Applied ecology under time pressure: fragmentation, small-population genetics, and the hard trade-offs of protecting anything.
10 topics · 10 curated works
No prior grounding assumed.
IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria: Version 3.1
International Union for Conservation of Nature · 2001
Sets out the quantitative thresholds -- population decline, range size, number of mature individuals -- that sort a species into a Red List category…
+1 more at this level
Assumes you know the vocabulary.
What Is Conservation Biology?
Michael E. Soulé · 1985
Founds conservation biology as a distinct 'crisis discipline', arguing biodiversity loss demands action under uncertainty rather than waiting for…
+3 more at this level
Primary sources and full treatments.
Do Habitat Corridors Provide Connectivity?
Paul Beier & Reed F. Noss · 1998
Reviewing the evidence for corridor effectiveness, finds most studies too weak to support the widespread assumption that corridors reliably connect…
+3 more at this level
10 works
International Union for Conservation of Nature
Sets out the quantitative thresholds -- population decline, range size, number of mature individuals -- that sort a species into a Red List category from Least Concern to Extinct.
link checked 17 Sept 2026UNODC
Documents the scale and structure of illegal wildlife trade across thousands of species, finding it driven by organised trafficking networks rather than opportunistic poaching alone.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Michael E. Soulé
Founds conservation biology as a distinct 'crisis discipline', arguing biodiversity loss demands action under uncertainty rather than waiting for complete science.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Nigel Dudley (ed.)
Sets out IUCN's six-category system for classifying protected areas by management objective, from strict nature reserves to areas managed for sustainable use.
link checked 17 Sept 2026IUCN Species Survival Commission
Sets criteria for when releasing captive-bred or translocated animals is likely to succeed, and when it risks disease spread, genetic swamping or wasted effort.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Society for Ecological Restoration
Defines a shared, evidence-based standard for what counts as genuine ecological restoration, against a field where the word had come to describe almost any land management.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Paul Beier & Reed F. Noss
Reviewing the evidence for corridor effectiveness, finds most studies too weak to support the widespread assumption that corridors reliably connect isolated populations.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Lenore Fahrig
A review of decades of field studies finds habitat loss consistently reduces biodiversity, but fragmentation itself -- breaking apart habitat independent of area lost -- has weak, often positive, effects.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Richard Frankham
Reviews evidence that inbreeding and loss of genetic diversity measurably raise extinction risk in small populations, against the view that genetics rarely matters before demographic collapse.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Jens-Christian Svenning et al.
Reviews evidence that restoring large-animal populations and their trophic interactions can reverse biodiversity loss more effectively than passive protection alone.
link checked 17 Sept 2026