| Course ID: | FISH(WILD) 4520-4520L. 3 hours. 2 hours lecture and 3 hours lab per week. |
| Course Title: | Conservation Decision-Making |
Course
Description: | The principles of conservation biology with a focus on the
conservation of regional and global biodiversity using rigorous
quantitative approaches. It will integrate and build upon
material covered in previous courses. Practical aspects of
single species, ecosystem, and landscape approaches will be
covered. |
| Oasis Title: | Conservation Decision-Making |
| Prerequisite: | [(FANR 3200W and FANR 3200L) or (ECOL 3500 and ECOL 3500L)] and [(FANR 3000 and FANR 3000L) or (WILD 4110/6110 and WILD 4110L/6110L)] |
| Pre or Corequisite: | FANR 3800 and FANR 3800L |
Semester Course
Offered: | Offered spring semester every year. |
| Grading System: | A-F (Traditional) |
|
| Course Objectives: | Student who complete this course will…
1. understand and integrate the principles of conservation
sciences at regional and global spatial scales.
2. evaluate and compare elements of approaches to
conservation presented in case studies.
3. Understand and deal with the conflicting nature of
competing stakeholder values in many conservation and
management issues.
4. Integrate complex issues, values and opinions with
rigorous quantitative approaches to make optimal decisions in
conservation and management of fish and wildlife resources. |
| Topical Outline: | Week 1-2 - lecture: What is biodiversity? How is it measured?
Components of biodiversity. Biodiversity hotspots. Threats to
biodiversity. IUCN Red List. The valuation of biodiversity. lab:
Quantifying biodiversity. Decision making involving
biodiversity.
Week 3 - lecture: Monitoring biodiversity. Sampling review.
Principles of monitoring. lab: Sampling lab. Estimation of
population density using Program Distance.
Week 4 - lecture: Population modeling: Extinction, colonization,
and management of populations and diverse communities. lab: Life
table and Leslie matrix approaches.
Week 5 - lecture: Ecology and management of rare species and
small populations. Policy evaluation (ESA). lab: Population
viability analysis.
Week 6 - lecture: Ecology and management of rare species and
small populations. Conservation genetics. lab: Population
genetics modeling.
Week 7-8 - lecture: Landscape approaches: The hierarchical
context. Metapopulations. Large-scale conservation planning.
Rserve site selection problems. lab: Exercises involving
landscape planning using GIS.
Week 9 - lecture: Ecosystem management: What is it? Setting
priorities for ecosystem management, dynamic optimization
framework. lab: Field trip: Altamaha River.
Week 10 - lecture: Ecological restoration: what are the targets
of restoration? How do you monitor success? Setting priorities
for ecosystem management, dynamic optimization framework. lab:
Monitoring exercise.
Week 11-12 - lecture: Decision making involving complex
management scenarios: stakeholder involvement. Conflict
resolution. lab: Bayesian belief networks.
Week 13-15 - lecture: Adaptive Resource Management and
Structured
Decision Making. Case studies. lab: Computer exercises. Work on
projects. |