Population Viability Analysis

As human populations and the resources required to support societies continue to grow, an increasing number of plant and animal species around the world are facing extinction. Given limited time, space, and money, how do we decide which management actions will be most effective to avert extinctions?

In this book, many of the world's leading conservation and population biologists evaluate what has become a key tool in estimating extinction risk and evaluating potential recovery strategies—population viability analysis, or PVA. PVA integrates data on the life history, demography, and genetics of a species with information on environmental variability, using computer models ranging from simple measures of population growth rate to complex spatial simulations, to predict whether a given population will remain viable (i.e., not go extinct) under various management options. A synthetic and objective overview of the latest theoretical and methodological advances, Population Viability Analysis will be crucial reading for conservationists, land managers, and policy makers.

Steven R. Beissinger is a professor of conservation biology and chair of the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at the University of California, Berkeley.

Dale R. McCullough holds the A. Starker Leopold Chair in Wildlife Biology and is professor of wildlife biology in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at the University of California, Berkeley.