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. Variou s aspects of the relation between area of protected habitat and number s of constituent species preserved are discussed, with emphasis of edg e effects and other factors. Particular attention is given to those sp ecies 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 patch es is destroyed. The paper concludes with comments about making choice s as to which areas to preserve - the calculus of biodiversity - and a bout more general social and economic considerations.