Facets of biological conservation: Appropriate ecology, policy, and ethics for ensuring the perpetuity of biodiversity

In this dissertation I present a multidisciplinary approach to the problem of species loss from the perspective of the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities.;The first part of this work is a critique of the scientific methods used to predict species loss and conserve species diversity. Specifically, the species-area relationship (SAR) is used in conservation to upscale diversity from small plots to large regions, estimate species loss from habitat conversion, and prioritize conservation actions. Calculations involved in these applications could be made more accurate were several factors taken into account, including accounting for beta diversity, use of the appropriate diversity-area relationship, and recognizing that the SAR does not always obey a power function.;With the importance of the SAR to conservation noted, the second part of this dissertation presents the results of a 3-yr experiment on a serpentine grassland ecosystem designed to test three common explanations of the SAR: habitat heterogeneity, island biogeography, and passive sampling. The results indicate that multiple factors determine the elevation, slope, and curvature of the SAR, and that these have scale-dependent effects.;In the penultimate portion of this work I offer a policy analysis of historical and contemporary international conservation conventions, especially those that target large marine mammals. Time lags in policy negotiation exacerbate time lags in biological response to policy, making recovery all the more costly and time-consuming. Against this background of exigency, policies must be able to "see" threats as they affect species, or otherwise threats will go unaddressed. Currently a plethora of international regimes attempt to address a multitude of threats, but even in developed policy spaces like the European Union they do not fully cooperate in a manner that allows the necessary coordination to protect and conserve biodiversity.;The final chapter presents an argument for proleptic environmental human rights in light of extinction. I attempt to answer the question over the right of future human beings to benefit from current biodiversity by asking the question in reverse: to what degree does the current generation enjoy environmental human rights in the past? The answer determines how we relate to the future.