Big or Small?
A large debate among conservation biologist is whether it is better to create several small reserves or one large reserve. The species area relationship states that the number of species in a habitat is directly proportional to its size. So theoretically if several small reserves have a greater total area than a single large reserve, the small reserves will contain a greater total number of species.
The nested subset theory disagrees with this conclusion. It states that several small reserves will mostly share the same species, because certain species are better adapted to living in smaller habitats and many other species only exist in lager habitats.
A study conducted in Illinois showed that two small forest reserves contained a larger number of bird species than one large forest patch, but the large reserve contained a larger number of migratory birds. http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/links/doi/10.1046/j.1523-1739.2003.01118.x.
Edge effects should also be considered in the creation of reserves.
Read more about this topic: Reserve Design
Famous quotes containing the word big:
“One of the baseball-team owners approached me and said: “If you become baseball commissioner, you’re going to have to deal with 28 big egos,” and I said, “For me, that’s a 72% reduction.””
—George Mitchell (b. 1933)