NSB

Question 1

Define Conservation Biology as a field of science.

Answer 1

Multidisciplinary science created to deal with the crisis of maintaining genes, species, communities and ecosystems that make up earths biological diversity; its goal are to investigate human impacts on biodiversity and developing practical approaches to preserve biodiversity

Question 2

How many journals are listed under ‘Biodiversity Conservation’ by Clarivate Analytics?

Answer 2

65

Question 3

Name three journals and their impact factors!

Answer 3

• Conservation Biology: 6,3
• Global change biology: 11,6
• Biological Conservation: 5,9

Question 4

Name three early biogeographers, their role, when they lived, where they went and which taxa they collected.

Answer 4

• Charles Darwin (1809, +1882): Galapagos, San Fernando, Cape Verde, Azores; Beagle voyage; Taxa: Darwin Finches; explained how evolution works, namely through natural selection
• Wallace (1823, +1913): Malay Archipelago, Bali and Lombok (he compared species between both islands ->Wallace line), Aru islands (collected 9000 species), South America (450 species of beetles and almost the same number of butterflies); Taxa: butterflies, beetles cockatoos and macaws
• Hooker (*1817, +1911): botanist; explained the dispersal of flowering plants in South America and Australia; through his investigation he hypothesized that both continents were connected over a Landbridge back then; Southern polar region, Antarctica, New Zealand, Tasmania, India, Palestine, Morocco and US; mostly flowering plants

Question 5

Name two modern biogeographers, their role, when they lived, where they went and which taxa they collected.

Answer 5

• Robert MacArthur (*1930, +1972):
- considered a founder if ecology and evolutionary biology
- developed theories about ecological niches

• Edward O. Wilson (*1929, +2022):
- known for developing the field of sociobiology
- developed theory of island biogeography with MacArthur; kin selection
- worked with social insects (Ant behaviour)

Question 6

Dodo: describe the biology of the bird, the presumed reason of its extinction and tell us why it became emblematic for conservation?

Answer 6

• Was endemic to Indian Ocean Island of Mauritius
• Belongs to pigeon family
• Flightless bird
• 1 m tall, 20 kg
• Presumed reason of extinction: Neozoa; invasive rats, pigs, monkeys which destroyed the ground nests and ate their eggs; hunting
• Used to promote protection of endangered species

Question 7

Tigers of the Indonesian archipelago: which subspecies lives/has lived where? Where in Indonesia are they not found and why?

Answer 7

• Panthera tigris sumatranea: lives only on Sumatra
• Panthera tigris sondaica: has lived only on Java
• Panthera tigris balica: has lived only on Bali
• Not found in the rest of Indonesia, because of island formation -> allopatric species formation

Question 8

Noah’s ark: why may early explorers have gotten in doubt about the biblical story?

Answer 8

• When Linné named 6000 species the Ark seemed “overbooked”
• Still Linné himself believed in form of dispersal on remote island -> theory of special creation: divine involvement in every aspect of floral and faunal life, designing species for their proper soils -> predominant idea before Darwin and Wallace

Question 9

Processes in fragmented terrestrial habitats: what can we learn from islands?

Answer 9

• just as small islands, fragmented habitats have few species and simplified ecosystems
• same mechanics of immigration and extinction (equilibrium) apply to habitat fragments
• isolation will reduce genetic variability
• specialists decline, generalists are favoured

Question 10

What is Wallace’s line? Describe and explain vertebrate life to its East and West. What similar biogeographic boundary is there further east?

Answer 10

• Oceanic line between Bali and Lombok (south) and between Borneo and Sulawesi (north), separates the side of Borneo and Bali from that of New Guinea and Australia; between Palawan and Mindanao
• Bali (West): on continental shelf, shares fauna and flora with Greater Sunda islands (Java, Sumatra, Borneo); vertebrate diversity: monkeys, Orang-Utan, sunbears, elephants, tapirs, barbels, woodpeckers and trogons
• Lombok (East): just off the continental shelf; vertebrate diversity: Marsupials (Cuscusses), but no Lombok megafauna, cockatoos, birds of paradise
• Similar: Lydekker Line: runs along the border of Australians continental shelf: Wallacea <-> Australia, New Guinea

Question 11

Wallace versus Darwin: what is their respective role in developing knowledge on the mechanisms of evolution?

