Course Description
Provides a conceptual foundation for documenting human impacts on natural systems and developing approaches to mitigate those impacts. Examines the distribution of and primary threats to biodiversity; policy and management approaches to conservation; economic and ethical concerns; and solving problems using cross- disciplinary approaches, illustrated with real-world case studies.
Athena Title
Conservation Biology
Equivalent Courses
Not open to students with credit in ECOL 3530
Non-Traditional Format
This course will be taught 95% or more online, following the text Essentials of Conservation Biology (Richard Primack). Weekly learning modules will be based on PowerPoint lectures, multiple videos, open-source resources, and several readings (which address current conservation issues and concerns). Course materials will be posted on eLC. Lectures will have clearly stated learning objectives and review questions to aid in student learning. Students will interact within pre-assigned sub-groups to reflect on readings and will compose brief personalized written reflections on select lecture and reading topics. These student responses will be posted through an online resource such as “Packback,” which will allow students to share their thoughts and to also constructively comment on other students' perspectives. Course grading will be based on a combination of 1) interactive student-driven discussions and write-ups; 2) weekly online quizzes and written responses based on textbook readings and short videos; 3) an outside activity that requires students to communicate a student-chosen conservation topic to a broader audience; and 4) a written response to a current environmentally-themed popular science book.
Prerequisite
BIOL 1104 or BIOL 1104H or (BIOL 1108 and BIOL 1108L) or (BIOL 2108H and BIOL 2108L)
Semester Course Offered
Offered summer semester every year.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
The objectives of this course are to understand: (i) What biodiversity is and how it changes through speciation and extinction. (ii) How biodiversity is measured and valued, including economic and ethical concerns. (iii) The principal current threats to biodiversity as related to human-driven environmental change. (iv) The practice and challenges of preserving biodiversity through applied case studies that illustrate management and policy-based approaches.
Topical Outline
Unit 1: • Introduction; What is Conservation Biology; Origins of conservation biology; Conservation ethics. • Defining biodiversity; Species, genetic, and ecosystem diversity. • Speciation; Measuring biodiversity; Patterns of diversity. Unit 2: • Ecological and environmental economics; Assigning economic value to biodiversity. • Value of ecosystem services; Option & existence values. Unit 3: • Past mass extinctions; Background rates; Current mass extinction. • Vulnerability to extinction; Endemic species and extinction; IUCN conservation categories. Unit 4: • Habitat destruction, fragmentation, and degradation; Global climate change. • Overexploitation; Invasive species; disease threats to wildlife. Unit 5: • Problems of small populations; Methods for studying populations. • Population viability analysis. Unit 6: • Establishing new populations; Ex Situ conservation facilities. • Establishing protected areas; Issues of reserve design; Landscape ecology and park design. Unit 7: • Restoration ecology. • Conservation and sustainable development at local, national, and international scales. Unit 8: • Challenges of integrating conservation science and policy. • Policy and legal protections for endangered species. • The future of conservation.