Abstract
A conceptual framework is provided for considering the threshold concept in natural resource management and conservation. We define three kinds of thresholds relevant to management and conservation. Ecological thresholds are values of system state variables at which small changes bring about substantial or specified changes in system dynamics. They are frequently incorporated into ecological models used to project system responses to management actions. Utility thresholds are components of management objectives and are values of state or performance variables at which small changes yield substantial changes in the value of the management outcome. Decision thresholds are values of system state variables at which small changes prompt changes in management actions in order to reach specified management objectives. Decision thresholds are derived from the other components of the decision process. We advocate a structured decision making (SDM) approach within which the following components are identified: objectives (possibly including utility thresholds), potential actions, models (possibly including ecological thresholds), monitoring program, and a solution algorithm (which produces decision thresholds). Adaptive resource management (ARM) is described as a special case of SDM developed for recurrent decision problems that are characterized by uncertainty. We believe that SDM, in general, and ARM, in particular, provide good approaches to conservation and management. Use of SDM and ARM also clarifies the distinct roles of ecological thresholds, utility thresholds, and decision thresholds in informed decision processes.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Bellman, R. 1957. Dynamic programming. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Bennetts, R. E., J. E. Gross, K. Cahill, C. McIntyre, B. B. Bingham, A. Hubbard, L. Cameron, and S. L. Carter. 2007. Linking monitoring to management and planning: Assessment points as a generalized approach. George Wright Forum 24:59–77.
Benton, T. G. 2003. Understanding the ecology of extinction: Are we close to the critical threshold? Annales Zoologici Fennici 40:71–80.
Bestelmeyer, B. T. 2006. Threshold concepts and their use in rangeland management and restoration: The good, the bad, and the insidious. Restoration Ecology 14:325–329.
Bodin, P., and B. L. B. Wiman. 2007. The usefulness of stability concepts in forest management when coping with increasing climate uncertainties. Forest Ecology and Management 242:541–552.
Borchers, D. L., S. T. Buckland, and W. Zucchini. 2003. Estimating animal abundance. New York: Springer-Verlag.
Brown, J. H., T. J. Valone, and C. G. Curtin. 1997. Reorganization of an arid ecosystem in response to recent climate change. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 94:9729–9733.
Burgman, M. 2005. Risks and decisions for conservation and environmental management. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Caughley, G. 1994. Directions in conservation biology. The Journal of Animal Ecology 63:215–244.
Clemen, R. T., and T. Reilly. 2001. Making hard decisions with decision tools. Pacific Grove: Duxbury.
Conroy, M. J., and C. T. Moore. 2001. Simulation models and optimal decision making in natural resource management. In Modeling in natural resource management: valid development, interpretation and application, ed. T. M. Shenk and A. B. Franklin, 91–104. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.
Conroy, M. J., C. R. Allen, J. T. Peterson, L. Pritchard, and C. T. Moore. 2003. Landscape change in the southern Piedmont: Challenges, solutions, and uncertainty across scales. Conservation Ecology 8:3.
Dorazio, R. M., and F. A. Johnson. 2003. Bayesian inference and decision theory—A framework for decision making in natural resource management. Ecological Applications 13:556–563.
Fahrig, L. 2001. How much habitat is enough? Biological Conservation 100:65–74.
Field, S. A., A. J. Tyre, N. Jonzen, J. R. Rhodes, and H. P. Possingham. 2004. Minimizing the cost of environmental management decisions by optimizing statistical thresholds. Ecology Letters 7:669–675.
Fonnesbeck, C. J. 2005. Solving dynamic wildlife resource optimization problems using reinforcement learning. Natural Resource Modeling 18:1–39.
Groffman, P., J. Baron, T. Blett, A. Gold, I. Goodman, L. Gunderson, B. Levinson, M. Palmer, H. Paerl, G. Peterson, N. Poff, D. Rejeski, J. Reynolds, M. Turner, K. Weathers, and J. Wiens. 2006. Ecological thresholds: The key to successful environmental management or an important concept with no practical application? Ecosystems 9:1–13.
Gunderson, L. H. 2000. Ecological resilience—in theory and application. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 31:425–439.
Halpern, B. S., H. M. Regan, H. P. Possingham, and M. A. McCarthy. 2006. Accounting for uncertainty in marine reserve design. Ecology Letters 9:2–11.
Holling, C. S. 1973. Resilience and stability of ecological systems. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 4:1–23.
Holling, C. S. 1978. Adaptive environmental assessment and management. New York: Wiley.
Huggett, A. J. 2005. The concept and utility of ‘ecological thresholds’ in biodiversity conservation. Biological Conservation 124:301–310.
Intriligator, M. D. 1971. Mathematical optimization and economic theory. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.
Johnson, F. A., C. T. Moore, W. L. Kendall, J. A. Dubovsky, D. F. Caithamer, J. R. Kelley, and B. K. Williams. 1997. Uncertainty and the management of mallard harvests. Journal of Wildlife Management 61:202–216.
Kendall, W. L. 2001. Using models to facilitate complex decisions. In Modeling in natural resource management: valid development, interpretation and application, ed. T. M. Shenk and A. B. Franklin, 147–170. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.