Answer 11

• Both explored natural selection and explored ecological niches and evolutionary processes in general
• Darwin: Origin of the Species (1859)
• Wallace: Island Life (1880)

Question 12

Charles Lyell: what biogeographical patterns did he find and couldn’t explain? What taxa did he explore?

Answer 12

• Taxa: explored frogs
• Biological patterns: no frogs on volcanic islands -> Why didn’t God put Frogs in volcanic islands? -> frog eggs don’t survive salt water -> Lyell began to realize what Darwin and Wallace have in mind about evolution regarding young and old islands

Question 13

Explain the theory of ‘special creation’, Noah’s Ark and Darwin’s ‘unutilized facts.

Answer 13

• When Linné named 6000 species the Ark seemed “overbooked”
• Still Linné himself believed in form of dispersal on remote island -> theory of special creation: divine involvement in every aspect of floral and faunal life, designing species for their proper soils -> predominant idea before Darwin and Wallace
• Darwin’s unutilized facts: 1839 Darwin publishes distribution patterns “beagle voyage” -> Unutilized facts for island biogeography

Question 14

11. Describe the differences between Madagascar and Bali in terms of their origin, e.g. time since isolation, their size and the distance to respective ‘mainland’.

Answer 14

• Island size: Madagaskar is much larger than Bali
• Time since isolation: ca. 165-170 Million years (M) <-> ca. 10.000 yeas (B)
• Difference in distance of isolation: ca. 400 km (M) <-> ca. 3 km (B)

Question 15

Ecology versus Biogeography: explain the mechanisms that define vegetation, and taxonomic composition of vertebrates, on the Greater Sundas (e.g. Borneo), Papua New Guinea and northern Australia.

Answer 15

• Wallacea inbetween (Wallace and Lydekker Line)
• Taconomics greatly differ: During times of low sea level, greater Sundas were connected to the asian mainland, while Papua New Guinea and Australia were part of the Australian mainland
• Ecology only would expect more similarities, due to partly similar climatic conditions -> biogeography explains the big differences in taxonomics

Question 16

Ecology of island life: list three typical characteristics of island organisms!

Answer 16

• Gigantism
• Dwarfism
• Flightlessness
(• few or no endemic predators)
(• no endemic amphibians)

Question 17

Describe the adaptations of Oceanic Island Tortoises in regard to similar ecological conditions (Homoplasy/Convergent evolution) and how these relate to extinctions in this group.

Answer 17

• Giant turtles of the Galapogos Islands and of the Indian Ocean are probably paraphyletic -> similar ecological conditions led to convergent evolution
• However, as they are all similar, they are all vulnerable against mainland factors introduced by humans: invasive species: pigs, dogs, rats, cats
• large size made them profitable for hunting
• low reproduction -> slow recovery

-> very prone to extinxtions

Question 18

New Zealand, Galapagos: name at least two bird species endemic to each region and list a typical island trait of each species.

Answer 18

• New Zealand: Kiwi (flightless), Kakapo (flightless)
• Galapagos: Flightless Cormorant (flightless), Galapagos Finches (various beak shapes and sizes)

Question 19

Why are there so many endemic pigeons on islands?

Answer 19

• Travel enough to colonize but rarely enough to become reproductively isolated
• Fast fliers
• Often making seasonal movements
• Seed and fruit eaters
• Ecological predisposition

Question 20

17. Why are there no endemic amphibians on islands (or are there?)

Answer 20

• Eggs can’t survive in salt water
• only there, when amphibians were already there when isolation happened (e.g. Madagaskar)
• new islands can hardly be colonized/reached

Question 21

Describe the processes dispersal and establishment! What traits facilitate both processes?

