Conservation planning theory - Spatial Ecology Lab, The University of Queensland

Our more theoretical research in conservation planning includes: the persistence of biodiversity and adequacy of conservation plans; how to effectively incorporate different management zones, their effects on biodiversity and contribution to conservation; how to improve methods for including socio-economic factors to minimise conflicts in planning; vulnerability analysis and modelling key threatening processes; integrating uncertainty into the planning process.
People	Maria Beger, Michael Bode, Josie Carwardine, Eddie Game, Hedley Grantham, Carissa Klein, Simon Linke, Reinaldo Lourival, Marissa McBride, Hugh Possingham, Bob Pressey, Matt Watts, Kerrie Wilson
Collaborators	Environmental Science at the University of Melbourne, Carlo Rondinini, Luigi Boitani (University of Rome), Sahotra Sarkar (University of Texas), Emily Nicholson and David Wilcove (Princeton)
Links and downloads	The Marxan website is a valuable resource. See also Conservation Planning, algorithms and case studies and Conservation Resource Allocation
Key references	Nicholson, E., M. I. Westphal, K. Frank , W. A. Rochester, R. L. Pressey, D. Lindenmayer & H. P. Possingham (in press) A new method for conservation planning for the persistence of multiple species. Ecology Letters. pdf Nicholson, E. and H. P. Possingham (2006) Objectives for multiple species conservation planning. Conservation Biology 20: 871-881 pdf. Possingham, H. P., K. A. Wilson, S. J. Andelman and C. H. Vynne (2006) Protected Areas: Goals, Limitations, and Design. Pages 509-533 in M. J. Groom, G. K. Meefe and C. R. Carroll, editors. Principles of Conservation Biology, 3rd Edition. Sinauer Associates, Inc., Sunderland MA. pdf. McCarthy, M. A., C. J. Thompson and H. P. Possingham (2005) Theory for Designing Nature Reserves for Single Species. The American Naturalist 165:250-257 pdf Possingham, H. P. and K. A. Wilson (2005) Turning up the heat on hotspots. Nature 436:919-920 pdf Possingham, H. P., J. Franklin, K. A. Wilson and T. J. Regan (2005) The roles of spatial heterogeneity and ecological processes in conservation planning. Pages 389-406 in G. M. Lovett, C. G. Jones, M. G. Turner and K. C. Weathers, editors. Ecosystem Function in Heterogeneous Landscapes. Springer, New York Wilson, K. A., M. I. Westphal, H. P. Possingham and J. Elith (2005) Sensitivity of conservation planning to different approaches to using predicted species distribution data. Biological Conservation 122:99-112 pdf Wilson, K. A., R. L. Pressey, A. N. Newton, M. A. Burgman, H. P. Possingham and C. J. Weston (2005) Measuring and incorporating vulnerability into conservation planning. Environmental Management 35:527-543 pdf Cabeza, M., A. Moilanen and H. P. Possingham (2004) Metapopulation dynamics and reserve network design. Pages 541-564 in I. Hanski and O. Gaggiotti, editors. Ecology, genetics, and evolution of metapopulations. Elsevier Academic Press, Amsterdam Meir, E., S. Andelman and H. P. Possingham (2004) Does conservation planning matter in a dynamic and uncertain world? Ecology Letters 7:615-622 pdf Gerber, L. R., L. W. Botsford, A. Hastings, H. P. Possingham, S. D. Gaines, S. R. Palumbi and S. J. Andelman (2003) Population models for marine reserve design: A retrospective and prospective synthesis. Ecological Applications 13:S47-S64 pdf Bascompte, J., H. P. Possingham and J. Roughgarden (2002) Patchy populations in stochastic environments: Critical number of patches for persistence. The American Naturalist 159:128-137 pdf Burgman, M. A., H. P. Possingham, A. J. Lynch, D. A. Keith, M. A. McCarthy, S. D. Hopper, W. L. Drury, J. A. Passioura and R. J. Devries (2001) A Method For Setting The Size Of Plant Conservation Target Areas. Conservation Biology 15:603-616 pdf Possingham, H. P., I. Ball and S. J. Andelman (2000) Mathematical Methods for Identifying Representative Reserve Networks. Pages 291-305 in S. Ferson and M. A. Burgman, editors. Quantitative Methods for Conservation Biology. Springer-Verlag, New York pdf Tyre, A. J., B. Tenhumberg, M. A. McCarthy and H. P. Possingham (2000) Swapping space for time and unfair tests of ecological models. Austral Ecology 25:327-331 pdf