BSc Zoology with Industrial/Professional Experience / Course details

This unit will explore major ecological theories that underlie our understanding of the living world at different scales in space and time, and how ecological knowledge is used to make informed decisions on biodiversity conservation and ecosystem service management. The unit will examine how individuals adapt to their local environment and what are the fundamental trade-offs that restrain individual’s ability to thrive in all possible environments. The course will adopt a lecture/seminar-based approach to key ecosystems and conservation with case studies. Students will discover how communities and ecosystems are formed and change over time and how species interactions within and across trophic levels determine the levels of biodiversity in given ecosystems. The importance of landscape features and history for the maintenance of biodiversity at larger spatial and temporal scales will be explored and discussed in the context of

conservation. Students will learn how biodiversity patterns vary at global scale; explain how this knowledge can be used in prioritising global conservation efforts. Students will gain a broad understanding of the value of biodiversity for ecosystem service provision, understand the main approaches to conservation at population, species and ecosystem level, and current international conservation initiatives and policies.

i) To provide students with an overview of key ecological and evolutionary processes that underlie biodiversity patterns and dynamics at local, regional and global scales;

ii) To explore in detail the role of biodiversity in ecosystem functioning and the delivery of ecosystem services, and consider why it should be preserved;

iii) Identify current threats to biodiversity and how ecological principles can guide conservation strategies.

22-hour new lectures and case studies– 22 hours

New material outside lectures- 3 hours

Directed reading/consolidated learning e.g. a scientific paper related to taught content, through referral to online materials on Blackboard -50 hours

Formative assessment– 20hours

Scheduled activity

Lectures and summative assessment – 25 hours

Independent studies – 75 hours