Answer 21

• Active Dispersal: e.g. long distance flight in migrating birds
• Passive Dispersal: for example, by spores (unicellular in mosses), by other animals or by natural flotsam
• Establishment: facilitated for example by parthenogenesis (some reptiles), generalist behaviour/starvation tolerance

• Both dispersal and establishment may lead to biased species composition (disharmony)

Question 22

Define adaptive radiation and archipelago speciation!

Answer 22

• Adaptive radiation: species diversification from common ancestor to fill variety of niches, follows repeated speciation, sympatric distribution -> coexistence leads to diverging ressource use -> driven by avoidance of interspecific competition
• prominent examples: Darwin finches or Drosophila of Hawaii

• Archipelago speciation: diversity increased through long distance colonisation in combination with further short distance colonisation

Question 23

What are typical size changes of a) reptiles and b) mammals when comparing islands with continents? Give examples and mention explanatory hypotheses.

Answer 23

• Reptiles: Gigantism; examples: Komodo dragon, tortoise, Galapagos Marine Iguana, skinks, geckos
• Mammals: Dwarfism for large mammals; examples: fossil elephants and hippos; gigantism for small mammals, example: Wombat, rats
• Main factor for gigantism and dwarfism in mammals: reduced predation and reduced interspecific competition, large size allows to store fat and water better, survive better seasonal food shortages, small size as a result of resource depletion
• Generally: Depending on resource availability

Question 24

What are typical attributes of island endemic species? Name and explain two community attributes!

Answer 24

• Impoverishment: paucity of certain taxa in certain places, e.g.
• Disharmony: discrepancies of representation of taxa (can be positive or negative) -> e.g. positive: Madagascar holds all lemurs -> Africa none | negative: Hawaii holds 1000 Drosophila ssp. but no ants!

Explanation:
• Many species fail to arrive at islands -> Isolation
• some fail to establish -> Extinction

Question 25

Give two examples each for positive and negative disharmony!

Answer 25

• Positive disharmony: Madagascar holds all lemurs <-> Africa none; Galapagos is richer in finches per unit area than South America
• Negative disharmony: Hawaii: 1000 Drosophila species but no ant species; Madagascar: no native cats nor antelopes (<-> savannah in Africa)

Question 26

Describe Rakata bird colonization between 1908 and 1934!

Answer 26

• Presumed first visitor: seabirds

• 1908: 13 resident land birds
• 1921: 27 resident land birds
-> high immigration rate

• 1934: 27 resident land birds -> low or no immigration rate as niches become filled

• Balanced species numbers (MacArthur/Wilson 1963: equilibrium theory)

Question 27

How many bird species have gone extinct in historic times: a) since 1600 and 2) since 1500. What is the proportion of island birds among these? Name an island/an archipelago with particularly many extinctions!

Answer 27

• Since 1600: 150 birds (sub.)-species
• Since 1500: more than 190
• Only ca. 20 % of bird species confined to islands, but more than 90 % of extinctions on islands
• Hawaii: 24 ssp./sp.

Question 28

Deterministic causes of extinction of island birds: list examples from at least three islands/archipelagos

Answer 28

• Hunting, e. g. Dodo on Mauritius
• Invasive species, e. g. New Zealand
• Feral pigs, e. g. Tasmania

Question 29

What were probable deterministic causes of the extinction of the Tasmanian Tiger?

Answer 29

• Hunting due to claims about sheep predation -> bounty hunting
• Habitat loss due to sheep farms
• competition with feral dogs and/or dingos
• introduction of canine distemper virus

Question 30

What were the empirical results and main conclusions from Jane Hope’s 1973 PhD thesis (fieldwork on 25 islands of the Bass Strait, off Tasmania)?

Answer 30

• Large islands have more species than small ones
• Species and area are related/correlated

Question 31

Which invasive species were most harmful to birds on Hawaii and Guam?

