SavingBiologicalDiversity

Mark Anderson holds a Ph.D. in Ecology from University of New Hampshire where his research focused on the viability and spatial assessment of ecological communities in the Northern Appalachian ecoregion. He is currently Director of Conservation Science for the Eastern Region of the Nature Conservancy providing ecological analysis and developing landscape-scale assessment tools for conservation efforts across eight ecoregions. He has worked as an ecologist for the Conservancy for fourteen years and is co-author of the National Vegetation Classification. His research interests are in ecosystem dynamics, population demographics, disturbance processes, spatial scale and landscape properties.

Minimum Dynamic Areas for Matrix Forests 34:14 min.

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Ecosystem or "coarse filter" protection has garnered support among conservation scientists as a way to conserve most species. However not every patch of forest has an equal probability of containing all its characteristic species or remaining resilient over time. This observation leads to the question: How big does a forest ecosystem have to be to maintain its full species composition and persist over centuries? Here we present a model that focuses on two processes: 1) an understanding of the scale and intensity of natural disturbances that disrupt and replenish the natural ecosystem and 2) an estimate of the area requirements of characteristic breeding species that depend on forest interior conditions. The information is used to clarify the potential gains and losses of various sized forest reserves.

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