保护演化生物学——保护生物学的新分支

离开演化谈保护,往往难窥其道.保护生物学建立之初旨在阐释受人类活动或其他因素干扰下的物种、种群、群落和生态系统的保护问题,在其发展过程中其逐渐从生态、行为等宏观层面深入到生理、遗传、基因组、适应性演化等分子机制层面.特别是近年来,越来越多的研究聚焦到物种演化历史及其成因、适应性演化机制与演化潜力等方面,这些研究超越了传统保护生物学分支学科如保护生态学和行为学等的研究内容.将演化生物学原理引入保护生物学研究则能更好地揭示问题的本质,因而越来越受到保护生物学家的重视.因此,我们提出"保护演化生物学"这一新分支学科,以强化演化生物学原理和方法在解决物种保护问题中的应用.保护演化生物学是将演化生物学原理和方法整合进保护生物学研究中,旨在从演化的视角探讨物种的过去、现在与未来,揭示物种如何适应和响应环境变化以维持长期生存的机制,阐明物种濒危过程与演化潜力,以期为制定前瞻性的物种保护策略提供科学依据.本文从保护演化生物学的产生、发展、研究内容、研究方法及研究意义等方面进行了简要介绍,以推动保护演化生物学分支学科的发展.     

《动物行为原理与物种保护方法》简介

20世纪末,人们开始注意到动物行为研究在物种保护中的作用。然而,关于动物行为与物种保护的研究才刚刚开始,人们还不甚了解就地(insitu)保护或迁地(ex situ)保护动物时需要考虑的行为学因素。中国野生动物保护事业起步较晚,尤其缺少行为学理论与动物保护方面的研究和实践。     

《动物学行为学理与物种保护方法》书评

20世纪末,人们开始注意到动物行为研究在物种保护中的作用。然而,关于动物行为与物种保护的研究才刚刚开始,人们还不甚了解就地(in situ)保护或者迁地(ex situ)保护动物时需要考虑的行为学因素。中国野生动物保护事业起步较晚,尤其缺少行为学理论与动物保护方面的研究和实践。     

《动物行为原理与物种保护方法》评介

20世纪末，人们开始注意到动物行为研究在物种保护中的作用。然而，关于动物行为与物种保护的研究才刚刚开始，人们还不甚了解就地(in situ)或者迁地(ex situ)保护动物时需要考虑的行为学因素。中国野生动物保护事业起步较晚，尤其缺少行为学理论与动物保护方面的研究和实践。     

《动物行为原理与物种保护方法》简介

20世纪末,人们开始注意到动物行为研究在动物保护中的作用。然而,关于动物行为与物种保护的研究才刚刚开始,人们还不甚了解就地(in situ)保护或者迁地(ex situ)保护时需要考虑的动物行为学因素。中国的野生动物保护事业起步较晚,尤其缺少行为学理论与动物保护方面的研究和实践。     

《动物行为原理与物种保护方法》简介

20世纪末,人们开始注意到动物行为研究在动物保护中的作用。然而,关于动物行为与物种保护的研究才刚刚开始,人们还不甚了解就22(in situ)保护或者迁地(ex situ)保护时需要考虑的动物行为学因素。中国的野生动物保护事业起步较晚,尤其缺少行为学理论与动物保护方面的研究和实践。     

书评

20世纪末,人们开始注意到动物行为研究在物种保护中的作用。然而,关于动物行为与物种保护的研究才刚刚开始,人们还不甚了解就地保护或者迁地保护动物时需要考虑的行为学因素。中国野生动物保护事业起步较晚,尤其缺少行为学理论与动物保护方面的研究和实践。     

保护生物学概要

保护生物学的形成是对生物危机的反应和生物科学迅速发展的结果。它是应用科学解决由于人类活动干扰或其它因素引起的物种、群落和生态系统出现的问题的新学科。其”目的是提供保护生物多样性的原理和工具“,其基础科学和应用科学的综合性交叉学科。系统学、生态学、生物地理学和种群生态学的原理和方法是保护生物学重要的理论和实践基础。     

行为生态学(一):导论

什么是行为生态学行为学和生态学是生物科学中两个正在蓬勃发展的分支学科,而行为生态学则是这两个学科的交叉领域。行为学和生态学一方面各自独立地发展,一方面又日益相互渗透,形成了行为生态学这一新的研究领域。     

简介行为研究的发展

由于动物行为与狩猎、畜牧、水产和植物保护等方面的生产活动密切相关,所以人类在史前时期就已对此作初步的观察研究。近代科学形成以来,人们常在博物学(或译“自然史”)、生物学(狭义的,主要涉及生活史、生活方式)、生态学等学术名义下研究动物行为。十九世纪末二十世纪初开始较多地采用更专门的术语:动物心理学和行为学(Ethology,或译个体生态学、     

Conservation and behavioral neuroendocrinology

The total number of threatened species of vertebrates is likely to be more than 10,000, with approximately one quarter of the world's mammal species, one eighth of the birds and one third of the amphibians threatened with extinction. The rate of loss of animal species and hence of biodiversity is increasing and may become even greater as ecosystems become affected by climate change due to global warming. Behavioral neuroendocrinology, which considers interactions between behavior and neuroendocrine function in animals from all vertebrate taxa, can contribute to animal conservation. Research with laboratory animals can address questions in basic biology relevant to conservation and develop methods for use with threatened animals. Field work with free-living animals considers the basic biology of new species and the use of endocrine tools to assess the susceptibility of species to threats. Non-invasive measurements of hormone concentrations, especially fecal steroids, are extensively used to assess reproductive function and the stress status of animals in captive breeding programs and in the wild. Biodiversity and natural selection both depend on individual variation, and conservation programs often work with animals on an individual basis. The consideration of data from individuals is essential in conservation endocrinology. Direct contributions to conservation programs are challenging as study situations are determined by practical conservation concerns. Indirect contributions such as the provision of scientific input to conservation plans and participation in public education programs offer significant benefits for conservation programs. Directly and indirectly, there are many opportunities for behavioral neuroendocrinologists to contribute to conservation.     

Challenges of Compassionate Conservation

ABSTRACT

The substantial and urgent threats to the prosperity of individual nonhuman animals and the survival of species necessitate a changed approach to conservation. The current practice of seeing conservation and animal welfare as contradictory goals is not helpful. It is proposed that the approach should bring together parties to address the common root causes and to find innovative ways to accommodate multiple interests by translating beautifully written and ethically complex theories into pragmatic tools. Compassionate conservation provides a contemporary framework for animal welfare professionals and ecologists to develop new approaches. Simple tools can help in identifying areas of agreement and areas of dispute. While engaging with both ethics and animal welfare science will move animal welfare discussions forward, working together will identify shared values and goals and perhaps reveal ways to save species, one animal at a time, before it is too late.     

Conservation genetics: Linking science with practice

Conservation genetics is a well‐established scientific field. However, limited information transfer between science and practice continues to hamper successful implementation of scientific knowledge in conservation practice and management. To mitigate this challenge, we have established a conservation genetics community, which entails an international exchange‐and‐skills platform related to genetic methods and approaches in conservation management. First, it allows for scientific exchange between researchers during annual conferences. Second, personal contact between conservation professionals and scientists is fostered by organising workshops and by popularising knowledge on conservation genetics methods and approaches in professional journals in national languages. Third, basic information on conservation genetics has been made accessible by publishing an easy‐to‐read handbook on conservation genetics for practitioners. Fourth, joint projects enabled practitioners and scientists to work closely together from the start of a project in order to establish a tight link between applied questions and scientific background. Fifth, standardised workflows simplifying the implementation of genetic tools in conservation management have been developed. By establishing common language and trust between scientists and practitioners, all these measures help conservation genetics to play a more prominent role in future conservation planning and management.     

Conservation planning in a changing world

Conservation planning is the process of locating, configuring, implementing and maintaining areas that are managed to promote the persistence of biodiversity and other natural values. Conservation planning is inherently spatial. The science behind it has solved important spatial problems and increasingly influenced practice. To be effective, however, conservation planning must deal better with two types of change. First, biodiversity is not static in time or space but generated and maintained by natural processes. Second, humans are altering the planet in diverse ways at ever faster rates.     