Answer 31

• Hawaii: Mosquitoes were introduced in 1820s, Culex pipiens fatigans carries bird pox (new arrival with poultry) and avian malaria -> affects lowland birds

• Guam: an introduced snake was re-identified as tree snake Boiga irregularis -> severe bird predator; brown tree snake

Question 32

Isolation of Barro Colorado Island: which meso-predator species became how many times more abundant compared to the pre-isolation period? Why? What were the consequences?

Answer 32

• Coatimundis: 10 times as abundant as on mainland -> disaster for ground nesting birds
• Landbridge created by damming (Gatun Lake, Panama 1923)
• After 85 years: 65 birds extinct, only five new colonisations, no forest bird

Question 33

Macquarie Island: explain the trophic cascade after removal of a vertebrate species!

Answer 33

• Feral cats exert top-down control on rabbits -> after cat eradication (bird protection) rabbits increase
• Effects on vegetation -> unclear role of myxoma virus
• Polystichum ferns: completely grazed, invasion of unpalatable species
• Large herbs and tussock grasses: (over)grazed, replaced by Poa annua (but climate change also plays a big role)

Question 34

Why is it so difficult to study extinctions?

Answer 34

• Often impossible to document precise factors (even more in historic extinctions)
• E.g. did Dodos extinction lead to extinction of Calvaria tree on Mauritius?
• It is difficult to declare a population as being extinct -> no scientific way to prove inexistence
• E.g. recently declared extinction of Lady Waldrons red colobus had to be revised

Question 35

List ten deterministic factors contributing to extinction!

Answer 35

Note: Not all of these are inherently deterministic, but can be counted as such as they can be a consequence of human impact.

Rarity: small, infrequent patches of suitable habitat

Rarity: low density

Hybridisation

Extinction or reduction of mutualist populations

Competition

Disease

Loss of herozygosity

Inbreeding

Hunting and collecting

Habitat disturbance

Habitat destruction

Question 36

Who was Hewett Cottrell Watson? Describe the importance of his research!

Answer 36

• Hewett Watson: wrote “Flora of Great Britain” (1847): “one square mile in N-Surrey contains half as many species as Surrey overall” -> first species area curve (log-log) based on Watson (1859)

Question 37

Who was Arrhenius? Describe the importance of their research!

Answer 37

• Olof Arrhenius, swedish chemist, ecologist and biogeographer
• Arrhenius: plants in nested quadrats; provides (erroneous) equation; works with “probabilities” for each species to occur; identifies a minimum error, critical for each species to be present -> finds formulas which matches is observations at local scale
•in 1921, published constant n as a measure of increase in number for each species: (area 1/area 2) = (species 1)/(species 2)
-> worked on species-area-relationship

Question 38

Complete the following sentence derived from species-area relationships: ‚As a rule of thumb: dividing area by ten reduces fauna by ……. %’. Give an empirical example from an island archipelago.

Answer 38

• Rule of thumb: a division of area by ten reduces herpeto fauna by 50 %
• Herpeto fauna of the Antilles (Darlington)

Question 39

Formulate the ‘Arrhenius’ equation as it was established by Preston, and its reformulation after logarithmic transformation.

Answer 39

Reformulates Arrhenius work into Arrhenius equation based on observed community structures:

s= cA^z

with s = species, A = area, c, z = constants

The larger z the stronger the increase with increasing area (but also, c being the slope)

Usually on double logarithmic axes
log⁡ s = z*log⁡ A+log⁡ c
log c = intercept, z = slope

Question 40

Explain the structure (abundance distribution) of natural biotic communities.

Answer 40

• Some species are common others are rare, some are in the middle
• How many are common, rare, mid-abundant?
• Is there a general pattern? -> Yes
• Canonical distribution! (equivalent: log normal statistical distribution)

Question 41

How do z values (slope in the species-area equation) differ between datasets from within biogeographic regions (e.g. for the birds of the West Indies) compared to those from across biogeographic regions (e.g. across the Malay Archipelago)?

