Science, Values, and Biodiversity

Society, science, and values.

Integrating Science and Human Values

The burden of cancer continues to increase globally, with substantial personal, societal, and economic consequences. Population growth and aging underlie this increase—a reflection of the effect of population health interventions in the last two centuries. Much of this gain has come through observation, derivation of evidence, and rigorous application of valid science to the public, both health...

Remote sensing for biodiversity science and conservation

Remote-sensing systems typically produce imagery that averages information over tens or even hundreds of square meters – far too coarse to detect most organisms – so the remote sensing of biodiversity would appear to be a fool’s errand. However, advances in the spatial and spectral resolutions of sensors now available to ecologists are making the direct remote sensing of certain aspects of biod...

The biodiversity values of European virgin forests

What makes virgin forests better forests? Biodiversity evaluation depends on the value systems of the stakeholders involved. Indicators for conservation value, ecosystem functions, wilderness, uniqueness, or species richness may not correlate, or even correlate negatively. Based on arthropod data from a comparative study in two types of virgin forests in core areas of the Carpathian Biosphere R...

Carrying capacity as "Informed Judgment": the values of science and the science of values.

Contemporary park and wilderness carrying capacity frameworks rely on formulation of standards of quality, which are defined as minimum acceptable resource and social conditions. Formulation of standards of quality involves elements of both science and values, and both of these elements must be integrated into informed judgments on the part of park and wilderness managers. That is, managers mus...