Monday, August 25, 2008

Linquist - But is it progress? On the alleged advances of conservation biology over ecology.

Linquist, S. (2008) But is it progress? On the alleged advances of conservation biology over ecology. Biology and Philosophy, 23, 529-544.

Linquist, a former postdoc with the UQ Biohumanities department argues that dropping island biogeography theory for complementarity-based algorithms will lead to inefficient protection of biodiversity. Unfortunately, statements like "In practice, these [complementarity] algorithms are biased in favor of selecting networks of small reserves with non-overlapping species" ignore a huge body of work post 1988 - also demonstrated by missing references to larger planning frameworks (Margules & Pressey). Linquist also ignores target setting or discussions about adequacy as well as the literature about spatial constraints to reserve design.

No comments: