Sources, Sinks and Sustainability

Description

Source-sink theories provide a simple yet powerful framework for understanding how the patterns, processes and dynamics of ecological systems vary and interact over space and time. Integrating multiple research fields, including population biology and landscape ecology, this book presents the latest advances in source-sink theories, methods and applications in the conservation and management of natural resources and biodiversity. The interdisciplinary team of authors uses detailed case studies, innovative field experiments and modeling, and comprehensive syntheses to incorporate source-sink ideas into research and management, and explores how sustainability can be achieved in today's increasingly fragile human-dominated ecosystems. Providing a comprehensive picture of source-sink research as well as tangible applications to real world conservation issues, this book is ideal for graduate students, researchers, natural-resource managers and policy makers.

Jianguo (Jack) Liu is Rachel Carson Chair in Sustainability and University Distinguished Professor as well as Director of the Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability (CSIS) at Michigan State University. His major research interests include landscape ecology, conservation ecology and the integration of ecology with social sciences and policy for understanding and achieving sustainability. Vanessa Hull is a PhD student of Jianguo (Jack) Liu at the Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability (CSIS) at Michigan State University. Her research interests include animal behavior and ecology, landscape ecology and conservation biology. Anita T. Morzillo is an Assistant Professor, Senior Research, in the Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society at Oregon State University. Her major research interests include wildlife ecology and management, human dimensions of natural resources, landscape ecology, systems ecology, urban ecology and integrating ecology and social science for natural resource management. John A. Wiens is Chief Conservation Science Officer at PRBO Conservation Science, former Lead and Chief Scientist at The Nature Conservancy and former Distinguished Professor at Colorado State University. His broad interests include landscape ecology and the ecology of birds and insects in arid environments. His current scientific work focuses on critical issues of conservation in a rapidly changing environment resulting from climate change, economic globalization, land use change and human demands on natural ecosystems.