BSc Biology

The biodiversity of our planet is increasingly at risk due to the activities of man. This unit aims to provide the conceptual background to enable students to understand the main concerns in the loss of biodiversity and how appropriate conservation strategies could help to ameliorate man’s impact.

Fundamentals of Evolutionary Biology: compulsory, but students can take this unit provided they are willing to catch up on essential background material e.g. population genetics, covered in the second year unit)

The biodiversity of our planet is increasingly at risk due to the activities of man. This unit aims to provide the conceptual background to enable students to understand the main concerns in the loss of biodiversity and how appropriate conservation strategies could help to ameliorate man’s impact. The theoretical basis of conservation biology is multidisciplinary involving population genetics, ecology, evolution, population biology, etc. Students will be expected to have some basic knowledge in these areas (see prerequisite recommendations), which will be extended and applied to conservation using a wide range of examples of conservation research and management. (Students without the prerequisite units can take this unit providing they catch up on background material in their own time. Information on this will be provided prior to the start of the course.) Lectures will be interspersed with case studies and debates that exemplify and apply the lecture material by exploring research papers or interpreting data on a particular conservation issue. This approach aims to ensure students can develop a deep understanding of how conservation science relates to conservation practice and to allow students to explore the complexities of topical issues.

Students will be able to:

· explain objectively the importance of conserving biodiversity

· explain the broad base of theory and scientific methodology underlying conservation biology

· interpret information and evidence on biodiversity and apply this to inform conservation management strategies

1 Introduction to Conservation Biology: What is the current state of biodiversity and what national and international strategies are there to protect it? (CW)  

2 The global protected area network: anthropogenic land use and transformation, protected areas history and bias. (SS)  

3 Understanding species extinction risk: Intrinsic risk, gap and refugee species, defining risk and vulnerability, adequacy of protection. (SS)

4. Modelling current and future viability. Species distribution models and population viability analysis. (SS)

5 Problems of small populations 1: loss of genetic diversity and adaptive potential, inbreeding depression, neutral versus functional genetic variation, minimal viable populations. (CW)

6 Problems of small populations 2: Outbreeding depression and issues for captive breeding and reintroduction. Gray wolves as an example. (CW)

7 Case Study/Data Interpretation session: The Scimitar-horned Oryx. How can genetic data from captive populations be used to select individuals for reintroduction.

8 Problems of fragmented populations 1: population structure and gene flow, managing protected and unprotected areas

9 Problems of fragmented populations 2: habitat corridors, translocations. Black rhino as an example. (CW)

10 Case Study/Data Interpretation session on Tropical Forest Biodiversity. How can we use spatial genetic information on forest species to inform conservation management? (CW)

11  Conservation physiology: stress and reproduction in captive and wild populations and discussion of research design (SS)  

12 Debate 2: Trophy hunting, fishing and paying for conservation (SS)

13 Rewilding: What is rewilding and should humans be a component of rewilded landscapes? (CW)

14 Debate 2 Conservation and Agriculture: Can we combine food production with biodiversity conservation? (CW)
 

15 Conservation for the long term: species and ecosystem responses to climate change and adaptation to anthropogenic environments (CW)

16 Invasive species: what threats do they pose to ecosystems and how can they be mitigated? (JL)

17 Ethics of conservation What has ethical standing in conservation? What are the various ethical perspectives and arguments for conservation? (JL)  

18 Debate 3: Ethics of conservation (JL)

Poster Session. A separate 2 hour poster session will be scheduled towards the end of the unit where students will present their posters.

Feedback Session. A feedback session will be offered to students prior to the exams to discuss the exam format and to allow students to ask questions that have emerged during revision for exams. 

Final examination: 10 MCQs (10% of marks), 1 essay style question (60% of marks). Coursework: Group creation and presentation of a poster within a poster session on a conservation topic chosen by the students (30% of marks). 

Introduction to Conservation Genetics. Frankham R, Ballou JD & Briscoe A (2010) Cambridge University Press

Conservation Biology (2019) Cardinale B, Primack R & Murdoch J, Oxford University Press USA, New York.

Key Topics in Conservation Biology (2013) MacDonald DW, Willis KJ (Eds) (2013)