Conservation paleobiology : science and practice / edited by Gregory P. Dietl and Karl W. Flessa.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Dietl, Gregory P., editor.

Flessa, Karl W., editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Paleobiology.

Paleoecology.

Conservation biology.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (329 pages) : illustrations, maps

Place of Publication:

Chicago, Illinois ; London : The University of Chicago Press, [2017]

Summary:

In conservation, perhaps no better example exists of the past informing the present than the return of the California condor to the Vermilion Cliffs of Arizona. Extinct in the region for nearly one hundred years, condors were successfully reintroduced starting in the 1990s in an effort informed by the fossil record—condor skeletal remains had been found in the area’s late-Pleistocene cave deposits. The potential benefits of applying such data to conservation initiatives are unquestionably great, yet integrating the relevant disciplines has proven challenging. Conservation Paleobiology gathers a remarkable array of scientists—from Jeremy B. C. Jackson to Geerat J. Vermeij—to provide an authoritative overview of how paleobiology can inform both the management of threatened species and larger conservation decisions. Studying endangered species is difficult. They are by definition rare, some exist only in captivity, and for those still in their native habitats any experimentation can potentially have a negative effect on survival. Moreover, a lack of long-term data makes it challenging to anticipate biotic responses to environmental conditions that are outside of our immediate experience. But in the fossil and prefossil records—from natural accumulations such as reefs, shell beds, and caves to human-made deposits like kitchen middens and archaeological sites—enlightening parallels to the Anthropocene can be found that might serve as a primer for present-day predicaments. Offering both deep-time and near-time perspectives and exploring a range of ecological and evolutionary dynamics and taxa from terrestrial as well as aquatic habitats, Conservation Paleobiology is a sterling demonstration of how the past can be used to manage for the future, giving new hope for the creation and implementation of successful conservation programs.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Foreword

Introduction

Section One. Conservation Paleobiology in Near Time

Chapter One. The youngest fossil record and conservation biology: Holocene shells as eco-environmental recorders

Chapter Two. Conservation biology and environmental change: A paleolimnological perspective

Chapter Three. Vertebrate fossils and the future of conservation biology

Chapter Four Paleoecology and resource management in a dynamic landscape: Case studies from the Rocky Mountain headwaters

Chapter Five Historical ecology for the paleontologist

Chapter Six The isotopic ecology of fossil vertebrates and conservation paleobiology

Chapter Seven Evaluating human modification of shallow marine ecosystems: Mismatch in composition of molluscan living and time-averaged death assemblages

Chapter Eight Using a macroecological approach to the fossil record to help inform conservation biology

Section Two Conservation Paleobiology in Deep Time

Chapter Nine Seven variations on a recent theme of conservation

Chapter Ten Metaphor, inference, and prediction in paleoecology: Climate change and the Antarctic bottom fauna

Chapter Eleven Ecological modeling of paleocommunity food webs

Chapter Twelve Paleobiology and the conservation of the evolving web of life

Chapter Thirteen Speciation and shifting baselines: Prospects for reciprocal illumination between evolutionary paleobiology and conservation biology

Section Three Conservation Paleobiology at Work

Chapter Fourteen Putting the dead to work: Translational paleoecology

Chapter Fifteen Conservation paleobiology roundtable: From promise to application

Epilogue Conservation Paleobiology in the Anthropocene

Contributors

Acknowledgments

Index

Notes:

"This book is an expanded reprint of the proceedings of a short course entitled "Conservation Paleobiology: Using the Past to Manage for the Future" that ... was convened at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Portland, Oregon, in 2009"--ECIP information.

Includes index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780226506869

022650686X

OCLC:

1012126302