It is now well admitted by ecologists that the conservation of biodiversity should imply preserving the evolutionary processes that will permit its adaptation to ongoing and future environmental changes. This is attested by the ever‐growing reference to the conservation of evolutionary potential in the scientific literature. The impression that one may have when reading papers is that conserving evolutionary potential can only be a good thing, whatever biological system is under scrutiny. However, different objectives, such as maintaining species richness versus ecosystem services, may express different, when not conflicting, underlying values attributed to biodiversity. For instance, biodiversity can be intrinsically valued, as worth it to be conserved per se, or it can be conserved as a means for human flourishing. Consequently, both the concept of evolutionary potential and the prescriptions derived from the commitment to conserve it remain problematic, due to a lack of explicit mention of the norms underlying different conservation visions. Here, we contend that those who advocate for the conservation of evolutionary potential should position their conception along four dimensions: what vehicles instantiate the evolutionary potential relevant to their normative commitment; what temporality is involved; how measurable evolutionary potential is, and what degree of human influence is tolerated. We need to address these dimensions if we are to determine why and when the maintenance of evolutionary potential is an appropriate target for the conservation of biodiversity.

中文翻译：

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生物保护中进化潜力的维度。


生态学家现在普遍承认，保护生物多样性应该意味着保留进化过程，使其能够适应当前和未来的环境变化。科学文献中越来越多地提到进化潜力的保存就证明了这一点。人们在阅读论文时可能会有的印象是，无论正在审查什么生物系统，保留进化潜力只会是一件好事。然而，不同的目标，例如维持物种丰富度与生态系统服务，可能表达不同的、但不冲突的、归因于生物多样性的潜在价值。例如，生物多样性可以具有内在价值，因为它本身就值得保护，或者它可以作为人类繁荣的一种手段而受到保护。因此，由于缺乏对不同保护愿景背后的规范的明确提及，进化潜力的概念和保护进化潜力的承诺仍然存在问题。在这里，我们认为那些主张保护进化潜力的人应该从四个维度来定位他们的概念：什么载体实例化了与其规范承诺相关的进化潜力；涉及什么暂时性；进化潜力的可测量性如何，以及人类影响的容忍程度如何。如果我们要确定为什么以及何时维持进化潜力是保护生物多样性的适当目标，我们需要解决这些问题。