ENV 2240 Conservation Biology
During the 3.6-billion-year history of life, Earth has become filled with a spectacular variety of lifeforms. But loss of the biological diversity is now one of the most rapid forms of environmental change in the modern era. This course covers the causes and consequences of biodiversity loss and prepares students science‐based careers in Conservation Biology. The class begins by exploring why biodiversity is so important and valuable, including the intrinsic, relational, and instrumental arguments commonly used to justify conservation. The class then turns attention towards the main causes of biodiversity loss, focusing on how practitioners mitigate these impacts. The final portion of the course trains students in the most common models, tools, and techniques that are used to conserve biological diversity, including reserve design, population viability analysis, sustainable harvest models, ecological economic analyses, species distribution modeling, meta‐ population models, and more. Field Experiences will be required. 3 hours lecture weekly, plus field experiences.
Distribution
Biology/Chemistry/Environmental