First, to offer a broad conceptually orientated overview of current key issues in conservation biology and to train students in the application of these concepts to practical conservation.
Second, to give students the essential background to be successful in BSc-level jobs in management, administration, and the dissemination of knowledge on Biodiversity and Conservation.
Third, to give those students that continue for MSc and PhD degrees the necessary entry-level for advanced courses on more specific issues that relate to ecological, genetic, behavioural and evolutionary aspects of conservation.
To obtain basic understanding for the intrinsic value of conservation of species, groups of species and high-biodiversity areas and of the economic realities constraining practical conservation.
To be able to integrate basic knowledge from population ecology, behavioural biology, population genetics, evolutionary biology and macro-ecology in questions of practical conservation.
To be able to make qualified contributions to the “priority-driven” conservation management of single species and species assemblages (guilds & communities), taking into account issues of habitat fragmentation, genetic erosion, reproductive value of cohorts and individuals, controlled breeding, reintroduction, and climate change.
To have a general overview of the population biology of invasive species, of the traits that these species have in common, and of the typical ways in which they threaten native biodiversity.
To have acquired basic understanding of the key variables for optimal harvesting of economically important populations of wild animals and plants.
To be able to understand and critically assess information from monitoring schemes and similar biodiversity data bases for the purpose of conservation of species, groups of species or entire species assemblages of areas.
To have obtained basic understanding of national, European and global conservation initiatives, of the impact that they have, and of the difficulties that they meet.
Course description:
1. Conservation management of single species
Single species conservation: Ecological and behavioural (social) effects of habitat fragmentation: metapopulation dynamics, patch connectivity, environmental and demographic stochasticity, Allee and rescue effects.
The (in situ and ex situ) conservation of single gene pools: genetic and behavioural aspects of inbreeding and genetic erosion, evolution after man made changes, how much genetic variation is needed, artificial breeding, reintroduction and translocation programs, genetic management tools.
2. Conservation management of multiple species
The management of guilds: Island biology revisited (area, edge effect and distance), why island biotas are special and vulnerable, management of rich and poor assemblages of species, invasive species and their devastating effects.
Taking long term stability into account: effects of climate and global change, dynamic food-web interactions, population cycles.
3. Sustainable harvesting of economically important species
Basic life history considerations and interactions with diseases: Anderson & May models, optimal size and age at maturity, operational sex ratios and sex specific mortality.
Practical harvesting issues in animals and plants: Density-dependence and trophic interactions, migration patterns, harvesting models, disease problems, optimal yield and the tragedy of the commons.
4. Conservation management of wholesale species diversity
How to preserve wholesale species diversity – the need for shortcuts: keystone species, flagship species, indicator species, indicator groups, the higher-taxon approach, abiotic indicators (the landscape approach).
Human activities and how to select a network of management areas – the need for making priorities: the hot-spot of richness approach, the hot-spot of endemism approach, the complementarity approach and the ecosystem approach.
Spatial Data Analysis in Macroecology (temporary PhD course)
13-17 August 2007
Prof. Dr. José Alexandre Felizola Diniz Filho
(Departamento de Biologia Geral, ICB-UFG, Brasil)
Macroecologists and biogeographers currently recognize that nearly all biodiversity data show strong spatial autocorrelation, driven by spatially structured environmental variation and/or by dispersal mechanisms. The purpose of the course is to introduce students to basic concepts in the analysis of autocorrelated data, focusing on spatial and phylogenetic dimensions, and their application in macroecology, biogeography and comparative biology.
For more information and registration, visit the Course homepage