Polar bear research: has science helped management and conservation?

• Main Authors: Vongraven, Dag, Derocher, Andrew E, Bohart, Alyssa
• Format: Review
• Language: unknown
• Published: NRC Research Press (a division of Canadian Science Publishing) 2018
• Subjects: Ursus maritimus
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/90770; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/abs/10.1139/er-2018-0021

Wildlife management is predicated upon the use of scientific research to assist decision-making. However, assessment of the effectiveness of the management-research relationship is rarely undertaken. Polar bears (Ursus maritimus) have benefitted from an international agreement that required each of the countries within the speciesâ range to manage using the best available scientific data. The objective of this paper is to conduct a systematic review of peer-reviewed literature on polar bears to describe research trends and to assess how effectively research has met management needs. We analyzed 1191 peer-reviewed scientific papers from 1886-2016 covering 24 research topics. Annual counts of papers within each research topic were assessed for temporal trends, spatial coverage, and the extent to which they have facilitated management and monitoring needs. The annual number of papers increased from The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author.