The first task in designing a reserve must be to decide what …

• Goals of a conservation reserve
• Large, intact, functioning ecosystems
• Areas with high biological diversity
• Significant species and natural communities
• Introduction to reserve design
• The Theory of Island Biogeography
• Implications of Island Biogeography
• The SLOSS debate
• Conclusions
• Bibliography
• Figures
• Table

Biology Articles » Conservation Biology » Theory and Design of Nature Reserves » Significant species and natural communities

Significant species and natural communities

- Theory and Design of Nature Reserves

Significant species and natural communities

• Spotted-owl and marbled murrelet

   

• Serpentine outcrops on the Tiburon peninsula north of San Francisco - Calochortus tiburonensis.

   

Soulé and Simberloff left out another important function of nature reserves to my mind. In a way it's implicit in the first purpose, but it need not be carried out at the very large scale that conservation of large, intact, function ecosystems implies.

• In developed parts of the world, like Connecticut and most of the eastern seaboard, no large, intact ecosystems remain to be protected. What we can do is protect pieces of what is left, even if those pieces are not particularly diverse. Salt marshes, the rocky intertidal, red maple swamps, and sphagnum bogs. None may be especially diverse and they may harbor few globally endangered species, but the species they represent important elements of natural diversity that I, at least, would hate to lose. Moreover, they often represent the first, or only, exposure that those in urbanized areas have to places that are a little bit wild. As a result, they may be critical to ensuring that future generations develop an appreciation for parts of the world other than shopping malls.