• Using ecological theory to solve problems
• Characterizes the relationship between human actions and biological responses
• Plans to remediate the effects of human action

Impact Ecology

• Rachel Carson and impacts of pesticides
• 1970s

Restoration

• 1980s

Ecological Resilience

• 2000s
• Manage processes that allow recovery and adaptation to change
• Difficult to use in practice

Solutions vs non-solutions

• Ecological journal studies are mostly not solution oriented
• In the media they are almost always applied

Ecological Paradigms

Example: Maximum sustainable yield

• Focus on populations - used to regulate game and fisheries
• Has been successful with game management, but not with fisheries
• fisheries have collapsed around the world despite these MSY principles being used for management
• This could be related to:
  • oversimplified models
  • lack of data on on fish (data deficiences)
  • fishing season is longer than hunting season
  • Political issues - lobbying

Island Biogeography

• Very influential inreserve design and estimating species loss
• However, reults in nature reserves being isolated from their surroundings

Metapopulations

Very important in fragmented landscapes

• Favoring connectivity between patches
• Not all species function as metapopulations