Bringing Conservation Medicine into the Veterinary Curriculum: The Tufts Example

The Center for Conservation Medicine at Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine (TuftsCCM), has helped to define the concept of conservation medicine as a new science that examines the interaction between human, animal, and environmental health. One the Center’s main objectives in pursuing this new science has been to incorporate conservation medicine and ecosystem health principles into the veterinary curriculum. Environmental influences on disease dynamics in animals has always had a place in veterinary medicine, but often has not been adequately explored. Many opportunities exist within a traditional veterinary curriculum to strengthen this perspective, and to bring depth and new meaning to the understanding of disease and the role of animals in ecosystem health. The Tufts program is designed to reach both the general veterinary student and the student interested in a career in conservation medicine through core teaching, elective opportunities, research opportunities, and extracurricular seminars and workshops. The core curriculum exposes every veterinary student to an ecosystem health perspective of veterinary medicine that helps them realize the impact that this approach can have on their professional lives, regardless of their chosen specialty. Committed conservation medicine students benefit from specialty courses, a wide range of experiential and field research opportunities and active mentoring. Future challenges call for development of more graduate opportunities, continued interdisciplinary collaboration with other educational institutions, and continued curricular integration of this new paradigm of health and disease into veterinary medical education.     

Bottom‐up Conservation

Conservation initiatives that have worked well in temperate and developed regions have often been applied in the tropics but with only limited success. Part of this failure is due to top–down conservation planning that has been conducted without taking local socio‐economic considerations into adequate account. Here, we argue that conservation approaches would benefit from a deeper understanding of human–nature interactions.     

Primate Conservation Biology

Primate Conservation Biology. Guy Cowlishaw and Robin Dunbar. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000. 498 pp.     

One Conservation: the integrated view of biodiversity conservation

The current global situation requires urgent decision-making to reverse processes of mass extinction of thousands of species. As a way of showing the importance of joint actions in this process, we aim to present the concept of One Conservation as a new proposal for the integration of sustainability, in situ and ex situ conservation for the restoration of ecosystems. According to the United Nations, we are beginning the decade of ecosystem restoration and in association with the International Union for Conservation of Nature guidelines, we can join efforts in the conservation of the planet. The survival of many species of wild animals depends on the management of populations currently maintained in ex situ conditions (under human care). To facilitate the exchange of genetic material between in situ and ex situ populations, reproductive biotechniques have become a great tool, making it possible to restore species in their natural environments. For effective conservation to occur, there must be an integrated view of the problem as a whole, and action for solutions must take place jointly by different spheres of society. Even more, conservation must be carried out by the public sector, the private sector, the third sector, and not less importantly, the agricultural sector. Therefore, One Conservation is defined as an interconnection between ex situ and in situ conservation plans, anthropic actions in the environment, and research in different areas that encompass conservation.     

Conservation by native peoples

Native peoples have often been portrayed as natural conservationists, living a “balanced” existence with nature. It is argued that this perspective is a result of an imprecise operational definition of conservation. Conservation is defined here in contrast to the predictions of foraging theory, which assumes that foragers will behave to maximize their short-term harvesting rate. A behavior is deemed conservation when a short-term cost is paid by the resource harvester in exchange for long-term benefits in the form of sustainable harvests. An example of the usefulness of such an operational definition is presented using data on patch and prey choice decisions of a group of subsistence hunters, the Piro of Amazonian Peru. Results indicate that the area around the Piro village is depleted of prey, and that hunters allocate more time to patches where return rates are highest. This response is consistent with both a conservation strategy and foraging theory. Contrary to the expectation of the conservation strategy, however, hunters do not restrain from pursing opportunistically encountered prey in the depleted areas. The implications for conservation policy are briefly discussed. Michael Alvard received his Ph.D. at the University of New Mexico in 1993 and is currently an assistant professor of anthropology at Dickinson College. His interests include the impact of traditional hunting on prey species and the evolution of conservation. He is currently pursuing research opportunities with the Wana, a group of subsistence hunters living in the rain forests of Sulawesi, Indonesia.     

Conservation physiology

Conservation biologists increasingly face the need to provide legislators, courts and conservation managers with data on causal mechanisms underlying conservation problems such as species decline. To develop and monitor solutions, conservation biologists are progressively using more techniques that are physiological. Here, we review the emerging discipline of conservation physiology and suggest that, for conservation strategies to be successful, it is important to understand the physiological responses of organisms to their changed environment. New physiological techniques can enable a rapid assessment of the causes of conservation problems and the consequences of conservation actions.