Answer 41

• z-values are higher across biogeographical regions than within, e.g. 0,24 for bird species of the West Indies, but 0,33 for Malay Archipelago -> across biogeographical regions, contains Wallace-Line

Question 42

What datasets produce the highest z values?

Answer 42

• Areas with separate evolutionary history -> continents (highest z-values over 0.5)

Question 43

Explain Preston’s Bell and compare biotic community structure in a) isolates (e.g. oceanic islands) and b) samples (e.g. investigated parts of continuous habitat)! What did Preston conclude from his results in regard to the conservation prospects of National Parks?

Answer 43

• log-scaled normal distribution of abundance of species (common to intermediate to rare)
• isolates can be distinguished from samples: samples have higher diversity because they contain both common and locally rare species
• in isolates, there is an established equilibrium -> rare species don’t wander in
• -> it is not possible to preserve in a state or a national park, a complete replica on a small scale of the fauna and flora of a much larger area -> a small area can’t replicate the diversity of a large area

Question 44

How did Tom Brooks verify his predictions of species loss from deforestation?

Answer 44

• He used concept of species-area-relationship to predict extinction

Question 45

Formulate the equilibrium theory of MacArthur & Wilson (1963) and describe their explanatory model (two effects).

Answer 45

• Immigration rates decrease with increasing number of species
• Extinction rates increase with increasing number of species
-> there is an equilibrium species richness for a given island
• Explanatory model: explains two patterns: 1) Species-Area-Relationship (small vs large), 2) Distance Relationship (far vs. near) -> small islands receive fewer immigrants than large ones and suffer from more extinctions (Area Effect)
• Remote islands receive fewer immigrants than close ones and suffer from just as many extinctions (Distance Effect)

Question 46

Name and describe four terrestrial landscape types with insular elements.

Answer 46

• Streams
• Caves
• Gallery forest
• Tide pools
• Taiga breaking up into tundra
• lakes

Question 47

Testing MacArthur Wilson’s equilibrium theory: Based on what kind of field work (what habitat/region) have MacArthur and Wilson’s predictions been tested, using what taxa? Do you know the name of the scientist?

Answer 47

• Based on ant (arthropod) investigation: patterns from 6 islands, results after two years
• Habitat/region: Southern Florida mangrove islands, Rhiziphora mangle
• Scientist: Dan Simberloff

Question 48

James Brown’s mountain tops: why don’t they follow the equilibrium theory?

Answer 48

• Mammals on 17 mountaintops: nonequilibrium! -> didn’t fit the equilibrium theory
  Because: Those mammals are boreal relict species -> they were not immigrants!
• Extreme area effect because of steep slopes: Small mountain tops held far less species than larger ones
• No distance effect -> no immigration from Rocky Mountains possible because desert is a complete barrier!
  -> Ecological and Evolutionary history can’t be separated (MacArthur & Wilson refer to ecological processes)

Question 49

List (the) five of Jared Diamond’s principles for the ‘design of natural reserves’.

Answer 49

• A large reserve can hold more species than a small reserve
• A reserve located close to others can hold more species than a remote reserve
• A group of reserves that are connected to or at least clustered near each other will support more species than a group of reserves that are disjunct or arrayed in a line
• A round reserve will hold more species than an elongated one
• One large reserve is better than several small ones

Question 50

Provide arguments why few large reserves should be more important for conservation than many small ones.

Answer 50

• Some species are in greater jeopardy of extinction than others
• Rare specialized species, bad dispersers and colonizers need larger reserves <-> common species, generalists, good competitors and adventurous species still present
• less border effects -> less reduction of reserve area

Question 51

What were the objectives and major results of the Biological Dynamics of Rainforest fragments project (BDFFP)!

Answer 51

• Objectives: to answer the SLOSS debate; investigations in 1980 in the Amazon Basin on forest islands and similar sized controls inside forests -> 20 sites, 1, 10, 100 and 1000 ha -> investigations of birds, plants, butterflies, primates etc.
• Major results:

loss of top predators (1983: Jaguar, Cougar and Margay Cat locally extinct)
• Paccas and peccaries disappear in small fragments, also primates disappear or decrease in richness
• birds: initially higher trapping rate due to crowding effect from displaced birds, later normal in 10ha and very low in 1ha

Question 52

What can be expected from a 80% reduction in National Park Size (declaration of the US Trump administration Dec 2017) in regard to specialist species numbers?

Answer 52

• Park will lose a lot of species -> mammalian faunal collapse

Question 53

Explain the strategy of Main & Yadaf (1971) to find Minimum Viable Population Sizes (MVP). What was their definition of MVP. How does the definition by Mark Shaffer differ from it?

Answer 53

• They tried to deduce MVP values from counting the population sizes on the smallest occupied island for the respective species, e.g. Quokkas 1900-600
• collected data for species-area-curve and densities
• used N = D*A

• Mark L. Shaffer: instead of “… population likely to persist indefinitely…” he uses a “95 % likelihood to persist over 100 years”; divide causes for extinction into two categories: deterministic (human generated) and stochastic (accidental) (other terms: systematic pressure and stochastic perturbations)

Question 54

List and explain the four sources of stochastic population fluctuation, as defined by Mark Shaffer

Answer 54

• Demographic stochasticity (accidental variations in birth rate (natality), death rate (mortality) and sex ratio)
• Environmental stochasticity (variations in weather, food supply, populations of predators, competitors, parasites and disease organisms)
• Natural catastrophes (not totally random, but causes complex, timing unpredictable)
• Genetic stochasticity (frequency of certain alleles change irrespectively of natural selection: founder effect (random part of gene pool with rare alleles more likely being lost); genetic drift (accidental appearance of alleles, leading to uniform populations) -> or by inbreeding depression (harmful “genetic load”)  rare recessive alleles become expressed due to increasing homozygosity (increased risk of inbreeding in small populations); if alleles are harmful, they express “harm”)

Question 55

What determines the ‘effective population size’ and why is it important?

Answer 55

• Census population size <-> effective population size
-> sheer census numbers vs. numbers for inbreeding participation, gene flow and loss of genetic variation
• In sexually reproducing animals and plants effective population will be smaller than census population -> depends on female being reproductively active; males wanting a chance to mate; difference in fecundity; imbalance between effective females to males; natural population size fluctuations between generation

Question 56

What is the 500/50 rule?

Answer 56

• In any population genetic drift tends to eliminate the rarest alleles but mutation adds variation -> balance between mutation and genetic drift
• In a large population: mutations can accumulate
• But in a small population: losses by drift will be greater than gains by mutations
• Based on lab-work with Drosophila Franklin placed balance point at 500
• Below 500 individuals a population will have less adaptability and diminished prospects of long-term survival with each passing generation
• Estimates became famous:
  o For short-term avoidance of inbreeding: 50 individuals
  o For maintaining long-term adaptability: 500 individuals

Question 57

Explain the ‘declining population’ vs the ‘small population paradigm’!

Answer 57

• Deterministic forces of decline and these which finally lead to extinction aren’t the same
• Often conservation focuses on: identification and management processes that depress demographic rate and cause decline (only rearranging the “chairs of titanic”) but -> the dynamics in small populations after decline are neglected

Question 58

What is the current conservation status of Nerodia harteri paucimaculata (check www.redlist.org) and what additional information has been collected after the initial PVA (one month contract in 1980ies) of Gilpin and Soule?

Answer 58

• Current conservation status: near threatened
• after dam construction, snakes were found around reservoirs
• currently, the population is stable
• snakes have colonized artificial riffles that result from conservation efforts
• population size larger than previously thought

Question 59

What are the three main ‘components’ of a Population Viability Analysis (PVA)? Which two principal modelling frameworks exist for demographically explicit PVAs?

