Overview

"Ecosystems today are dynamic and complex, leaving conservationists faced with the paradox of conserving moving targets. New approaches to conservation are now required that aim to conserve ecological function and process, rather than attempt to protect static snapshots of biodiversity. To do this effectively, long-term information on ecosystem variability and resilience is needed. While there is a wealth of such information in palaeoecology, archaeology, and historical ecology, it remains an underused resource by conservation ecologists. In bringing together the disciplines of neo- and palaeoecology and integrating them with conservation biology, this novel text illustrates how an understanding of long-term change in ecosystems can in turn inform and influence their conservation and management in the Anthropocene. By looking at the history of traditional management, climate change, disturbance, and land-use, the book describes how a long-term perspective on landscape change can inform current and pressing conservation questions such as whether elephants should be culled, how best to manage fire, and whether ecosystems can or should be ""re-wilded""Biodiversity Conservation and Environmental Change is suitable for senior undergraduate and post-graduate students in conservation ecology, palaeoecology, biodiversity conservation, landscape ecology, environmental change and natural resource management. It will also be of relevance and use to a global market of conservation practitioners, researchers, educators and policy-makers."

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9780198713043

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Reviews

The role of palaeoecology in improving understanding and shaping long term responses is stressed throughout. The case studies are varied in terms of both scale and location, ranging from African Savannas to New England...I have no hesitation in commending this valuable and scholarly book. It opens up new ground and makes connections that are long overdue and of real practical and theoretical significance. Frank Oldfield, Editor, The Anthropocene Review.

Gillson has provided a valuable, well-written, easy to understand book that demonstrates the practical and theoretical interconnectedness of past, present and future ecology. * Matthew McDowell, Austral Ecology * an excellent text for a graduate or advanced undergraduate seminar in conservation biology, environmental policy, or, ideally, those linking the two * Thomas L. Fleischner, Ecology * The role of palaeoecology in improving understanding and shaping long term responses is stressed throughout. The case studies are varied in terms of both scale and location, ranging from African Savannas to New England...I have no hesitation in commending this valuable and scholarly book. It opens up new ground and makes connections that are long overdue and of real practical and theoretical significance. * Frank Oldfield, Editor, The Anthropocene Review. * [A] book like this that raises awareness and sets a strong case for making the effort is very necessary and should be widely welcomed. * Althea Davies, Trends in Ecology & Evolution * [T]his volume represents an important, and largely successful, attempt to highlight connections between paleoecology (and historical ecology) and applied ecology. At a time when scientists are increasingly specialists, Gillson's generalist approach should be commended. * Charles B. Yackulic, Quarterly Review of Biology * This is an often thoughtful book which presents the value of palaeoecological research and data over timescales which embrace not just the Anthropocene, but long periods preceding it. * Kevin J. Edwards, Biodiversity and Conservation *

[A] book like this that raises awareness and sets a strong case for making the effort is very necessary and should be widely welcomed. Althea Davies, Trends in Ecology & Evolution The role of palaeoecology in improving understanding and shaping long term responses is stressed throughout. The case studies are varied in terms of both scale and location, ranging from African Savannas to New England...I have no hesitation in commending this valuable and scholarly book. It opens up new ground and makes connections that are long overdue and of real practical and theoretical significance. Frank Oldfield, Editor, The Anthropocene Review.

[A] book like this that raises awareness and sets a strong case for making the effort is very necessary and should be widely welcomed. Althea Davies, Trends in Ecology & Evolution The role of palaeoecology in improving understanding and shaping long term responses is stressed throughout. The case studies are varied in terms of both scale and location, ranging from African Savannas to New England...I have no hesitation in commending this valuable and scholarly book. It opens up new ground and makes connections that are long overdue and of real practical and theoretical significance. Frank Oldfield, Editor, The Anthropocene Review. an excellent text for a graduate or advanced undergraduate seminar in conservation biology, environmental policy, or, ideally, those linking the two Thomas L. Fleischner, Ecology

Author Information

Lindsey Gillson was educated at the University of Oxford and Imperial College London. She worked in wildlife conservation for several years before returning to Oxford to research the application of palaeoecology in conservation, specialising in the management of African savannas as the subject of her doctoral thesis. She was appointed Trapnell Fellow in African Terrestrial Ecology at the University of Oxford in 2001, and moved to South Africa in 2006 to take up a post at the University of Cape Town. She is Deputy Director of the Plant Conservation Unit, and continues to work on the application of long-term data in the conservation and management of African biomes, and in developing the interface between palaeoecology and conservation biology.

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