Lande, R. 1987. Extinction thresholds in demographic-models of territorial populations. American Naturalist 130:624–635.
Lee, K. N. 1993. Compass and gyroscope: Integrating science and politics for the environment. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.
Lubow, B. C. 1995. SDP: Generalized software for solving stochastic dynamic optimization problems. Wildlife Society Bulletin 23:738–742.
Lyons, J. E., M. C. Runge, H. P. Laskowski, and W. L. Kendall. 2008. Monitoring in the context of structured decision-making and adaptive management. Journal of Wildlife Management 72:1683–1692.
Martin, J., M. C. Runge, J. D. Nichols, B. C. Lubow, and W. L. Kendall. 2009a. Structured decision making as a conceptual framework to identify thresholds for conservation and management. Ecological Applications 19:1079–1090.
Martin, J., C. L. McIntyre, J. E. Hines, J. D. Nichols, J. A. Schmutz, and M. C. MacCluskie. 2009b. Dynamic multistate site occupancy models to evaluate hypotheses relevant to conservation of Golden Eagles in Denali National Park, Alaska. Biological Conservation 142:2726–2731.
Martin, J., P. L. Fackler, J. D. Nichols, M. C. Runge, C. McIntyre, B. L. Lubow, M. G. McCluskie, and J. A. Schmutz. 2011. An adaptive management framework for optimal control of recreational activities in Denali National Park. Conservation Biology 25:316–323.
Maxwell, D., and S. Jennings. 2005. Power of monitoring programmes to detect decline and recovery of rare and vulnerable fish. Journal of Applied Ecology 42:25–37.
McCarthy, M. A., and H. P. Possingham. 2007. Active adaptive management for conservation. Conservation Biology 21:956–963.
McGowan, C., D. R. Smith, J. A. Sweka, J. Martin, J. D. Nichols, R. Wong, J. E. Lyons, L. J. Niles, K. Kalasz, J. Brust, M. Klopfer, and B. Spear. 2011. Multi-species modeling for adaptive management of horseshoe crabs and red knots in the Delaware Bay. Natural Resource Modeling 24:117–156.
Miranda, M. J., and P. L. Fackler. 2002. Applied computational economics and finance. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Nichols, J. D. 2001. Using models in the conduct of science and management of natural resources. In Modeling in natural resource management: development, interpretation and application, ed T. M. Shenk and A. B. Franklin, 11–34. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.
Nichols, J. D., and B. K. Williams. 2006. Monitoring for conservation. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 21:668–673.
Pascual, M., and F. Guichard. 2005. Criticality and disturbance in spatial ecological systems. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 20:88–95.
Runge, M. C., F. A. Johnson, M. G. Anderson, M. D. Koneff, E. T. Reed, and S. E. Mott. 2006. The need for coherence between waterfowl harvest and habitat management. Wildlife Society Bulletin 34:1231–1237.
Seber, G. A. F. 1982. The estimation of animal abundance and related parameters. New York: MacMillian Press.
Thompson, R. L. 2002. Sampling. New York: Wiley.
Walters, C. J., and R. Hilborn. 1978. Ecological optimization and adaptive management. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 9:157–188.
Walters, C. J. 1986. Adaptive management of renewable resources. New York: Macmillan.
Williams, B. K. 1982. Optimal stochastic control in natural resource management – framework and examples. Ecological Modelling 16:275–297.
Williams, B. K. 1989. Review of dynamic optimization methods in renewable natural resource management. Natural Resource Modeling 3:137–216.
Williams, B. K. 1996. Adaptive optimization of renewable natural resources: Solution algorithms and a computer program. Ecological Modelling 93:101–111.
Williams, B. K. 1997. Approaches to the management of waterfowl under uncertainty. Wildlife Society Bulletin 25:714–720.
Williams, B.K., and J.D. Nichols. In press. Optimization in natural resources conservation. In Thresholds for conservation, ed. G. Gunterspergen and P. Geissler: Wiley, New York.
Williams, B. K., J. D. Nichols, and M. J. Conroy. 2002. Analysis and management of animal populations: Modeling, estimation, and decision making. San Diego: Academic Press.
Williams, B. K., R. C. Szaro, and C. D. Shapiro. 2007. Adaptive management: The U.S. Department of the Interior technical guide. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of the Interior.
Williams, B. K. 2009. Markov decision processes in natural resources management: Observability and uncertainty. Ecological Modelling 220:830–840.
Yoccoz, N. G., J. D. Nichols, and T. Boulinier. 2001. Monitoring of biological diversity in space and time. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 16:446–453.
Acknowledgments
We thank Bill Kendall, Bruce Lubow, Mike Runge, and Ken Williams for sharing ideas about decision making and thresholds. The manuscript benefitted from constructive comments by Glenn Guntenspergen.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Nichols, J., Eaton, M., Martin, J. (2014). Thresholds for Conservation and Management: Structured Decision Making as a Conceptual Framework. In: Guntenspergen, G. (eds) Application of Threshold Concepts in Natural Resource Decision Making. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-8041-0_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-8041-0_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4899-8040-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-8041-0
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)