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What is Conservation Biology?

What is Conservation Biology?

Conservation biology is a scientific field that focuses on the preservation of biodiversity in order to protect ecosystems while meeting the needs of the human population. Humans require properly functioning ecosystems to maintain our supply of natural resources, including food, medicines, and building materials.

Conservation of Declining Populations

Conservation of Declining Populations

Conservation of declining population focuses on ways of detecting, diagnosing, and halting a population decline. The approach uses methods to prevent populations from going extinct.

Sustainable Development

Sustainable Development

As the human population continues to grow and use resources, we must be mindful of our planet’s natural limits. Sustainable development provides a pathway to maintain and improve human life now while also ensuring that future generations will have the resources that they need. The long-term success of sustainability efforts rests on understanding the interplay between human actions and ecological systems.

Conservation of Small Populations

Conservation of Small Populations

Small population sizes put a species at extreme risk of extinction due to a lack of variation, and a consequent decrease in adaptability. This weakens the chances of survival under pressures such as climate change, competition from other species, or new diseases. Large populations are more likely to survive pressures such as these, as such populations are more likely to harbor individuals that have genetic variants that are adaptive under new stresses. Small populations are much less likely to...

Habitat Fragmentation

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Habitat fragmentation describes the division of a more extensive, continuous habitat into smaller, discontinuous areas. Human activities such as land conversion, as well as slower geological processes leading to changes in the physical environment, are the two leading causes of habitat fragmentation. The fragmentation process typically follows the same steps: perforation, dissection, fragmentation, shrinkage, and attrition.

Ecological Niches

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 12, 2026

Field Collection and Laboratory Maintenance of Canopy-Forming Giant Kelp to Facilitate Restoration

Field Collection and Laboratory Maintenance of Canopy-Forming Giant Kelp to Facilitate Restoration

Published on: June 7, 2024

Focusing ecological research for conservation.

Bogdan Cristescu¹, Mark S Boyce

¹Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2E9, Canada, cristesc@ualberta.ca.

|April 24, 2013

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Ecologists can advance conservation by focusing research on five key ecological topics: carbon sequestration, ecological invasiveness, individual variation, organism movement, and trophic-level interactions. This interdisciplinary approach integrates ecological understanding with conservation needs.

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Last Updated: May 12, 2026

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Published on: December 9, 2012

Area of Science:

Conservation Ecology
Ecological Research

Background:

Ecologists are increasingly involved in conservation efforts.
Conservation needs require focused ecological research attention.

Purpose of the Study:

To identify five key ecological topics that merit research for conservation needs.
To examine research questions in landscape, behavioral, community ecology, ecosystem dynamics, and nutrient cycling relevant to conservation.

Main Methods:

Literature review and publication trend assessment.
Consultation with colleagues and roundtable discussions at the 24th International Congress for Conservation Biology.

Main Results:

Five key research topics identified: 1. Carbon sequestration (linked to biodiversity conservation), 2. Ecological invasiveness (addressing invasive species), 3. Individual variation (for rare species conservation), 4. Movement of organisms (integrating processes, addressing fragmentation), 5. Trophic-level interactions (driving ecosystem dynamics).

Conclusions:

Focused research on these five topics can benefit conservation and advance ecological understanding.
Addressing these topics requires cross-disciplinary research within conservation ecology.