Conserving Biodiversity on Military Lands: The Commander's Guide
Abstract
What is biodiversity, and what should a military commander understand about it in order to do his of her job well? Simply stated, biodiversity is the total number of species and their abundance in a given area. That could be a specific type of habitat on an installation, or all of the variety of life within an installation's boundaries. It could be the diversity of life within a larger regional landscape, the whole country, or the entire planet. Healthy, well-functioning natural communities tend to be diverse--they contain many different species within a balanced but dynamic web of life. And, they are sustained by natural ecological processes--such as the periodic fires that foster longleaf pine woodlands, seasonal floods that enrich riverbank habitats, and growth of vegetation that can convert a meadow into a mature forest within a few decades.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2010
- Accession Number
- ADA534344