Santa Clara University

Office: 874 Lafayette Street, Rm.208
Phone: 554-2313
Email: pkareiva@tnc.org
B.A., Duke University, Durham, NC;
Magna Cum Laude in Zoology, 1973
M.S., University of California, Irvine; Environmental Biology, 1976
Ph.D., Cornell University, Ithaca, NY;
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, 1981
Curriculum Vitae (pdf)

Teaching and Research Vision

Conservation and environmentalism suffer from a good intentions are enough? syndrome. In other words, there are innumerable strategies and tools for protecting the environment or conserving biodiversity? All of which do some good. But they differ greatly in how much good they accomplish per unit investment. Many popular ideas in conservation do not stand up to critical scrutiny? They are more symbolic than practical. Because I work for a large conservation NGO that seeks to spend its money responsibly, my research is aimed at evaluating how effective are different conservation strategies. My teaching also focuses on this theme, as does the TNC Fellows program I administer. A common activity in my research, in the projects of the TNC student-fellows, and in Capstone class assignments entails dredging up data regarding a commonly used conservation tool or approach, critically analyzing those data (which were usually collected by someone else), and synthesizing the results in order to influence future decisions and planning. The key is to ask questions for which the answer can change how institutions go about their business. I strongly believe undergraduate students can make a difference and contribute meaningful publications that do make a difference. Over my academic career I have published nine papers with undergraduates; this is why I have chosen to be a part-time faculty at Santa Clara University? So I can continue to work with undergraduates while my main job is Lead Scientist for The Nature Conservancy.

Easement Research

TNC Conservation Easement Survey (doc)
TNC Conservation Easement Survey Supplement (doc)
TNC Conservation Easement Practitioner Experience Survey (doc)
Overview and Preliminary Results of TNC Easement Study (pdf)

Teaching

ENVS 101: Capstone

Representative Publications

Kareiva, P. 1988. Renewing the dialogue between theory and experiments in population ecology. Pp. 68-88 In J. Roughgarden, R. May and S. Levin, eds. Perspectives in Theoretical Ecology. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Kareiva, P., Morris, W., and C. Jacobi. 1994. Studying and managing the risk of cross-fertilization between transgenic crops and wild relatives. Molecular Ecology: 15-21.

Kareiva, P., and U. Wennergren. 1995. Connecting landscape patterns to ecosystem and population processes. Nature 373: 299-302.

Kareiva, P., I. Parker, and M. Pascual. 1996. How useful are experiments and models in predicting the invasiveness of genetically engineered organisms? Ecology 77: 1670-1675.

Ruckelshaus, M., C. Hartway, and P. Kareiva. 1997. Assessing the data requirements of spatially explicit dispersal models. Conservation Biology 11: 1298-1306.

Kareiva, P., M. Marvier, and M. McClure. 2000. Recovery and management options for Snake River spring/summer chinook salmon in the Columbia River Basin. (pdf) Science 290: 977-979.

Kareiva, P., and M. Marvier. 2003. Conserving biodiversity coldspots. (pdf) American Scientist 91: 344-351

Sabo, J., E. Holmes, and P. Kareiva. 2004. The efficacy of simple viability models in ecological risk assessment: does density dependence matter? Ecology 85:328-341.

Marvier, M.A., P. Kareiva, and M.G. Neubert. 2004. Habitat destruction, fragmentation, and disturbance promote invasion by habitat generalists in a multispecies metapopulation. Risk Analysis 24:869-879.

Kareiva, P. 2004. Compensating for extinction. Current Biology 14:625-626.

Kareiva, P. 2005. Tired of priorities? Conservation in Practice 6:45-46.

Kareiva, P. 2005. Is the key to conservation changing ethical values or policing unethical behavior? Current Biology 15: 40-42

Harvey, C., and P. Kareiva. 2005. Community context and the influence of non-indigenous species on juvenile salmon survival in a Columbia River reservoir. Biological Invasions 7: 651-663.

Tallis, H. and P. Kareiva. 2005. Ecosystem services. Current Biology, in press.

Books Edited

Kareiva, P., J. Kingsolver and R. Huey (eds). 1993. Biotic Interactions and Global Change. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Press.

Fiedler, P. and P. Kareiva (eds). 1997. Conservation Biology for the Next Decade. N.Y.: Chapman & Hall.

Tilman, D. and P. Kareiva (eds). 1997. Spatial Ecology. Princeton University Monograph series. N. J.: Princeton University Press.

Kareiva, P. (ed). 1997. Exploring Ecology and Its Applications. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Press.

Clark, Curlee, Minta, and Kareiva (eds). 1999. Carnivores in Ecosystems: the Yellowstone Experience. Yale University Press. New Haven, CT 429 pp.

Kareiva, P. and S. Levin (eds). 2003. The Importance of Species: Setting Conservation Priorities. Princeton University Press. Princeton Monograph Series. Princeton, NJ.

Publications with ESI Students