Glossary

Adaptive Management: A component of ecosystem management in which management actions are seen as experiments and future management decisions are determined by the outcome of present decisions.

Chaparral: a shrubland or heathland plant community found primarily in the U.S. state of California and in the northern portion of the Baja California peninsula, Mexico. It is shaped by a Mediterranean climate and wildfire. Similar plant communities are found in the Mediterranean Basin, Chile, South Africa, and in Western and Southern Australia.

Endemic: Occurring in a particular geographic location and nowhere else on Earth.

Island biogeography: is a field within biogeography that attempts to establish and explain the factors that affect the species richness of natural communities. The theory was developed to explain species richness of actual islands. It has since been extended to mountains surrounded by deserts, lakes surrounded by dry land, forest fragments surrounded by human-altered landscapes. Now it is used in reference to any ecosystem surrounded by unlike ecosystems. The field was started in the 1960s by the ecologists Robert MacArthur and E.O. Wilson, who coined the term theory of island biogeography, as this theory attempted to predict the number of species that would exist on a newly created island.

Mesopredator: a mid-level predator which preys on lower trophic-order organisms, but which, in turn, is preyed upon by apex predator species.

Traditional knowledge: the long-standing traditions and practices of certain regional, indigenous, or local communities. Traditional knowledge encompasses the wisdom, knowledge, and teachings of these communities.

Trophic cascade: A change in the rate of consumption at one trophic level that results in a series of changes in species abundances and species compositions at lower trophic levels.

Vascular plants: plants that have lignified tissues for conducting water, minerals, and photosynthetic products through the plant.

Wildlife corridor: an area of habitat connecting wildlife populations separated by human activities (such as roads, development, or logging).