Biodiversity Conservation at Multiple Scales: Functional Sites, Landscapes, and Networks

A pproaches to conservation and natural resource ftmanagement are maturing rapidly in response to changing perceptions of biodiversity and ecological systems. In past decades, biodiversity was viewed largely in terms of species richness, and the ecosystems supporting these species were seen as static and predictable Conservation activities were often aimed at hotspots rich in total species or in rare species (Noss 1987). Consequently, relatively smail nature preserves proliferated through the 1970s and 1980s, as did endangered species management and recovery plans on more extensive public lands.