Answer 59

• Three components of PVA: persistence, time, probabilities
• Matrix-based: RAMAS (Ackacaya et al. 2004)
• Individual-based: VORTEX (Lacy 2000)
• Or: species-specific frameworks, e.g. African Wild dog, Cheltah etc.

Question 60

Name and explain four principal ways to conduct a Population Viability Analysis/to estimate extinction risk!

Answer 60

• Time series or counts over time (monitoring)
• Demographic rates (reproduction, survival, age structure and density-dependence)
-> both methods can be extended to multiple populations
• Expert-panel type approach (expert “opinion”)
-> problematic, humans usually overestimate low-level risk (e.g. tornado) but underestimate high-level risk (e.g. car accident) -> subjective decisions are idiosyncratic to experts’ experience
• However, there are rules of thumb -> assign qualitative ranks of risks using specified operational criteria
• Approaches based on habitat and other information: the presence of habitat alone cannot constitute an assessment of population viability

Question 61

How many steps (e.g. census years) are necessary to obtain enough data for a time series PVA?

Answer 61

• Based on trend-building
• Average trend r (or µ)
• How long needs a trend to be measured? – rule of thumb: ten to fifteen steps (e.g. years) to capture growth and correlation structure, see Holmes 2001 Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci.
• Gray whales, California, 1967 to 2001 (variance not depicted) -> different results if negative density dependence is assumed (see slide 31)

Question 62

How do estimates of PVA differ between those from time series and those incorporating all available information? Why are they different?

Answer 62

The estimates of a Minimum viable population size were much higher in PVAs incorporating all available information than in PVAs using time series only. The time series probably neglected the importance of temporal variation, because they were based on short-term studies

Question 63

What data is being combined in Bayesian Belief network models of population viability?

Answer 63

• BBN is a probabilistic graphical model
• includes: habitat, expert opinions, ancillary models and other variables
• is built upon conditional probability tables, so the response of a population to several factors can be estimated/predicted

Question 64

List five of the ‘twenty landmark papers in biodiversity conservation’ by Bradshaw et al. 2011 (only keywords plus main author(s) necessary).

Answer 64

• Allee effect (Allee)
• Habitat fragmentation (Wilcox and Murphy)
• Red List (Mace and Lande)
• Ecological triage (Walker)
• Extinction debt (Tilman et al.)

Question 65

Explain the ‘Tragedy of the Commons’

Answer 65

• Open resources (wildlife, air, water etc.) used by individuals rationally in self-interests to the detriment of societal needs

Question 66

Explain ‘Shifting baselines’ and give two examples

Answer 66

• perception of what is normal changes (generational amnesia)
• comparisons made with beginning of career, not with historical past
• satisfaction with “normal” situation reduces motivation to make change in conservation
• e.g. fisheries’ ‘best day catch’
• meat production
• bushmeat hunting

Question 67

What is evidence-based conservation research? Give examples by listing three respective research topics of (even potential) relevance

Answer 67

• It means to improve conservation practice by:
• sharing knowledge about interventions
• maintaining Online Journals
• to share what methods help and what don’t

e.g.
- effect of nest boxes on bumble bees
- effect of enrichment strips on grey partridges
- creating water pathways for otters under an electric fences in England

Question 68

What is research capacity building? List three potential components of a capacity building programme for students from developing countries

Answer 68

• Mentorship: students become mentors for others
• ‚Hands on‘ activities: access to the field (field schools)
• Access to infrastructure: computers, field equipment, buildings
• Seminar series
• Encouraging Student Clubs
• International perspectives (Visits, Foreign visitors)
• Para-ecology

Question 69

What are the five steps of Adaptive Management in Conservation Practice?

Answer 69

1. Conceptualize
2. Plan Actions and Monitoring
3. Implement Actions and Monitoring
4. Analyze, Use, Adapt
5. Capture and Share Learning