ABSTRACT
Although the Endangered Species Act constitutes a national policy to protect biodiversity, promote species recovery, and prevent extinction, the act is rooted in science. The scope of the Endangered Species Act is multidisciplinary in character. This chapter presents examples of key scientific disciplines contributing to the technical knowledge underlying the Endangered Species Act and some of the corresponding species protected under the act. The Endangered Species Act recognizes the importance of habitat protection by offering direct protection to those habitats officially designated as “critical habitat” for one or more threatened or endangered species. The Endangered Species Act recognizes the ability to breed as the defining boundary to a species. It defines a species as any subspecies of fish or wildlife or plants and any distinct population segment of any species of vertebrate fish or wildlife that interbreeds when mature. The Endangered Species Act does not directly consider preservation of kingdoms or other taxonomic ranks higher than species.
