From Ecological Diversity to Biodiversity: Conceptual Changes in the Emergence of Conservation Biology

University Of Texas At Austin, Austin TX

Investigators

Abstract

Conservation biology first emerged in the United States as a distinct interdisciplinary research area in the 1980s drawing most of its conceptual resources from ecology, forestry, wildlife management, and related areas. The concept of biodiversity was central to the field though the term was explicitly introduced only in 1986. During the 1990s, conservation biology embraced earlier conceptual and practical developments from other areas of the world resulting in a consensus view in which adaptive management through systematic conservation planning emerged as a central task of the field. However, the concept of biodiversity remains controversial because it was impossible to define precisely and equally difficult to operationalize in the field; consequently a variety of measures of biodiversity continue to be proposed and debated. The purpose of this Science and Society Research Grant in the History and Philosophy of Science is to examine the origin of these concepts of biodiversity in the concepts of ecological diversity that preceded it, paying attention to both differences and similarities, examine historically why a new concept of diversity was perceived to be needed in the 1980s, analyze how concepts of biodiversity function within contemporary conservation biology, and assess the implications of these developments for the establishment of the conceptual framework of a new science. More specifically, the explicit objectives of this project are to provide a critical historical review of concepts and measures of ecological diversity and construct conceptual taxonomies showing the relationships between them; examine why a new concept of biodiversity was perceived to be necessary in the 1980s, paying attention to both scientific issues and the socio-political role of conservation biology; provide a critical review of various concepts and measures of biodiversity that have been proposed, including culturally-based concepts; analyze the role played by concepts of biodiversity in the practice of conservation planning, including a critical discussion of how they are operationalized for use in the field, how they may be quantified and measured, and, especially, how they provide or enable a normative basis for conservation; assess the extent to which various measures of diversity are supposed either to reflect empirical properties of systems or be surrogates for such properties chosen for pragmatic reasons such as ease of quantification and assessment; and, finally, assess the implications of these developments for the conceptual development of a new field, including how concepts may be introduced out of pragmatic necessity rather than empirical requirements. The PI is one of very few investigators to use tools from the philosophy and history of science to study conservation biology. This project aims to provide the first detailed philosophical treatments of a family of concepts that have been central to recent ecology and remain central to contemporary conservation biology. Besides a background in the philosophy and history of science, the PI brings to bear upon this project a background in developing analytical and software tools for conservation planning. Analysis and clarification of the concepts of ecological diversity and biodiversity, and the various operational roles they must play within conservation planning, should influence the practice of conservation biology, especially in devising new algorithms for planning decision support. Similarly, understanding the contextual and cultural origins of different concepts of biodiversity should help conservation planners resolve disputes between stakeholders. This project should encourage philosophers and historians of science to pay much more attention than they so far have to the emergence of a new science in which they can analyze and record the formation of a discipline from its beginning. Students participating in this project will have the requisite training for such further research. The interactive website from this project will be part of a portal promoted by the World Conservation Learning Program. It is likely to be used as an educational and outreach resource at a variety of pre-school through university; by academics and conservation planners and managers; and in the developed and developing world.