Ecological science and the management of protected areas
This paper aims to survey a few among many ecological principles that are particularly relevant to the management of protected areas. Various aspects of the relation between area of protected habitat and numbers of constituent species preserved are discussed, with emphasis of edge effects and other factors. Particular attention is given to those species which persist via local extinctions and recolonizations within a shifting mosaic of patches, and to the counter-intuitive things that can happen to such species or communities when a fraction of the patches is destroyed. The paper concludes with comments about making choices as to which areas to preserve — the calculus of biodiversity — and about more general social and economic considerations.