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Natural history has always been the foundation of conservation biology. For centuries, botanists collected specimens in the field to understand plant diversity; now that many habitats are threatened, botanists have turned their focus to conservation, and, increasingly, they look to the collections of museums, herbaria, and botanical gardens for insight on developing informed management programs. Plant Conservation explores the value of these collections in light of contemporary biodiversity studies.
After a foreword by Daniel H Janzen, the book opens with a broad view of plant biodiversity and then considers evolutionary and taxonomic threats and consequences of habitat alteration; specific threats to plant diversity, such as invasive species and global climate change; consequences of plant population decline at the ecological, evolutionary, and taxonomic levels; and, finally, management strategies that protect plant biodiversity from further decline. With a unique perspective on biodiversity and scientific collections, Plant Conservation ultimately emphasizes the role museums and botanical gardens will play in future conservation.
'No volume covers the topic of plant conservation as comprehensively as this one. This book goes way beyond the contribution that natural history museums can make to conservation efforts to consider the topic as a whole, and it is all the more useful as a consequence. This will be an important and widely used book' - Thomas Lovejoy, President of the H.John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment.
No volume covers the topic of plant conservation as comprehensively as this one. This book goes way beyond the contribution that natural history museums can make to conservation efforts to consider the topic as a whole, and it is all the more useful as a consequence. This will be an important and widely used book. - Thomas Lovejoy, President of the H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics, and the Environment"
