation within species, and to protect and restore biological communities and their associated ecosystem functions. |
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Term
| What are ecosystem services? |
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Definition
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Term
| Be able to describe physical and biological impacts of climate change? |
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Definition
• Extinction or extirpation of range restricted or isolated species
• Direct loss of habitat-sea level rise, bark beetle, altered habitat, glacial recession, warming of streams
• Increased spread of diseases, parasites
• Increased populations of species that compete with species of concern
• Increased spread of invasives or non-natives
• Shifts in species distribution especially along elevational gradients
• Changes in phenology (timing)
• Decoupling of coevolved interactions (plant/pollinator)
• Effects on demographics (survival, reproduction)
• Reduction in population size (especially for boreal/montane species |
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Term
| What is the God Squad and why does it matter? |
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Definition
• A committee developed to decide important decisions regarding the natural world.
o There decisions can greatly impact the natural world. |
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Term
| Why is the non-essential experimental population designation important? |
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Definition
| • The experimental population is not essential for the continued existence of the species |
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Term
| What is IUCN, CITES, Missouri Natural Heritage Program? Why are they important? |
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Definition
• CITES
o Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. Parties agree to regulate trade through 3 appendices.
• IUCN
o International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Assesses the status of the world’s flora and fauna.
• Missouri Natural Heritage Program
o Collects, evaluates, maintains, and disseminates biological information necessary for the management and conservation of Missouri’s biological diversity. |
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Term
| What species traits make them vulnerable to extinction? |
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Definition
• Species with narrow geographical range
• Species with only one or a few populations
• Species in which population size is small
• Species in which population size is declining
• Species that are hunted or harvested by people
• Ineffective dispersers
• Low genetic variability |
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Term
| Name important legislation that impacts species conservation? |
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Definition
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