Journal
FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Volume 11, Issue 8, Pages 441-446Publisher
ECOLOGICAL SOC AMER
DOI: 10.1890/120358
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- US Department of Agriculture Forest Service
- Utah State Agricultural Experiment Station
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Recreation ecology - the study of the environmental consequences of outdoor recreation/nature-based tourism activities and their effective management - is an emerging field of global importance. A primary research generalization in this field, the use-impact relationship, is commonly described as curvilinear, with proportionally more impact from initial recreation/tourism use. This finding has formed the basis of visitor management strategies in parks, wilderness, and protected areas in many parts of the world. In this paper, however, we argue that the current generalization may be an oversimplification derived from one ecological response: the response of vegetation cover in some plant communities to trampling. Use-response functions for other plant communities, wildlife, soils, and aquatic/marine systems, for example, can differ and require alternative management strategies for sustainable use. On the basis of the available literature, we propose several alternative response relationships.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available