Date of Award
12-2003
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.A.
Degree Program
Geography
Department
Geography
Major Professor
Yaukey, Peter
Second Advisor
Leimgruber, Peter
Third Advisor
Hagelman, Ron
Abstract
Global biodiversity protection requires the development of protected areas that include representative samples of different ecosystems and their associated biodiversity (Dudley 1992, Scott et al. 2001a). I compared long-term decline and protection of forests in three major biomes; boreal, temperate and tropical. I found that forests in the temperate biome are less abundant and less protected than forests in the boreal and tropical biomes. I conducted regional analyses for five continents on the degree of protection of temperate forests across naturally occurring geographic and elevational ranges. My results indicate that protected temperate forests do not represent the full geographic and elevational range of naturally occurring temperate forests. Bias in location, elevation and slope of protected areas are present at both the regional and global scale. Better protection of temperate forests is needed if the diversity and resources associated with these forests types across their geographic range is to be preserved.
Recommended Citation
Gagnon, Jennifer, "A Global Conservation Assessment of Temperate Forests: Status and Protection" (2003). University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations. 45.
https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/45
Rights
The University of New Orleans and its agents retain the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible this dissertation or thesis in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The author retains all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation.