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.

Preface, Ilkka Hanski
1: Simon Ferrier & Brendan A. Wintle: Quantitative Approaches to Spatial Conservation Prioritization: Matching the Solution to the Need
2: Kerrie A. Wilson, Mar Cabeza & Carissa J. Klein: Fundamental Concepts of Spatial Conservation Prioritization
3: Atte Moilanen, Hugh P. Possingham & Stephen Polasky: A Mathematical Classification of Conservation Prioritization Problems
4: Robert G. Haight & Stephanie A. Snyder: Integer Programming Methods for Reserve Selection and Design
5: Atte Moilanen & Ian Ball: Heuristic and Approximate Optimization Methods for Spatial Conservation Prioritization
6: Jane Elith & John Leathwick: Conservation Prioritization Using Species Distribution Modelling
7: Simon Ferrier, Daniel P. Faith, Anni Arponen, & Michael Drielsma: Community-level Approaches to Spatial Conservation Prioritization
8: Emily Nicholson & Otso Ovaskainen: Conservation Prioritization Using Metapopulation Models
9: Michael A. McCarthy: Spatial Population Viability Analysis
10: Hugh P. Possingham, Atte Moilanen & Kerrie A. Wilson: Accounting for Habitat Dynamics in Conservation Planning
11: Helen M. Regan, Michelle Ensbey & Mark A. Burgman: Conservation Prioritization and Uncertainty in Planning Inputs
12: Reed Noss, Scott Nielsen & Ken Vance-Borland: Prioritizing Ecosystems, Species, and Sites for Restoration
13: Miguel B. Araújo: Climate Change and Spatial Conservation Planning
14: Ian R. Ball, Hugh P. Possingham & Matthew E. Watts: Marxan and Relatives: Software for Spatial Conservation Prioritization
15: Atte Moilanen, Heini Kujala & John R. Leathwick: The Zonation Framework and Software for Conservation Prioritization
16: Robert L. Pressey, Matthew E. Watts, Thomas W. Barrett & Malcolm J. Ridges: The C-Plan Conservation Planning System: Origins, Applications and Possible Futures
17: Sahotra Sarkar, Trevon Fuller, Anshu Aggarwal, Alexander Moffett & Christopher D. Kelley: The ConsNet Software Platform for Systematic Conservation Planning
18: Andrew T. Knight, Richard M. Cowling, Hugh P. Possingham & Kerrie A. Wilson: From Theory to Practice: Designing and Situating Spatial Prioritization Approaches to Better Implement Conservation Action
19: Atte Moilanen, Hugh P. Possingham & Kerrie A. Wilson: Spatial Conservation Prioritization: Past, Present, and Future
References
Index

Edited by Atte Moilanen , Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland

Kerrie A. Wilson , School of Integrative Biology, The University of Queensland, Australia

Hugh Possingham , The Ecology Centre and Department of Mathematics, The University of Queensland, Australia

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.

`Overall, there are many interesting and helpful elements within this book.' British Ecological Society