| Course ID: | ECOL 3530E. 3 hours. |
| Course Title: | Conservation Biology |
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. |
| Oasis Title: | Conservation Biology |
| Duplicate Credit: | Not open to students with credit in ECOL 3530 |
| Nontraditional 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. |