Search results
- Dictionaryconservation/ˌkɒnsəˈveɪʃn/
noun
- 1. prevention of wasteful use of a resource: "they launched a week-long campaign to promote energy conservation"
- 2. the principle by which the total value of a physical quantity or parameter (such as energy, mass, linear or angular momentum) remains constant in a system which is not subject to external influence.
Powered by Oxford Dictionaries
Learn the meaning of conservation as a careful preservation and protection of something, especially a natural resource. See synonyms, examples, word history, and related phrases of conservation.
Conservation is the protection of natural resources, the environment, or valuable substances, or the principle that physical properties do not change. Learn more about conservation with definitions, examples, synonyms, and related words from Cambridge Dictionary.
Conservation is the protection of natural resources, the environment, or valuable substances, or the principle that physical properties do not change. Learn more about conservation with definitions, examples, collocations, and translations from Cambridge Dictionary.
- Overview
- Rates of natural and present-day species extinction
- GeneratedCaptionsTabForHeroSec
conservation, study of the loss of Earth’s biological diversity and the ways this loss can be prevented. Biological diversity, or biodiversity, is the variety of life either in a particular place or on the entire planet Earth, including its ecosystems, species, populations, and genes. Conservation thus seeks to protect life’s variety at all levels of biological organization.
(Read E.O. Wilson’s Britannica essay on mass extinction.)
Species extinction is the most obvious aspect of the loss of biodiversity. For example, species form the bulk of the examples in a comprehensive assessment of the state of the planet published in the early 21st century by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, an international effort coordinated by the United Nations Environment Programme. The subject of conservation is broader than this, however. Even a species that survives extinction can lose much of its genetic diversity as local, genetically distinct populations are lost from most of the species’ original range. Furthermore, ecosystems may shrink dramatically in area and lose many of their functions, even if their constituent species manage to survive. Conservation is involved with studying all these kinds of losses, understanding the factors responsible for them, developing techniques to prevent losses, and, whenever possible, restoring biodiversity.
Conservation is a crisis discipline, one demanded by the unusual rates of loss; it is also a mission-driven one. By analogy, ecology and conservation have the same relationship as physiology and medicine. Human physiology studies the workings of the human body, whereas medicine is mission-oriented and aims to understand what goes wrong and how to treat it. The major parts of this article thus deal first with the “pathology” of extinction—why and how biodiversity is lost—and second with the “treatment” methods to prevent these losses.
Conservation is often considered a purely biological topic, as exemplified by major scientific journals with titles such as Conservation Biology and Animal Conservation as well as college textbooks with such titles as Principles of Conservation Biology and Essentials of Conservation Biology. However, because the underlying cause of the loss of biodiversity is increasing human activity, conservation must inevitably involve human interactions. Many of the techniques to prevent the loss of biodiversity involve issues of economics, law, social sciences, and religion—all of which are covered by the journals and textbooks cited above.
The “pathology” section of this article begins by documenting the losses of species. In doing so, it shows that a set of common factors are responsible; these are then individually identified and discussed. The final part of the section demonstrates that some species and ecosystems are much more likely to lose biodiversity than others. The other main division, the “treatment” section, considers a variety of “therapies” that address the problems identified in the first section.
According to the best estimates of the world’s environmental experts, human activities have driven species to extinction at rates perhaps 1,000 times the natural, or background, rate, and future rates of extinction will likely be higher. To show how the experts arrived at these conclusions, it is necessary to pose and attempt to answer a series of ...
Conservation is the study and practice of protecting Earth's biological diversity and preventing its loss. Learn about the causes, consequences, and solutions of biodiversity loss, as well as the role of human interactions and conservation efforts.
Oct 19, 2023 · Conservation is the care and protection of Earth’s natural resources for current and future generations. Learn about the factors driving biodiversity loss, the difference between conservation and preservation, and the examples of conservation practices and policies.
The protection, preservation, management, or restoration of natural environments and the ecological communities that inhabit them. Conservation is generally held to include the management of human use of natural resources for current public benefit and sustainable social and economic utilization.
Learn what conservation is, how it evolved, and why it is important for the environment and society. Explore the different aspects of conservation, such as cultural heritage, ecology, and resource conservation, and their ethical and philosophical foundations.
