Spatial Conservation Prioritization: Quantitative Methods and Computational Tools (Oxford Biology)

Habitat loss and deterioration, climate change, and economic pressures for resource extraction have all led to a global loss of biodiversity. The limited resources available for conservation need to be used both effectively and efficiently in order to minimise further losses. Spatial conservation prioritization addresses the question of how we should allocate conservation effort and funds in space and time. While the benefits of quantitative conservation prioritization methods have been widely promoted, adoption of these methods in "real-world" planning and implementation is still in its infancy, partly due to the difficulty of identifying which methods and tools (if any) are suited to specific planning problems.


Spatial Conservation Prioritization brings together a team of leading scientists to introduce the conceptual and methodological aspects of how to undertake spatial conservation planning in a quantitative manner. It provides the reader with information on when, why, and how to use which statistical and computational methods for conservation prioritization. Important topics underlying spatial prioritization including metapopulation modelling, population viability analysis modelling, species distribution modelling, and uncertainty analysis are discussed, as well as operational definitions and methods. The book includes chapters on the most widely used and latest software, and concludes with an insight into the future of the field.

Atte Moilanen has a background in computer science (MSc 1992), applied mathematics (Licentiate of Technology, Helsinki University of Technology 1998), and spatial ecology (PhD, University Helsinki 1999). Presently (2003-2008) he is a research fellow of the Academy of Finland and vice-director of the Finnish Centre of Excellence in Metapopulation Biology, a leading research group in the study spatial ecology. Atte is also an Associate with the CERF/AEDA Commonwealth funded research hub in applied environmental decision making. Atte is author of more than 40 original publications around the topics of spatial ecology, optimization, and methods for conservation prioritisation. He also is author of multiple pieces of software, including the Zonation package for large-scale conservation prioritisation. Moilanen's present research interests focus on the development of methods, theory and efficient software for application in the field of conservation science.

Kerrie Wilson has a background in Environmental Science (BSc, The University of Queensland, BSc, 1999), conservation ecology (PhD, University of Melbourne, 2003), and conservation prioritisation (Post-doc, University of Queensland, 2007). Kerrie was previously the Director of Conservation for the Australia program prior to taking up a senior lectureship at The University of Queensland after being awarded an Australian Research Council fellowship. Kerrie is author of approximately 35 original publications on the topics of spatial conservation prioritisation, threat analysis, and species distribution modelling, including a seminal review on incorporating threats into conservation planning. Her current research interests include the development of frameworks for conservation spending that accounts for threats, costs, ecosystem services, and biodiversity values.

Hugh Possingham majored in applied mathematics and biochemistry at The University of Adelaide, followed by a doctorate in biomathematics at Oxford University in 1987. Postdoctoral research periods followed at Stanford University and ANU (as a QEII Fellow). In 1991 he took a Lectureship in Applied Mathematics at the University of Adelaide and was appointed Foundation Chair and Professor of the Department of Environmental Science in 1995. In 2000 Hugh escaped southern Australia to direct The Ecology Centre at The University of Queensland, Brisbane. Hugh is an Australian Research Council Federation Fellow (2006-2010) and a Director of a Commonwealth Environment Research Facility. He has coauthored over 200 publications, 154 in peer-reviewed papers covered by the web of science. His lab includes nine postdoctoral fellows and fourteen PhD students working on empirical and theoretical aspects of biodiversity conservation. In 2005 he was elected to the Australian Academy of Science.